Phones & Children: Do They Make a Good Pair?
In short, parents feel like they’re at breaking point and need a break. When they see a device that hooks a child’s attention, some parents resort to handing these tools to their children. However, children as young as two are skilled in swiping apps and internet pages and become skilled players at ‘Subway Surf’ (my nephew is obsessed with it). Children manage to grasp the fundamental skills of a smartphone before learning to recite the alphabet. Perhaps, that aspect rings with a tone of worry.
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What is Adenomyosis?
‘I’m sorry you have what?’, ‘Um, how do you spell that?’, ‘I haven’t heard of that before, what is it?’ These are a few of the common phrases I often hear when I mention I have Adenomyosis. April is Adenomyosis (add-en-o-my-OH-sis) awareness month and boy is this awareness needed.
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Copycat Caterpillars and Counterfeit Culture
Colin has been a favourite at children’s birthday parties since 1990, and ‘Colin the Caterpillar’ has been trademarked since 2009. Even if you’re firmly Team Aldi, you can see why Marks and Spencer might be more than a little protective of their caterpillar confection.
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Success at 70 with Julia Goodman (Words by Jasmine Khan)
I sat down for a virtual chat with Actress, turned CEO, turned Author Julia Goodman to find out: what does success look like at 70? I intended to discover what creates a woman as fierce as Julia, and how younger women like me can pursue success with the same focus.
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Game Writing #3 – A narrative inspired by Raid: Shadow Legends
This is the third instalment of the Shadow Legends narrative. To read the second, click here
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The Rise Of The Thinfluencer: The Osmosis Of White Thinness On Instagram
Influencers have existed for years, so this is nothing new, right? Wrong. Influencers have always perpetuated a hyper-wealthy, vapid, robotic image of life, love, bodies, and regimes - but now they’re actually showing us their regimes. Before, the pictures were easier to ignore because we understood that they were almost all fake. Now they’re saying, ‘Look, you can be me, too. Just eat this. Eat this, and eat it every day of your life.’ This is sinister, and it is not to be underestimated.
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What is Social Capital, and Why Does It Matter?
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
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Capitalising on Tragedy
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.
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Evaluating the Invisible ‘I’ in Change
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.
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Self-Sampling for HPV: Good or Bad?
Speaking from my own experiences, I have avoided getting my smear test done for an array of different reasons but the most prevailing for me has been down to mental health and anxiety.
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My Happiest Family Holiday Memory
“Is it dangerous to admit that I’m feeling relaxed?” he asked. “This feels too good to be true”.
The happiest memory with my family? Perhaps it should be something sensational, the kind of memory that comes with a fanfare of trumpets, bursts of fireworks and a collage of photogenic smiles to line the kitchen wall.
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Holding Out For a Hobby
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.
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Another View: Does Politics Have A Place in Music?
Music is one of the strongest forms of communication. Do you know that feeling of listening to a song finding yourself completely in tune with the piece? And how many times did you dedicate a song to someone special, just because you could not find better words to communicate your feelings?
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Can You Be an Expert on Another Culture?
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.
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Confessions of A Self-Confessed Bristol Party Girl
I was addicted to partying and the party lifestyle, and everyone who knew me at the time, knew I loved a party.
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The At-Home HPV Testing Trial: Why I’m Here For It
HPV or Human Papillomavirus is a virus, there are more than 100 different types of HPV, and some can cause cancer. Most of us will have HPV at some point or another, but the great news is that most people will never know, their immune system will fight it off, and within two years, they’ll naturally have cleared it from their system.
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Why are Confident Women Always Questioned?
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.
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Interview: Evaluating The Use of Hormone Blockers In Children Under 16
Liam, a 14-year-old trans male has known that he was not born in the body that matched his mind since he was 7 years old. He has told me that he always knew that he was different, but it was only through age that he knew why.
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Criminalising A Way of Life - The Impact of The Bill on Travellers
One human right that we take for granted is a legal respect for family life and home (Article 8, Human Rights Act 1998.) The bill has another section of concerning content, part 4. Unauthorised Encampments and Trespass, that threatens that basic right for many. With that wording you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s only fair for landowners to be able to evict those who trespass without permission, but the current laws already enable this so what’s being changed?
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Let's Have a Conversation about Fatphobia
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’.
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