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.
Read MoreWe let the news digest. I was officially autistic now. For my partner, I think it was something new to add to my list of difficulties. For me, it was a weight off my shoulders. I was relieved. I was understood.
Read MoreAn invisible disability is a life-altering condition that is not apparent just by looking at someone. Guess what? This covers 1 in 7 of the UK’s population – so we are everywhere, you just don’t know it, because our superpower is being invisible.
Read MoreHappiness has lots of meanings. We are happy if there we have safety and security in our lives, and we’re happy in the deepest way when we feel a sense of belonging and connection with one another, and with the beautiful world around us. We are happy if we have a sense of purpose and meaning and as a parent to adopted six-year-old twins, currently, there is no greater purpose.
Read More#FreeBritney.
#MuteRKelly.
#MeToo.
All of these hashtags are instantly recognisable. They have swept through social media like wildfire.
Read MoreDays of unrest have been spreading through our streets. OUR streets. Each time, met with increasing violence and fear tactics. Each time the public grow a greater mistrust for the police. The ardent chants of ‘Who do you protect? Not us.’, and ‘We’re not violent, what are you?’ have never rung truer.
Read MoreSo to answer who threw the first stone at Bridewell... the police did. Much like with other historic events, it was the police who transgressed first. A group of people then decided the reaction to this would be to resist - which led to vans being set alight and spray painted, and the police station window being smashed. All of this is repairable and replaceable; what is not repairable or replaceable is the trauma that the police inflicted on people that day.
Read MoreWhen it comes to transgender people, cis-heteronormativity in healthcare can be particularly damaging: the National Transgender Discrimination Survey shows that 19% respondents were refused care, 28% reported harassment, and 50% had to teach their medical providers about transgender health needs.
Read MoreAccording to the National Literacy Trust, 12% of adults in Wales, 16.4% of adults in England, 17.9% of adults in Northern Ireland and 26.7% of adults in Scotland have very poor literacy skills. This means that “they can understand short straightforward texts on familiar topics accurately and independently, and obtain information from everyday sources, but reading information from unfamiliar sources, or on unfamiliar topics, could cause problems.”
Read MoreAs 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?
Read MoreIn the UK alone, 49% of children have missed a day off school because of their period. Almost one in four young women ‘didn’t know what was happening when [their] period started’.
Read MoreMy 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.
Read MoreWelcome to my second (#2) in the series of game writing scripts which are inspired by the game Raid: Shadow Legends. To read the first in the series, click here.
Read MoreThe moment I realised I wasn’t just living for myself but for some imagined male audience I had mustered up in my head, I was horrified and honestly, ashamed. Did this make me less of a feminist? Who taught me this? Why am I doing this? Am I even being my true self?
Read MoreScars come in all shapes and sizes and most people will have at least one at some point in their lives. For a lot of people, they cause some degree of self-consciousness, particularly if they are in a visible spot on the body, and I was certainly no exception as a teenager.
Read MoreOne thing that stood out is that homosexuality has been recorded in over 1500 species, and that they are yet to find a species that has sex which does not have homosexual individuals
Read MoreBut in developing this understanding of confidence, I began to question to myself; can everyone afford to be the most authentic version of themselves? Of course, I know that many external and internal challenges can influence or even challenge this ability to live ‘confidently’ (as I understand it). For one, I’ve never had to hide my sexuality or second guess my actions for fear I was being treated differently because of the colour of my skin or because I’m disabled.
Read MoreWhat is Self-love?
A face mask and a cocktail, another clothes order this month, putting on some make-up, or 15 minutes of ‘alone time’ with your special ‘friend’? All good options. But would you add taking a selfie to that list?
Read MoreThis piece is the second in our joint mother-daughter series. To read the first piece, click here.
Read MoreThis piece is the first in our joint mother-daughter series. To read the second piece, click here.
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