Comedian Jessie Kahnweiler’s upcoming Refinery29 web series, The Skinny, has been in the works for a while now, having been filmed in 2014 and Kickstarted in 2015 in order to complete editing and to allow for proper licensing of songs. Kahnweiler later partnered up with Jill Soloway’s Wifey.tv and Refinery29 to produce it as a web series consisting of ten six-minute episodes. The first trailer has premiered, and can be viewed below.
The series centers on Kahnweiler as Jessie, a feminist YouTuber who wants to be one of the few, proud YouTube stars. She is a recovering bulimic, and so faces body image issues at every turn. Illeana Douglas plays the part of Jessie’s mom, who, it seems from the trailer below, will be spending a lot of her time helping to manage her daughter’s self-image as she tries to re-enter the world of dating after conquering her bulimia — as if dating weren’t enough of a nightmare.
The series will premiere in-full at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival as part of the Special Events section. The episodes will appear on Refinery29 on Wednesday, January 27.
