On Being Named to Time’s Inaugural Health100 List
Image description: A photo of Tigress Osborn standing in front of a step-and-repeat logo backdrop at the TIME100 Health dinner. Tigress is a fat Black woman with light brown skin and dark brown fluffy curls. She is wearing a black and gold brocade skirt, gold glasses, a black top, and a black KN94 mask. She is carrying a gold lip-shaped purse and using a black cane.
By Tigress Osborn, NAAFA’s Executive Director
When Angela Haupt from Time reached out to NAAFA in February to say I was being considered for the Time100 Health list, I was surprised, but I never thought I would actually be chosen. The main Time 100 list (aka as “the most influential people in the world”) is packed with celebrities, and I assumed the inaugural health list would ultimately be full of names much bigger than mine. I had a great Zoom call with Angela and assumed that would be the end of it. So when the next message from Time came in April, it was almost unbelievable to me that I had been chosen for the list.
In the few weeks before the list was revealed, I focused on logistics. I scrambled to have NAAFA ally Earl Tubbs of Contrast Photography take new photos of me. I rearranged my upcoming trip to New York so I could stay for the honorees’ dinner. I worried over my answers to several intense follow-up questions from Time, hoping to make the most of exposing such a big audience of readers to perspectives that are rarely represented in such major media outlets. (Those answers went unused, but you can read them here.) I also went on a roller coaster ride of emotions, ranging from excitement (me!) to imposter syndrome (me?) to a sense of responsibility (us!) to concerns about the company it might mean keeping (them?!)
I had no idea who else would be on the list. The Time 100 Climate list included several CEOs, so I guessed the CEO of Novo Nordisk would be on the health list given the immense coverage of the company's diabetes and weight loss drugs (Ozempic/Wegovy). For star power, I thought the list might include Oprah Winfrey. (I was right about the CEO but wrong about the star power. More on that in a minute.) But when the list debuted on May 2, my first reaction wasn’t to seeing the other honorees. Instead, I was disappointed to learn that one of the sponsors of the list was Eli Lilly, a manufacturer of past and current weight loss drugs (Mounjaro/Zepbound), and a company whose approaches to “treating” fat and marketing their drugs I have publicly opposed.
Of course, it is nothing new for publications’ advertising to include commercial diet companies and pharmaceutical companies. It is also nothing new for them cover weight loss and ob*sity in ways that do not align with many of my and NAAFA’s values. But I didn't expect a Lilly ad in the middle of a story about me! It's a stark reminder of just how uphill the battle can be to have any discussions of fat people that do not center weight loss. Team NAAFA and I grapple constantly with the question of when we should reject participation in media and other opportunities because of the presence of those we work against, versus when that is precisely why it's important that we show up. I have spoken about the ways in which we will not partner with diet and pharma companies, but also about the reality that we will be in proximity with them sometimes. I do not love Time100 Health being one of those places of proximity, but I also would not love a Time100 Health list that included no voice at all from fat community.
Image Description: A photo of Tigress Osborn holding up a copy of the TIME100 Health magazine. Tigress is a fat Black woman with light brown skin and dark brown fluffy curls. She is wearing a black top, gold glasses, and a black KN94 mask.
Magazine cover illustration by Peter Greenwood for TIME.
I am excited that the feature Time ran about my work specifically addresses systemic discrimination and highlighted the work NAAFA and others are doing through the Campaign for Size Freedom to add height and weight to civil rights protections. They also used the word fat with no disclaimers or parenthetical explanations, which is almost impossible to get a major publication to do.
As for the rest of the list, not everyone on it is doing work that I am excited about, but so many of the honorees are. The list includes folks you’ll probably recognize even if you're not a health and science nerd, like Halle Berry (for work related to menopause funding), Michael J. Fox (for his Parkinson's advocacy), and Jimmy Carter (for work on infectious disease eradication). There are also many whose work I hope you will care deeply about, even if you don't know their names. Many of the honorees are scientists and researchers, but there are also many people like me, folks running small orgs or small projects with big impacts. It really is an honor to have been included amongst those people, and I'm excited about some of the connections I was able to make at the honoree dinner and some conversations I was able to have about questioning the current paradigms related to weight and health.
The dinner itself was also a reminder of how much work there still is to be done when it comes to getting institutions to be welcoming and accessible to fat people. My night started with me having to switch places with someone at my table because I had been seated in a space that did not give me enough room for my larger body. It ended with a waiter approaching me and a group of four thin women, ignoring me as I reached for dessert, pointedly offering the treats to the four other women, and then turning and walking away. (Someone will argue that maybe he didn’t intend to slight me, but these kinds of microaggressions related to food happen to fat people all of the time.) Fat people are too familiar with moments like these, even during what are supposed to be the most special occasions of our lives. This, too, is the work we do at NAAFA, and why the community and support pieces of our work are just as important as the education and advocacy pieces.
Image Description: The following pull quote from the article is in white font on a turquoise background: I mentioned to actress Katharine Scarborough that I was aware I might be the only fat person in the room at the dinner. “No you won't," she said. "We’ll all be with you.”
What has been most special about this recognition has been hearing from fat community about what it means to YOU. The list came out a day later than it was supposed to, sabotaging my attempt to clear my schedule to communicate with people about the news. By the time I finished my work for the day, I had hundreds of notifications, alerts, and messages from y'all, and so many of them expressed an excitement that went beyond me as an individual. I mentioned to actress Katharine Scarborough that I was aware I might be the only fat person in the room at the dinner. “No you won't," she said. "We’ll all be with you.” Rev. Dr. EK Daufin pointed out that this moment was the result of years of collective energy and labor. “The tide is not shifting," she said. “WE are shifting it!"
Thank you for all you do to help me and NAAFA be a part of that shift. Thank you for all the ways you are always in the room with me!
