You’ll find honest commentary about my life and experiences, art and design, Australian culture, feminism, disability, fat activism and my approach to personal style on this blog.
I started blogging over a decade ago and established definatalie.com in 2007. My blog is a perfectly Natalie Perkins-sized platform for me to talk about all the things I’m passionate about. Primarily I’m concerned with carving out my own place on the Internet, a space that represents all of me in a world that makes fat, disabled women invisible.
I like to draw, solve problems, make things and talk about awkward and confronting things. I live in Brisbane, Australia, and while I like living here and I’m proud of our growing creative scene I’d love to move to Melbourne one day.
I started this blog in the middle of 2007 when I was still working at my office job as a graphic designer and dreaming of having my own autonomous creative career. Starting definatalie.com turned out to be one of the most amazing things I’ve done in my life (thanks Past Natalie) because it’s opened up a community of wonderful people to me as well as served as an introduction to a fabulously unpredictable life as an artist, activist, and writer!
Initially blogging about art and design, I didn’t feel like my blog was an accurate representation of me so I decided to flesh out a part of me that was often whispered about and unduly concerned for – my fat body. I’ve been body positive since 2001, and I’m heavily involved in the fat acceptance community in Australia and online around the world. My blog is a very personal interaction with me as I write about my experiences and the processes behind my creative practice. I find more and more that my creative work is entwined with feminist issues like body image and size acceptance, and I credit my blog and its readers for helping me create a platform where I can present the processes and thinking behind the work I create.
If you’re confused about fat acceptance, have a read of this post to understand some of the issues that make me passionate about this social justice issue.
If you’d like to see some of my art, you can check out my portfolio or you can buy originals and prints in my shop.