Why Strangers Matter More Than You Think: Acts of Kindness & Street Photography
In my role as a homelessness housing officer and hostel worker, I regularly interact with people who are going through the worst moments of their life. When I meet clients for the first time, although in a professional capacity, I feel it is my duty to be a kind, welcoming stranger that they are faced with. I am meeting them at their most vulnerable, and it is required that they share details with me so that I can help them. It is through the moments I share with these clients that I truly recognise the impact of small things. I’ve realised most of the impact I make is through being kind, smiling and not judging them. I wanted to translate the benefits of interacting with strangers into my hobbies, and began pursuing street photography.
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True Crime from An Inside Perspective: Robert Maltby On Surviving an Attack, And The Murder of His Girlfriend, Sophie Lancaster
In August 2007, myself and my then girlfriend, Sophie Lancaster, were attacked whilst out one night. For those unaware, we were attacked by five people in a park, leaving both of us in comas, from which only I was able to awaken. In the eighteen years that have passed since, this story has, like the medium of true crime, not really ever gone away. Most likely due to the actions of the foundation that was set up in Sophie’s name, the story has remained active in certain circles ever since, and new tellings of the story will periodically emerge.
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Cultural Exchange: Should Museums Charge an Entry Fee?
In a time where things like the cinema, theatre and live music are becoming increasingly expensive, why make museums inaccessible too?
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Surviving Your Twenties As A First Time Mum
Oh, how to be a girl in your twenties. Dancing the night away. Dressed to the nines. Hanging out with your friends…That’s what we picture right?…
How far from the truth this can be.
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Thirty Going on Thirteen: Making Peace with the Patterns We Didn’t Choose
We’re all very familiar with the ongoing mental health crisis (the cultural one, yes, but perhaps our own one, too). We’ve never had more access to wellbeing tools, yet we’re still aching. Still searching.
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Seagrasses, One of The Least Protected Coastal Habitats... Why Does No One Know About It?
Interviews are an Ableist Filter
In this piece, author Alice Ketley explores the challenges of job-hunting as a young professional living with a disability and mental health condition. Through her experience of being made redundant in March 2024, she sheds some light on the harsh realities of navigating the competitive UK job market while facing discrimination and inaccessible interview processes.
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A Week Solo in Morocco
The call to prayer rings out as the sun rises out of a rose gold sky and lights up the minaret of Koutoubia Mosque. I sip my mint tea on the rooftop of my riad and watch the city of Marrakesh float out of the dawn haze, the peaks of the Atlas Mountains soaring in the distance.
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I Was Treated Like A Burden By My Workplace When I Announced My Pregnancy: A Dive Into The Workplace & Maternity Leave
Research by Pregnant Then Screwed found that over half of all mothers - 52% - have faced some form of discrimination when pregnant, on maternity leave or when they returned. 1 in 5 mothers have left their job following a negative or discriminatory experience. And, disgustingly, 1 in every 61 pregnant women say their boss suggested they terminate their pregnancy.
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200 Companies Sign Up to a Four-Day Working Week: Is This The Future?
The idea of a four-day week has been front-page news since the 1960s. With more companies introducing pilot experiments utilising a reduced-hour working model, could this finally signal a shift in the modern workforce or is it just another continuation of the saga?
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Has Culture Become a Luxury?
Culture has long been considered a vital part of society; a shared experience that brings people together through music, film, theatre, creative endeavours and art. However, as ticket prices soar and the cost-of-living crisis tightens its grip, a question arises: is culture becoming a luxury that only the privileged can afford?
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Alexa? Stop! Why We Avoid Silence and How We Can Learn to Embrace It
Silence is unsettling.
It’s why we fill every pause in a conversation with half-thought-out words. Why we scroll mindlessly while watching TV. Why we blast music, stick on a four hour podcast, or declare we “need background noise” as we get on with our day.
We talk about slowing down, mindfulness and presence, but we’re constantly going, go, go - mentally, digitally, audibly.
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The Importance of Valentine's Day
We've been together for five years. We have a baby…so why does the world make me feel silly for wanting a Valentine’s Day gift?
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We Have No Troubles Here! How Viral Clips of a Ukrainian Rendition of the Musical Cabaret Made People Forget The War
An exploration into how viral clips of a Ukrainian rendition of the musical Cabaret led to blissful ignorance amongst TikTok fans.
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TikTok Tourism: Are We Loving Places to Death?
Do we destroy the places we love by sharing them on social media? Are we inadvertently contributing to the demise and over-development of destinations? Simply put, are we loving places to death?
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Winter Blues: Why It’s Okay (and Necessary) to Feel SAD This Season
February, though the shortest month, somehow feels double. This is the month people start waking up from the winter daze and making plans for brighter days. The spring and summer calendars have started filling up. And what’s happening here? We’re grasping at the promise of better days ahead, stuck in a seasonal limbo that asks more of us than we have the energy to give.
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Splitting the Rent: Navigating Finances, Gender Roles, and Relationship Dynamics
Money. We love it, we hate it and we’re not so hot at talking about it. In this day and age, should discussing money still be something draped in red tape? I think not! I went on a mission to talk to my social circles about the topic of money; the main question to them being, ‘How do you split your finances with your partner?’ The responses garnered opened up discussion points around gender roles, girlboss feminism, and toxic masculinity.
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Trying To Get Our Heads Around Family Estrangement
Recent Christmas and New Year festivities saw families gather, swap gifts, and “make merry” - something widely expected by social norms. But for those, who are estranged from their family, the picture can be a very different one.
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I Am 1 in 100: Recurrent Pregnancy Loss - End The Taboo Around Miscarriage
Did you know that 1 in 100 of those who are assigned female at birth will go through recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL)? In the United Kingdom, a recurrent pregnancy loss is when someone who is AFAB goes through 3 or more pregnancy losses (with or without a successful pregnancy between the losses).
When you start trying for a baby, you don’t ever think that you’ll become part of that 1 in 4 statistic, and you definitely don’t expect that you’ll become part of that 1 in 100 statistic.
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New Year’s Resolutions Reimagined
We all know how this goes: you sit down in December to reflect on the past year, maybe you revisit resolutions that you’ve already forgotten; and suddenly, you feel the urge to create a new self. A version of you that is much better than your present self, more disciplined or polished, capable: someone who checks all of the boxes from the long list of ideas about this better version of you.
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