Perhaps this wasn’t the weight they were encouraging me to lose, but it’s changed my life. — I watched the video of her shaving her head over and over. Watched her cry, her hair falling down her body in long blonde strands, the slashing of a feminine power which, for years, had contributed to her feelings of powerlessness. The paradox of beauty and all its trappings. …

Our children are being murdered, and we’re letting it happen — It has been 2,652 days since I wrote this article. It has been 1,023 days since I wrote this article. It has been 922 days since I wrote this article. It has been 305 days since I wrote this article. It has been 299 days since I wrote this article. …

How I’m making conscious choices to raise considerate, thoughtful, self-aware sons — To some, this may be shocking: I have a sex life, and I don’t hide it from my kids. In past generations, tight-lipped has been the norm when it comes to sex in general, let alone our own sex lives. …

Finding the truth in the lies we let ourselves believe — At a Presbyterian Womens’ Retreat in the foothills of the Cascades, we do an exercise where we are instructed to write a lie we’ve believed about ourselves on our palm in eyeliner. The room is quiet, and it takes me no time at all to figure it out. I am…

A poem for broken hearts — “There’ll be happiness after you But there was happiness because of you Both of these things can be true There is happiness Leave it all behind And there is happiness” .TSwift. The thing is, I feel like I’m dying. Not like I’m going to die, or like I don’t want…

Extended sizing is almost always an afterthought, but why are sizes 0–10 still the baseline when they cover less than 30% of the US consumer base? — I see ads constantly in my social media feeds for clothing. Most of the time I just scroll by, because while the clothes often look cool, the chances they’ll have them in my size are slim to none. …

In the aftermath of Roe v. Wade’s repeal, we are no longer capable of managing the emotional well being of men — The last week has been something of a hellscape, and I’ve been spending a lot of time in spaces where women are commiserating about how different and horrible it feels to have our rights stripped away from us. One reoccurring theme that’s come up again and again is the way…

This is not just legislation or politics, these are our lives, our futures, our basic rights to be seen as equally human. — I want to be coherent, but I’m not sure I know how anymore. The words that rise up within me don’t feel like enough. My feelings crash over me, violent waves in an ocean of incredulous tears. Rage. A twisted stomach. A fire in my heart. Shock (but not surprise…

It’s time to admit this isn’t working, and there’s only one question: which do we value more, human life or unregulated gun ownership? — It’s been 10 days since an 18–year-old boy walked in to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and massacred two teachers and 19 fourth-graders. Last night, I sat down and wrote out the names of each of the students, and their two teachers, letting my pen glide across the paper…