By Melissa Lang
Last year when a show about mental illness and eating disorders hit our screens no one could have predicted the laughs we would share with it. Yesterday Channel 4 announced that our favourite E4 series is back! She may still mad, but Rae Earl is extremely happy entering the second series of the show, My Mad Fat Diary.
It was a typical mean girl moment as we chuckled at Rae dressed a “profiterole” in the last series. However it isn’t all fun and games for the show’s star as it features several topics often buried by the media. For many teenagers, when they turn on the TV it can be dreaded experience. They feel like there is no one that relates to them. Many feel pressured into skipping meals, joining fad diets or even worse, making themselves sick. In season 1 we saw 16 year old Rae breakdown about her weight; “I am a body dysmorphic, without the dysmorphic. I am bulimic without the sick. I am fat.” Charity Young Minds, a support charity for mental illness sufferers, have applauded the E4 show and believe it’s a “step forward” to breaking the stigma of mental health problems; “maybe it won’t educate millions, but if it touches one sufferer, one carer, or just helps people to understand a little more about mental health”.
So what can we expect from the second series? After a long wait for fans and a lust-filled summer of 96’ for Rae, Finn and the gang, Channel 4 promises that “something looming on the horizon which threatens to disrupt the glorious status quo…” It’s all change for Rae as she enters her college years, a big step for any self conscious teenage girl but Scottish Bafta nominee Sharon Rooney believes she can handle it! Sharon previously described her character as “one of the bravest people” she’s ever come across: “she’s just a kid and she’s got these huge issues, and has the worries of the world, when actually she’s one of the coolest people there is.” This series may well be a test for the characters but we can’t wait to see what Rae gets up to next. We can hear the Stone Roses playing in the background already!
Series One of the show is still available to watch on 4oD
No Comments