Kim Brittingham is an in-demand social content contractor, writer and part-time instructor of “How to Blog” at Gotham Writers’ Workshop in New York City. She is the author of a memoir, Read My Hips (2011, Random House) and Write That Memoir Right Now (2013, AudioGo). Her essays have been published on iVillage, Salon and Fresh Yarn. She received widespread national attention, including appearances on the Today Show and NPR, when she created a mock self-help book jacket with the title, Fat is Contagious: How Sitting Next to a Fat Person Can Make YOU Fat, wrapped it around a real book, and pretended to read it while riding the buses of New York City as an informal social experiment.
She divides her time between New York City and the Jersey Shore.
I discovered you by being a friend of Ulla Popken on Facebook. That little fashion article led me to this blog. Then I read “How roller skating made me love exercise” and “Lesbians are fat, ugly, and can’t get a man”. That’s when I fell in love with you! Every word in those essays was my life story. I grew up in a closed conservative religious environment that never mentioned “the love that dare not speak it’s name”, in rural Chester County, about 35 miles west of Philadelphia. I am considerably older than you, but I also remember those blissful Saturday afternoons at the roller rink. I too am an Anglophile and a thinkaholic. Unlike you, I built a wall around my fat self, to keep out everyone who might hurt me, because I never looked like my Barbie dolls. I just ordered “Read My Hips”, and can’t wait for it to come in the mail and impart a message that I think I am now ready to accept for my life. I live alone in Lancaster County and dearly hope that someday our paths will cross. Bless you for lifting the spirits of this old fat girl!