Whenever something invents a genre or revitalizes an existing genre, it is lumped in with the lower-quality copycats that come after it. In the early 2010s, when dystopian fiction was everywhere in the Young Adult section, The Hunger Games was often spoken of and complained about in the same breath…

The day before Midnights, Taylor Swift’s tenth album, was set to release, news of a leak spread through social media. Quickly, the consensus between both fans and casual listeners alike seemed to be that the 70’s rock album the aesthetic promised was not going to come. …

Women from Emily Bronte to Taylor Swift have lamented about the loss of the wildness of their childhood. In a society with rigid beliefs about gender and its presentation, girlhood is the last time in a woman’s life that she is not seen as a capital-w Woman and is allowed…

Abbott Elementary is the first show that has ever made me cry in its pilot episode. And for being a comedy, that is an even more difficult feat to accomplish. In the pilot episode of Abbott Elementary, the show introduces Janine Teagues, a second year teacher at an underfunded school…

On March 12th, 2020, I received the email that my college would be shutting down for at least three weeks. The office I worked in shut down, my professors were not allowed to give any exams or assignments for three weeks and my mom was texting me constantly asking when…

The first time I remember being disappointed with my appearance, I was five years old. There was a large, full-length mirror on the inside of our coat closet in the house my family lived in at the time. For some reason, at this age I would often forget what I…

I still remember exactly where I was when I heard “Love Story” for the first time. It was September 2008, I had just moved to Minnesota from Sweden and was starting fourth grade. Sitting in the back of my mom’s minivan, excited to get new school clothes at Justice, I…

So often, the biggest criticism of any romance-based media is that the characters would so easily solve their conflict if they just communicated with each other. I haven’t figured out yet if everyone else is trying to avoid the fact that they too, in their own relationships, cause conflict with…