I lost my virginity at 16 in a tent. “Classy burd” has forever been the joke about it. Wanna know why I really did it? Because all the girls in my school were. Because I wanted to feel popular. Because I thought it might make me feel accepted. Because I thought that would get me a boyfriend. Because then I might be cool. Really it was horrid. I cried in the shower afterwards. The boy […]
There’s this guy I met back in two thousand and eleven and I can’t believe I’ve known him so long. The years have flown by but my feelings never left. The communication went dry, our contact bereft. It’s been eight years of to-ing and fro-ing and of knowing that we’d be perfect… But maybe our version of perfection can be found in the pockets of time we’ve been lucky enough to spend together. Maybe we […]
For the woman whose husband makes an “extra stop” after work every evening. For the woman who is mourning the loss of a pregnancy that nobody else knew about. For the woman who still leads from the front even although she’s lost inside. For the woman who was fired for her fourth late because she has been awake for a straight week with a sick child. For the single mom who doesn’t know how the […]
2 weeks. 2 weeks is all it took for me to fall for another human. You may think I’m crazy and if it was someone else telling this story, I’d probably agree with you! But it’s true. Because him and I, well, we crammed what some couples do in three months into just 14 short days. We laughed together, we drank together, we stole each other’s yawns, we fell asleep together, we saw shooting stars […]
It was August 2013 when I met my perpetrator. He was charming, funny, all the girls fancied him and I was so flattered out of everyone he could of picked, he picked me. In hindsight, the controlling and bullying behaviour started straight away. He said he didn’t want to use condoms so I asked him when he last had a STI check. He was furious. How dare I ask him such a thing. I felt […]
‘Opinions are like arseholes. Everyone’s got one.’ In the world we find ourselves living in today, this is truer than ever. We are a seething, tumultuous, broiling, churning mass of opinions. We have opinions about everything. We feel free to pontificate loudly on every single topic and subject under the sun. And it doesn’t matter a fuck whether we’re correct or not. So it’s important to let your rational voice ring out in the face […]
I have had various discussions during the build up with my friends. To watch or not to… Last year, the answer was simple: Yes. But now, I’m not so sure. What changed my mind? After all it’s a great antidote to a dull day in the office. TV where you can escape reality and watch without a worry. Or so we thought. There had been some anticipation of plus size models and a more ’diverse’ group […]
To the producers of hit TV show Love Island, Love Island is a hit TV show in the UK. They’ve just started filming the 5th series which is expected to start at the beginning of June. I’ve actually not even watched one episode but I’ve heard plenty of stories and read some of the tragedies associated to the show which are no coincidence, let me tell you. Even the way the team at ITV2 describe […]
Most days, I feel optimistic as I scroll through my social media. I follow people of all sizes, shapes and gender. I see positive phrases, bold messages, incredible diversity. I see empowerment. Of course, there is the flip side. I follow news outlets and suchlike, and I rage in anguish as I see reports on period poverty, frighteningly common anti-abortion groups, the pay gap. But those are topics to save for another day. Today […]
It was summer 2009. I was nearing the end of my studies in Musical Theatre and I REALLY needed a job. I had a brief stint doing some bar shifts but the work was too sporadic, and I couldn’t depend on the income. I was aimlessly scrolling online one day, and I saw an advert seeking ‘dancers’ in a city centre venue in Glasgow and it said there was loads of money to be made! […]
The Empowered Woman Project. 