Contemporary Romance Writers Guest Article

Introducing Full-Figured Heroines to the Romance Community by Rida Allen

I know you're accustomed to the heroines presented to you over and over again in the past, but I'd like to introduce you to a new type of heroine. Sometimes she's sassy, sometimes she's low-key, sometimes she's happy, sometimes she's sad, sometimes she's bold, sometimes she's shy... she doesn't have a tiny waist and her dress size is closer to the average woman who, incidently, wears a size 14 and up. She is immediately identified by society as "full-figured" or "plus-size" and even "chubby"... but what she is, is you.

I've had such a wonderful response to my first book, "Great Love", which features a full-figured heroine. Not only have I received great reviews from readers in the plus-size community, but I have received kudos from reviewers in the romance community for breaking out of the mold and having a more realistic heroine. I only hope that many more writers grasp this concept, that heroines and heros, any character really, can be a realistic size and still be part of a fantastic story. I also hope that publishers will soon open up their doors to these heroines and give readers what they want... real women they can identify with.

To this point I have written six books, all of which feature what would be considered full-figured women in today's society. Each of them has their own personality, their own quirks and their own identification. As we are all well aware, women (and men!) come in all shapes and sizes and my heroines are all described as such. I have one that is average in height and shapely, with a defined waist, big bust and big hips... I have another who is tall with long legs and a very small chest... and yet another who is short and round... can you identify with one of these women? Yes? I'm not surprised. No? Well think about this... is there some part of yourself, your body, your appearance that you are not exactly happy with? Maybe it's your knees or your arms, maybe it's your smile or your hair... don't we all feel we have these imperfections, no matter what our size? Do you always want to read about the perfect heroine... the one you read about in book after book, described as the perfect size 2, with perfectly gorgeous hair, a perfect smile and a perfectly teeny tiny waist? I don't... I want to read about someone who is like me... someone who is REAL. For some reason the romance publishing community doesn't get this idea... YES, we want the romance... YES, we want the fantasy... but HELL YES, we want to be able to think to ourselves, "This could happen to me someday!" No matter how fantastic the story, we want to be able to believe that it could happen to us. Too many women put down a book thinking, "Gee, that's nice... but it ain't gonna happen to me."

There are people who take one look at my books and think they are politically motivated... that I'm making a statement that being full-figured or plus-size is the right thing to be. I whole-heartedly disagree! Romance novels should not be a political statement, they should be about love and romance, about fun and excitement, about seeing yourself in the heroine... about identifying with the woman whose life you are following with each turn of the page. I write about what I know, and what I know is that full-figured women are entitled to love, romance, fun, and excitement... I know because I live that life! So in order to write my best, I write what I know.

I don't think that having a full-figured heroine in a romance novel makes it that much different from "mainstream" romance novels. I'd like to think that I'm creating new characters for you to identify and fall in love with. I'd like to think I'm offering you a heroine that is more a part of you than those in today's "mainstream" romances. Beyond that, the fantasy is still there, the love is still there, the excitement is still there. The books I write are not as much about the heroine being full-figured as they are about the life that heroine is living. I've merely created women who are more familiar to you than those size 2 pixies we've read about all our lives. I hope that those of you who prefer connecting with these more realistic characters will help support authors who are creating them not only by buying their books, but by talking about this topic in your romance community.

I hope I'll hear from many of you about these new, break-through heroines. Come and awaken the heroine within at http://www.ridaallen.com
-Rida Allen, Author "Great Love"

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