The UK has a serious social mobility issue which has become more apparent in recent years, demonstrated perfectly by the current chumocracy we see in the dishing out of government contracts to the owner of our elected official’s favourite pubs. Social mobility refers to the ability of an individual to move upward in social status, based on common social variables, such as wealth, occupation, or education level

The taboo of death in our society seems alive-and-well (excuse the pun). Most people avoid even uttering the word, instead substituting in fluffy euphemisms like ‘passing-on’ or ‘no longer with us’ to paint over the grim reality with white clouds and pearly gates.

If the events of the last year have taught us anything, it is that individual actions will not be enough to change the world. Covid-19 quarantine may have inadvertently slashed our individual carbon footprints, but the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere still peaked at a record-breaking level in May last. Why? 100 companies have been the source of more than 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1998. Most of these are coal and oil companies, including ExxonMobil and Shell.

I started cooking more inventive meals other than a fat plate of chicken nuggets and even bought a keyboard to learn - so far I’ve learnt happy birthday (which I now play twice whenever somebody is washing their hands) and a few other songs. But my progress isn’t important to me, it’s the fact that this was something I had wanted to do for years and now I had the chance and I took it.

Put simply, I don’t know. When it comes to writing my university essays, I have a framework to follow and, most of the time, I’m writing for people who wrestle with the same questions in their own work. In the same vein, there is something very plainly wrong when Asian reporters are being told they’re “too biased” to cover racially targeted shootings.

I was addicted to partying and the party lifestyle, and everyone who knew me at the time, knew I loved a party.

It should be a given that women can be naturally confident and self-assured. Yet, when a woman has self-confidence and lets it show, it is usually questioned, or it often results in some form of backlash.

As soon as I tapped the Facebook icon on my home screen, I was greeted by a barrage of weight loss ads and fatphobic memes. June 21st is coming and it’s time to lose the ‘lockdown weight’.

Most of my clothes are pretty funereal in fact, except for occasional bursts of bright which render me clownlike. I feel safe in black, sturdy, roomy clothes, a barrier against the world that prickles and probes and demands from me. I like the anonymity and invisibleness of it.

#FreeBritney.

#MuteRKelly.

#MeToo.

All of these hashtags are instantly recognisable. They have swept through social media like wildfire.

As time passes trends come and go, but I’ve noticed that the 90s are back in a big way. It’s not uncommon that we yearn for our childhood and adolescent years, when things were not as hard and your mum did all your laundry for you. This sense of nostalgia can cause past fashions to recur every so often, however this 90s resurgence has been going on for a long time and although I’m not mad at it, it makes me wonder...why?

My sister once overheard a girl at our school unironically tell a friend that they must wear pink on Wednesdays. But unlike Mean Girls, these categories that we are put into, and put ourselves into, are not obviously stated or well defined. And sometimes, maybe even most of the time, are completely arbitrary and unhelpful.