Dumplin by Julie Murphy

I don't usually read a whole lot of mainstream high school dramas, but I've been trying to read more broadly especially in YA. I do, however, like reading books with outsider protagonists. When I was in high school, I know I never quite felt like I fit in. I guess most teenagers feel like that at least part of the time.

I certainly didn't have the troubles Willowdean, the protagonist, has. I was never particularly overweight, I didn't live in West Texas, and my mother had absolutely nothing to do with beauty pageants. Willowdean's biggest problem though is that, while she wants to love herself and her overweight body, she has a hard time believing that she's attractive to others. At times, she just seems angry at the world.

When Willowdean enters the beauty pageant, I was about to put the book down. The last thing I needed to read was a saccharine account of some highly unlikely triumph. The real world just doesn't work that way. Chubby girls just don't win beauty pageants that put a premium on a specific idea of attractiveness.

I'm glad I stuck with it though. The ending was not what I feared, and the protagonists growth felt true. Perhaps my differences were not so visible. I could, to a certain extent, blend if I wished. Yet, I found myself identifying with Willowdean nonetheless.