In 2019, I became a founding member of a group called Building Emotional Regulation Through Storytelling (BERTS). Made up of writers, illustrators, teachers, and social workers, we came together with the goal of writing a series of children’s books, akin to Arthur or Frog and Toad. Our hope is that …
Katniss Everdeen’s story in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy is one of survival, perseverance, and complex trauma. She grew up in an oppressive dystopia where the rich overindulged, the poor fought each other for scraps, and twenty-three children died every year as punishment for the rebellion of their ancestors. She …
Hello. My name is LG Alfonso. We’re talking about The Princess Bride. Prepare for spoilers. Is The Princess Bride still as good as it was in 1987? I’m probably going to get a lot of flak for even asking that question. Most who’ve seen the cult classic at least once …
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the only comic book movie I’ve seen so far that made me want to read the comic it was based on. And the part that made this movie is the famous scene where Miles officially becomes Spider-Man. It begins with the lyrics to Black Caviar …
A Short Story by LG Alfonso The first thing she noticed were his fingertips on her stomach. Gentle and calloused, tracing circles around her navel, teasing her senses. The faint smell of pine wafted around her. She sighed and stretched like a cat, a smile spreading across her face. “Hey, …
There are two things that always unite my family: game night and old school Muppet movies. When I was growing up, Muppet Christmas Carol was one of the Christmas movies we watched every year. The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper were also favorites to pop in once in …
Freedom is for the single parent struggling to pay healthcare, childcare, school tuition, and housing costs. Freedom is for the mother of three seeking an abortion because she can’t afford another child. Freedom is for the immunocompromised activist wondering when she’ll feel safe leaving home again. Freedom is for the …
I hope I’m infertile. I have enough money to get by on my own. But everything about the process of having children is expensive, especially in America. Between healthcare and childcare and school bills, one child alone would wreck my finances. I simply don’t have the money or resources that …
There’s a nature center next door to the college I attended. It used to be my favorite place to go when I wanted to get away and think. Once you set foot inside, you realize pretty quickly you’ve just stepped into a maze. The path splits off into different directions, …
Dear Marco, This is the last time you will hear from me. I am saying good-bye because our friendship was always based on a lie. I knew there was something off when, out of nowhere, you started attempting to be friends with me. We’d been going to the same school …
