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WORK TITLE: Fat Girl on a Plane
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 3-Nov
WEBSITE: http://www.kellydevos.us/
CITY:
STATE: AZ
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Children: Evelyn.
EDUCATION:Arizona State University, B.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Graphic designer and novelist.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including Normal Noise and 202 Magazine.
SIDELIGHTS
Kelly deVos’s first novel, Fat Girl on a Plane, is based on her own experiences as a person of size. In 2013 the graphic designer was boarding a plane in her native Arizona on her way to a business meeting in Salt Lake City when she was stopped by a flight attendant. The attendant told deVos that, because of her size, she would have to buy an additional ticket before she would be allowed to complete her flight. That was the genesis of Fat Girl on a Plane.
DeVos’s novel opens with a scene that echoes her own. Protagonist Cookie Vonn, the child of a prominent supermodel, is smart, motivated—and overweight. Her great desire is to design attractive clothes for plus-sized persons. Cookie’s break comes when, because of her work on a popular fashion blog, she is offered the chance to travel to New York and interview her fashion idol. However, just like deVos herself, Cookie is stopped at an airport while trying to board a plane on the grounds that she is too fat to fly. “After calling upon her best friend to help her buy a second ticket,” declared Margot Kohler in Girls’ Life, “she arrives in New York to have been replaced by the boss’ daughter.” As a result she decides to lose weight. “Cookie’s constant processing,” wrote Beth McIntyre in Booklist, “spirals in a way that is realistic, but may be disorienting for readers.”
Fat Girl on a Plane follows two separate timelines at this point. One continues to trace Cookie’s experiences before the weight loss. Another picks up her life two years later, after she has lost weight, in the process coming to resemble her supermodel mother. “Fat Cookie faces realistic discrimination and cruelty,” stated a Kirkus Reviews contributor, “while skinny Cookie stumbles into fantasy-level boons: designing her own fashion line, [and] an all-expenses-paid wealthy lifestyle.” She even snags an assignation with her longtime crush. Despite achieving almost all of her lifetime dreams—including fame, wealth, and sex—Cookie remains unhappy and conflicted. “Readers will appreciate deVos’s characterization of Cookie,” said a Publishers Weekly reviewer, “who realistically struggles to stay true to herself.”
DeVos herself is an outspoken opponent of fat-shaming and a supporter of body positivity, and she wrote Fat Girl on a Plane in part to support people of size who have been subjected to fat shaming. “I’ve been trying really hard to support other writers who have books with body positive characters and to push for increased fat representation where ever I can,” deVos said in an interview appearing on the Emily Colin website. “In real life, I try to confront fat shaming when I encounter it. One of the biggest barriers that I’ve encountered is that there is still so much misinformation about fat people out in mainstream culture. I think there are still lingering harmful stereotypes, particularly that people are fat because they are lazy or lack personal discipline. Even though research continues to debunk those ideas, I worry that the message isn’t getting out.”
Although deVos is outspoken in her support for people of all weights, she underwent weight loss surgery for health reasons at about the same time her novel was published. In 2017 she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. “Her doctor sent her home with several diabetes medications,” explained Rachelle Bergstein in the New York Post, “but they were expensive and the side effects (nausea, fatigue) made deVos feel sicker. So, in February 2018, she went under the knife. Since then, she says she’s dropped around 60 pounds, has gotten her diabetes under control and feels healthy.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 15, 2018, Beth McIntyre, review of Fat Girl on a Plane, p. 70.
Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2018, review of Fat Girl on a Plane.
New York Post, May 31, 2018, Rachelle Bergstein, “A Flight Attendant Told Me I Was Too Fat to Fly.”
Publishers Weekly, April 23, 2018, review of Fat Girl on a Plane, p. 90.
ONLINE
Emily Colin, https://www.emilycolin.com/ (June 3, 2018), author interview.
Girls’ Life, https://www.girlslife.com/ (May 28, 2018), Margot Kohler, review of Fat Girl on a Plane.
Kelly DeVos website, http://www.kellydevos.us (August 1, 2018), author profile.
ABOUT ME
Kelly deVos
KELLY DEVOS
Young Adult Writer
A third generation native Arizonan, Kelly deVos can tell you everything you’ve ever wanted to know about cactus, cattle and climate. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Arizona State University. Kelly is represented by Kathleen Rushall of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Her debut novel, FAT GIRL ON A PLANE, will be published on 6/5/18 by Harlequin Teen and her work has been featured in Normal Noise and 202 Magazine.
Kelly is also a passionate advocate for body positivity and fat acceptance.
Print Marked Items
DeVos, Kelly: FAT GIRL ON A PLANE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
DeVos, Kelly FAT GIRL ON A PLANE Harlequin Teen (Young Adult Fiction) $18.99 6, 5 ISBN: 978-0-373-21253-8
A teen reaps economic, professional, and social benefits from losing weight.
Cookie Vonn--white and blonde like her supermodel mother--has absentee parents, a zeal for fashion, a hardcore work ethic, and a once-in-alifetime
opportunity: interviewing a world-famous New York designer for her blog internship. But the airline declares Cookie "too fat to fly." So,
age 17 and 330 pounds, Cookie joins the NutriNation diet plan. A plot thread labeled "fat" follows her that year, while the interspersed "skinny"
thread follows her at age 19, after losing 199 pounds. Despite showing two parts of the same person's life--not alternate universes--it reads like
alternate universes. Cookie's first-person voice is zesty, funny, bitter, and bewitching in both, but they vary starkly in plausibility. Fat Cookie
faces realistic discrimination and cruelty, while skinny Cookie stumbles into fantasy-level boons: designing her own fashion line, an all-expensespaid
wealthy lifestyle, corporate sponsorship, and passionate sex in an Argentine gondola. Although skinny Cookie still can't find joy, her bounty
of material gains profoundly undermines the text's attempted message that weight loss is no golden ticket. Skinny Cookie eventually--supposedly-
-reaches self-acceptance, moderating the diet that left her constantly hungry--but how much import can a literary fat-acceptance message carry
when spoken by a still-skinny character? The book assumes a white default.
Although it aims to liberate, this is just another weight-loss arc accidentally portraying fatness as tragic and optional. (author's note) (Fiction. 14-
16)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"DeVos, Kelly: FAT GIRL ON A PLANE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A534375028/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=bc819578. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A534375028
Fat Girl on a Plane
Publishers Weekly.
265.17 (Apr. 23, 2018): p90.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Fat Girl on a Plane
Kelly deVos. Harlequin Teen, $18.99 (384p)
ISBN 978-0-373-21253-8
Cookie Vonn, a 19-year-old aspiring clothing designer, has spent years advocating for girls who don't fit the stereotypical standard of beauty
promoted by the fashion industry. Before her own significant weight loss on the "NutriNation" diet, she was often dismissed and ridiculed for her
size. Chapters alternate between the period before Cookie's weight loss--including the humiliating flight when she was told that she was too large
for one plane seat--and after. In the present day, doors are opening for Cookie now that she is thin. She takes a sabbatical from college to team up
with a much older, established designer to create a plus-size collection, but she realizes that losing weight isn't the magical cure-all she thought it
would be. As she and the designer enter a sexual relationship, she worries that her life is beginning to mirror that of her thoughtless supermodel
mother, even as she fights to give plus-size women a voice. Readers will appreciate deVos's characterization of Cookie, who realistically struggles
to stay true to herself, regardless of the numbers on the scale. Ages 14--up. Agent: Kathleen Rushall, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Fat Girl on a Plane." Publishers Weekly, 23 Apr. 2018, p. 90. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A536532984/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=113642d8. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A536532984
Fat Girl on a Plane
Beth McIntyre
Booklist.
114.14 (Mar. 15, 2018): p70.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Fat Girl on a Plane.
By Kelly deVos.
June 2018. 384p. HarlequinTeen, $18.99 (9780373212538); e-book, $18.99 (9781488023491). Gr. 9-12.
Cookie Vonn is traveling to New York City to interview her fashion idol, hoping this opportunity will jump-start her career as a plus-size
designer. When she is declared "too fat to fly" en route to New York, she decides to make a change. In dual narratives taking place before and
after Cookie's dramatic weight loss, we see Cookie break into the fashion world, enter into a sexual relationship with her mentor-idol, and lose
herself a bit as she drops pounds and begins to look more like her supermodel mother. Cookie has a lot of anger to process, and it comes through
in her reactions to the new opportunities she gets as her appearance changes, as well as her relationship with her family, a bully, and her best guy
friend. Cookie's constant processing spirals in a way that is realistic, but may be disorienting for readers. Rich descriptions of fabrics, clothes, and
brands are a joyful thread through both time lines, and they center Cookie's passion for making fabulous clothes for all bodies.--Beth McIntyre
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
McIntyre, Beth. "Fat Girl on a Plane." Booklist, 15 Mar. 2018, p. 70. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A533094588/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=c9dc338b. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A533094588
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Like many authors, Kelly deVos found her way to writing on the heels of another career—in her case, as a graphic designer. She queried her first novel for several years without finding a home for it, but never gave up on her dream. Kelly says, “I’ve been very fortunate to make a lot of great writer friends who inspired me. It can be a lot easier to keep going when you’re not going it alone.” Amen, sister…and welcome to the blog!
Congrats on the release of your debut novel, FAT GIRL ON A PLANE. What’s it all about, and what inspired you to write it?
Thank you! FAT GIRL ON A PLANE is the story of high school senior, Cookie Vonn, who wants to be the next great American designer but feels that the fashion industry won’t accept her unless she loses weight. The book follows her across two timelines, before and after the major weight loss she falsely believes will solve all her problems. It’s about the disparity between how society treats thin and fat people, and how to learn to love yourself in spite of all that.
I was initially inspired by a real-life experience. I was on my way to a photoshoot in Salt Lake City when I was forced to buy a second seat on the plane. That happened right at the moment when I was looking for something new to write about and, for me, there was this collision of fat shaming, fat phobia and the world of beauty. And I just thought, “Hey! This is what I want to write about.”
In your bio, you write that you are “a passionate advocate for body positivity and fat acceptance.” What does this advocacy work entail—and what are some barriers that you’ve encountered along the way?
I’ve been trying really hard to support other writers who have books with body positive characters and to push for increased fat representation where ever I can. In real life, I try to confront fat shaming when I encounter it. One of the biggest barriers that I’ve encountered is that there is still so much misinformation about fat people out in mainstream culture. I think there are still lingering harmful stereotypes, particularly that people are fat because they are lazy or lack personal discipline. Even though research continues to debunk those ideas, I worry that the message isn’t getting out to people who really need to receive it.
Can you talk about your work in the beauty and fashion industries, and how it relates to your decision to write FAT GIRL ON A PLANE?
I’d been working as a graphic designer for quite a while in the professional beauty industry and also for a company that manufactured licensed eyewear for many top fashion brands. As a fat woman, I was struck by the fact that so many of these companies didn’t want to represent anyone like me in their marketing materials. But they did want to profit from people like us. One of the things that I don’t think gets discussed nearly enough is how many fashion brands make their money. A lot of top companies don’t make the majority of their profits from the actual clothes they sell.
Instead these companies make lucrative licensing deals with manufacturers of fragrance, eyewear, leather goods and even homewares. And fat women are targeted as buyers of many of these products. So you have this situation where a fashion brand creates a “lifestyle” image that is all about being thin and then uses that image to sell products to fat people. It’s like these companies shame fat women and then profit off their insecurities. That’s something that I wanted to talk about when I wrote my book.
This is your debut novel, but although you hold a degree in creative writing, you’ve also had more than one career before you found your way to becoming a novelist. Can you share a bit about your winding road to publication, and what kept you going when things got tough?
I grew up wanting to be a writer. In college, I was originally a creative writing major but I lacked confidence in my skills and decided to switch to design. Since then, I have worked as a graphic designer, mostly in the professional beauty industry. Many writers have day jobs and I am very, very lucky to have one that I really enjoy. But as much as I really like graphic design, I always felt like something was missing.
About six years ago, I realized I wanted to return to writing. I returned to school, finished my creative writing degree and began working on my first novel – an unpublished teen detective mystery. I revised and queried that book for several years and it was, at times, difficult to keep going. I am very lucky to have a lot of support from my family and friends. I’ve also been very fortunate to make a lot of great writer friends who inspired me. It can be a lot easier to keep going when you’re not going it alone.
What are your greatest dreams as a writer? Your deepest fears?
My greatest dream is that I’ll be able to publish books. I love to write and feel like I really want to continue to develop my skills as a storyteller. My deepest writing-related fear is finding my book in one of those 50¢ book bins at the grocery store. The books in that bin always look so lonely to me. I’m trying to prepare emotionally in case that happens!
ABOUT THE BOOK
From debut author Kelly deVos comes an unforgettable novel, told in dual Fat and Skinny perspectives, about smart fashion, pursuing your dreams, and loving yourself.
High school senior Cookie Vonn’s post-graduation dreams include getting out of Phoenix, attending Parsons and becoming the next great fashion designer. But in the world of fashion, being fat is a cardinal sin. It doesn’t help that she’s constantly compared to her supermodel mother—and named after a dessert.
Thanks to her job at a fashion blog, Cookie scores a trip to New York to pitch her portfolio and appeal for a scholarship, but her plans are put on standby when she’s declared too fat too fly. Forced to turn to her BFF for cash, Cookie buys a second seat on the plane. She arrives in the city to find that she’s been replaced by the boss’s daughter, a girl who’s everything she’s not—ultrathin and superrich. Bowing to society’s pressure, she vows to lose weight, get out of the friend zone with her crush, and put her life on track.
Cookie expected sunshine and rainbows, but nothing about her new life is turning out like she planned. When the fashion designer of the moment offers her what she’s always wanted—an opportunity to live and study in New York—she finds herself in a world full of people more interested in putting women down than dressing them up. Her designs make waves, but her real dream of creating great clothes for people of all sizes seems to grow more distant by the day.
Will she realize that she’s always had the power to make her own dreams come true?
Preorder:
Amazon: http://bit.ly/fatgirlonaplane
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fat-girl-on-a-plane-kelly-devos/1125453908?ean=9780373212538
Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Fat-Girl-on-Plane-Kelly-Devos/9780373212538
Changing Hands: https://www.changinghands.com/book/9780373212538
!ndigo: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/fat-girl-on-a-plane/9780373212538-item.html
About Kelly deVos
A third generation native Arizonan, Kelly deVos can tell you everything you’ve ever wanted to know about cactus, cattle and climate. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Arizona State University. Kelly is represented by Kathleen Rushall of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Her debut novel, FAT GIRL ON A PLANE, will be published on 6/5/18 by Harlequin Teen and her work has been featured in Normal Noise and 202 Magazine. Kelly is also a passionate advocate for body positivity and fat acceptance.
Website: http://www.kellydevos.us
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KdeVosAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellydevos/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15236443.Kelly_deVos
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kellydevosbooks/
COPYRIGHT © 2017 EMILY COLIN. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Review: Fat Girl on a Plane by Kelly Devos
Graduating high school with dreams in mind of traveling away from her home in Phoenix to become a fashion designer studying at Parsons, Cookie finds herself ready to tackle the world. Her only problem? The fashion industry’s infatuation with thinness and wealth. Author Kelly Devos tackles the topic of body image and loving all of yourself in her new book, Fat Girl on a Plane.
Cookie's job at a fashion blog sends her to New York in hopes of winning a scholarship. But then, Cookie finds herself at the airport, portfolio in hand, and declared too fat to fly. After calling upon her best friend to help her buy a second ticket, she arrives in New York to have been replaced by the boss’ daughter who is everything that she is not: super skinny and super rich. Seeing the boss’ daughter in her spot pushes Cookie to lose the weight to appeal to societal standards of beauty.
In another timeline, we find Cookie working and studying in New York as a designer with dreams of making glamorous clothes for women of all shapes and sizes. With the pressure of the fashion industry weighing on her, Cookie is having a hard time seeing her vision come to life in a world where only skinny is in.
Will Cookie accomplish her goals and learn to see the beauty in who see is? Will she break down the walls in the fashion industry and create clothing for all women? Find out in Fat Girl on a Plane.
You can grab Fat Girl on a Plane in book stores everywhere and online HERE.
Let us know what you think in the comments below!
POSTED IN body, book reviews, review, self-esteem, BOOKS, Rad Reads
BY MARGOT KOHLER | 5/28/2018
A flight attendant told me I was too fat to fly
By Rachelle Bergstein May 31, 2018 | 4:37pm | Updated
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Kelly DeVos
Author Kelly DeVos doesn't care if you don't like her body. Jim DeVos
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Kelly deVos had always dreamed of writing a book. And she finally did — after living through her worst nightmare.
In 2013, the graphic designer was at her local airport in Phoenix, en route to a business trip in Salt Lake City.
But, as she was boarding, a flight attendant stopped her.
“They forced me to buy a second seat for $300,” deVos tells The Post. The married mom, who weighed 333 pounds at the time, was told she wouldn’t fit in just one.
Mortified, deVos plunked down her credit card. How would she break it to her boss that her trip expenses had suddenly doubled?
Luckily, she didn’t have to. When that same attendant realized the flight was overbooked, she reclaimed deVos’ second ticket for another passenger. DeVos was reimbursed and left to sit in her single seat, which she fit into, after all.
It was a humiliating experience, but also eye-opening, deVos says.
Until that point, “I had always believed that the best opportunities belonged to thin and perfect people,” deVos, now 43, tells The Post. “But from that day on, I just thought, I’m not going to let my weight hold me back anymore. And, if people don’t like it, that’s their problem.”
When deVos got back home to Gilbert, Ariz., she sat down and started writing about Cookie Vonn, a whip-smart, overweight teen who gets waylaid at an airport after a flight attendant declares her “too fat to fly.”
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“Fat Girl on a Plane,” out June 5Amazon
That project eventually evolved into “Fat Girl on a Plane” (Harlequin), out Tuesday. DeVos’ debut novel follows a young, aspiring fashion designer across two timelines: the “before,” when Cookie is a plus-sized 17-year-old, and the “after” two years later, when she’s dropped the weight via a punishing diet.
In both arcs, Cookie faces challenges. The younger girl lets her size hold her back: opportunities for work, and even love, pass her by. But skinny Cookie has trouble, too. Although she lands her dream job in fashion and shacks up with a sexy designer, childhood wounds still smart, so she lets her boyfriend call the shots.
She’s also always — always — hungry.
“Fat or thin, [Cookie] always had the capability to achieve her dreams,” deVos explains. But she says real transformation isn’t about body shape — she needed to master the art of self-possession.
That’s the message she hopes readers take away from the book: “Go for it. Just live your best life.”
Still, deVos understands it’s difficult for young women today to maintain healthy body image. Her own daughter, Evelyn, has struggled: Last year, the 15-year-old admitted to skipping lunch at school to lose weight.
“That was very difficult for me, as a parent and as a person who is fat myself,” says deVos. At home, “we have to make an effort to keep the channels of communication [around body image] really open.”
That’s why deVos isn’t keeping her recent gastric sleeve surgery a secret. Her reasons for getting the surgery, she explains, were physical, not emotional: About a year ago, she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, a blood sugar disorder that’s linked to obesity and raises the risk of infection, heart attack and stroke.
Her doctor sent her home with several diabetes medications, but they were expensive and the side effects (nausea, fatigue) made deVos feel sicker. So, in February 2018, she went under the knife. Since then, she says she’s dropped around 60 pounds, has gotten her diabetes under control and feels healthy.
Her body may have changed, but her message hasn’t. DeVos wants her teenage readers to know that it’s their right to make their own decisions about their bodies — including to remain fat, which she finds perfectly acceptable.
“You don’t always have to be involved in some weight-loss story,” deVos says. “You can be both fat and happy.”
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