Not everyone's idea of who or what I should be, but life does that sometimes. It shapes us for purposes we never foresaw, which can be a very good thing.

I always thought I would lose weight someday. As you've read, I have tried time and again--and I came close to dying more than once.

This is the bottom line: I don't diet anymore. I've done the pills, I've done the jaw wiring thang, and I've let them--no, I begged them to cut me up--all in the name of thinness. It has ruined my health, rather than redeem my body.

I will live my life the best way I can--even if I don't meet someone else's standard of what is good and/or beautiful. When I look in the mirror, I know who I am. I am a survivor who happens to be an actor, comic, artist and writer. My job is to tell my story so that others will know they are not alone. Hopefully, those who judge us harshly and without compassion will learn that who we are is much more than the naked eye can behold.

If you are fat, or you love someone who is fat, please--remember that the body is a shell which houses the human being you are. We are not all attracted to the same qualities and attributes in our friends, family and lovers, and it would be unreasonable to expect everyone to subscribe to the same standard of beauty.