In the US, and many other countries, being transgender is a death sentence. Looking at the main surveys, half of the responders have been verbally and physically harassed. Nearly half has been sexually assaulted. The United States is the third country with the highest number of violent reported deaths of transgender people.

New year, new me? Why we need to stop putting so much pressure on a New year’s resolution diet. Whatever the reason be it environmental or health, or most commonly weight loss, thousands of us every year try to adopt a new diet in the new year.

Serial killer documentaries are oddly marketable. Netflix has of course capitalised on our grave fascination, as in December ‘The Ripper’ premiered on the platform. The four-part docuseries details the murders of 13 women from 1975 to 1980 at the hands of Peter Sutcliffe, better known by his alias, The Yorkshire Ripper.

January heralds a time to shape the incoming year with promises of striving to be better, getting healthier and achieving goals. The next 12 months stretch out in front of us, a clean slate just waiting to be written on

With the arrival of the Coronavirus vaccine, we have seen a dramatic rise in scepticism surrounding the jab. Often, this scepticism has been aggressively dismissed as anti-vaxxing. People who have shown the slightest bit of concern as to what the vaccine contains and its potential long-term side-effects have been accused of being uneducated and, often, of halting the process to getting over the pandemic. This scepticism has not, however, been attempted to be understood.

As a young woman who has battled an eating disorder, please don’t tell me to lose weight this month, this year, or ever. Please don’t tell me that I need to shred or burn off the Christmas food that I so heartily enjoyed over this festive season. Please don’t continue to allow diet culture to make me believe that my body needs to change with the New Year.

We are often challenged to step out of our comfort zones. We do it without considering the very possibility that it might not be a great idea. I am convinced that this challenge often does not come from within

We may be in and out of lockdowns and different tiers for some time. Theatre needs to adapt to these conditions, with smaller, socially-distanced shows, but also with productions that reflect on our experiences of the pandemic in a subtle and imaginative way.

My parents laughed when I told them I’d seen somebody in my room. My mum told me I’d been reading too much Harry Potter—and I had to admit, it did look like a Dementor. But her breezy explanation never satisfied me. Although I was, at that age, obsessed with the boy wizard, I didn’t believe my enthusiasm for Hogwarts was enough to cause waking hallucinations.

Worry ruins lives, it wastes time, energy, and resources. It gives nothing back and saps the joy out of life. So why do we do it? Worry doesn’t rob tomorrow of its sorrow, its saps today of its strength.