I guess I was supposed to be flattered because people said I was pretty. But it felt like a liability to me. A dangerous burden. Something that could go wrong. By the first day of fifth grade, I was 5’5″. My almost painfully skinny body made my A cup breasts look much larger than they […]
Online interaction used to ease my social anxieties. What happens when it starts to make them worse? When I checked Facebook this morning, I was greeted with a bunch of balloons and confetti surrounding a giant banner bearing the thumbs-up symbol. “Sarah, your friends have liked your posts 36,000 times!” the text underneath it read. “We’re […]
You didn’t know you’d stare middle age in the face and carry its soggy weight for everyone. And yet, you don’t feel ugly or incapable. The first time you quit stripping in 2003, you shoved your pink spandex bikinis and black booty shorts into a garbage bag and brought them to a lesbian bar in […]
I will continue to announce when my cup runneth over. I will continue to march to the bathroom, tampon in plain view, as if a conductor leading with her baton. I recently got back from visiting my conservative Christian family in North Idaho. It was a peaceful visit for the most part—no blowouts over Black […]
My only regret is that I wasted nearly 40 years trying to bend my body to an imaginary idea of perfection. I’ve always had a complicated relationship with my body—sometimes, it’s been too fat, sometimes it’s been too thin. But no matter how I look in a swimsuit in a given year, the one thing […]
Realizing that you are “abnormal” according to social norms and popular culture and religion, knowing that people believe you have somehow chosen your “abnormality” and that you can therefore un-choose it, tends to mess with your head. CN: rape, abuse I am not yet a teenager. (No, I will not get more specific. Don’t ask.) […]
By framing ourselves as complete, we are able to frame alone time as positive rather than negative. My most recent ex had two roommates while we were dating. Though this was very different from my own situation, I enjoyed seeing them during weekends when I stayed at that house. I looked forward to when they […]
At the end of the day, there were always hugs for anyone who wanted them. There were also high-fives, air kisses, and winks. Dear Fourth-Grade Students and Families, I’m writing to tell you that I miss you. That I think we could have shared something special. That maybe no one else would have cared for […]
