Since 2011, Virgie Tovar has non-judgmentally taught people about the harmful effects of weight-based discrimination and the benefits of celebrating body diversity. She is a plus-size Latina, author, lecturer, and leading expert on weight-based discrimination and body positivity.
Tovar holds a Master's degree in Sexuality Studies with a focus on the intersections of body size, race and gender. She is a contributor for Forbes.com where she covers the plus-size market and how to end weight discrimination at work. She started the hashtag campaign #LoseHateNotWeight in 2013 and in 2018 gave a TedX talk on the origins of the campaign. Tovar edited the anthology Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion (Seal Press, November 2012) and she's the author of You Have the Right to Remain Fat (Feminist Press August 2018), which was placed on the American Library Association's Amelia Bloomer List, The Self-Love Revolution: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color (New Harbinger Publications 2020) and her new interactive book, The Body Positive Journal (Chronicle Books 2022). Her most recent project, a living digital memoir titled Fat Girl Gets Married, chronicles the experience of being a plus-size, anti-diet bride in the year leading up to her 2024 wedding.
She was the host of the Webby-nominated podcast, Rebel Eaters Club, which was produced for three seasons. In 2018 she was named one of the 50 most influential feminists by Bitch Magazine. She has received three San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Commissions, the Inspire Award from Project HEAL, as well as Yale's Poynter Fellowship in Journalism. Virgie has been featured by the New York Times, Tech Insider, BBC, MTV, NPR, and Yahoo Health. She lives in San Francisco.
