by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com

I am not a big fan of the term chick lit (though I do enjoy reading books classified as such), but it does describe a genre of books in the market. Ever since the stunning success of Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary this segment has become a force to reckon with. One more niche within the Chick-lit segment is the body acceptance books genre.

Ever since I read Nancy’s YOU Can be Sexy at any Size in which she reveals her secrets to feeling beautiful and sexy whatever your size, to which she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that she picked up as a plus size model, I have been keen to find out what are the other books this or similar niche.

Going a step further from the body acceptance books, there are the fat acceptance books, which there are a substantial number of, going by the Amazon listings. Fat Chicks Rule by Lara Frater is a guide to survive in a thin-centric world, about how one day the author decided to step off the roller coaster world of dieting and decided to live her life. The author also urges other women to reclaim their life from the diet industry and media propagated ideals of ‘beauty’.

The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life by Wendy Shanker, is a humorous take on the ridiculous stereotypes perpetuated by society in general and the media in particular. It tries to debunk the myth of plus size people’s laziness, depression and poor health and points out that thinness is not synonymous with good health.

Wake Up! I’m Fat is actress Camryn Manheim’s insiders’ view of a thin-centric industry. She essayed the role of Eleanor in the TV series The Practice and is a champion of the fat acceptance movement and translated her lifelong battle with the bulge into this book.

Bountiful Women: Large Women’s Secrets for Living the Life They Desire by Bonnie Bernell and The Forbidden Body: Why Being Fat is Not a Sin by Shelley Bovey are other reads based to body acceptance.