It’s a scene with which everyone is familiar: finding your place within the high-school hierarchy. And that task can prove daunting when you march to the beat of a different Broadway score.

Fat Girls – the debut film by actor/writer/director Ash Christian, now available on DVD – follows two adolescent outcasts, Rodney (Christian) and Sabrina (Ashley Fink), as they deal with critical teenage peers while searching for the perfect date to the much-anticipated Graduation Dance. As can be expected, it’s anything but easy in a world where your friends are few and you’re under siege at every turn. But, in spite of the opposition, the duo meet kindred spirits in unlikely places, from an understanding teacher to a surprising pair of fellow students. Along the way, Rodney and Sabrina discover that the most important people they needed to find all along was themselves.

Breathing new life into the coming-of-age concept – set in the awkward atmosphere of high school – Fat Girls expands the trials of “fitting in” to the characters’ families and ventures in love. Meeting the parents and defending those you care about from the prejudices of others are situations that audiences are sure to identify with, and even heavier issues such as homophobia and bullying are handled with tasteful yet incredible humor.

For a film that deals with so many touchy subjects (the title alone indicates the use of some serious self-deprecating humor), the severity of the scenes is offset by impeccably placed comic relief. For example, the ironic details of Rodney’s father’s demise are a riot, and come at a point in the action when lesser comedy would fail to bring the overall lightheartedness of the film back from the depths into which it had settled. Additionally, the soundtrack – the rap numbers, in particular – contributes nicely to the well-timed transitions that make each scene flow effortlessly into the next.

Under Christian’s direction – he wrote the film at age 19 and had it green-lighted before his 21st birthday – Fat Girls also captures the kitschy religious fanaticism of small-town Texas in a blithe manner that’s actually, wait for it, funny.

“I know these people!” says Christian. “They are in my family. I don’t blame them for their narrow-mindedness. They’ve never been out in the real world and they don’t understand.”

An example of Christian’s liberal use of art imitating life is the character of Rodney’s mother, a devout woman with hair and makeup reminiscent of a 1980s New Wave band. She keeps an electric Nativity scene lit up in the front yard year round and continually quotes radical Bible passages at inappropriate times.

Fat Girls is irresistibly witty, and it will leave you with a serious want for what this spirited and original performer has in store next. And you can bet it will be nothing less than absurdly comical because of Christian’s knack for knowing exactly what to add (or leave out) to make a scene burst with hilarity.

“Comedy is all about timing for me,” the 23-year-old Christian says. “It’s funny to see how a beat added to a comedic line can take the audience from chuckle to gasping for breath because they’re laughing so hard. I love that sound.”

Loaded with special features, including cast commentary and photo galleries, Fat Girls is a feel-good film for those who know what it’s like to feel like a stranger in your own skin. Or have an abundance of it.