Oksana Carlier/Winonan

A Winona State Univeristy professor is in the publishing process of her book titled “Fat Kids” that addresses the current obesity epidemic and public perceptions on the topic.

April Herndon, author and English professor, said, “The book is about the ways the war on obesity now targets women and children as intervention, that they are the ones that are supposed to change things.”

The book is under contract at the University of Kansas Press and has an expected release of this fall or spring 2014.

Regarding the book, Herndon said that women are blamed for making their kids unhealthy meals and kids are blamed for not exercising enough. The pressure for women to raise skinny kids, for kids to lose weight or get bariatric surgery is mounting.

“I used to weigh like 300 pounds and even when I was that large, I was really healthy,” Herndon said. She said there was a lot of discrimination against her because of her weight.

Herndon said one time she went into a clothing shop and the employee asked, “Whom are you shopping for? Because we don’t have anything that will fit you.”

She said the discrimination was like death by a thousand cuts, something no student or person should experience.

“I don’t want anyone to have to put up with that. It isn’t fun,” she said.

“Some of the book deals with language, some with medical side, another chapter with how children deal with it,” Herndon said. For her doctrate she studied sociology, food and nutrition, English and philosophy which allows her to look at the issue from different angles.

Before coming to Winona, Herndon was the director of programming for children in a nonprofit organization. She said she has gotten the chance to work with kids in the past and has always been interested in obesity.

“Here is a chance where there is something someone can do for the kids, ” Herndon said. She hopes the book will raise awareness about the issues surrounding children and obesity.

“One of the hopes I’ve always had is to write a book that is really accessible, especially to undergrads,” Herndon said, adding that obesity is not just in one place; it is a global issue.

When it comes to the connections between English and obesity, Herndon said, “It is connected in the language we use to talk about the children. English is helpful because it looks at the language we use to talk about obesity as an epidemic.”

Herndon said that using the word epidemic makes obesity seem scary, like it is “contagious or something you accidentally get.”

According Ethan Krase, Herndon’s dean, she is “not only a top notch scholar and researcher but also teacher.”

Krase said Herndon has been an excellent department citizen, her most recent leadership position being head of the writing center on campus.

Herndon has a doctorate in American studies from Michigan State and writes blogs for Psychology Today.

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