First Person Yvonne Conza Mar 21, 2024

We’ve All Been Forced to Be a “Fearless Girl”

Yvonne Conza Mar 21, 2024

The writer wondered why the statue elicited a strong reaction in her until she realized that everything about it—from the story behind its creation to image itself—evokes what it's like to be female in America.

First Person Freda Love Smith Sep 21, 2023

I Quit Social Media and Lived to Tell

Freda Love Smith Sep 21, 2023

In this excerpt from the memoir I QUIT EVERYTHING, the Gen-X writer—a retired drummer and vocalist for several alt rock bands—reflects on the addictive nature of social media, and the liberation of signing off.

First Person Ebony S. Murphy Sep 8, 2023

I Wasn’t Ready to Turn 40

Ebony S. Murphy Sep 8, 2023

Getting older often feels like a rude awakening. But for this writer, who was about to surpass her late mother’s age, the number 39 took on a whole other meaning.

A collage of someone carrying a bag, a to-do-list, and a computer with coding visible on it.

First Person Gina Sorell Mar 25, 2022

What Distinguishes Hard Work From Ambition?

Gina Sorell Mar 25, 2022

The daughter of "hard-working immigrant" parents whose lives were devoted to the family business is now a writer who fears turning down an assignment. But only she is considered "ambitious."

A set of barbells over a rosie the riverter style bicep

Women's Health Megan Carpentier Oct 21, 2021

Getting Strong Gave Me Strength

Megan Carpentier Oct 21, 2021

The health benefits for women to do weight training are manifold, from improving mental acuity to increasing bone density. So why aren't we more strongly encouraged to do it?

A woman looking into the distance with her hand blocking out the sun.

First Person Angela Featherstone Sep 24, 2021

Can I Forgive the Unforgivable?

Angela Featherstone Sep 24, 2021

An artist who’d endured unspeakable assaults—on her body and her hard-won career—confronts the painful memories of what happened and takes us on a journey of forgiveness.

needle, thread, stitches on a black background

First Person Laura Leigh Abby Jul 13, 2021

It’s Okay to Hate Your Scars

Laura Leigh Abby Jul 13, 2021

Women are expected to minimize our trauma and love our scars. Ten years after the writer suffered a hit-and-run accident that took her ear, she realized she didn't have to embrace expectation.

Collage of multiple tic tac toes games with a rooster in front

First Person Melissa Hart Jun 17, 2021

The Game Was Rigged All Along

Melissa Hart Jun 17, 2021

The DSM removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses in 1973. So why did the author's mother lose everything—including her kids—when she left her abusive husband for a woman in the late 1970s?

A collage of illustrations of someone holding a phone and another person looking at their phone.

First Person Elissa Altman Feb 12, 2021

Lessons From a Fast, Furious Friendship With My Idol

Elissa Altman Feb 12, 2021

The award-winning memoirist reflects on her intense, instantaneous social-media friendship with a favorite singer—only to be left to try to make sense of her just-as-sudden disappearing act.

A woman in hijab looking out at mountains.

Politics Hedia Anvar Oct 22, 2020

Lessons from Iran’s Long Lost Freedom

Hedia Anvar Oct 22, 2020

The Iranian-born writer, who now lives in the U.S., watched her home country devolve into a brutal theocracy, hoping it would return to some semblance of normal. That was 40 years ago. Could it happen here too?