Recently I have found my self-talk has taken for the worse. All those little habits that I thought I had grown past — the constant surveillance of my body in the mirror, the decimation of every extra gram of body fat, the incessant picking at blemishes on my skin — have come flooding back during the pandemic.

In a world where everything else seems to be beyond my control at the moment, this seems to be the only thing I can monitor. The anxiety of the looming unknown can seemingly be mitigated by seeking the uneasy familiarity of self-criticism. …

I remember the excitement I felt on the first day of school. My mother had helped me figure out the intricacies of the tie that accompanied my navy uniform, knotting it carefully beneath my chin.

In the car, I dutifully repeated the phrases that she’d taught me: Hello, Goodbye and Toilet. The words felt strange on my tongue, twisting differently than the flow of my native language. In my mother’s eyes, these were the essentials, the only pieces of armour she could equip me with as I ventured into the wider world.

We waited outside for a while, perched on…

Fast fashion companies have come under scrutiny for their questionable sustainability and ethical practices. With Americans alone throwing away 14 million tonnes of clothes each year and the recent #PayUp campaign pressuring Fast Fashion giants to pay their workers, it’s no surprise that people have begun looking for alternative ways to source their clothing.

Thrift stores have often been presented as more sustainable alternatives to fast fashion — they don’t promote unethical labour and prevent more money from being poured into fast fashion brands. …

Strawberry days. Aunt Flow. Shark Week. Moon time. You know that time of the month. You could probably think of a dozen other euphemisms for “He who shall not be named”. As a society, we actively avoid talking about menstruation, as if merely uttering the word “period” will summon a demon from hell, drenched in blood and ready to devour your soul. The topic is such taboo that I struggled to find an image of a tampon for this post, having to resort to (sigh) the tired metaphor of a red flower to represent the female reproductive system.

The Censorship of Menstruation

The censorship…

For as long as I can remember, my morning always started with the habit that ultimately ruined my self-esteem.

I’d jump out of bed, then run and peer in the mirror. It was the first thing I did every day without fail, my reflection a faithful morning companion. My fingers would run through my hair, flattening out any unruly tangles, before I’d slide them down to my face, picking at my skin to examine any new blemishes. …

“I’m trying to be a good person, but trying is hard, and we’ve got to accept that”

I had taken my seven-year-old niece out for ice cream when she said those words. We had been talking about Christmas, and she had asked me why does Santa Clause still bring her presents, even when she isn’t good all the time? I explained that Santa probably appreciated the effort, and could see that she was kind more times than she wasn’t which was why she found presents under the tree on Christmas morning.

She had sighed and then uttered the phrase above…

“Wow, I could never do that! It must be so hard”

I had been talking to a new acquaintance when the topic of relationships had come up. The second I told her that my boyfriend lived in New York, hundreds of miles away from me, her eyebrows had shot up. I sighed internally, already anticipating the myriad of questions she would pelt me with, peppered with a good dose of incredulity and pity.

I was used to it by now, this was the typical reaction extracted from people by my long distance relationship. …

I can almost hear Miranda Priestly huffing at the title of the article. She would rather die than be caught wearing that €15 floral dress from H&M, but in this case, the devil we’re referring to is climate change. And all of your favourite fast-fashion brands are this devil’s best friends.

What is Fast Fashion?

“Fast fashion can be defined as cheap, trendy clothing, that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed” — Good On You

The reason why you can find a $2000 dress Kylie Jenner wore on Fashion Nova…