When did our internal monologue suddenly adopt a no-nonsense, authoritarian approach rivalling the Wormwoods? Why do we become self-flagellating adults who berate themselves for every little misstep?

When I got in the room I was told to sit down and then a couple of nurses came and got me. They pulled back the curtain that wrapped around the bed she lay in. I saw the redness of my partner’s face, the wet around her eyes. I asked ‘What’s happened. Did it hurt?’

And she said ‘no, but they think I have cancer.’

When I became disabled, one of the things that I struggled the most with was just how much my life changed, practically overnight. 

It wasn't just that I was adapting to no longer being a healthy, able-bodied person, but I was also suddenly transitioning from being able to do so much, so easily, to having a mountain of access needs that had to be fulfilled in order for me to do anything. 

You’ve been with your partner for a long time, but your sex life has been dwindling. Weeks turn into months of no sex and you’re starting to wonder what you’ve done wrong. I’m here to tell you that you’re not alone.

According to this article from the BBC , “Data from Statista shows that the baby and child skincare market is expected to experience an annual growth rate of about 7.71% until in 2028, it reaches $380m (£299m) in market volume worldwide…This isn’t just about young kids trying their mums’ creams, but an industry expanding to reach a broader age spread of consumers.”

The game slowly defrosted my hibernation and resuscitated my ‘spark’. It provided me a safe space to practise my speech, to train my ability to concentrate, remember details, and untangle the messy earphone cables of thought that made up my mind; to not think about what I couldn’t do but to test the limits of my imagination, which, as it turns out, now feels pretty limitless. 

Those first few weeks, even months, are so special. You and your partner are just in your own little bubble with this gorgeous little baby that you have spent months waiting for. Nothing can compete with those first moments; watching their hair grow, those first sparks of a personality. But what most aren't prepared for, like myself, is when ‘the bubble’ pops.

Picture this: you’re finally pregnant and expecting your first child after years of people extolling the virtues of having children. Suddenly, the narrative is flipped, it’s no longer the best thing to ever happen to you. Unfortunately, you are now doomed to live a joyless life of servitude to said child. It almost feels as though you have been duped, scammed into some sort of parenthood pyramid scheme from which there is no escape.

Figures suggest that in the UK, 76% of 15-24 year olds that are active online are using the video-sharing app. Across the pond, it's thought that 25% of US users are under 19 years old. Evidently a huge market for retailers to target. 

The current system for diagnosing breast cancer is the mammography screening program, which invites women for an X-ray scan of their breasts once every 3 years after they turn 50, until the age of 71. At first glance, this seems entirely logical. The system has been in place since 1988, it must be effective. But why are so many women dying of breast cancer? Why are their tumours not being found earlier?

Season 14 of RuPaul’s Drag Race has been rightly celebrated for its trans representation. In addition to the series’ laudable trans representation, this latest season has also featured two neurodivergent queens, as Jasmine Kennedie and Orion Story have both revealed (since filming the show) that they have been diagnosed with ADD and ADHD respectively.

It is the day of my tahoor, or purification; it is the day that I am to be cut. I am feeling joyous but slightly nervous (and a different feeling I couldn’t quite categorise) about the occasion: the communal ritual which will, in my eyes, make me a woman!

It was only when we started to ease out lockdown that I noticed me declining meetups. It wasn't fuelling me with overwhelming excitement, but rather, fear that there may be food involved. My friends would go out and there would be the spontaneous post of food, and I would think to myself, I bet they are enjoying that ice cream, or that meal that isn't under a certain calorie number.

Before, I was not a divided person. I took pride in my decisiveness, and my ability to dissect, understand and articulate my own feelings. That was until chronic illness split me down the middle, like a kitchen knife through an overripe avocado.

When it comes to our careers, it’s very easy to find ourselves striving towards someone else’s definition of success, but this will never make us happy. Some people’s idea of success might be a smart car, a senior title and an expensive suit and house. But is that yours?

At 15 months old I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. It gave my parents quite a fright to put it mildly. I almost died. So now I need to manually regulate my blood glucose levels. You can’t calculate the right dose of medicine if you don’t know where you’re starting from. That is where blood glucose monitors come in and they have come on such a long way in the 20 years I have been using them!

Think about how much literal time is being spent unwell, to the point where you’re struggling with basic things such as work, the washing up, cooking, getting dressed and showered. Try to picture back to a time you were particularly unwell. Was it the flu, Covid, a broken bone? Consider how much longer all these basic actions took, or how much time passed before you could even do them? Unfortunately for chronically ill people, this is an everyday reality.

My name’s Harriet and I'm an alcoholic. We’ve all heard this before, but I first said this in my early twenties when I tried a 12 step programme for the first time. A few years prior to this I asked my best friend if she thought I was an alcoholic, and after being told in no uncertain terms that I don't drink in the morning so I can't be, I pushed it to the back of my mind.

All of them had: my parents, my teachers, my friends, my pastor. They had lied to me at school, at church, at home. They had kept that information from me, and used that ignorance against me. They had forced me to pretend for years to be someone I was not. They had made me feel pathetic, trapped, suicidal.

But telling me I was a woman wasn’t the last lie they would tell me, and far from the last one I would believe.

Disabled LGBTQ+ folk should not be, and should never have had to consider, giving up something that should ordinarily be a wholesome and enlightening experience. Disabled LGBTQ+ people should not have to forgo the feeling of being special, included, and seen due to inaccessibility. Many people have no experience of their health, wellbeing, and safety being disregarded and therefore put at risk due to a lack of accessibility. Yet disabled people are often made to compromise our health in the name of inclusion or opt out of attending. Why?

Since my early teens, I have carried a sense of shame for being interested in and enjoying sex. I come from a family (and culture) where sex is not openly discussed, and it has taken some considerable effort, discomfort, and re-learning to understand what sexual power means to me and how I can harness it for my overall empowerment.

I broke myself, I closed off, dissociating, derealizing, depersonalizing, putting every feeling in a neat little box and slamming closed the lids. I could not just not feel toward a single person, or several, I had to form disjunction after disjunction in my capacity to feel such ways at all. It is no surprise to me now that in my worst depressive states I admitted to my partner that I did not love them. How could I? I loved no one, by necessity. To play the role of monogamist I had to abandon the pretense of monogamy as growth of purest love.

For several years now, governments in various corners of the UK have been gradually recognising the influence on young people’s mental health of schools/ universities–for better or worse. And it is worth noting, too, that they have a duty of care in common law to their students – both educationally and pastorally, to protect their students’ health, safety and welfare.

Just imagine you come out of a long relationship, so you have tons and megatons of pictures of your ex on your phone…the chances of seeing their face whenever you go left from your home-screen are pretty damn high. Sure, sometimes it helps you relive the highs of June 2019… but it also helps you relive the bad times. The very, very bad times.

And they lived happily ever after…

From the day we are born, we are surrounded by the idea of love, from Prince Charming on horseback to Grandad gently placing a cup of tea next to Grandma as she watches Strictly.

As like most people, I have tried some of the most popular dating apps there are and my honest opinion is that it is a waste of time that’s fulfilled by sucking people in with hope. I

Pornography is all over the internet these days and it has become increasingly normalized to watch it, especially among young adults. But what about people who have never dared to watch any porn? Is it abnormal as a young adult in 2021 to have never found yourself on PornHub’s homepage?

Here we are again with yet another article covering the disparities in society between disabled and non-disabled people. And this time it’s all about sex. I decided to explore this very real ‘issue’ through the lens of the disabled people who ‘suffer’ every day.