Why Does Every Adaptation of Carrie Forget That She’s Fat?

We’re getting a new adaptation of Carrie this Halloween season. Mike Flanagan, a man who knows a thing or two about the genre, is the showrunner of this latest version of Stephen King’s debut novel. This one will star Summer H. Howell as Carrie White, the meek teenager whose status as her school’s punching bag, coupled with the abuse of her religious zealot mother, ignites her telekinetic abilities. Howell is very pretty, slim, and looks not unlike Liv Hewson. I can see why Flanagan was drawn to her. There is a Sissy Spacek-esque quality to her. But she’s also the latest Carrie who doesn’t look at all like the Carrie of the novel. Even in a story of cruelty and bullying, the world thinks having Carrie White be a fat girl is too much.

🔔 Primeiras imagens para a série ‘CARRIE’ de Mike Flanagan.

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— Tróia out of context (@troiadetroia.bsky.social) July 13, 2026 at 3:08 PM

In the book, published in 1974, Carietta “Carrie” Nadine White is described as a “frog among swans.” She’s very shy, frumpily dressed, acne-ridden, and, yes, fat. This is something she is mocked for constantly. The bullies call her “fat” and “pig” on numerous occasions. The reason Chris Hargensen, the queen bully mean girl of the school, chooses pigs’ blood to dump on her at the prom is because she’s fat. “Pig blood for a pig,” chants one bully.

We don’t get a ton of plus-size protagonists in mainstream pop culture, so having Carrie White, the ultimate representation of the wronged girl getting her bloody revenge, be fat does matter. But of course that couldn’t happen in movies. So, two years after its publication, when Brian de Palma was looking for an actress to play Carrie in the film, Sissy Spacek. This is not intended as an insult of her performance, which is excellent. She acutely embodies the outsider qualities of the character and becomes truly terrifying in the third act. Spacek is one of those actresses who is often described as “unconventionally beautiful”, but she is nonetheless very pretty. And slim. In another film, she’d be the bully.

The film was a massive hit and launched Spacek’s career, and it set the standard for how Carrie was “supposed” to look on-screen. Every adaptation that followed chose skinny and pretty actresses who couldn’t be further from the Carrie of the book if they tried: Angela Bettis, Chloë Grace Moretz, and now Summer H. Howell. Even on-stage, in the legendary musical that became one of Broadway’s biggest bombs, Carrie’s still skinny. When they all dress up for prom, it feels like a moment from a bad ’90s teen comedy: oh wow, look at how well she scrubs up by just combing her hair and putting on lipstick!

Carrie White from Carrie (as depicted by @girlvasectomy on Tumblr)
by u/MetalliicMango in TopCharacterDesigns

King’s book is pretty brutal in showing how all of the qualities that make someone a supposed outcast can be weaponised against them for no damn reason other than someone finding it funny. Carrie is poor, spotty, has a crazy mother, and is fat. In the eyes of her bullies, she is emblematic of a social and moral failing. Plus size people know this pain well. You’re always the villain or the lazy loser or someone who needs to be punished for it. But even King falls foul of this trope. In the book, Carrie is described as having gone through a “reverse ugly duckling” change, going from a happy and pretty little girl to a broken and mousy teenager. Adolescence will do that to you, but with Carrie, “her mother’s sickness” left her looking as miserable on the outside as she was on the inside. Not great, Steve!

Pop culture, when it bothers to show fat people, still defaults to treating them as funny sidekicks or public spectacles. Actors win Oscars for donning fat suits while anyone larger than a size 16 is told to go on GLP-1s. And even Carrie White, a victim of abhorrent cruelty for just being herself, has to get a makeover. Do filmmakers believe we wouldn’t sympathise with or relate to her if she’s not rail thin and gorgeous? Or is it that audiences would rather put themselves in the mindset of a hot girl, even when she’s suffering?

It feels like such a missed opportunity to not bring to life the Carrie White of the book. It’s also just lazy and incurious. You can imagine a teenage girl setting her school on fire with her magical mind powers but she can’t be larger than a size 6 because that’s stretching credulity? It’s the same crap you hear from people who think adding people of colour to fantasy shows full of dragons isn’t “historically accurate.” I’m sure Mike Flanagan’s got some interesting ideas for this new Carrie. He’s more than proven himself with King adaptations. But damn, this just feels like a sad repeat of history wherein the fat girl, yet again, just isn’t good enough for our sympathies.