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WORK TITLE: F*ck Your Diet and Other Things My Thighs Tell Me
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COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
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PERSONAL
Born c. 1979, in Brooklyn, NY.
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CAREER
Writer and comedian. Previously worked as a culture and entertainment journalist; served as editorial director of Loop21.com. Host of Best Advice Ever, a YouTube web series. Appearances on television as hip-hop expert include CNN Headline News, ABC News, Our World with Black Enterprise, and C-Span. Appearances on television as a comedian include Last Comic Standing, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC); the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, NBC; Gotham Comedy Live, AXS TV; The Nightly Show, Comedy Central; Almost Genius, Tru TV; and Acting Out, MTV.
WRITINGS
Contributor to Best African American Essays 2009, Mariner. Contributor to periodicals and websites, including the Village Voice, Essence, Vibe, King, and the Source.
SIDELIGHTS
Chloé Hilliard is a comedian who formerly worked as a journalist writing about culture and entertainment. She grew up as an only child in a Jewish Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. Hilliard’s comedy focuses primarily on her own experiences as a social misfit, from growing up and being nearly six feet tall since elementary school to not being all that responsible as an adult.
In her book F*ck Your Diet: And Other Things My Thighs Tell Me, Hilliard reveals that she was taller than most of her classmates, both female and male, the time she was twelve years old. By that point, both her shoe and dress sizes were a twelve as well. As a result, Hilliard was bullied in school and earned the nickname “Big.” Her difficult childhood led to bouts with depression as she came to despise how she looked.
Drawing on humor, Hilliard reflects on her weight and how she made numerous attempts to lose weight, from fad diets and pills to intense workouts and even semi-starving. Nothing worked. Eventually, Hilliard came to realize that nearly every aspect of society impacts peoples’ relationships with food and their self-image, including policies set by the government and the efforts of corporations. Hilliard even chides her parents for fostering her unhealthy self-image, noting that she often was served fast food and was told to always clean her plate while learning little about nutrition and exercise.
As a result, Hilliard came to change her outlook concerning herself. In her book, Hilliard discusses a wide range of issues in a series of comedic essays. “In her first book, the author delivers a highly personal assessment with self-deprecating humor and frank honesty,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. In one essay, Hilliard points out that in 1981 the government cut public school lunch budgets under the administration of President Ronal Reagan. According to Hilliard, these cuts helped foster the growing problem of childhood obesity as cheaper, unhealthy foods were served for school lunches in an attempt to save money.
Hilliard’s numerous self-image issues continued into adulthood. In an essay titled “The $1500 Mistake,” Hilliard writes about how her efforts to lose weight put her into debt as she bought an expensive treadmill. In addition to reflecting on how she overcame society’s standards concerning beauty in women, especially black women, Hilliard writes about her love life, her one-time idea of pursuing a career in basketball, and a nearly fatal infection.
“Hilliard’s narrative … is informative, inspiring, and often hilarious,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. A reviewer writing for Publishers Weekly remarked: Hilliard’s “self-love message will resonate with readers who appreciate narratives of personal and professional fulfillment.”
BIOCRIT
ONLINE
Chloé Hilliard, https://www.chloehilliard.com (November 19, 2019).
Huffington Post, https://www.huffpost.com/ (November 19, 2019), brief author profile.
Kirkus Reviews, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (October 23, 2019), review of F*ck Your Diet: And Other Things My Thighs Tell Me.
Laugh Factory, http://www.laughfactory.com/ (November 19, 2019), “Chloe Hilliard.”
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (September 24, 2019), review of F*ck Your Diet.
Chloé Hilliard is a larger than life comedian. Well, that’s because she’s 6’1 and rocks a killer afro. Born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in a large Hasidic Jewish neighborhood, Chloé has spun her unique experiences into side splitting laughs. Once you know how to tell a story you’re set for life. As a journalist-turn-comedian, Chloé Hilliard is entertaining the masses with her wit and ability to find the humor in everything. For over ten years, Chloé was a culture and entertainment journalist, writing for The Village Voice, Essence, Vibe, King, and The Source. For her expertise on Hip Hop culture she’s appeared on CNN Headline News, ABC News, Our World with Black Enterprise and C-Span.
Her work has been featured in Best African American Essays: 2009. She made her national TV debut on NBC’s smash hit “Last Comic Standing” and has since appeared on AXSTV’s “Gotham Comedy Live,” Comedy Central’s “The Nightly Show,” Tru TV’s”Almost Genius” and MTV’s “Acting Out.”
Chloé Hilliard is a writer and comedian who first appeared as a semi-finalist on NBC’s Last Comic Standing and went on to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, and more. Prior to her comedy career, she was a culture and entertainment journalist whose work has been featured in The Village Voice, Essence, Vibe, and The Source. Find out more at ChloeHilliard.com.
Chloé Hilliard is a writer and comedian who first appeared as a semi-finalist on NBC’s Last Comic Standing and went on to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, and more. Prior to her comedy career, she was a culture and entertainment journalist whose work has been featured in The Village Voice, Essence, Vibe, and The Source. Find out more at ChloeHilliard.com.
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Contributor
Chloé Hilliard
Journalist and comedian
As a journalist-turn-comedian, Chloé Hilliard is entertaining the masses with her wit. Over the last ten years, Chloé has been a culture/entertainment journalist, writing for The Village Voice, Essence, Vibe, King, and The Source. Most recently, Chloé was the Editorial Director of Loop21.com, which focuses on politics and culture. She is now the host of "Best Advice Ever," a YouTube web series that aims to solve everyone's problems.
Chloé Hilliard is a larger than life comedian. Well, that’s because she’s 6’1 and rocks a killer afro. Born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in a large Hasidic Jewish neighborhood, Chloé has spun her unique experiences into side splitting laughs.
Once you know how to tell a story you’re set for life. As a journalist-turn-comedian, Chloé Hilliard is entertaining the masses with her wit and ability to find the humor in everything.
For over ten years, Chloé was a culture/entertainment journalist, writing for The Village Voice, Essence, Vibe, King, and The Source. For her expertise on Hip Hop culture she’s appeared on CNN Headline News, ABC News, Our World with Black Enterprise and C-Span. Her work has been featured in Best African American Essays: 2009.
She made her national TV debut on NBC’s smash hit “Last Comic Standing” and has since appeared on AXSTV’s “Gotham Comedy Live,” Comedy Central’s “The Nightly Show,” Tru TV’s”Almost Genius” and MTV’s “Acting Out.”
F*CK YOUR DIET
And Other Things My Thighs Tell Me
by Chloé Hilliard
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KIRKUS REVIEW
Comedian and former journalist Hilliard shares embarrassing and empowering moments throughout a life obsessed with body image and food.
In her first book, the author delivers a highly personal assessment with self-deprecating humor and frank honesty. As a “chunky” only child raised in Brooklyn, Hilliard was relentlessly bullied in school due to her statuesque size (6 feet, 1 inch) and higher-than-average weight. Early depression and self-loathing habits soon followed. The author shifts partial blame for her negative relationship with her body and food to biological growth spurts and an upbringing in which her working-class parents succumbed to the easy conveniences of processed fast food, an eat-everything-you-are-served mentality, and ignorance about exercise and balanced nutrition. This uncomfortable reality solidified itself into Hilliard’s psyche as an adult, when she continued wrestling with the scale and her self-image as a black woman. Her book addresses “nearly forty years of failures” and episodes of yo-yo dieting and struggling to thoroughly love herself. She chronicles her first encounters with love, her brief idea of pursuing a basketball career, a brush with a near-fatal infection, and her liberating defiance in the face of societal standards of beauty and body size. “White women get to be plain-Janes,” writes the author. “Women of color have to be exotic in order to be celebrated.” Though the author engages in plenty of chatty digressions—she takes due time to contribute spirited commentary on “Black Girl Magic,” fad diets, and the complexities of singledom and masturbation (“for far too long, women have downplayed their sexual satisfaction in order to boost their partner’s ego”)—these expository detours don’t detract from her core message of unconditional self-acceptance at any age in a woman’s life. Hilliard’s narrative, though occasionally scattershot, is informative, inspiring, and often hilarious.
Fresh, whip-smart wisdom that will appeal most to women battling weight and self-esteem issues.
Pub Date: Jan. 7th, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982108-61-8
Page count: 336pp
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23rd, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15th, 2019
F*uck Your Diet and Other Things My Thighs Tell Me
Chloé Hilliard. Gallery, $27 (336p) ISBN 978-1-982108-61-8
Journalist–turned–stand-up comic Hilliard delivers a heartfelt, amusing essay collection about her struggles with her weight in an image-conscious culture. Hilliard, who fluctuated “between fat and thick from the age of twelve,” grew up with the nickname “big.” In “Starving Kids in Africa,” she writes about getting overfed by her food-loving grandmother, and, in “Let Them Eat Ketchup,” about later being sent to school by her mother with SlimFast for lunch. Throughout, she analyzes the impact that government policies have had on her “waistline, self-esteem, and body image,” and repeatedly calls out former president Ronald Reagan, who, when she was a kid in 1981, slashed budgets for public school lunches, which she says increased unhealthy food offerings and contributed to childhood obesity. She shares a funny story about buying a treadmill that put her in debt (“The $1500 Mistake”) and gleefully recalls her decision to leave journalism and pursue stand-up (“I’m a Comedian”). Hilliard’s battles with food may not be over, but age has given her perspective: “I’m smart, but I’ll never really grasp the concept of calories.” The author’s self-love message will resonate with readers who appreciate narratives of personal and professional fulfillment. (Jan.)
DETAILS
Reviewed on : 09/24/2019
Release date: 09/24/2019
Genre: Nonfiction
Downloadable Audio - 978-1-5082-9907-3
Downloadable Audio - 978-1-5082-9759-8
Compact Disc - 978-1-5082-9761-1