By Emanne Johnson

 – Editor-in-Chief

Senior Courtney Williams is 17 years old, and standing at only 5 feet 5 inches, she weighs 260 pounds.

“I know who I am,” says the plus-sized girl. “I am Courtney Williams. I am a big girl, and I’m okay with that.”

It took Williams a long time to come to terms with her weight.

When Williams was younger, she didn’t see her weight as a big issue in her life. “I just wasn’t concerned with it,” says Williams. “My family would make fat jokes, but it was all out of fun. It was never anything serious.”

Then everything changed with two words.

Williams became self-conscious about her weight when she was 11 years old. She recalls the painful incident that made her feel ashamed of her size. She was riding the bus home from school with her 15-year-old brother, Kevin Williams

, when

she heard two little words that echoed from the mouth of a girl her own age: “fat ass.”

The incident brought a new age of insecurity to Williams. She says the girl’s words not only hurt her feelings, but caused her to no longer see the word “fat” as a joke, but as a serious insult. She then began to compare herself to the other girls at Thompson Middle School. “It really hit me because I felt I was the only big girl there,” says Williams.

She felt alone, but she was not. One-third of all Americans are obese, which means they carry more than 100 extra pounds, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control. Obesity is also more common among women than men.

Williams felt that if she could just be more like her friends who were “normal size” that she would be perfect, free from the “beep beep” sound of a dump truck moving backwards and the whispers behind her back.

Williams found herself teetering on the edge of depression as she attempted to figure out why people focused on her weight as a means to degrade her. “There were so many other things wrong with me than my weight,” says Williams, “My hair was a mess, my teeth were cracked, and I desperately needed glasses. I just couldn’t get why (the other kids at school) focused on my weight.”

When Williams became a student at Southfield High School, she decided that enough was enough. She was determined to make a change in herself from the inside out.

Williams tackled the issue of her weight head-on. With the help and encouragement of her cousins Chanel Rayford and Fred Rayford,

Williams made a bold attempt to lose weight during the summer before her senior year. At the beginning of the summer, Williams weighed in at over 300 pounds and suffered sleep apnea due to the constriction of her airways by the fat around her neck.

Under the guidance of a doctor, “I had to go on a ‘no-bread diet’ and I could only eat berries when I wanted something sweet,” says Williams. She also limited her intake of carbohydrates to only 20 grams per day. The diet aided Williams in dropping over 40 pounds, and she no longer struggles with sleep apnea. “It feels good not to snore anymore,” says Williams.

She decided that it would be appropriate to put her new-found confidence and her lighter physique to the ultimate test by running for the title of homecoming queen.

Williams says she saw running for homecoming court as an opportunity to do something she had always been afraid to do. Williams’ friend, senior Courtney Floyd-Little, encouraged her to go for what she believed in. “She has been here for me all the way,” says Williams, “Friends like that don’t come often.”

Williams and Floyd-Little, along with the help of a few other friends, created posters, flyers and even a slogan for Williams’ campaign. Phrases such as “Vote big or go home” and “Vote big and you can never go wrong” were planted all over the school building.

Williams was nervous as she walked across the field with her last-minute escort, senior Justin Montgomery, during the homecoming game’s halftime.

The names of the freshmen duke and duchess were called, then the sophomore count and countess, then the junior prince and princess.

When the winner of the senior title of “Homecoming Queen” was called, the name Chelsea Barton, was exalted over the crowd, not Courtney Williams.

Although Williams did not win the crown, she was not a sore loser. “I was very happy for Chelsea. She deserved it,” says Williams.

Williams said she still felt like a winner for not giving up on herself. She believed in herself enough to stick with the campaign all the way to the end.

The upbeat senior says she got what she wanted out of the campaign. “(I just wanted) to show that I’m just like any other person and worthy of respect. I finally have the confidence to know who I am, what I am, and not feel bad about it.”