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The First Time I Saw Beyoncé She Screwed Up
Buda Mendes / Getty It was eight years ago this month, during the 2005 Kennedy Center Honors, one of the glitziest annual events in Washington. Among the honorees that year were Robert Redford, Tony...
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A Story For R. Kelly's Defenders
Little black girls are taught when and how to be silent before anyone ever tells us we have the right to say no. Ashley Ford on her 7th birthday. One week before my 7th birthday, I stayed up all night...
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High For The Holidays
It wasn’t until I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with my sister and my father that I began to come to terms with my family’s history. Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed "Pole, pole. Slowly, slowly."For hours now, my...
View ArticleResolving To Slow Down And Care More In 2014
This year I want to feel more connected. Because it’s too easy to forget why we’re here. I took this photo of the Griffith Observatory on a hike with a close friend. More like this in 2014, please....
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Babies Vary And Knitting Stretches
It was easy to forget that life can come into the world just as it leaves it. Making the baby sweater was a tangible reminder. Illustration by Ilana Denis Bauer for BuzzFeed Anyone who makes things...
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Why I Feel OK About Falling Off The Wagon After Years Of Sobriety
Here’s to moderation in 2014. Illustration by Allen Brewer for BuzzFeed Nothing terrible ever happened when I drank. At least, as far as I'm aware, it didn't. My high-strain endurance boozing at even...
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Revisiting Resolutions, 10 Years Later
Illustration by Leigh Luna for BuzzFeed Ten years ago, just before my 25th birthday, I fell into a state of despair. Looking out of my bedroom window, still hung with a blue batik from college, my...
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How To Grieve For A Life That Never Began
Illustration by Adam Setala for BuzzFeed Driving on the freeway in Los Angeles the other night, I noticed a transparent spider walking across my windshield. I took a Kleenex and swiped, and then there...
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Going Back To College Felt (Almost) As Hard As Fighting Cancer
I took a nine-month leave of absence and beat Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Returning to a world that didn’t understand or even know about my illness was the next challenge. Illustration by Perrin for BuzzFeed...
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How A Monkey In A Toilet Helped Me Find God
Illustration by Drew Morrison for BuzzFeed I desperately needed to take a dump, and there was a monkey in the toilet. I was in the city of Agra, in the Indian state of Uttar Predesh, at an internet...
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How A Sweat Lodge Cured My Crippling Anxiety
After a year of frightening panic attacks, the very thing that caused my anxiety would also cure it. Illustration by Ana Benaroya for BuzzFeed It was pitch-black, the temperature hovering somewhere...
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Is It Just Me Or Are Mormons Not Really That Upset Over The Utah Marriage...
After the opposition from some of my Latter-day Saint friends to the Supreme Court’s ruling on DOMA and Prop 8, I assumed there would be a similar reaction following Utah’s marriage ruling. Instead,...
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Yes, My New Year’s Goal Is To Get In Shape
It’s time to go from “otter” to hotter. Illustration by Rob Corradetti for BuzzFeed I have never been an athlete, but as is customary in helicopter parent world, I have been given many trophies for...
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In Immigration Reform, Allies Must Join Activists
When it comes to immigration reform, we need to hear from American citizen allies who support undocumented immigrants like me. President Obama makes a speech on immigration reform in San Francsico, on...
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Why Woody Allen May Be The Real Brainwasher
The director’s rebuttal to Dylan Farrow’s allegations that he molested her depicts his ex, Mia Farrow, as a deceitful, manipulative, hate-mongering witch who brainwashed his child. A close examination...
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One Hundred Years Of Weird Fear
On H.P. Lovecraft’s literature of genealogical terror. Ooze, Seep and Trickle Via instagram.com I was on a train going through Connecticut once, sort of writing a short story but really eavesdropping...
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Not Here to Make Friends
On the importance of unlikable female protagonists. Via covers.openlibrary.org "My memory of men is never lit up and illuminated like my memory of women." —Marguerite Duras, The Lover In my high...
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A "Mindy Project" Roundtable
Three writers and fans of Mindy Kaling’s Fox show sit down to talk about Kaling’s take on race, gender, body image — and what it means for viewers who don’t often see themselves reflected in...
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12 Fundamentals Of Writing "The Other" (And The Self)
How to respectfully write from the perspective of characters that aren’t you. Julie Dillon / Via juliedillonart.com We are always writing the other, we are always writing the self. We bump into this...
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After I Came Out As A Transgender Man, I Was Asked If It Felt Like I Had Died
Not exactly. But it has been an unexpectedly spiritual experience. Chris Ritter for BuzzFeed This past Christmas Eve, for the first time since I transitioned, I returned to my childhood church in Iowa...
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