It’s been 23 years since the dramedy Real Women Have Curves hit the big screen and introduced audiences to actress America Ferrera. The film, co-written by Josefina López from her own stage play, follows a teenage girl as she struggles with economic hardships, her overbearing mother, and her weight.
Since the film’s debut in 2002, it became the first Latina-directed (Patricia Cardoso) film to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. A musical based on López’s play has just finished its run on Broadway and earned two Tony Award nominations in 2025.
While Real Women Have Curves has had a significant impact on how Latinas consider their own self-worth, López explains that the work is still not over. With the evolution of social media over the last two decades, young Latinas are met with a whole new set of challenges to face when it comes to body positivity.
“There’s been an increase in plastic surgery because of social media,” López told Remezcla during a recent interview. “Now, it’s about showing you the extremes that women go to keep themselves younger and beautiful. It’s that feeling like you’re nobody unless you’re being noticed.”
It’s one of the reasons López’s latest film, 20 Pounds to Happiness, is inspired by some of the same themes that Real Women Have Curves tackled years ago. Directed and starring Yelyna De León (A Better Life), 20 Pounds to Happiness screened at the Cannes Film Festival marketplace in mid-May and made its world premiere at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival this year.
The film tells the story of Cari Alonso (De León), a full-figured Latina who joins a “Real Women Have Curves Support Group” to meet women facing the same social pressures to lose weight. When one of the women in the support group reveals that she is going to get weight loss surgery and is hoping a few of them will join her, Cari must decide whether to conform to society’s beauty standards or embrace her body on her own terms.
López said she was inspired to write the screenplay when one of her friends told her she didn’t qualify for weight loss surgery because patients had to be 100 pounds overweight. Her friend was only 80 pounds overweight and was debating whether to gain the 20 pounds she needed to be eligible.
“As women, we’re constantly told to lose 20 pounds,” López said. “Women are constantly made to feel like they’re not enough, [but] if they lose 20 pounds, they’ll be perfect, and society will accept them. As long as society keeps treating women like we don’t matter unless we’re beautiful, then I’ll keep telling these stories.”
De León, who has known López for years (she auditioned for Ferrera’s role in Real Women Have Curves), agrees that social media, phone filters and artificial intelligence has made things more difficult for women today. She hopes a film like 20 Pounds to Happiness will spark honest conversations about body image and the unrealistic standards women are expected to meet.
“It’s like everyone wants to look a certain way, and everyone’s starting to look the same,” De León told Remezcla. “There’s a lot of hate out there. Just because a plus-sized woman wears a bikini, she gets shamed. So, I’m happy to spread the message of self-love and self-acceptance.”
