M.atilde has just returned from vacation, and feels she has survived. At the seaside she had to put up with the glances of the neighbors from an umbrella, and the jokes of her mother’s friends about her extra pounds. Over the years she has refined one technique to be invisible: dark suits, never showy clothing, a silent walk away from crowded places. You would like to write a manual: How to get by when they make fun of you because you have a different body from others. Matilde is the heroine of This is me (The steamboat) by Carolina Capriawho has been writing children’s books for 12 years and has created the very popular page on Instagram I wrote a female.
Carolina Capria, author of “This is me” (The steamboat).
“I wanted to tell the story of a seventh-grade girl discriminated against for her fat body,” says Carolina Capria. “Today we live in a fat-phobic society, obsessed with the perfect body, and a few extra pounds are enough to feel left out. I wanted to talk about different bodies but they are all right. Matilde does not want to be observed, or worse photographed, and she suffers in silence when they call her “husbandhood”, or when her parents offer her yet another visit to a nutritionist, even if this time her outcome will be different. She never eats in public, and she has to put up with adult style advice, or the giggles of her classmates when they eat a pizza. ‘
A life balance based on invisibility achieved with difficulty, and always precarious, which is shaken by the arrival at school of a new girl, Tina, who suffers from vitiligo. Unlike Matilde, and her historical friend Fiore di lei, teased with the nickname “Fiorellina”, Tina is not ashamed and does not let herself be intimidated. Not even when she ends up in the sights of bullies, who call it “cow” and make a noise, due to the spots it has on its skin.
The cover of Carolina Capria’s book “This is me” (The steamboat).
Carolina Capria: “Kids are ahead of adults”
“Matilde, Fiore and Tina are a small world on the edge. Each of us in some way was on the margins, at that age, he suffered, he reacted to him the way he did », continues the author. “Matilde’s luck is to be able to count on her two friends, and in particular on Tina, who will challenge the headmaster, the creator of a questionable contest to elect the king and queen of the school, head-on.” Matilde, Tina and Fiore will rewrite the rules, and will be able to take the necessary space to show themselves as they are, with force, without fear of being judged. In the face of the king and the regientta. A beautiful story, with a positive message, cheerful, full of confidence in boys (the book is suitable for girls and boys from 8 years old).
For Carolina Capria, the funniest part begins now: taking him to the schools, meeting the students. “I can’t wait to confront them,” she says. “My books are always on topics that are close to my heart: rights, gender equality, inclusion. Issues on which the boys are far ahead of us. Things that adults need to explain are obvious to them. For me, every encounter is enlightening ».
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