*By Max Godnick* Twitter is a primary source for many on news, sports, celebrity interactions, and cat GIFs. And now, it's a virtual classroom for sensitive, under-publicized issues. That's precisely why Cora Harrington used the platform to raise her grievances about "thin privilege." Harrington's [Twitter thread](https://twitter.com/lingerie_addict/status/1021051090354229248) on the concept went viral over the weekend, attracting over 33,000 likes and sparking a wider conversation on the benefitsーand biasesーthat thinner people face over their heavier counterparts. "It really took off in a way I didn't expect," she told Cheddar in an interview on Tuesday. She defines thin privilege as "the idea that thinner people have a set of advantages or benefits that people who are larger don't have." Harrington is a self-proclaimed lingerie expert and founder of [The Lingerie Addict](https://www.thelingerieaddict.com/) blog. She says her professional experiences with models and ad campaigns got her thinking about the inequities of body types. She noted that she's seen the phenomenon at work while shopping, at the doctor, and even in the professional worldーwhere size may be a handicap for raises and promotions. Harrington is not plus-sized herself, which she said made her thread an even more effective catalyst for change. "It shouldn't just be the people that are personally affected by those things who start those conversations," she said. The thread wasn't celebrated by all, though. Several sub-tweets slammed the term, arguing that not all thinner people are inherently more advantaged. Harrington answered these criticisms, saying, "It doesn't mean that your life is going to be easy, it doesn't mean everything about your life is going to be effortless." Her observations coincide with a greater cultural awareness of body-image issues. American Eagle and ModCloth are among an expanding group of companies that are committed to displaying models of all sizes on their websites. Meanwhile, AMC's new drama "Dietland" is generating [conversation](http://theweek.com/articles/776871/myself-dietland) about the representation of larger women on TV. Harrington said if people can think differently about these issues after reading her thread, then she'd consider the entire operation a success. If nothing else, some may have expanded their social vocabularies "It's so hard to address these topics, to think about and to talk about them, if we don't even know the words to call them." For the full segment, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/twitter-thread-on-thin-privilege-goes-viral).
