I thought that anyone who would be into me would have a thing for fat girls or I was some weird bucket-list item for men to check off. Have I ever had sex with a fat girl? Yes! And that’s how I thought I’d have to live out my existence: being someone’s settling point, fetish, one-time try. Luckily, this is not the case now. Not even a little bit. In fact, I’m very much known for my act-first dating method — basically going up to people at bars and saying, “Hi, I’m Laura. You’re super cute. I’m sitting over at the bar if you think I’m cute and want to keep chatting.” I have fought through the self-hatred to come out on the other side with a hell yeah attitude about myself and how I should be treated. It didn’t happen overnight. Neither did removing my body size from my profile. But eventually I stopped making it my own thing and became more comfortable with presenting myself without a caution sign.