TUCKING into my salt and pepper king prawns in the glare of my phone camera, a sense of freedom washes over me. After a lifetime of feeling self-conscious about eating in public, I’m proudly sharing the contents of my Chinese takeaway on social media. The experience is as delicious as the food.
Two years ago, revealing what I was having for dinner online would have been unthinkable. When you are bigger, strangers judge you for having a simple treat like a takeaway or chocolate bar. It gives them a reason to make a nasty comment.
But when I joined TikTok a couple of years ago, I started seeing content creators who looked just like me and I was intrigued. There they were, happily sharing videos alongside the hashtag #wieiad, which stands for What I Eat In A Day. My favourites were Welsh couple Corys World and Lea Charlotte, along with their mate Charly Anne C.
One video of Charly plating up her Chinese takeaway had 6.9MILLION views. I also loved Becki Jones, from Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.
One of her #wieiad videos, which showed her tucking into a sausage sandwich, yoghurt, creme egg, iced biscuit, lamb roast, jelly, doughnuts and a banana, got 5.9million likes. When I started my TikTok account, @georgythomson, in early 2023, I was planning to share fashion and travel content relevant to other fat people.
But one day I was hungover and decided to order a Chinese takeaway. I shared it online and, to my surprise, I got 47,000 views, plus lots of nice comments. Normally, I .
