Overweight, Undercover

Taking on Different Identity

A New York teenager, Ali Schmidt, took part in an unusual 'undercover' project several years ago: for a TV news report on childhood obesity, Schmidt wore a "fat suit" and prosthetic mask, and using a hidden camera, recorded the reactions of others to her 250-lb. self. She was stunned to learn how cruelly people reacted to her size. Schmidt's experiment lasted just one day but her experience inspired a new Lifetime movie, "To Be Fat Like Me," airing on Monday at 9 p.m. The film stars Kaley Cuoco and Caroline Rhea, and is featured in the Jan. 7 issue of The Washington Post TV Week.

Schmidt, now a freshman at Amherst College, was online on Friday Jan 5 at 2 p.m. ET to answer questions about her experience, and about the movie based on her project.

A transcript follows.

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Ali Schmidt: Hi, my name is Ali Schmidt. Love to hear all your questions. Let's get to it.

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Washington, D.C.: As a woman who has battled her weight all her life, I find these "thin person walks in fat's person's shoes" stories underwhelming. What exactly is the viewer supposed to take from the movie?

Ali Schmidt: First off, I don't proclaim to know all of the trials of obesity but I think it's important to at least have had a glimpse into this other life. What I think one should get out of the movie is the emotional side of obesity that many are not exposed to. Many people disregard the emotional side effects of being overweight. I just want this movie to shove it into other people's faces that overweight people do have feelings when they are attacked and made fun of.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Even though you yourself are not overweight, did the reactions you received from others wear on your self-esteem?

Ali Schmidt: Yes. When you put on the suit you assume the identity of an overweight person. As soon as people started overtly making fun of me, I found myself unable to fight back. And even beyond that, when I took the suit off, I realized that my self-esteem had come from very superficial places.

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Wilmington, N.C.: I'm interested in knowing the gender and age breakdown of people you interacted with, insofar as whether you were treated better by women or men, younger or older people.

Ali Schmidt: Actually the first comment that I got was within five minutes of going into the public was from an older man, probably about 45, who kind of laughed and jeered to his friends, "Oh my God, look at the junk in that trunk."

Interestingly, boys who are 15 years old with whom I was interacting acted the same way as the old man. They all wanted to be alpha male, leader of the pack.

On the other hand, the girls who were 15/16 years old made fun of me in an opposite way by completely ignoring me. I spoke with one of the girls after the show who had made fun of me and she said that the reason she ignored me was because talking to me would be "social suicide." So I got made fun of from all ages and all genders just in their own jabbing ways.

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Kensington, Md.: How true is the TV movie to what you went through?

Ali Schmidt: A lot of the details of my family life are different but the emotional side effects that my character in the movie underwent are exactly the same. And a lot of the revelations she had about obesity -- not as a choice but as a handicap -- are the same.

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Washington, D.C.: How did it feel when it dawned on you (as I'm sure it did) that after all that you experienced, you could take the "fat suit" off, but many others can't?

Ali Schmidt: Part of me felt guilty because I could just take off the suit and I was not fat in real life but that hopefully my experience, though short, would still be able to enlighten and teach other people who are unaware of the degrading factors of obesity. So basically when it dawned on me, I didn't feel good. I felt like there was more for me to do.

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Arlington, Va.: Ali, how did your high school classmates react to your initial experiment?

Ali Schmidt: At first, they all made fun of me for it -- in a normal high school-joking way because they saw this experience as someone dressing up in a fat suit surreal and unbelievable. But once they actually saw the show it turned from mocking into questioning. By questioning, I mean asking me about the experience and wanting to know more about it.

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Fatville, USA: Did your experience change the way you look at people? Do you now get to know people before you judge them?

Ali Schmidt: Yes, it has changed the way I approach people in general, definitely, but I was lucky because I come from a high school that is not tolerant of teasing and judging. This experience furthered that and I wish I could say I'm a completely non-judgmental person but I would be lying. However, this experience has helped me in that.

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Santiago, Chile: Did you experience discrimination or cruel treatment by people who were themselves overweight (in your judgment) but not obese like you (in your disguise)? I read so much in the press about the high percentage of Americans that are overweight, I wonder if they are sympathetic or "the pot calling the kettle black".

Ali Schmidt: That's a really great question. It's a really interesting dynamic that I saw. I was made fun of by a lot of overweight people who are less overweight than I was because once you pick on someone it creates this sort of hierarchy within those who are being picked on. My inference is that people who are picked on will then go ahead and pick on other people who they feel they have a right to pick on. So I definitely was made fun of by kids who were overweight and it was completely shocking to me that they weren't more sympathetic.

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Falls Church, Va.: Did this experience impact your studies at all, or what you've chosen to focus on school-wise or career-wise, or in terms of personal activism beyond the movie?

Ali Schmidt: Career-wise, I think it inspired me to look at people like Diane Sawyer as more role models because I see her as a strong woman who is not afraid of going into controversial issues and picking at them and angering people sometimes. So it has definitely driven me to want to be more of a journalist, or someone in English, history the humanities.

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Washington, D.C.: I don't mean to sound insensitive to people struggling with their weight, I certainly work hard at exercise and diet to maintain a healthy body -- but how is prejudice towards obesity different than towards say, smokers? (whom we don't allow in certain places, and many businesses/apartment buildings are starting to require non-smoking employees/tenants) Both are CHOICES people make that jeopardize their health.

Thanks.

Ali Schmidt: The thing is for a lot of people obesity is not a choice. On one hand, it can be completely genetic. On the other you have to realize that even when I was in a fat suit, walking up the stairs for me was like running three miles. There are so many health problems, heart problems, that skinny people neglect because they want to believe that obesity is a choice. Also, I was speaking to this woman who was my doctor a few years ago and she said that she had done many studies on obesity and had told me that 50 percent of the clinically obese women that she interviewed had only become obese after having been seriously sexually harassed. So these women ate and ate essentially to become invisible to the desire of men.

So there are so, so, so many physical and psychological elements of obesity that don't make it a choice like smoking. You can quit smoking; you can't quit obesity.

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Adelphi, Md.: Do you feel that the teachers try to make accommodations for your seating? I know when I was in school that the chairs were rather small?

Also, were you also taunted by teachers and administrative staff for your size?

Ali Schmidt: During the experiment administrators and teachers knew that I was undercover. But absolutely no accommodations were made for obese people in the school setting. I had to fit through lunch table so tightly packed that I knocked over a tray with my back and only because it was padding was I able to fit in one of those desks they have in classrooms.

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Washington, D.C.: How long did you wear the suit?

Ali Schmidt: I wore it for probably 20 hours and I was supposed to wear it the next day as well but I told the producer that I just couldn't do it for another day.

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Arlington, Va.: Now that you are in college, do you think the reactions of your classmates to an overweight person would be the same, better, or even worse than you experienced in high school?

Ali Schmidt: Better, I think it would be better. I think there's a level of maturity that exists in college that doesn't exist in high school. In college, because people are more comfortable with themselves, they don't care about social convention as much and don't feel the need to make fun of somebody else for popularity.

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Upper Marlboro, Md.: So, is the point to make fat people feel sorry for ourselves, or for others to feel sorry for us, or what? With rare exceptions for thyroids, most overweight people have some reason for being fat that can be managed, whether through therapy, or prayer, or discipline, or whatever. What was the point of you walking around in a fat suit?

Ali Schmidt: The point of me walking around in a fat suit was to get a glimpse at the weird social acceptability of being able to make fun of someone for their weight. People are allowed to make fun of people for their weight but not for their race or not for their gender. Other than to uncover how difficult it is to actually manage weight I wanted to show people that when they make fun of an obese person it really hurts them. The point is to show that even though someone may be different, making fun of them will still crush their self-esteem, their confidence and hinder their overall happiness. A huge point of this piece is to expose the merits of kindness.

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Confused: What do you mean, "you can't quit obesity"? Maybe one doesn't choose to be obese, but one could certainly choose to commit to a healthy lifestyle - good nutrition, exercise. In making that choice, it IS deciding to quit obesity. No?

Ali Schmidt: You're right. Modifying your diet, getting exercise, is deciding to quit obesity. I just don't want people to unfairly believe that it's easy.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Was it so stressful that one day was all you could take?

Ali Schmidt: Yes. It was so stressful, mainly because of the revelations that it brought about in myself. It forced me to reevaluate everything about the way I viewed life and I left that high school more confused than I think I've ever been in my entire life. I wish that I could say that I was stronger and that I could have done it more than a day but I can't.

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Arlington, Va.: Ali, your responses are thoughtful and mature. You've been brave to do this chat: many of the comments have demonstrated, whether purposefully or not, that many adults (and educated adults at that) think it's OK to be prejudiced against the obese. They justify it by saying "obesity" is a choice, but don't realize the sad fact about prejudice: it's hatred based upon something superficial, it's limiting, and just because is obese or thin does not tell us what kind of person they are, what they deserve in life, or how they should be treated.

Thank you again for being brave enough to hold forth against people who like to believe they can judge others by their appearances, and for trying to teach us all a lesson, adults and children alike. Hurrah to you.

Ali Schmidt: Thank you very much. I appreciate your concern, like mine, on this matter.

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Pittsburgh, Pa.: What is it about fat people that you think frightens others? And why do you think Donald Trump -- ironically, rather pudgy himself -- is so clueless that he thinks he can rag on Rosie O'Donnell's weight and get by with it? Or do you think there's enough public enlightenment nowadays for there to be a public backlash against him for it?

Ali Schmidt: My opinion is that the reason why people make fun of obese people so frequently is partly a manifestation of their own insecurities. What I mean by this is that people are scared that they will become obese. Donald Trump may be afraid that he'll become overweight so by making fun of it he's degrading it and making himself feel better.

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Ali Schmidt: Thank you so much for your time. I hope I answered your questions well. I'd love for you to tune into the show on Lifetime, Monday night, Jan. 8 and I'll be on Good Morning America that morning at around 8:30.

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