She is 30, lives with her parents, loves making videos about herself dancing - and she's 27 stone.
Now Whitney's about to star in her own TV show on TLC.
It's called Whitney: Fat Girl Dancing and in it she explores family life, dating, and of course, dancing.
The interesting element to her story isn't the dancing, or even the insults hurled at her by random strangers in the street, it's how her family accept, or fails to accept her weight gain.
Most people have experienced the cruelty of a stranger, but a comment may hurt more when it's from those you love.
Whitney told Newsbeat her family struggled as her weight increased.
"My parents have always been very supportive and loving. They really have, but my dad and I had a little bit of a disconnect when I gained weight because he really wanted so much for me to just lose weight.
"He used to tell me: 'Whitney, I know you're struggling but you can't change the world. You have to fit into society's mould'.
"And I did actually lose 100lbs once, but I gained it back and I was so upset and I said: 'Dad, you know, I don't care anymore, I'm just going to be me.' And he was like: 'Well, Whitney you're going to run into some trouble'.
"But after all this has happened and he's seen the effect that just even the dance videos had on people, he told me just the other day: 'I know I told you that you couldn't change the world but I've changed my mind.'"
Whitney was crying as told this story. So was I.
"That's pretty incredible and my brother and I had kind of a rift between us for a long time. He didn't really know how to interact with me and being fat was something nobody ever talked about. He's so proud of me now, and I thought he was embarrassed of me.
"Now I have the most supportive people in my life and they are truly proud to be connected to me and that is a feeling that I never thought that I would feel."
Whitney: Fat Girl Dancing - Tuesday February 3, from 9pm on TLC
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Whitney Thore rose to fame when a bunch of YouTube videos went viral.