 Although Monica and Rachel have remained best friends since high school, they are very much opposites. While both characters share similar economic backgrounds, they grew up on "different ends of the high school social order," with Rachel being a popular cheerleader and Monica "deal [ing] with body and control issues due to being an overweight child and teen." Sabienna Bowman of This Was TV observed that "Monica ’ s struggles ultimately left her more confident than Rachel, as well as more prepared for adulthood." Among her defining qualities, Monica has had a passion for cooking ever since childhood, stemming from when she received her first Easy-Bake Oven. A chef, the character has had several cooking-related jobs throughout the series, having worked at five different restaurants, a trend that nearly coincides with her constant rotation of boyfriends in an ongoing search for the "perfect match". Michael Hogan of The Guardian believes that the character's "competitive, perfectionist, obsessive-compulsive nature made her ideally suited to a career as a chef." However, her love of cooking and food is also responsible for her having been extremely overweight as a child, throughout high school and college. The running gag of an overweight Monica is often used as a recurring backstory for the character throughout the series, first explored in the second season episode "The One With the Prom Video" via flashback. One of the character's childhood nicknames was "Big Fat Goalie" when she played field hockey. While overweight, Monica is depicted as having very low self-esteem, binge eating often, and constantly seeking attention. While in college, Monica is embarrassed into losing weight permanently after overhearing her then-crush Chandler make fun of her appearance. Media and the Rhetoric of Body Perfection: Cosmetic Surgery, Weight Loss and Beauty in Popular Culture author Dr. Deborah Harris-Moore believes that Monica's tendency to come off as a control freak originates from her childhood struggles with weight gain, explaining that the character ate excessively in order "to cope with her emotions."
