Rhonda DeChambeau is a Massachusetts children’s author and poet, and also an experienced speaker and presenter. Her debut YA novel in verse, Top Heavy (Holiday House, 2025), is a beautifully written book about Esme, a fifteen-year-old talented dancer who is thrilled to make the Elite dance team. But her joy is tempered by the pain she endures from the physical weight of her large breasts and the negative attention, bullying, and even sexual assault she experiences because of them.
As she tackles this agonizing body issue, Esme also navigates the ups and downs of a fading friendship, financial challenges, family hardships, a tender romance, and setbacks to the dream she’s been long pursuing.
Rhonda received a degree in Literature from Harvard University and later earned an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She served as the 2022-2023 Associate of the Boston Public Library Writer in Residence Program, during which time she wrote and sold her debut novel. She lives south of Boston with her family. A champion of writing, she has also funded a scholarship for high school seniors passionate about writing.
It was exciting chatting with Rhonda about the challenges of writing a YA novel about body issues, and the considerations of writing it in verse using first-person point of view.
The main theme of Top Heavy is Esme’s negative relationship to her large breasts, and how they physically and emotionally impact, directly and indirectly, what she loves doing most: dancing. What are the challenges of writing about teen body issues?
Striking a balance between sensitivity and authenticity can be tricky. As a writer, I’m trying to approach the reality of negative perceptions about our bodies with honesty and integrity. But the question of how the writing will be received by young readers is always in the back of my mind. Perhaps this is most important during the editorial process. While writing the first draft, I focused on capturing the physical effects of having a large chest and Esme’s emotional reaction to that.
I’m fortunate that my editor, Sally Morgridge at Holiday House, is mindful of the delicacy required in handling such topics. The last thing I want to do is make readers feel badly about their own bodies. During the revision process, with Sally’s guidance, I adjusted or trimmed some of the body descriptions, not just of Esme, but of other story characters. After all, this is a story about a group of competitive dancers—female athletes—and descriptions of their physical movements. Their bodies figure prominently in many scenes. Having another reader, like Sally, provide objective feedback was crucial in making sure we got that right.
Why did you choose to identify this “large breasts” issue immediately at the start of the book, as Esme “soars” while dancing (“There is…a heavy downswing, an ache in the sides of my neck and across my back…At my sternum, my double D’s thump in unison”)?
The beginning poem of the book captures the power and energy Esme feels when dancing. I wanted the reader to appreciate from the outset that for Esme, at its best, dance allows her to be free. Then in the next poem, the reader witnesses the challenge of Esme’s large chest and the physical problems of having heavy breasts while dancing. Setting this out in the very beginning not only conveys to the reader how important dance is to Esme, and how dance is part of her identity, but it also introduces the impact of those physical challenges she’s experiencing. It was important to capture the physical pain Esme experienced that is the undercurrent throughout the story. As the story progresses and moves beyond the dance studio, I hope the reader also comes to appreciate the emotional toll of having large breasts.
Another tough issue in Top Heavy is the trauma of a sexual assault (a stranger touched Esme’s breasts without permission). How difficult was it to write realistically and authentically for teen readers, while also creating a safe place for them to process and understand this issue, whether they’ve experienced sexual assault or not?
What was most important to me in this scene was capturing an authentic response to this type of assault (being groped or grabbed) and moving the character out of that feeling of being powerless. That assault scene and the aftermath scenes were probably the toughest scenes to write because I wanted to do justice to the range of complex emotions.
Oftentimes, women, young women especially, tend to second-guess their choices and question if they were at fault for what happened. Or they second-guess their reaction after the assault. I read multiple first-person accounts of women who had been grabbed or groped, often by a stranger in a public place (walking down the street or on the subway). Almost every woman felt shame and regret around the incident. There were a number of women who felt like maybe they had imagined it, maybe it didn’t actually happen.
These reactions, in my opinion, are products of women shouldering blame for negative things that happen to them. Isn’t it so ridiculous that we should accept blame for something someone else does? As Esme processes this incident, she alternates between feeling fearful and being filled with rage, both normal emotional responses. Esme processes these emotions and begins to recover by talking about what happened with those closest to her and also through movement, through dance.
In writing Top Heavy, did you draw any inspiration from your own past teen struggles and triumphs? Did writing from your real-life events gave you a deeper emotional connection to the narrative?
So much of my personal backstory weaves its way into this story. For example, in an early scene of the novel, Esme’s chemistry class lab partner eyes Esme’s breasts and comments that “more than a handful is a waste.” This scene and comment drew from my own high school experience. That comment stayed with me after almost thirty years! In fact, almost every comment or incident that Esme experiences happened to me or a friend during our teen years. It’s fascinating how we remember things other people say or do, especially in relation to our perceived shortcomings.
Most people, especially teenagers, struggle with some aspect of their physical appearance. For young women, it is often related to body size or weight or the size of their breasts. For me, I always struggled with my weight. I also grappled with some pretty severe acne. Anytime you take the real and remembered emotion of a personal struggle and apply it to your writing, you’re better able to capture the character’s emotional story.
Also, one unexpected thing that happens when I tell women about my book is that they take me by the arm or lean in to whisper and share their own personal story related to either their breasts or some aspect of their physical appearance for which they were teased or ridiculed. It’s something so many of us can relate to.
What made you decide to write Top Heavy from a first-person point of view?
The story arrived in first person. From the first poem I put down on the page, it was always Esme telling the story. On an intellectual level, for a story as personal as this one, where the character is thinking about their body and struggling to feel at home in their body, first person seemed the natural choice. Verse novels also lend themselves to first person accounts because so many of the poems focus on emotion. The poems can sometimes feel like stream of consciousness. Writing in first person, for a story like this one, also enables the reader to connect with the character on a closer level.
Why did you choose to write Top Heavy in verse?
First, I love writing in verse! There is something freeing about writing in this short form, where each poem is a complete whole but then also joins together with the other poems to form a unified narrative. I tend to write the poems out long hand in a notebook and then later transcribe them into a Microsoft Word document. Writing it out this way feels non-committal. My pages are often messy, with lines crossed out, stanzas scrawled across the page, or scribbles or doodles crammed in the margins. Sometimes I just brainstorm lists of words that find their way into poems.
For this particular story, verse also fit well with the rhythm and musicality of Esme’s movement. Capturing the dance scenes and how Esme felt during those dance sequences definitely benefited from being told in verse. The physical space that the words occupy on the page helped to convey the movement in the scene.
Besides all of that, one of the biggest draws of a verse novel is the appeal to reluctant readers. Having more white space on the page, having the story told in short lines and in the smaller chunks of individual poems, makes verse novels easier to read for many readers. I love reading verse novels, and it’s been exciting to talk about my book to friends and family members, many of whom had never heard of verse novels.
What are some challenges you encountered and things you learned along the way in writing a verse novel?
Many of my biggest challenges in writing in this format were the same ones I struggle with in writing prose. One of the major ones is maintaining narrative tension. This is true for me in prose but especially true in a verse novel, where I tend to meander, to amble along from poem to poem without moving forward with either the emotional arc or the story plot. I had to remind myself, especially in revision, what each poem contributed to the narrative. Could poems be combined? Or shortened? Or cut? Those were important questions to consider in maintaining that narrative tension.
Of course, there are some advantages to writing in verse. For example, maybe verse novels are a little more forgiving in some of the side descriptions or commentary. I’m thinking of some short poems in the novel that serve as short detours away from the novel’s action. These detours provide a little breathing space for the reader, a break from the intensity, or a quick dip into a metaphor to reflect back emotion. In prose, these might translate to a line or two of a character’s reflection. These short poems are few and far between and serve the purpose of providing that small break in the action.
On the flip side, I had to be careful that a poem did not go on for too long. Sometimes, in early drafts, I would find myself writing poems that extended for pages and pages. The momentum of certain kinds of scenes was hard to stop. In revision, I consciously went back looking for places to break up the narrative to arrive at a more consistent format across the whole novel, with no poem extending for too long. While an occasional long poem (two or three pages) can work, I aimed to keep each poem to a page or a little over. This makes the verse easier for the reader to absorb and helps with the story pacing.
In Top Heavy, you handle Esme’s agonizing experiences—with her large breasts and the sexual assault, and also other distressing issues like the bullying and family hardships—with respect, sensitivity, finesse, and even humor. What do you hope readers take away from reading what Esme goes through?
In this story, Esme faces some tough challenges. We all go through rough patches. I hope readers come away with some ideas of how we can cope with awful things that happen. At one point, Esme recalls her grandmother telling her how aerobics “saved” her when her husband, Esme’s grandfather, died before Esme was born:
“Somehow, she told me, / working her body / again in aerobics class / reminded her of who she was / and that she was strong.”
For Esme’s grandmother, moving her body helped her process her grief. There is something to be said for the power of movement, whether it’s dance or intense physical exercise or yoga or walking, in helping us to heal. We shouldn’t forget that we are physical creatures, and movement is important to our well-being.
The other thing that I hope readers take away is the need, when we’re experiencing stress or trauma, to reach out to the people in our lives who can help. Who are the people on your team who will stand with you, root for you, help pick you up when you fall? Perhaps it’s a friend or family member, or maybe there’s value in connecting with a professional as part of a support group or mental health counseling.
At the end of the day, we each have difficult periods we go through. Whatever way you can—through movement, through talking with a friend, through a support group or counseling—you have to find your way to that deep reserve of inner strength so you can draw from it.
What advice can you offer emerging children’s/YA authors regarding writing in verse and/or writing about tough teen topics?
Tell the story that matters to you. Top Heavy is the fifth novel I’ve written, including some early, awful ones. It is the first verse novel I’ve written, and I’m so glad I tried my hand at that format.
Don’t stop trying new things! We never know what the market will call for. Also, being published is partly about luck—being ready with the right project at the right place and right time. The best we can do is continue writing and keep working on projects we believe in, that have something important to share with young readers.
What’s next for you?
Next up for me is another verse novel, a middle grade book titled Stained, to be published by Holiday House. It’s about sixth-grader Uly (rhymes with truly) who was born with a port-wine stain birthmark on his face. I am in the midst of the editorial process and the novel is expected to be released in the fall of 2026.
Beyond that, I am at work on what I hope will be book three—a young adult novel with multiple points of view. Right now, one point of view is in verse, but the other two are in prose. I’ve had the idea for this novel for many years. It’s a story I really wanted to bring into the world but was worried I wasn’t skilled enough to pull it off. Now, the story is demanding to be written, whether or not I am ready! I haven’t shared any pages yet with anyone (it’s too early), but I feel there is the nugget of something true and important in this story.
Cynsational Notes
Rhonda DeChambeau worked almost 27 years as a civil servant in the federal government while she generated children’s picture books, middle grade and YA novels, and poetry for young readers. She is now a full-time author and her YA novel in verse, Top Heavy (Holiday House, 2025), publishes in June. Her middle grade novel, Stained (Holiday House), is also in verse and will publish in the fall of 2026. Rhonda has a Bachelor’s Degree in Literature from Harvard University and an MFA degree in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She was the 2022-2023 Associate of the Boston Public Library Writer in Residence Program.
Gail Vannelli retired as an attorney and now writes primarily middle-grade and YA fiction. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she received several scholarships, including the Holy Smokes Scholarship. She also holds a Post-MFA Certificate in the Teaching of Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She has won several Writer’s Digest awards for her fiction. Her recent work has appeared in Lunch Ticket Literary Magazine, where she has held the positions of Lead Editor, assistant editor, interviewer and blogger, and in Cynsations, where she is an industry news reporter and writer. She’s the founder of Kids Story Studio, a free kids story writing class.