Much of the conversation around abortion rights inevitably morphs into a discussion about birth control, and without fail swarms of people in congress (and on Twitter) decide to take it upon themselves to explain why access to certain types (or all types) of birth control should be restricted. This has always baffled me, since abortion medication and birth control are not the same thing, and access to affordable birth control has been proven to reduce abortion rates. Apparently the high of rummaging through people’s medicine cabinets makes that information seem irrelevant.

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Some women suffer terrible side effects from birth control, yes. Being on birth control for a long period of time can be harmful. Preventing unwanted pregnancies, and therefore reducing abortion rates, should not fall solely on women. We can agree to all of that. But if we start promoting the idea that birth control isn’t an ideal option, or that people shouldn’t be using birth control at all, we run the risk of stigmatizing it’s usage altogether.

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I’ve always felt uneasy about how one should really feel about “celebrity” deaths. When an actor, writer, or musician you love dies, going through a full-on mourning process seems inappropriate. Maybe you had the opportunity to meet them or interact at an event, but at the end of the day you didn’t have a personal relationship with them, and they wouldn’t know you if you passed them on the street. I can understand feeling bummed out, but most reactions are extreme to me, especially when the person’s body of work still exists for the world to continue to hold dear.

I think I understand it a little better now, though my feelings around it are still complicated. When Rachel Held Evans passed away, it wasn’t that I broke down crying and spent the day grieving. It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to live my life without her. It felt more like a weight. Because of her loss, we all have a greater burden to bear as we try to pick up the mantle she left behind.

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“There is no fashion designer that dictates what we wear anymore. Christian Dior dictated what women wore in the 50s, Balenciaga in the 60s, Calvin Klein and Ralph and Donna decided in the 80s. Now what’s embraced is being yourself.”

The Academy Awards this year proved that point more than ever. No one felt confined to a satin gown or a classic Armani tux.

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Five years ago, I wrote a blog post about the fashion choices of dog handlers after watching the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

I had no idea that this piece would receive the most engagement of any piece of mine to date. It would seem that many others have watched dog shows like Westminster and Crufts on TV and have questioned the wide array of sequined suits and clodhopper shoes on the female handlers. While there may not be a designated dress code, there is an unspoken tradition of wearing ill-fitting, dated clothes, and not a lot has changed in the years that have passed since my original piece went live.

I didn’t write this piece in an effort to be rude or mean spirited, and if I had to do it all over again I probably would have phrased things differently. I was writing for a fashion blog, not a dog show blog, and I wasn’t pretending to be a dog handler or to know all the ins and outs of that job. Handler fashion seemed to be a well-known point of interest, and I thought it would be fun and lighthearted — even helpful and informative.

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A new engagement is a joyous occasion filled with excitement — excitement that can quickly devolve into chaos when the realization of event planning sets in. Without some guidance wedding planning can be like sitting on an isolated raft in the middle of the ocean, and with too much guidance it’s like making your way through a erratic swarm of bees. Couples tend to feel either lost or overwhelmed.
 
I’ve picked up some wisdom over the years as I’ve planned and coordinated weddings for my friends and clients, and hopefully what I’ve learned will help newly engaged couples navigate the early stages of the planning process.

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If you aren’t knee deep in mind-numbing novel writing right now, you probably don’t know what NaNoWriMo is. National Novel Writing Month is a communal project that takes place each November, in which a dedicated group of fun-loving masochists decide to challenge themselves to writing an entire novel (50,000 words) in 30 days.

If that sounds brutal, you’re right. I told you, those who participate are fun-loving masochists. Know someone who likes to have fun with friends but also likes to isolate themselves? They’re probably doing NaNoWriMo. Know someone who is full of creative energy and also likes to torture themselves? They’re definitely doing NaNoWrimo. Know someone who goes off the grid in November and turns into a ball of anxiety running on coffee? NaNoWriMo.

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I’ve written a lot of heavy pieces as of late, but today I just want to talk about clothes. Everyone needs a surface-level respite now and then.

Having spent the past five years working in fashion retail, my closet has been a revolving door of high-quality, beautiful pieces that I’ve been lucky enough to get at a discount. The good thing about this is I never have to worry about not having the right thing to wear for pretty much any occasion. The bad thing is I have a little too much of a good thing.

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This piece was also edited and picked up by Highlark Magazine!

If you find yourself within Christian circles, you have likely heard about the sexual misconduct allegations against Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in northern Illinois and one of the most influential evangelical leaders in the country.

I attend a church in a neighboring suburb to Willow Creek. Bill Hybels was the pastor to my pastor. Our church was, at one time, part of the Willow Creek Association of Churches.

When the news first broke about Hybels this past March, the first reaction from most of my friends was disbelief. It was my first instinct, too. None of us wanted to hear that someone who has been a spiritual leader and guiding figure would do the things he was accused of.

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People have disliked the media since the creation of the media, and why not? It’s much easier to blame the people holding authority accountable instead of the authority itself. It’s much easier to blame the people bringing unpopular truths to light than to acknowledge what’s actually true. The media has been a safe scapegoat for generations, and likely will be for generations to come.

That being said, an alarming shift has taken place over the past few years; instead of journalists being passively blamed for all of life’s problems, they have been more actively threatened. It’s not just the media’s fault — the media needs to pay for their faults.

The marker of when this shift took place is painfully clear. I noticed it as a journalism student. No one thought twice about my college major until 2015. Suddenly, my career path was a problem. Suddenly, I needed to “rethink” my choice of joining a “dishonest” industry.

2015 was the year Donald Trump’s campaign took off. He sounded off at the media constantly, dubbing them “fake news” and regularly calling journalists “the enemy of the people.” He tweeted cartoons that depicted violence against reporters. Naturally, he was unapologetic about all of it.

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In the 2018 presidential election, Donald Trump earned 81 percent of the evangelical Christian vote. Nearly two years later, he still holds a very favorable 75 percent of support by white evangelicals.

Surprisingly, Christians have been put in a state of distress over Trump’s zero-tolerance policy against migrants crossing the border, which has caused nearly 2,000 children to be forcibly separated from their parents in six weeks alone.

. . .

Why, then, is this immigration policy so abhorrent? It is completely consistent with Trump’s attitude toward immigrants since day one of his campaign, which his Christian supporters have demonstrated no problem with. It’s difficult to claim ignorance to this attitude, since “build a wall” was a primary hallmark of his candidacy. Walls are generally built to divide, not to create a welcoming environment for those seeking refuge. Anyone with a TV or access to the internet in 2015 could have easily seen this coming.

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