This week, one mother wrote about her struggle to reclaim parenting and her reflections on her own childhood. Read that and other essays from The Fader, The Frisky, and Rookie.
"How an Anime Series Helped Me Recognize My Depression" — BuzzFeed Geeky
For most of his childhood, Jean-Luc Bouchard could not identify with the depressed characters he’d encountered in fiction. Then he found anime. One series in particular — Paranoia Agent, a psychological thriller about a mysterious assailant terrorizing Tokyo — helped him recognize his own depression. Read his essay at BuzzFeed Geeky.
Andrea Hickey / BuzzFeed
"Your Fave Is Problematic, and That's Okay for You, But They Still Need to Apologize" — The Fader
Weeks ago, Bjork told The Gentlewoman that “sound is the n*gger of the world,” yet few people acknowledged or expressed outrage at the singer’s racist language. For The Fader, Rawiya Kameir examined multiple offenses from some of people’s most beloved celebrities. “I am ready for my problematic faves to finally begin owning up to their offenses,” she writes in her essay. "If to err is human and to forgive, divine, then to apologize is essential." Read it at The Fader.
AFP / Getty Images / Via thefader.com
"The Struggle to Reclaim Parenting" — BuzzFeed Ideas
Four years ago, Kim Brooks was arrested for allowing her son to wait in a car with the windows down for just a few minutes. This week, she wrote a piece on being a mother and free-range parenting. In it, she reflects on her own childhood. “Many of my most joyful memories involved these moments of sudden independence when the world opened up, when I felt myself alone and awake in it; I knew my parents’ love most acutely in these moments of expanding distance, of letting go,” she writes. Read it at BuzzFeed Ideas.
Jenny Chang / BuzzFeed
"Empathy Isn’t Everything" — Rookie
Alex-Quan doesn't want your empathy. For Rookie, they wrote an essay on how empathy is a utopian value. It’s one “that operates within the systems that reward some people at the expense of others.” In their piece, they touched on the Charlie Hebdo shooting, the Black Lives Matter movement, and how international leaders did not show the same amount of support for #BlackLivesMatter. "I don’t want to know if you can understand what it’s like to be me,” they write. "I want to know that you will give me the due respect despite your inability to understand." Read it at Rookie.
Sofia Bews / Via rookiemag.com