It’s My Body

You Did What? Why I Shared my Abortion Story

by Emily Everetts My voice was trembling when I spoke the words “I decided to choose abortion.” I was telling my personal story and expressing my opposition of House Bill 695, a bill that would shut down all but one abortion clinic in the state of North Carolina. It started to hit me that I…

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Body Positivity: A Primer

by Erin McKelle Let’s face it: our society is full of messed up messages about our bodies. We are told that we are too fat, too old, too short, too hairy, too saggy…and the list never ends. Our culture doesn’t embrace diversity in bodies, instead glorifying a certain type– a type that less than 5%…

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The Thigh Gap Struggle: Seeking Perfection in the Impossible

by Shavon L. McKinstry This post contains content that may be triggering to people with eating disorders. If you or someone you know is experiencing symptoms of an eating disorder, self-harm, or other mental health issues, please call or chat online with the National Eating Disorder Association (calls US only) at 1–800–931–2237, or Befrienders Worldwide to…

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Angeline Jolie has Mastectomy, Selfishly Refuses to Die of Breast Cancer

by Anya Josephs Recently, Angelina Jolie wrote a pretty interesting op-ed about her decision to have a preventative double mastectomy. The surgeries she had took several months and were painful and expensive, but not nearly as  painful as having life-threatening breast cancer. Without this surgery, she would have had an 87% chance of developing breast…

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When Other People Watch What You Eat

by Celeste Montaño Last time I had dinner with a friend, she laughed as I set down my food. “You’re so funny,” she told me, but didn’t elaborate. I smiled uncertainly. Seeing that I didn’t get it, she gestured to what I was eating. “The mac & cheese, the fries, the soda… it’s all so…

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Girls of All Ages Need Access to Emergency Contraception

by Anya Josephs There’s a medicine that, in half a century of use, has been linked to a grand total of zero deaths or serious complications. It’s safer than aspirin. Physicians willingly admit that their advice is not needed for it to be taken correctly. The largest organization of pediatricians in the nation is urging…

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Real Beauty, Real Talk: the SPARKteam Responds to Dove's Latest Campaign

Have you seen Dove’s latest “Real Beauty” campaign? It’s been making the rounds and causing quite a stir: The video, which shows women describing themselves as ugly and then other people describing them as beautiful, leading up to a big reveal where we all realize that we are our own worst enemy, is drawing both…

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Photoshopping Women to Be Bigger is Missing the Point

by Dee Putri Karlie Kloss, an American model, has been something of a poster child for the debate on “keeping it real” in magazines. Kloss’s nude photos in Vogue Italia have been posted on pro-ana (pro-anorexia) and thinspiration blogs (as we know, these sites are very dangerous!). So, Numéro magazine (maybe having learned something?) airbrushed out Kloss’s…

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