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- It was really, really important

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that this not be a pool party celebrating

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size-14 white girls
living their best life,

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'cause they're the people that are closest

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to living their best life already.

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- Yeah, right, yeah.
- You know what I mean?

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And I really believe in this.

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(bubbly music)

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- We're here to talk about "Shrill,"

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your new show, based on your book.

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Give us the elevator pitch.

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- "Shrill" is a half-hour comedy on Hulu,

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that is about a fat woman in her 20s,

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trying to figure how to live a good life

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in the body that she has.

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You know, we're really taught

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that you have to change your body,

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and conform to a really specific, narrow,

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literally narrow, body
type to have a good life

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and to be happy, and to have
a career, and be fulfilled;

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and that's not true,

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and this is the story of
our main character, Annie,

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discovering that that's not true.

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- Because there's so few representations

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of fat women on television
that are realistic,

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and not like, terrible garbage,

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did you feel representation pressure

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and like pressure to get it right?

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- Yeah, for sure, but not pressure.

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I mean, it's more, it's an opportunity.

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When people criticize
me, which happens a lot,

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often it's like, "Oh, God, shut
up about being fat already.

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Yeah, we've heard it, we know."

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And it's like, okay, you can say that,

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that I need to shut up
about being fat already,

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but you know what the women,

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what the contestants on
"The Bachelor" look like.

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Like, it's not like there's
been actual progress.

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- Right.
- Like, there's a reason why

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it's like a news story

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that there are fat women in
bathing suits on a TV show.

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It would have meant something to me,

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absolutely, as a teenager
to see a size-14 woman

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in a bikini on the cover of
"Cosmopolitan" or something.

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You know what I mean?

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Like, that would have been huge for me.

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But that is -- it's a minuscule,
microscopic shift forward.

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- Yeah.
- And we really need

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to think bigger than that.

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And so, you know,

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I made sure that I had a talk

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with the extras casting for
the pool party and, you know,

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I said, "We really need true
body diversity on this set."

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- Not just like, 45 size 14s.
- Absolutely.

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- Which is the average.
- Yeah, absolutely.

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- Like, that is the average
size of the American woman.

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- Yeah.
- How is that, yeah.

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(serene music)

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- You know, I'm not trying
to make something hot

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and marketable, or whatever.

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Seriously, like, this
means something to me,

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and people always get it wrong.

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You know?

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And I, I don't know that
we did it perfectly,

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but I wanted to do the
best job that I could.

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- Yeah.
- You know?

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- You know, when people
sort of boil it down

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to just like representation.

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It's like, well, what does this look like?

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What are the real stakes?

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How can we make it so everyone equally has

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How can we make it so everyone equally has

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an ability to like, yeah,
live their best life,

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or not live a life of misery

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because the stupid
sociopolitical bullshit is

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because the stupid
sociopolitical bullshit is

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keeping us down. (laughs)

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- Yeah, I mean, there are real,

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you know, systemic issues
that are bigger than,

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do I have the confidence to
go dance at the pool party?

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Like that means a lot, but it's,

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we just have to not stop there.

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Do your research and learn
about other peoples' lives

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and like the things that are
making their lives smaller

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and more confined and less fulfilling.

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- And like I met so many people,

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and I'm honestly thinking
about buying a crop-top,

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which, I gotta say, was not
in the cards for me before.

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But I just gotta get in that pool.

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- One of the things that
really was affecting,

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aside from like, "Wow,
never seen this before,

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there's no self-consciousness,

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other than the sort of arc
that Annie goes through.

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- Just watching Aidy shoot
it, I cried and cried.

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And like, you know, we actually
got to have that party,

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'cause you had to have all
those extras their in swimsuits,

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like eating nachos and dancing.

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It was so, so fun and so special,

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and you could really feel, you know,

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that the people there, the
extras in the pool party were,

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to some degree, going
through that same process

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that Aidy goes through in the
episode where's it's like,

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"Oh my god, it's so liberating

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to be in this group of people

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and see everyone's bodies,

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and see everyone having a good time."

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And it was, it was really really special.

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- Yeah.

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Now I'm like, ugh, getting
a little... (laughs)

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- I don't know that I
had ever been in a room

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with that many like, gorgeous
fat women having a great time.

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I mean, at the very end,

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I got to actually jump in
the pool and go swimming,

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which was very satisfying

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after just having to sit in a tent

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and watch people swim for two days,

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which was enraging.
- (laughs) Yeah,

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that must be annoying.

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- Yeah, it was great.