Marie Southard Ospina

Marie Southard Ospina is a freelance journalist based in the UK. She covers body image, parenthood, mental health and pop culture (but she'll also take any opportunity to discuss glitter, awkward comedies and cream cheese).

Motherly Stories

What to do if your child has a ‘difficult’ teacher

Sometimes sticking with the thing that feels really difficult is the best course of action.

Motherly Stories

I was shamed for breastfeeding in public as a fat woman—let’s support all nursing moms

I’ve come to realize that these hateful displays are not uncommon. They exist as prime examples of the intersection of breastfeeding shame and fatphobia.

Motherly Stories

Kate Pearson’s depiction of plus-size motherhood is the narrative we need and deserve

Kate Pearson has never promised fat people, mothers, or fat mothers that we can “have it all” (because who can, really?). But she’s shown us that we can get darn close.

Entertainment

Shrill is the show I can’t wait to show my daughters one day

The Hulu show starring Aidy Bryant was the first time I saw myself represented on screen.

Entertainment

Arlo The Alligator Boy’s Bertie is the plus-size character I needed as a kid

As a parent and as a fat woman, I was instantly drawn to Bertie.

Life

Grandma, we desperately miss you

A year into the pandemic, my family is profoundly feeling their grandparents' absence.

Life

I’m a fat mom. This is how I talk to my daughters about fatness.

As the mother of two girls, it's important to me that my partner and I don't contribute to harmful fat-phobia within our own home.

Parenting

My toddler asked me to get off my phone

"Mama, get off your phone!"

Life

What if we just ditched body-shaming in 2021?

What would happen if instead of participating in January's "new year, new you" rhetoric we resolved to let go of all of it?

Child

Am I raising a little jerk?

What a clinical psychologist wants you to know about kids who "act out."

Nutrition

The only thing I remember from Christmas was the diet talk

But I'm determined not to repeat that with my own kids.

Life

Fat pregnant women exist—but clothes for them don’t

Despite having spent so much of my childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood being fed the narrative that fat people are unworthy of cute clothes, I wasn't ready for this new narrative: that fat, pregnant people are unworthy of any clothes at all.