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 …
Author Gail Carson Levine is best known for her 1997 novel Ella Enchanted, which won a Newbery Honor in 1998. Even today, critics praise this book for the way it retells the Cinderella story. It has also cemented Levine’s legacy as a fairy tale author for audiences of all ages. …
I tried NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for the first time this past November. Since I have a full-time job, I knew I wouldn’t get anywhere near the 50,000 word mark. But I did establish a (mostly) daily writing routine, and I did make some serious headway into my next …
So…I have Shrek fever. Since the movie’s release in 2001, Shrek has become something of a cultural phenomenon. Loosely based on the book of the same name by William Steig, it takes place in a fairy tale world and satirizes tropes we’ve come to know from Disney movies. And in …
The other day, I came across a YouTube video from Hannah Witton titled, “Cis People Should Think About Their Gender Too,” where she brings up questions about gender and answers them for herself. This was inspired by a Twitter thread from a game developer named Heather Flowers, who argued that …
Among the many shared experiences of writers, we all understand the struggle with writer’s block. Sometimes it’s figuring out what to write next, and sometimes it’s figuring out how to write it. Some writers wait for inspiration to come along, while others establish a routine and expect inspiration to come …
Since I was a teenager, I knew I wanted to be published. Writing was one of the few things in my life that gave me joy. A part of me saw the appeal in making money off of it, even before I knew I wanted to be a writer. And …
