About

Fatventure Mag is a printed and digital magazine focusing on active lifestyles beyond the boundaries of weight-loss culture. We’re shining the spotlight on work by fat-identified women and non-binary writers and artists who love spending time outdoors, communing with nature, and being active, no matter what “fitness culture” has to say about it.

Fatventure Mag was co-founded by Alice Lesperance and Samantha Puc, two fat lesbians who wanted to create a space where fat folx could talk about their experiences in the active/fitness community without being devalued for their size, ability, or motivation.

Samantha Puc

Co-Creator & Editor In Chief

Samantha Puc is an essayist and culture critic whose work has been featured on Bustle, The Mary Sue, SheKnows, The Tempest, Rogues Portal, and elsewhere. She mostly writes intersectional pop culture analysis with a particular focus on representation of LGBTQ and fat characters in fiction. Samantha is also the co-creator of Fatventure Mag. She lives in Rhode Island with her spouse and cats.

Alice Lesperance

Co-Creator & Associate Editor

Alice Lesperance is a writer and editor based in North Carolina. Her writing can be found in The Atlantic, Catapult, Autostraddle and elsewhere. She is a lover of bagels and Medieval literature, and she wants desperately to live forever in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Carrie Alyson

Design Editor, Print

Carrie Alyson lives really close to the beach in beautiful Alameda, California. She is a lifelong artist, making a living as a graphic designer for a preeminent leadership development organization for girls, and spending her free time drawing and painting. When she’s not creating art, she likes to hike and explore the outdoors to get inspiration for new work.

Christine Prevas

Associate Editor

Christine Prevas is a writer and graduate student currently residing in Cambridge, England. Their interests include queerness, monsters, science fiction, and tabletop roleplaying games. Their writing can be found on In Full Bleed, PanopLit, or collected here, as well as on their biweekly actual play podcast, The Unexplored Places.

Jude Valentin

Social Media Manager

Jude Valentin is a self-motivated content creator skilled in the disciplines of theatre, video production and photography. She spends her time on the internet screeching about body politics, queer identity, mental illness and more. Their passions include dismantling destructive media stereotypes by building online communities and producing art. You can find her on Twitter @merqueenjude, and everywhere else @mermaidqueenjude.

Amanda Elliott

Columnist

Amanda Elliott is a writer, activist, and postgraduate fat studies major at Queen Margaret University. Her undergraduate dissertation has been adapted as a textbook chapter on the plus size consumer experience in Trudie Walters and Allan Stewart Jepson’s Marginalisation and Events. She has also been a contributor for The Metro, The Pool, and more. Born in Kansas City, Missouri and matured in Edinburgh, Scotland, Amanda spends her free time playing Nintendo, reading girl power comics, and dogspotting.

J Aprileo

Contributor

J Aprileo is a queer, fat, nonbinary writer who grew up in Massachusetts and now rides in the midwest with their partner and two dogs. J enjoys writing about fat activism, gender, and intersectionality topics. You can follow them on Instagram @comfyfattravels and @comfyfat on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube!

Jill Grunenwald

Columnist

Jill Grunenwald is a writer whose writing has been featured BUST, The Millions, Tor, and her blog The Year of the Phoenix. Her slow running memoir Running with a Police Escort: Tales from the Back of the Pack was published in 2017. She lives and works in Cleveland, where she is also the creator and co-host of the Professional Book Nerds podcast. Her three favorite words are All Day Breakfast.

KJ Gormley

Columnist

KJ Gormley is a librarian by day and writer by night. They are a digital nomad, based wherever wifi is free and seafood is good. Writing for INTO, Brooklyn Magazine, Shakespeare & Punk, and others.

Maggie McGill

Contributor

Maggie McGill is a creative introvert who produces fat and queer fashion and lifestyle content for their YouTube channel and blog. Maggie lives just outside of Washington D.C. and their goal is to use their skills in video and storytelling to inspire, create change, and connect with their community. You can find Maggie on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Vicky Bellman

Contributor

Vicky Bellman is a counsellor based in Kent, UK, in private practice. She works with teens and adults seeking affirmative, inclusive and dynamic therapy with a feminist worldview. She is passionate about supporting clients as they reconnect with and reclaim their strengths, and restore their resilience. She is a non-diet practitioner and supports folx healing from chronic dieting, body image and self esteem, and disordered eating using a weight neutral perspective, inclusive of diverse expressions of health and wellbeing.