Sam Abel has dealt with stares, embarrassment and harassment from strangers most her life. “Just a few months ago I was at Yonge (Street subway) station and I was waiting for a train,” she said. “There were a group of teenage boys on the platform and as I got on the train, they said ‘You’re fat bitch.’ … Being fat means your body’s taken out publicly and people feel (they have) the right to comment on it in a way they might not if you weren’t fat.”