Welcome to Body Type!
A newsletter about the forces that shape body image and body culture, for anyone who spends a lot of time thinking about their body — written by a woman who spends a lot of time thinking about her own.
Hey! I’m Mikala Jamison, a freelance writer (and full-time editor) who gets what it’s like to feel conflicted and troubled by your body and how the world sees it. I spent years feeling disconnected from physical self, and getting into strength training and evaluating my relationship to food helped me learn to feel better in and about my body — even if I can’t (and don’t think I should have to) totally love it all the time. I want to help you do the same by offering posts that help you think about body stuff differently.
Body Type isn’t strictly about exercise or eating, and it definitely isn’t one about how to lose weight for the sake of it. It’s about how movement, food, media, celebrity culture, beauty (and body) standards, and aging all contribute to how we feel about our bodies, for better or worse, and what we can do to cope when things feel “for worse,” as it’s so easy for them to do in American culture.
Some things that inform my interest and expertise:
I lived with binge eating disorder for many years, so …
… I used to be about 70 pounds heavier, which changed once I got into therapy for disordered eating and fell in love with strength training, and then …
… I became a certified group fitness instructor, a one-time competitive powerlifter, and a (not officially) certified Woman Who Likes to Lift Weights.
That’s why I write about things like the agony and the ecstasy of weight loss compliments, why research doesn’t make being fat any easier, how pushing yourself through exercise doesn’t mean punishing yourself with it, whether any woman isn’t fucked up about her body, why Ozempic gossip and selective body policing will destroy our brains, why I’ll never run again, why it’s OK that skinny influencers show their little fat rolls, why junk food needs no defense and healthy food needs no praise, etc.
What subscribers get:
By subscribing to Body Type you’ll get:
At least two original posts a month (usually from me, but sometimes by other fabulous guest authors); and
You’ll be supporting independent, ad-free, sponsor-free writing I produce alongside my full-time job. This is a one-woman show and an act of love!
Paid subscribers get and do all that, plus:
Every once in a while I’ll publish a post partially behind a paywall to protect the comments section (as you can see from my Most Popular posts, there’s a lot of great chatter going on in the comments). If the topic is more of a hot-button issue, I’ll keep the comments a space for paid subs only.
Guest posts will be for paid subscribers only, too.
Check this page for more about what readers have to say about Body Type, and other FAQs.
A little more about me:
I’m a former newsroom journalist [find my other work on my website] in the Washington, D.C. area, as well as a live storyteller who created The Body Show for the 2022 Capital Fringe Festival. Here’s a five-star review.
Also: I’m working on a book of essays about body image and exercise, and am represented by Kayla Lightner at Ayesha Pande Literary.
Also also: I have a cat named after Lucille Bluth, my top-two favorite things to eat are ravioli and olives, and I rappelled down a skyscraper once. Ask me about all that.
Thank you so much for reading!
