Behind the Scenes at Fatshionista HQ.

Hey kids, it’s Friday! It’s also my personal annual Get An Extremely Private Medical Exam That Causes Me A Fair Bit Of Anxiety Day. But no matter, you’re getting some fluff, whether you like it, or not.

Fluff the first comes from a Formspring questioner (SURPRISED?), who inquires: I’ve been reading fatshionista for a long time, and maybe this was covered at some point that I missed, but what happened to it being a group blog? I think you’re fabulous, I’m just confused by the structure of the blog now.

Good question! I did not, in fact, formally note this slight shift out here in the internets, though I always meant to. I am bad with the housekeeping posts.

My vision for fatshionista.com was always that it would be a group blog with a diversity of perspectives, and for the first year, pretty reliably, it was. And it was great! However, in the year since, most of the other bloggers dropped off (for various totally understandable and drama-free reasons). Eventually it became overwhelmingly just me writing, with posts from other authors maybe a couple times a month, if that.

Thus, in late 2009 I quietly shifted the structure a bit, as it seemed disingenuous to keep promoting this as a “group blog” when it had really become a blog I write, with occasional contributions from others. It just seemed confusing and inaccurate to not reflect the format change. So I made some new post tags, reorganized the author groups in the backend, and now it’s Mostly Lesley’s Blog, With Posts By Amazing Occasional Contributors When They Have Time To Participate (Or If Lesley Sees Them Post Something Awesome On LJ And Asks Them To Crosspost It To Fats.com).

Blogging is a weird hobby and/or compulsion, and one that is insanely time-consuming, so unfortunately not everyone has the ability (or is as willing to forgo sleep) to participate on a regular schedule. I get that, completely. Nevertheless, I maintain an open-door policy with regard to guest posting from any of the original bloggers at any time. Is this is ideal scenario I’d envisioned when I began this thing in 2007? Nope, not by a long shot. But, it’s how things have gone. I expect this space will always be changing — for example, stitchtowhere and I have been discussing a tag-team advice column since LONG before I started my illustrious Formspring career, and we still have plans of making that happen. I try to just keep in step with how things are now and let the river run, as the song says. Working Girl, anyone? Anyone? Come on.

THAT’S RIGHT.

Fluff the second is a bit of backstage nonsense that I am only sharing because I am, as I have oft mentioned the past few days, operating on not much sleep. Were I running at full capacity I would probably think better of this, and as it stands I may later be terrifically embarrassed by it.

See, I have a crap commute. I go in and out of Boston every single day for work. There is a lot of traffic. The one up side to this is that it gives me enforced time to do lots of meandering, unstructured thinking. When ideas I want to remember hit me, I record them as voice memos on my iPhone. Most of these are dull mumblings in sentence fragments, since I don’t record them with the intention that anyone but me will ever hear them, but occasionally they verge on coherence.

Yesterday I was thinking about a comment made by Eve to this post, in which she mentions that she and a friend had recently agreed that I should host a fatty-makeover show meant to teach fat folks “how to dress their best and be fabulous in their own way.” I love this idea! I do. I think it would be awesome and if I had any power at all in the media universe I would be trying to pitch that idea all over.

But while I was thinking about it in the car last night, my mind began to wander — as it does — and it occurred to me that it would also be fun to have another show as well… a different… show.

You can listen to my half-conceived and fully-unscripted insanity, as spewed over the steering wheel of my car in real time, using the Quicktime gadget below. (If that doesn’t work for you and you’re burning with desire, you can also download it here, though you are not missing much.) Oh yeah, and it’s probably not worksafe, as I say “fuck” a few times.

BRING IT ON, BRAVO. You know this would be a huge hit. Pun very much intended.

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