On being a girl who always preferred Ken over Barbie. — I was recently clocked by my seventeen-year-old niece. Clocking: a term originally used to express the act of figuring out that a person is transgender. A definition from Reddit User, peripesto: When not applied to trans people, it generally has the connotation that the person you clocked doing whatever thing…

Realizing that my middle school best friend may have actually been my first gay relationship — I grew up in the early 2000s as a major tomboy. On TV, my representation included Max from The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, who now, watching as an adult, I can confidently guess was probably just queer (much like the actress who played her, Alyson Stoner). Much like…

Diving into the intimidating world of dating as an inexperienced bisexual — Lipstick lesbians? Pillow princesses? Daddies? These were all brand new terms I encountered when I downloaded a dating app designed specifically for queer women. …

It’s an anti-Black talking point, used to divide Black people even further. I’m not one for rewriting history. …

African kids being bullied in American schools is a much bigger issue than many people make it out to be — This article was originally published on Vocal Media in 2020. It has since been edited for this platform. The Birth of the African Booty Scratcher In the U.S., bullying is a big problem in schools. Kids across the country get bullied for an unlimited number of reasons: not wearing the right clothes, having speech impediments, being a…

Leaving religion isn’t a monolithic experience, so no amount of YouTube videos could have prepared me for this — If I could put a time stamp on the day my Christian faith died, it would be September 11, 2021. That was the day I attached words to my feelings and wrote the poem “Faith Does Not Die Quickly" and boy, was that the truth. There was no specific moment…

Why having financially successful friends isn’t the lifehack you might think it is — One of the best representations of young adult life comes from season 2, episode 5 of the sitcom Friends. In this episode, Phoebe, Joey, and Rachel have to have the uncomfortable but necessary conversation with Ross, Monica, and Chandler about finances. The first group explains to their friends that they…

If you’re anything like me (or several million people) at some point in your life, you went through a boy band phase. And if you’re even more like me, you haven’t grown out of it, you’ve just replaced one boy band with the next. Over the years, I’ve seen boy…

On November 17, Shawn Mendes and Camilla Cabello broke the internet when they announced their break up after over two years of dating. As suspected, many took the opportunity to unleash the monster Shawn has been running from his entire career: the speculations about his sexuality. Like Shawn, I too…