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IT HAPPENED TO ME: My Ex-Boyfriend Attacked Me When I Told Him I Had a...
He was 29 and I was 21. We were coworkers. We worked the same shifts and became friends — the sort of friends who casually flirt as a way to battle boredom. As we flirted, our go-to method for killing...
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These Are The First Media Representations of Black Women That Made Me Feel We...
When I was a little girl, I watched a lot of movies and TV. I was an unpopular nerd who had skipped a grade, and my social circle was often just me, the TV, the old-school cable box with the...
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Three Muslim Students Have Been Murdered in North Carolina, Allegedly Over a...
Happy (early) Valentines Day! If you plan to spend this weekend taking romantic selfies at a museum, you might have to change your plans. Moving beyond such extreme first world problems, this week a...
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GROSS-OUT FRIDAYS: I Drank My Own Vomit
Throwin’ side-eye in my dress blues. PS, I look fantastic in uniform.Most people who know me now would never guess that I was in JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps) in high school. I’m a...
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IT HAPPENED TO ME: A Tattoo Artist Wouldn't Tattoo My Hand Because It Wasn't...
Growing up, the discrimination against women was such a normal part of everyday life that I didn’t recognize it for what it was. I was raised inundated with sexist mentalities. What girls could and...
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5 Ways to Let Go of an Alcoholic Boyfriend This Valentine's Day
How fun. Photo credit: Tyler CurtisIt’s the classic missed connection: I was your soulmate, you were an alcoholic.Alcoholics can be charming and fun in an unconscious kind of way. As the daughter of a...
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SCIENCE! New Obesity Research Demonstrates That Health and Weight Are a...
This week the Wall Street Journal reported on a recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study analyzed data following over 300,000 Europeans for 12 years and...
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Peanut Butter, Revenge And Other Things That Are Better Than Valentine’s Day
Greetings xoJaners. Apologies for my radio silence, I’ve been busy projecting imaginary illnesses onto my cat and researching black ankle boots for the majority of the past six months -- but I got a...
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IT HAPPENED TO ME: I Lived With Followers of an Indian Guru on an Organic...
In the spring of 2013, I moved out of my post-college shoebox apartment in NYC and had somehow saved enough money to take a short break from corporate life and computer screens. The plan-slash-fantasy:...
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OUTFIT OF THE WEEK: Oh Hey, It's Fashion Week
Hello all and welcome to your Outfit Of The Week column. I'm currently typing this sitting on the floor of my friend's apartment in Brooklyn, as I'm in town for Fashion Week. In terms of outfits, that...
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My Favorite Wine-Colored Makeup for a Drunk-in-Love Valentine's Day Look
Ah, Valentine’s Day. In the spirit of this lovely (pun definitely intended) Hallmark holiday, I have been thinking a lot about love. And wine. Okay, mostly wine. I love wine. This Valentine’s Day, I...
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Tell Me How You Really Feel About Valentine's Day in This Loved-Up Open Thread
I went through a period of being all anti Valentine's Day, but now I am more likely to forget about it. Speaking of, when you hear the phrase heart-shaped box, what is the first thing that comes to...
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My Work Habits Landed Me In The Hospital; How Yoga Improved My Life And My...
Sometimes I imagine thought bubbles attached to fellow participants in my Tuesday night Yoga class. The class is compiled of a lot of teachers. When we are told to “sink into our calm” I wonder if...
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None of My Kids Go to the Same School, and We All Like It That Way
Our family doesn’t fit into too many pigeonholes. Or rather, we fit into far too many. We’re an adoptive family, but I gave birth to all the kids. (My husband adopted my older two.) We’re a stepfamily,...
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I Am Unteaching My Daughter All of the Double Standards I Taught Her About...
Being a mother is hard work, #thatisall. Well, not really all but that sentiment feels overwhelmingly true. I could say "being a parent" instead of mother, but I am a woman, so let’s be real about what...
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IT HAPPENED TO ME: I Tracked Down My Boyfriend's Other Girlfriend . . . and...
“Is Polly there?” I began when a woman answered the phone.The first few times I’d asked this question, my heart had been tangled in my esophagus, sweat sprouting at my temples. But this was the sixth...
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How To: Make Your Own Soap
Making your own handmade soap sounds daunting and intimidating at first. I had no idea it was even possible before stumbling across a book on making gift baskets at my local half-priced bookstore. In...
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Guess What? Chicken Butt; How This Weekend Homesteader Says I Love You
You know how it goes, right?Guess what?Chicken butt.Guess why?Chicken thigh.Over the years, this silly exchange has turned into one of the ways in which Ed and I say I love you, because we're romantic...
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Black History Month and the Continued Erasure of African-Canadian History in...
For one month a year, North Americans deign to pay attention to black history in the most cursory fashion possible. For many, this includes learning about Martin Luther King (as long as it's not...
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