Dana Norris is the founder of Story Club and she once went on 71 internet dates. I go on two dates in two weeks. I meet both men via Match.com. Both have vaguely amusing profiles and are smiling in their pictures, which is harder to find than you’d think. I meet them both at the […]
Author Traci Foust describes her bumpy ride getting off and on pharmaceutical drugs, and dealing with mental illness as a child and as a single mother. My mother was 41 when she stopped taking her Lithium. For years she’d struggled with the side effects: weight gain, chronic dehydration, skin rashes. She chose instead to treat […]
This originally appeared on Alternet.org. Republished here with permission. For a gay woman, it can often be a struggle to determine where exactly she fits in the spectrum of gender identity in both the lesbian and heterosexual communities. Many lesbians are faced with having their sexuality evaluated purely on the basis of their looks, as […]
This week, one of Judy Blume’s novels will debut as a feature-length film. Tina Boyer discusses how the author helped to shape an entire generation of women. “I’m a part of the women’s movement even if nobody ever knew it but me. It was inside me…I wanted to be out on the streets. I wanted […]
Originally appeared on The Daily Life. Republished here with permission. It must be nice to be a “natural beauty.” To be gorgeous without effort or even interest. This type of beauty is perhaps the most impressive. It’s like being a piano prodigy, except that you don’t even have to touch the keys. You can just […]
Plenty of female characters on TV today have made being a “hot mess” popular, but Emilie Aries wants women to stop pretending to be coy and confused, and start acting like they’re in charge. I’ll confess it: I’m a recovering hot mess. In the years after college, I was often self-deprecating and unconfident, minimizing my […]
Emily Rapp says women are often branded “hysterical” and men are labeled “rageful” when they “take things personally,” and that isn’t fair. “Personal” by Tony Hoagland Don’t take it personal, they said;but I did, I took it all quite personal— the breeze and the river and the color of the fields;the price of grapefruit and […]
This originally appeared on The Frisky. Republished here with permission. The June issue of Allure has the usual headlines about what beauty products to buy and how to get good hair and better skin. Also thrown into the sexy, sun-kissed mix is this tidbit of information about their cover girl: “Zoe Saldana: 115 Pounds Of […]
We accept the love we think we deserve. I looked out the window to make sure my car was still there. I had parked it in a tow away zone. If he drove past it right now he wouldn’t know where I was, because where I parked left options for my whereabouts. Maybe he would […]
Kristen Forbes has been quietly dealing with her binge disorder in therapy and felt that she earned the right to keep it to herself, but she wants and needs help. “Do you want to jump?” My boyfriend and I gazed at tall rocks overlooking the turquoise ocean in Hawaii. After driving on the road to […]
Steph, who had a preventative mastectomy to reduce her risk of breast cancer, welcomes Angelina Jolie to the sisterhood. Dear Ange, First off, can I call you that? Ange? Because we’re practically sisters at this point. I’ll take that as a yes. Moving on. Until yesterday, Ange, you and I had approximately three things in […]
Christan Marashio thought she’d be married by the time she was 27. Now, single at 44, she shares how she’s letting go of that unrealistic picture in her head. When I was about 9 or 10, I decided that I would be married by age 27. I don’t know where I got that number. It […]
