The Fat Zine, a publication founded by photographer and artist Chloe Sheppard and author Gina Tonic, has released a calendar celebrating fat-positivity. Founded earlier this yr, The Fat Zine is an ode to the great thing about fat bodies, and explores the nuances of what it means to be a fat person in 2020. 

“It becomes quite tiring seeing people who find themselves a size 12 bend over to create rolls then post about it on social media and get celebrated for being ‘authentic’,” Sheppard told Dazed Beauty on its release back in March. “To make this zine which calls that stuff out, and is an area where fat people really will be whatever they wish to be, felt necessary, and to try to echo a few of what created the fat liberation movement in the primary place.”

The 2021 calendar carries this ethos forward and can feature a broad range of Sheppard and Tonic’s favourite fat creatives, in addition to themselves. It also comes with a mini zine where each featured creative explores their given month.

“Calendars are canonically stuffed with imagery to aspire to – from Man United to Girls Aloud, to the pin up babes in automobile garage office doors within the 50s,” Tonic, tells Dazed Beauty. “The Fat Zine 2021 calendar is reclaiming this space to encourage plus size people to be confident all yr round. We asked past collaborators from issue one in addition to creatives we’ve not featured before to submit a picture and an outline of why they love (or hate!) the month they were assigned.” 

The Calendar consists of an A2 fold-out poster with hand-drawn calendar pages and supporting illustrations from Ajša Zdravković, in addition to a mini zine of the photographs and paragraphs too, which is offered to preorder here. Contributors include Tom Glitter, Isold Halldorudottir, Ashleigh Tribble, Ione Gamble, Talia Darling, and Anshuman Iddamsetty. “Chloe and I also placed ourselves as January and December as bookends for the project,” Sheppard adds. “We wish to remind you: being fat is for all times, not only for the post-Christmas food plan goals.”

Read our recent interview with Chloe Sheppard and Gina Tonic concerning the launch of The Fat Zine here.