Books and movies where the fat girl doesn't lose weight

So I can't take complete credit for this one. I recently read "Good in Bed" by Jennifer Weiner about an overweight journalist coping with an ex-boyfriend and a career with body issues. In the Q&A section with Weiner after the book, she said the only heavy protagonists in books and movies always shed the pounds and become model-beautiful by the end.

Wanting to do something different, she created Cannie Shapiro, an outspoken, under-confident, 28-year-old Philadelphian. The book begins when she reads a magazine column called "Good in Bed" by her ex-boyfriend about being in a relationship with an overweight woman. Eventually, she finds another NJB (Nice Jewish Boy) who loves her for who she is and not what she looks like. Shocker.

But a lot happens in between. While almost every page of the first person novel is fueled with some sort of self-deprecating comment about her body, it's ultimately not about being fat. It's about finding your place in the world when everything feels mediocre, and what happens when mediocre gives way to excitement--for better and for worse.

Two movies come to mind on the topic. "Hairspray" and "Real Women Have Curves." Both of them give off the impression that they're going to be about women hating their bodies. But both of them--even more so than "Good in Bed"-- turn out to be much deeper than that.

"Hairspray," under the guise of a cutesy Jackie Kennedy era musical, features protagonist Tracy Turnblad, played on the big screen in 2007 by Nikki Blonsky. Tracy is overweight with a heart-of-gold, lusting to star on the fictional version of "American Bandstand," determined to overcome prejudices about her weight to get what she wants.

However, the movie/musical quickly transitions into a satire of segregation and racial tensions in the 1960s.

America Ferrera portrays Ana Garcia in "Real Women have Curves," a subtle coming-of-age story about a first-generation Mexican girl battling with the conflicting conservative values of her mother and the possibilities for smart women in the modern day.

Her weight remains constant through the film, but the end scene is a shot of her walking confidently on a busy New York sidewalk. She looks drastically different, though nothing is physically different, proving that you can change your appearance internally.

I'd say this is one of the most inspiring portrayals I've seen, but then again Ferrera was cast as Ugly Betty a few years later.