So the next time you want to tell a girl how skinny she is…don’t. — I’ve been told how skinny I am pretty much my whole life. Skinny — not thin. There’s a difference between the two. Inhabiting a “skinny” body has a freakish, malnourished, heroin-esque type of feel to it. Thin, on the other hand, is healthy. Refined. Yes, even us skinny girls are…

It’s not fame or drug addiction. — This article contains content about childhood sexual trauma and may bring up strong, unpleasant thoughts and feelings. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by these thoughts or feelings, please contact the Rape Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) 24-hour hotline at 1.800.656.HOPE (4673). Before they were celebrities, they were children…

And I did nothing to stop it. — This article contains content about sexual assault and may bring up strong, unpleasant thoughts and feelings. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by these thoughts or feelings, please contact the Rape Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) 24-hour hotline at 1.800.656.HOPE (4673). I was at a house party in high…

My client’s comment made me realize it was my parents’ delight in people that drew me to a caring profession. — I can’t recall what I helped this particular woman with. She may have been the family member of a homicide victim, a sexual assault survivor, or a victim of identity theft. It was the last thing she said that got me thinking about why I got into this profession in…

I felt like a fish out of water until l shifted my way of thinking. — I left my career on a Tuesday afternoon in 2008. I was 33 and gave birth to my first child the following day. After spending over a decade working in the non-profit world of victim services, I was looking forward to experiencing this new uncharted territory of becoming a mother. Raising humans should have filled me with confidence but it depleted me of it instead.

Remembering what we lost is precisely the thing that can save us. — What Once Was has been dead for quite some time now. Still, I can’t seem to come to terms with its passing. …

This simple tactic could right oh so many of the wrongs in our society. — As a first-generation American in a large Italian immigrant family, I would often experience and witness the “schiaff.” A schiaff (or schiaffo in its proper form) translates to slap or smack. More specifically, the schiaff was a smack upside the head. Oftentimes, the recipient of this demoralizing act wouldn’t see…

Never underestimate the role your feelings can play in writing a read-worthy piece. — After helping my daughter self-administer her first haircut (down there), I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I wanted to scream. And so I did in a story I wrote called Patriarchal Pussies. To date, this is my most viewed and highest-earning story on Medium. …

It was the childish behavior of parents that brought my old professor back to mind. — What a year it’s been for teachers and their students. Although this whole remote learning thing was beyond frustrating, I never did get all the shade being thrown at school administrators and teachers by parents. We parents have so much to complain about, don’t we? And it’s usually over really…