Nicole Arbour's YouTube video "Dear Fat People" is hurtful and not funny. In it, she uses a form of bullying to "help people." She encourages and celebrates fat shaming saying, "If we offend you so much that you lose weight, I’m okay with that." This is extremely dangerous, and a damaging way of speaking to all people, but especially young women and teens. It is the wrong message to send, and Nicole Arbour is doing harm because she has thousands of followers and millions of viewers.

Fat shaming is ubiquitous in our culture. However, fat shaming DOES NOT WORK and actually causes more problems. Studies show it creates stress and thus, overeating and negative thinking. It is a fact that those who experience fat shaming are MORE LIKELY to stay the same or gain weight. "Weight stigma is not a beneficial public health tool for reducing obesity. Rather, stigmatization of obese individuals threatens health, generates health disparities, and interferes with effective obesity intervention efforts." according to this study from the American Journal of Public Health: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20075322

"In a study of 2,944 UK adults over four years, those who reported experiencing weight discrimination gained more weight than those who did not." - University College London http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/ucl-sd091014.php

"Rather than motivating individuals to lose weight, weight discrimination increases risk for obesity." - Scientific journal PLoS ONE http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0070048

In addition, young girls who were called fat by someone close to them at age 10 were more likely to be obese later in life, according to a long-term UCLA study. http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/simply-being-called-fat-makes-young-girls-more-likely-to-become-obese

We don't need more fat shaming when we already live in a world where it is everywhere and it does not help anyone. If Nicole Arbour actually wants to help people lose weight, she can start by taking her video down, which only promotes hate and contains no truthful information.

Please sign this petition if you would like her to remove the video, and apologize for spreading hate speech.