Through their work as health professionals, as well as time spent reading with their own children, Kim and Amba loved how books could gently help families through transitions, while also teaching important messages – specifically messages about health and the relationship between food and our bodies. It became apparent to them that many parents struggle to navigate the word FAT and its negative impact, and this is where the idea came about for their book. Written by Accredited Practising Dietitian, Kim Lawler, and Positive Psychology Author, Amba Brown, their book aims to neutralise the word FAT. Instead of it instilling fear in our children, they want to incorporate it into everyday life, so that if it does come up in relation to their bodies, it may not be as provoking. Here, Kim and Amba talk to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind Fat is Fat Book, the challenges they have overcome, and their hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
We are both book lovers and since having kids we’ve always shared books we love, particularly those that help tackle tricky issues (such as toilet training and new siblings). We love that books are a gentle way of helping both adults and children through transitions and teaching them important messages.
Through our professional work we thought that there were many messages about the relationship with food and bodies that could be taught through children’s books! Specifically for this book, it started to become apparent to us that lots of parents are not sure how to navigate the word FAT. It even got to the point of banning the word FAT in some homes, which we believe is a tricky approach as it will just increase its power. At the other end, we’ve seen many people, both young and old, who are affected long term by the word FAT.
For the next generation, we hope to tackle this at the beginning. That was how the idea came about.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
With Amba already being a published author, and us both being health professionals, it was only natural that we came up with book ideas, to help tackle these food and body issues that are big in our culture. The book was written and designed during the mess of motherhood, often late at night, once most of our babies were in bed (always with Amba’s youngest, now one, who always wanted to stay up to help).
So far, we have found our book has been really well received by lots of parents in the community, as they know the way FAT has historically been spoken about wasn’t helpful.
We’ve also found many health professionals and teachers have more awareness these days. We believe younger generations are starting to comment less on people’s bodies than we perhaps experienced in previous generations. There is also a lot more push back from different organisations in terms of any body shaming actions, such as old school weighing at school.
There has also been a significant increase in diversity in the media over the last decade, however in terms of actual body size, we feel this could be worked on.
We understand that this is a huge mountain! But we do hope our book will start to make people think about the word FAT differently, reducing its fear and allowing it to be used more organically.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
We feel the biggest breakthrough has been just doing it: believing in our idea and ourselves and investing time, money and energy into this project. Coming to the decision to start the process and take steps forward was fundamental so this wasn’t just something that stayed as an idea.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
For all working mums, it can be messy. For us, this is very much a passion project. We both work in our health disciplines but we are driven to find the extra time to work on this project. As already mentioned, we have had late night meetings, phone calls nursing sick babies, texts and posts between other work commitments. Thankfully, we have managed to schedule some time on weekends to work on this. I guess the main thing here is this actually hasn’t felt a lot like work because we enjoy chipping away at our project together. We love being creative and we are excited by the purpose of this mission.
We actually went to high school together, so we have been making time to catch up for over 20 years now!
In terms of our collective experience, and all the pieces that make up our working week…
Kim is an accredited practising Dietitian, who has been practising for about 15 years. She’s also studied functional nutrition, health coaching, and is a credentialed Eating Disorder Practitioner. She’s completed various body image courses and has a certification in quantum biology. Kim has worked in many NSW hospitals but now runs her own private practice in Sydney, Explore Nutrition. Kim’s also a mum to three kids, two girls aged 9 and 7 and a little boy who is 3.
Amba is a Certified Happiness Coach, Meditation Practitioner, Psychology Consultant & Positive Psychology author, who holds a degree majoring in psychology & sociology, with a Psychological Science Honours specialising in Positive Psychology and a Masters in Professional Psychology. She is also a member of The International Positive Psychology Association and is passionate about alleviating the anxieties of youth. Her goal is to share these tools as far and wide as possible and has also delivered her message on the TEDx Stage. Amba has since published a number of books, and is a mum to two little girls aged 4 and 1!
Therefore, it just made sense when thinking about all these food and body concepts that a book could help to support kids and parents alike. So we got together to write one!
