Lakisha Snelling, a student at SMC, believes it is too soon to think about diabetes because she is only 19. “Maybe 10 years or 20 years from now, I would need to start doing something to prevent it,” she said.

Jes Baker, author of the book “Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls,” stood in front of Room 165 in Santa Monica College’s HSS Building. She smiled as students filed into the room, taking their seats in the rows of the amphitheater-styled lecture hall. Behind her, the projected screen read, “Change the World, Love Your Body. The Social Impact of Self-Love.”