From gemlights to oil slick tones, the internet has well and truly spoiled us with heaps of new, bold, vibrant and seriously Instagrammable hair colour trends lately. But if you haven't yet booked in for a total hair colour transformation, this latest hair craze might just sway you. Introducing: stained glass hair.
If you're struggling to picture what we mean, imagine the watercolour-like shadow a stained glass window casts on a wall when the sun shines through it – that almost fragmented, multicoloured silhouette – but on your hair, instead.
Although there aren't as many hashtags for stained glass hair in comparison to DNA braids or strandlights, we're pretty certain the look is going to be just as huge. Despite pastel shades continuing to reign supreme, the key to pulling off stained glass hair is to choose the most vivid colours you can get your hands on. A quick scroll through Instagram serves up flashes of bright red, orange, fuchsia and green, over muted rose and baby blue tones, and thanks to recent innovations in box dye technology, the vibe isn't that hard to recreate at home.
Whether you employ a brush or hand-paint using your fingers, you can be pretty slapdash with where you place the colour. R29 rates BLEACH London's Slime Light and Odd Fuchsia, £6 each, but if you want something more permanent, L'Oréal's Preference Infinia range, £7.99, consists of striking orange, red and dark purple hues that stick around for a little longer and work brilliantly on darker hair. Of course, if you want a print that's a little more intricate, your best bet is to visit a salon professional, but whatever you do, be sure to lock in your colour every time you wash it.
For coloured hair, using Olaplex is always a good bet if you don't want to end up with parched strands. Sophia Hilton, hairstylist and founder of Not Another Salon, also recommends Olaplex alternative - INNOluxe to repair damage and to keep colour looking vibrant for longer. She also suggests swapping out your humble conditioner for a hair mask, while colourist Taylor Clayton-Spicer at Paul Edmonds London suggests always washing your hair with a sulphate-free shampoo, such as the Shu Uemura Color Lustre, £36, to keep your colour on lockdown.
Refinery29's selection is purely editorial and independently chosen – we only feature items we love! As part of our business model we do work with affiliates; if you directly purchase something from a link on this article, we may earn a small amount of commission. Transparency is important to us at Refinery29, if you have any questionsplease reach out to us.
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We’ve all got a "Paper Planes" memory. For most of us, it involves rapping along to those M.I.A lyrics, finger guns waving and mimicking "kerching" sounds as we swung around sticky nightclubs in the late '00s. But there’s actually a conscientious meaning to this anthem that’s worth revisiting.
"The stereotype that’s attached to immigrants is that they come and take the jobs and take the money," M.I.A, born Mathangi Arulpragasam and nicknamed Maya, explains. It’s 2007, and she’s being interviewed by VBS creative director Spike Jonze. "So it was like a funny, spoofy song about that," she adds.
In this snippet of footage, the two are on their way to visit up-and-coming MC Afrikan Boy, who Arulpragasam met on MySpace before eventually collaborating with him on her second album Kala. This interview is just one of many video clips candidly recorded over the course of her career, now featuring in Arulpragasam’s new documentary, MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A. "These new immigrant cultures that have settled in the West are so deep and strong, and it’s part of the fabric of any city, but people feel really threatened and scared about it, or it’s like a dirty word," she continues to explain to Jonze. "You can’t rap about being an immigrant." But as demonstrated by her 15-year career, you can.
At 11 years old, Arulpragasam fled the civil war in Sri Lanka. She moved to the UK with her mother (Kala), sister and brother. Her father, who describes himself as one of the founding forces of the Tamil resistance, the Tamil Tigers, remained behind. "This is what happened to a kid whose dad went off and became a terrorist," a young Arulpragasam tells her video camera, in one of the documentary’s early archival clips.
We learn that Arulpragasam originally wanted to be a filmmaker. As a kid and well into adulthood, much of her time was spent filming anything from conversations about identity with her siblings to herself experimenting with new dance moves at home, recording with ex-boyfriend Diplo and, eventually, 16 years after leaving, returning to her childhood home of Sri Lanka. In the documentary she explains wanting to explore what life is like for her remaining family, and what her life might've looked like had she never left.
Directed by long-time friend Stephen Loveridge, the documentary is peppered with memorable footage of her 2005 Coachella set, a performance on the Grammys stage in 2009 and life on the road with former Elastica frontwoman Justine Frischmann. But at the film's core, and the fierce driving force behind the music, is Arulpragasam's personal connection to the Tamil narrative and an urge to tell the immigrant story to a world that wasn't ready to hear it. "Being the only Tamil in Western media I have a really great opportunity to bring forward what’s going on in Sri Lanka," she explains in a clip of an old American TV interview. "The more successful I’m getting, the direr the situation in Sri Lanka is getting. I think the simple thing to explain it as under the guise of fighting terrorism, there’s a genocide going on."
As we come to understand, her concern for the turmoil in Sri Lanka was often dismissed by '00s media outlets as a convenient, faux-empathetic gimmick. Her resolve to bring the tragedy to the forefront of mainstream attention was met with international accusations of terrorism by those who saw her as too aligned with the Tamil Tigers.
Where M.I.A went, controversy wasn't far behind. And though her forthrightness and rebellious "bad girl" image was readily received by fans (you might remember when she performed at the Super Bowl half-time show with Madonna and Nicki Minaj in 2012, and flippantly gave the camera the middle finger), it was swiftly criticised as sacrilegious when her behaviour didn't fit the Western agenda driven by powers that be. (Footage of a reporter complaining that the incident wouldn't have happened if an American had been performing with Madonna quickly followed. That middle finger almost cost her $16.6 million in damages when the NFL tried to sue her.)
Unsurprisingly, the stories within the music and behind the controversy get lost in the noise. Through this cleverly assembled anthology of Arulpragasam's life, however, we finally get an insight into how the immigrant story – her immigrant story – was pursued so persistently throughout her career. And in this exclusive clip from the documentary, Arulpragasam explains why that's so important.
"I need to keep the immigrant story in my work, always, because that's what I'm trying to make sense of," she explains. "We're used as scapegoats for Brexit, we're used as scapegoats to build a wall. But people have always mixed and mingled and moved and interesting things have happened because of it." Watch the full clip below:
MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A. is in UK cinemas Friday 21st September and in the US Friday 28th September
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Despite overwhelming evidence proving at least 2,975 people died in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, President Donald Trump has chosen to sully the memory of the U.S. citizens we lost in a series of tweets in which he rejected scientific research and his own government's assessment. It's his worst gaslighting yet.
"3,000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000," he wrote.
He added: "This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!"
Trump is lying.
The tweets come just before the one-year mark of Hurricane Maria barreling through Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm, becoming one of the worst natural disasters the United States has seen in recent history.
An independent study from George Washington University released in late August said Hurricane Maria and its aftermath killed at least 2,975 people in Puerto Rico, most of them poor Puerto Ricans living in hard-hit municipalities. The statistical study was commissioned by the administration of Democratic Gov. Ricardo Rosselló and conclusively found that the excess deaths between September 2017 and February 2018 were likely attributable to the storm. After nearly a year, Rosselló's administration updated the storm's official death toll from 64 to 2,975 based on the GWU study.
This was not news for Puerto Ricans — it just confirmed what the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico and several major news outlets have found almost immediately after the storm, as well as what people in the island witnessed every day. A Harvard University study released in May also said the hurricane was likely responsible for at least 4,600 excess deaths between September 20 and until December 31. Research pointed to the interruption of medical care — many times because the lack of electricity, water, and access to healthcare — was the main reason for the increase in deaths. Anecdotally, Puerto Ricans confirm this too.
That at least 2,975 people died after the storm is not some big political conspiracy to make Trump "look bad." It is a fact.
As we near the one-year mark of Maria, Trump is increasingly facing questions about how his administration handled the disaster given the number of deaths. So he is doing what he does best: Lash out. Deflect. Lie.
Earlier this week, he said he thought the response to the storm in "Puerto Rico was an incredible, unsung success." But because facts don't care about your feelings, let's look at all the ways the federal government failed Puerto Ricans.
In the immediate days after the storm, Trump was more preoccupied ranting about NFL's national anthem controversy and feuding with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz instead of signaling to his administration to focus on hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. Per Politico, his lack of tweets and messaging, combined with how he said he didn't consider the hurricane "a real catastrophe," quietly signaled to bureaucrats that Puerto Rico was not among the priorities for an emergency response compared to Texas and Florida after hurricanes Harvey and Irma, respectively.
Here's how FEMA reacted: After Harvey, it took less than six days to deploy 73 helicopters over the Houston area to help delivered emergency supplies and rescue people in critical situations. It took at least three weeks after Maria before Puerto Ricans saw a similar amount of choppers.
Nine days after Harvey, Houston received from FEMA about 5.1 million meals, 4.5 million liters of water, and over 20,000 tarps. The agency also approved $141.8 million in individual assistance to Harvey victims. In that same amount of time after Maria, FEMA just delivered 1.6 million meals, 2.8 million liters of water, and about 5,000 tarps in the island, while approving only $6.2 million for Puerto Ricans. About 30,000 federal emergency personnel were deployed to the Houston area in the first nine days after Harvey hit.
At the same point after Maria, FEMA had sent only about 10,000 people to Puerto Rico.
Before you scream "Puerto Rico is an island!" to justify the emergency response, remember the U.S. reaction to the Haiti earthquake in January 2010. Here's the Washington Post: "Before dawn the next morning, an Army unit was airborne, on its way to seize control of the main airport in Port-au-Prince. Within two days, the Pentagon had 8,000 American troops en route. Within two weeks, 33 U.S. military ships and 22,000 troops had arrived. More than 300 military helicopters buzzed overhead, delivering millions of pounds of food and water."
It was possible to help Puerto Rico with the same urgency the Obama administration helped Haiti. President Trump just chose not to.
FEMA itself recognized its failures in a report published earlier this summer that examined the response to the hurricanes Maria and Irma in Puerto Rico. Another report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said 54% of FEMA's personnel were not qualified for their positions as of October 2017, a month after Maria hit.
A true leader would offer his condolences to Puerto Rico and promise to fix the institutional failures we witnessed over the last year, so next time a disaster strikes we can try to prevent a loss of human life comparable to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Instead, the president's first mention of the at least 3,000 Puerto Ricans we lost are these despicable tweets. When someone shows you who they are, believe them.
Trump said in his posts, "I love Puerto Rico!" His actions prove otherwise.
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In a Bushwick warehouse on Saturday evening, three drag queens danced onstage to the song This Is Me from the movie The Greatest Showman. Hundreds of other queens stared up at them and mouthed the lyrics to the tune as they swayed in unison, entranced. When the movie came out in 2017, This Is Me quickly became a pride anthem for the LGBTQ+ community because of its message of inclusivity and respect. And in that warehouse, This Is Me became the perfect backdrop for Bushwig, an annual festival for drag queens in Brooklyn, for the exact same reason.
Even as society has made major strides in the last few decades, being LGBTQ+ still often feels like being an outsider. So when we're in a space exclusively built for the queer community, we tend to call it a "safe space." That's mostly true — being surrounded by people who share one of your identities is almost always more comfortable — but not always the case. LGBTQ+ people can and do discriminate based on race, size, gender expression, and many other facets of identity. The phrase "no fats, no fems, no Asians" is a well-known problem on Grindr, a popular dating app for gay men. And RuPaul, possibly the most famous drag queen ever, has come under criticism several times for his comments about transgender people.
So while a drag festival like Bushwig sounds like an instant safe space, the event has a policy that reminds people to be respectful of all parts of everyone's identity.
"Bushwig will not tolerate racist, sexist, transphobic, homophobic, biphobic, femme phobic, ageist, ableist, fat phobic, classist, xenophobic, or oppressive behavior or language of any kind at our festival," reads the event's policy to attendees.
Ahead, we talk with 13 drag queens who attended Bushwig about the true meaning of safe spaces, and why it's so important to be able to express themselves without judgment.
"Even going from my apartment to Bushwig, it can feel very scary in New York City. Every time I leave my apartment building dressed in a lewk, there's definitely a little bit of fear. My neighborhood is definitely not used to seeing these characters floating around, so there are some questions, there are some catcalls, it's not welcoming. To have a space like this to come to and feel my fantasy and be who I want to be, it's amazing. It allows me to explore who I am as a queer artist and learn and grow.
"One of the headliners for tonight is Andro Gin, a drag king, which is something you'd never see in the queer or gay spaces in Manhattan. That they're headlining a drag festival is momentous. The fact that we're able to celebrate drag kings, bio-queens (a drag queen who was assigned female at birth), gender non-conforming performers, all these different aspects of gender that aren't typically addressing in mainstream gay culture...it's a nice to have a place where they're celebrated." — Kevin Jaedon
Photographed by Nicolas Bloise.
"I think that these spaces are necessary. A lot of times, queer people don't feel safe expressing themselves in their normal day-to-day life, so safe spaces allow us to have a Christmas, have a holiday, have a time to be our full, true selves.
"If it was just another festival that was about being gay, it would be just like Pride and Pride is normally a space for white, gay men. I feel safe, loved, appreciated, and seen. Queens are so much fun. Life is more fun when drag queens are around. They like to have fun, they like to party, they like to be positive, they like to make you feel good, they like to tell jokes, and I think that is what people need right now in this very troubling political climate." — Dionne Slay
Photographed by Nicolas Bloise.
"[Safe space to mean means] seeing people who are pushing different ideas around me and pushing them further, so I feel secure being able to express whatever I'm feeling because I'm seeing someone do something even crazier. You look around here, and everyone is doing the most.
"Afropunk has been doing that [creating safe space for all identities] for the longest time. Next to their main stage, they have giant signs that say, 'No sexism, no racism, no homophobia,' all of these things. It is important and other events will catch on.
"It keeps us from talking down to our family members, this is our family. There can be a tendency to talk down to each other. But this energy feels so positive and supportive. Even if you feel like your lewk wasn't going to be understood, there's someone who will get it and will live for it." — Adrian Manuel
Photographed by Nicolas Bloise.
"You should always have that safe space, but I also believe that you should push boundaries and make other places that you don't think are safe into safe spaces. If we tuck ourselves away too much, then we don't get the visibility that we're fighting for. I've had a lot of people who say, 'I only go to places that are queer friendly.' But every place should be queer friendly and we should fight for that.
"It feels difficult because you'll have to go against so many systems that are already there, but that's why we're doing it — to break those walls." — Cleo Berlin
Photographed by Nicolas Bloise.
"Safe spaces are important for reforming the culture, so we're accepted throughout every community and everyone can feel welcome. Every variation [of drag queen] is needed, just to show that there are so many different types of people. To look around and see such beauty in different cultures is amazing." — Sweet Tea
Photographed by Nicolas Bloise.
"I think there are so many places in life where you can't really be yourself and you always have to play a part, and safe spaces are where you can play the part you want to play. I'm always going to feel more comfortable around my queer family where everyone celebrates being creative.
"I love being part of the Brooklyn scene because Brooklyn has such welcoming arms and is so diverse. Everybody is welcome, and everything is so boring without that. Even Manhattan has a different vibe, but Brooklyn is community-focused and you can find so many like-minded people who want to express themselves. There's so much more experimentation, and fun, and stupidity — it's just so much more open." — Mahal Kita
Photographed by Nicolas Bloise.
"We need to be able to have spaces where we can creatively express ourselves as well as who we are as a people. Ten years ago it would have been almost unheard of to have a space like this. By growing as a really strong community and pushing safety at clubs, bars, and whatever other places, we've been able to create spaces for us to feel safe.
"But because we've been a community that has been ostracized in the past, I think sometimes we forget to include everyone. It's almost a defense mechanism. Sometimes, we create a safe space for a specific group of people, but in doing that we've ostracized other people from our community. And we need to remember that, especially in times like this, it's important to be inclusive of our queer family at large." — Hannah Lou
Photographed by Nicolas Bloise.
"There are a lot of LGBT spaces that aren't necessarily safe spaces because they're not queer friendly or trans friendly. As someone who is both queer and trans identifying, I find it very important to go somewhere and feel welcome because everyone wants to feel welcome.
"We create these beautiful worlds to walk into where we can celebrate who we are and get away from the heteronormative poison that's often waiting outside." — Eileen Bothways
Photographed by Nicolas Bloise.
"We all are just walking from bar to bar in Brooklyn, but it's nice to be able to come here and stumble around a big space like this and feel comfortable surrounded by other queens. This community is so inclusive, and I know that if you leave the city it's not the same level of inclusivity [in the drag culture there]." — Patti Spliff
Photographed by Nicolas Bloise.
"There are a lot of us who go out looking like this, looking crazy, and just because of who we are there are a lot of places we go where we're nervous to walk outside the door or scared to take the train. So it's important to have spots where we can just be ourselves and not have to think about who's watching us and who's around us and how we may be perceived by other people.
"Being a queen, we're always on display and we always know people are looking at us. But there's a difference between being on the train and knowing that people are looking at you, and being at a performance space and having people look at you. You can see the difference in their eyes and what they're thinking, between 'what is that, why is that, who is that?' and 'oh my god, she's amazing.'" — Vivien Gabor
Photographed by Nicolas Bloise.
"I only ever perform at places where I feel like it's inclusive of everybody, and not only safe for performers but for every single person in the place. And not only safe in that they're literally protected in their physical safety, but that they feel comfortable there and feel like they can get outrageous and everyone will have their back. It's got to be fun. The whole idea of being safe is so you can have fun." — Nicky Ottav
Photographed by Nicolas Bloise.
"I personally don't like the term 'safe space' because I feel that our fore-fathers, they came from radicalness and not being in a safe space to create art. I like spaces like this where we can all be together and talk freely. But I do like the resistance because without resistance there isn't art and we are all artists.
"I don't think a space can ever be totally safe, because what people tend to forget is that you need to get to the space and that's never truly safe. Walking out of my house in my lewk to get into the taxi and then the taxi driver asks questions, and then the taxi driver stops by the side of the road to kick me out...that can happen and it's not safe. Here I feel safe, but I have 'boy clothes' in my bag just in case I have to walk home tonight." — Frieda Slaves
Photographed by Nicolas Bloise.
"I definitely feel more in the zone here [at Bushwig], but it requires a lot of energy. The thing about being a safe space is that you can't guarantee that. So people see you removing your clothes on stage, especially someone they read to be a woman which is how I'm often read, and they assume it's for their consumption. Unfortunately, in a lot of cis gay spaces people really want to touch and grab at the shiny, but it's ever more important in these spaces and as queer folks that we are holding each other to consent. And that being beyond just 'don't touch' to include how we speak to each other and whether or not we assume each other's pronouns. That's part of consent for me, and part of what makes a space safe." — Theydy Bedbug
Photographed by Nicolas Bloise.
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When one London council decided to introduce a "buffer zone" outside an abortion clinic in April, it was hailed a success for women's right to exert control over their own bodies. The area, Ealing council said, would protect women entering the Marie Stopes clinic, following reports that many had been harassed by anti-abortion groups holding daily vigils outside.
Pro-choice campaigners hoped Ealing's move would encourage other councils to adopt the progressive policy, and that it would eventually be rolled out nationwide. But the government today rejected the idea – despite the harassment and damaging behaviour that occurs outside many clinics – appearing to side with anti-abortion groups.
Demands for buffer zones, also known as "exclusion zones", to be introduced in England and Wales came from women's groups and politicians across the political spectrum. But following a Home Office review, Home Secretary Sajid Javid said implementing them outside all clinics "would not be a proportionate response" because harassment was "not the norm'' and that most anti-abortion protests "are more passive in nature".
Pro-choice groups and politicians who backed the policy voiced their outrage on Thursday morning, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn describing it as a "shocking failure to protect women", Labour MP Stella Creasy saying Javid had "let down women in this country", and Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas reiterating that "no-one has a right to harass, intimidate and obstruct women trying to access healthcare".
Many pro-choice supporters also pointed out that the effects of non-violent protest on someone's wellbeing can be equally – if not more – damaging than any potential physical impact. Beth Redmond, 25, came face to face with protestors outside a clinic when she had a medical abortion (the abortion pill) in Essex in 2012 when she was 19, and told Refinery29 the experience had a lasting impact. The group held graphic images and leaflets of foetuses and babies, one of which showed "a happy six-month-old baby with a new mum" and "a bloody foetus" next to it.
Protestors make the experience a lot more stressful than it needs to be.
"It made me doubt myself. Nothing would have stopped me going into the clinic at that stage – I'd thought about it for a couple of weeks at least. But it definitely makes you think, 'Hold on, if these people are saying this about me, calling me a murderer, then maybe I am'," she said. "There's already stigma associated with the procedure, and these people reinforcing that stigma makes you feel like a worse person than you are.
"Protestors make the experience a lot more stressful than it needs to be, and I can imagine a lot of women doubting themselves. I guess that's how they want you to feel. For a few years afterwards I just didn't talk about it, I didn't tell anyone it happened and that was definitely not good for my mental health."
Redmond wasn't politically active then and didn't identify as pro- or anti-choice until she got pregnant, but being confronted with protestors helped to solidify her beliefs. "For someone to make you doubt what you want to do with your own body, what you want to do with your life going forward, is unnerving."
They hit one of us with their car and threw holy water over the steps of the clinic.
The incident inspired Redmond to join the National Abortion Rights Campaign and found a Sister Supporter group in Manchester, where she now lives, to counter-protest the harassers outside clinics. Her group demonstrates every Saturday, some weekdays and twice a year during the religious anti-abortion 40 Days For Life protests.
Redmond shared examples of the behaviour she has seen from various people while demonstrating in Manchester. "Some of the stuff we've seen there is ten times more horrific than what I saw when I was going to [my appointment]. They hit one of us with their car, threw holy water over the steps of the clinic; they wouldn't let one woman walk past them into the clinic and shoved leaflets into people's hands that said 'ask to see the scan'," she recalled. "They have misleading dolls of fully grown foetuses which are obviously not [the same size as] what the majority of people are aborting when they go into the clinic."
Many of the women Redmond has met through her work with Sister Supporter have had counselling or therapy partly as a result of their encounters with anti-abortion groups, she said. "It contributes to people feeling like they can't talk about it because they're worried that people will react in the same way as the protesters did outside the clinic. It definitely impacts women in the long run."
But the effects of these protests aren't just scarring for women who actively elect to have abortions. There's also the potentially destructive impact on women who have been forced to have the procedure for medical reasons. "For them to be going in and be called a murderer on their way in is really upsetting," Redmond added. "If what you expected to be your child is dying and you get called a murderer, then it will stay with you for a very long time. We've definitely seen abuse on a large scale."
She described the government's decision today as "a slap in the face" to not just women in England and Wales, but also for the women of Northern Ireland who still can't access abortions locally and who have to travel to England and then experience abuse on the way into the clinic.
This article was amended on 17th September to clarify a quote.
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Kerri's crisis hit in the middle of a meeting. Until then, nobody knew she had a problem. "I could put some on very quickly and they wouldn’t notice," she told me. But, in reality, she was using lip balm up to 300 times per day.
Lip balm "addiction" is frequently debated in dermatology and psychology. Although it's not a clinically defined addition, there's evidence of what might cause lip balm's overuse on the skin-care side of things. It's true that certain ingredients used in some brands of lip balm can actually dry out your lips and create a cycle of dryness and application, but for some people, the physical symptoms trigger a psychological reaction that can spiral out of control. In an online community called Lip Balm Anonymous, which supports users seeking help to quit, lip balm is treated as though it were a controlled substance. The comments and message boards are filled with embarrassment, anxiety, and anger:
"I’ve been fired from my job at the call centre. Every time I pick up the phone, I smear Chapstick on my face and the telephone. Struggling with this problem for all of my life has led me to accept that a day without [lip balm] could kill me. After trying to go cold turkey last week, I found myself running to a store at 2 a.m., unable to bear it any longer."
"If I don’t use it, I become extremely uncomfortable and can’t think about anything else. I make sure I always have it on me...I worry about what it would be like if there were some kind of event that...disrupts distribution and availability of goods."
"It’s so bad that I will stuff Chapstick in my bra when I don’t have pockets, so that I can have some on me at all times...I’d like to be free, but I don’t know if I can handle it."
Photo: Courtesy of EOS.
Burt's Bees Original Peppermint was Kerri Doherty 's preferred brand when her lip balm usage went off the rails.
"I remember putting it on my lips and putting the tube down. I found myself absentmindedly reaching for the tube later," she explained. "It was so bizarre. I thought, 'Wait, I just put on Chapstick multiple times in the last few minutes and that’s all I can remember.' I was suddenly aware I had this problem."
Kerri never had an issue with substance abuse. As a teenager, she avoided drugs and alcohol, but she recognised that something about her lip balm usage wasn't entirely normal: "If it became absorbed into my lips even a little bit, I would have to reapply. If I didn't, I would start licking, licking, licking my lips. I felt anxious and sick. It was all I could think about until I got some more."
Kerri kept multiple tubes with her, constantly in fear of running out. "When I put it on my lips, this orgasmic wave washed over me, but it was a shameful orgasmic feeling."
At the time, Kerri worked at an advertising agency and managed to hide the behaviour from coworkers by sneaking into the bathroom or pretending to tie her shoe. One day, during a stressful client presentation, Kerri's lip balm ran out — and she panicked.
"I must have been behaving strangely," she says, recalling how she began compulsively licking her lips and chewing the inside of her mouth until it bled. A colleague noticed and asked if she needed to step out.
"There was a Duane Reade across the street. I did not quickly walk there; I raced like a competitive runner." She says she grabbed a tube of Burt's Bees and ran back to work, mashing the tube against her lips. "You know when you see a little kid put on its mom’s lipstick, and they don’t quite know how to do it? That’s what I was doing."
By the time she got back to the meeting, Kerri was calm, and the presentation continued. "Everyone was kind of staring at me," she says. "I assumed they were just concerned because I ran out." It wasn't until after the clients had left that someone told Kerri to go to the bathroom and look at herself in the mirror.
"It looked like I had stuck my face into an entire bag of cocaine," she says. "There was this white, chalky substance all over my face." She looked at the tube and realised that, in her panic, she hadn't actually purchased lip balm. She'd bought a stick of solid, white sunblock and it was smeared all over her face.
"At that point, I realised I had to admit to this."
As embarrassing as the incident was, Kerri now tells the story as a funny anecdote. As a comedy writer, she's used it as fodder for essays and storytelling. (You can hear her tell it on the Risk! podcast.) She's the first to admit that it sounds ridiculous.
While the users at Lip Balm Anonymous call this behaviour an "addiction," Kerri doesn't think her Burt's Bees problem was on par with drug abuse. And, she's right; it's not the same, but it's not harmless either.
Dr. Daniel E. Mattila, M.Div., LCSW-R, a psychotherapist specialising in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, believes compulsive lip balm usage doesn't fit the addiction model, but many of its symptoms are the same: hiding, shame, desperation, overwhelming physical and mental discomfort. The significant difference is the end result. Whereas addiction is stimulation-seeking, compulsion is self-soothing.
"It's not like somebody says, 'Oh my God, I'm going to go home and just use lip balm all night, and it's going to be so great.' It’s something that’s done automatically, to reduce anxiety. "
Dr. Mattila notes that patients bring up compulsive lip balm usage more during the winter, which is why he believes there's a physical component to the issue. "But, that’s really secondary," he says. "It's a ritual and a self-soothing mechanism, just like hand-washing."
Kerri never sought professional treatment for her lip balm usage, and neither we nor Dr. Mattila are in a position to diagnose her. She now lives in Los Angeles and says the milder climate has reduced her need to reapply — but it hasn't eliminated it entirely. "I still keep five tubes in my purse and one at work, but it’s definitely not as intense as it used to be."
Her current favourite is EOS balm, a brand that prides itself on using all-natural, non-drying ingredients. Lip Balm Anonymous lists EOS as one of the lesser villains of the lip balm industry. Like all balms, EOS still falls under the realm of suspicion. "It’s not clear that this product is any less addictive," writes Lip Balm Anonymous. "Indeed, the fragrance, flavour, and unique packaging are likely to only to continue the fetishising of lip balm by addicts."
From Dr. Mattila's perspective, any compulsive behaviour deserves recognition. "People take more of a humorous approach to it. 'Oh, I'm a lip balm addict.' But, like any compulsion, it can start to interfere with life."
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Clothes are meant to cover the body. But lately, I've been inundated with sheer pieces that let you show it all off. As someone who doesn't regularly wear a bra, when faced with see-through items, I'd much rather steer clear of it all together than really figure out how to style it. Which is why I put myself up to the challenge of integrating it into my wardrobe.
It turns out, I've actually found sheer clothing to be extremely liberating — both in a practical sense and a style-minded one. At a time when fashion is leaning towards baggy pants, oversized blazers, and a full-on '80s revival, sheer clothing is the perfect antidote to the maximalist pieces that tend to overwhelm a petite frame like mine. So if you're ready to #FreeTheNipple once and for all (or just want a way to wear your bathing suits for more than just two months of the year), click on for some tips and tricks for styling the sheer trend you're only going to see more of.
Welcome toMyIdentity. The road to owning your identity is rarely easy. In this yearlong program, we will celebrate that journey and explore how the choices we make on the outside reflect what we’re feeling on the inside — and the important role fashion and beauty play in helping people find and express who they are.
Bras? Who Needs 'Em? I kid you not, I have not worn a bra (at my own will!) for probably a year. I have a small chest that doesn't require much support, and after some experimentation, I've realised I just feel better going bra-free. That ethos doesn't change whether or not my clothing is see-through.
Maison Cleo top and skirt.
Photographed by Savanna Ruedy.
Frankly, I'm irked by how overly-sexualised female breasts still are, and freeing the nipple via sheer pieces is the perfect way to stick it to the man, break down barriers, and let it all hang loose (literally).
Maison Cleo top and skirt.
Photographed by Savanna Ruedy.
Can You See My Underwear? (That's The Point) We've been programmed to wear nude underwear under anything remotely see-through, but if it's going to show anyway, why not have fun with it?
Vintage dress; Maryam Nassir Zadeh two-piece.
Photographed by Savanna Ruedy.
As soon as I found this vintage dress from the '50s, the store owner informed me that it no longer had its coordinating slip underneath. Little did she know, in true 2018 fashion, that I planned to show off a neon two-piece bathing suit underneath.
Vintage dress; Maryam Nassir Zadeh two-piece.
Photographed by Savanna Ruedy.
Bathing Suits All-Year-Round Did you pack your bathing suits away the bank holiday? Well, time to bring them back out. A one-piece, like a bodysuit, is a great way to add coverage to a sheer dress.
Rendl swimsuit; Half-Mad dress.
Photographed by Savanna Ruedy.
Since sheer pieces are typically neutral in colour, balance it out by choosing a bolder hue for underneath. This bright pink coordinates nicely, but also packs a punch.
Rendl swimsuit; Half-Mad dress.
Photographed by Savanna Ruedy.
Sheer Textures If going fully sheer feels a little intimidating, try easing into the idea with a sheer knit or woven material, like this metallic sweater. It masks what's beneath a bit more, but offers a similar effect.
Stone top, skirt, and bustier; Stylenanda bag.
Photographed by Savanna Ruedy.
Mix textures by layering a smooth corset over top and throwing in a beaded bag. There's no hiding with these bold, sheer looks, but, if you ask me, you might as well revel in it.
Stone top, skirt, and bustier; Stylenanda bag.
Photographed by Savanna Ruedy.
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"It’s time to give back," Anna dello Russo tells Refinery29 in her hotel room at the Mandarin Oriental in New York City. "It’s time to share my experiences with the younger generation." The VogueJapan editor-cum-street style star is ready for the next chapter of her life.
After announcing that she was done with street style, dello Russo auctioned off her archive of luxury clothing and set her sights on new ventures. To celebrate her 30 years of service to the fashion industry, dello Russo has created a book with Phaidon — or what she refers to as "an experience for the kids" (said warmly in a thick Italian accent). Only, it's not really a book at all.
AdR Book: Beyond Fashion is an offline, interactive work of feel-good fun. "The book became a magic box with all of these ideas inside," she says of its contents, which include several smaller books (a scrapbook, a pop-up book, a diary), posters, stickers, and more. "The point was to have a light conversation around a deep concept because fashion is very difficult to explain or read about. But inside, you can make it your own experience, rather than write something very academic or boring." While there's truth to that sentiment, the "book" does sit comfortably aside the many oeuvres of her colleagues on a coffee table or Diptyque candle-bookended shelf.
Following stints at L'Uomo Vogue and Vogue Italia, dello Russo became one of the most recognisable, fascinating figures of street style. But before that, she was just "the girl from Bari." She studied at the Domus Academy alongside designer Gianfranco Ferré and, in 1989, met the late Vogue editor Franca Sozzani; the rest is history...sort of. As dello Russo points out, not many people even know about her storied career before she caught the eyes of Tommy Ton and Garance Doré. "I knew it," she says. "I knew nobody would look at this part [of the book]. It’s 18 years of invisible, behind-the-scenes work. But in the end, it'll help people get to know me better than the persona that I put out there. This is my background, my history."
In a way, AdR, the character she created via the lens of street style photographers, is inextricable from Anna dello Russo. It's still rare — nay, impossible — not to spot dello Russo outside of the shows every season. For New York Fashion Week, she juggled VIP events tied to her book launch and a jam-packed show schedule. And though she's ready to move on from the days of changing outfits in cars between shows, she makes one thing clear: She doesn't regret any of it. "They’re great memories, but I don't miss it," she says. "Life is an evolution. I never think about the past. Fashion hates nostalgia. This type of visibility is important, but it can be distracting. You don’t know the history of photography or editorial, but you know the last look of an icon on the street."
Dello Russo insists, then, that AdR isn't really her. It never was. "I think I’m like a plant," she explains, moving her hands through the air. "I develop organically. I’m getting older. AdR was like my protection, but it’s not me. Nobody knows me." The book, by the way, does its part to answer surface-level questions about who the real Anna is — and that's someone who prefers to remain private. "AdR is a protection from real life. It became like a person, so through that character, I improved my career; it was like a constant evolution. But Anna is completely another person."
"For me, everything changed so quickly. No one knows where we’re going," she says as she looks toward the future. "Street style is still a great thing; it’s very important to the industry. But for me, it’s over." With the lack of diversity and commodification of personal style, the "younger generation" may agree with her. "It gave me so much at the beginning, but now, playing with clothes outside of the show is no longer what excites me. I’m doing different things now. Before, I always said clothes were my alphabet; now, I need more than an alphabet — I need a way to put the words together; to make more sense. I need syntax."
Despite the flamboyant outfits and over-the-top presentations that happen each year during Fashion Week, minimal hair and makeup looks have felt more like the norm for stylists and models season after season. But this year things have been a little different. Lipstick has been bright and bold, eyes have been graphic and colourful, and the hair? Well, the hair has been both stylish and wearable.
From natural curls to braids, buns, and accessories — in silky, diamond, and beaded varietals — it’s safe to say that this season put the fun back in Fashion Week. You’ll find some of our favourite hair trends from the runway, which will hopefully inspire you to change up your look, ahead.
The Low 'Do
Updos are great and all, but this season was all about taking hair down a peg — literally. Buns, both classic and messy, had a big moment during Fashion Week. Models at Dion Lee wore a low chignon at the nape of their necks, which can be dressed up or down depending on your mood. Plus, they're so easy to recreate with an elastics, brush, and a fistful of bobby pins.
At Naeem Khan, the look was a bit more complex. Hair was tightly pulled back into a low ponytail to start, then the strands left out were rolled up into an elegant woven bun.
The hair at Prabal Gurung was right up our alley. That is, messy. Some models were given tousled low knots with pieces hanging out of the bun and framing the face, like this look on Gigi Hadid.
The Big Slick
If NYFW taught us anything this year, it’s don’t be married to your hair part. Models have been hitting the catwalk with their strands slicked back for an effortless look that still looks put together. At Badgley Mischka, hair was pushed back into romantic waves that gave us bridal vibes.
On the other hand, models at Proenza Schouler had a grungier look with hair gelled back to create a fresh out of the shower effect.
Tory Burch kept the slick trend going, but focused on keeping the roots sleek, and left the ends of the hair teased.
Technicolor Turbans
We’re officially putting all the silk headwraps on our spring shopping list because they were practically everywhere during Fashion Week. Anna Sui sent her models down the runway with loose waves peeking out of silky, printed turbans.
The turbans at Cushnie Et Ocs were made of vibrant, metallic silk that could easily coordinate with any spring makeup palette. We're definitely eyeing this pink number...with the matching lipstick, of course.
Kate Spade’s head accessories were more polished versions of the bandanas we've seen in seasons past. We love that these printed scarves felt like an intentional part of the runway look, but could also be thrown on to mask a bad hair day.
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New Yorkers chose incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo over actress and activist Cynthia Nixon in the state's Democratic gubernatorial primary on Thursday, September 13.
While Gov. Cuomo's campaign had the money and power, Nixon had the hustle. The public-education activist was out greeting voters on the Upper West Side on Thursday evening, almost up until the polls closed. Since she declared her candidacy in March, our inboxes have been constantly buzzing with updates from the campaign — one day she's in Syracuse talking about the minimum wage, the next she's holding a star-studded fundraiser in Manhattan. And, unscientifically speaking, roughly 95% of election-day enthusiasm on social media came from Nixon voters.
Still, Gov. Cuomo's experience — or "the corrupt Democratic machine," as Nixon backers would say — prevailed, and he received 65.6% of the vote to Nixon's 34.4%.
Nixon, who has continuously called out Gov. Cuomo for failing to be the type of progressive Democrat the state needs, succeeded in pushing him to the left on issues such as marijuana legalisation, restoring voting rights for felons, and the housing crisis in New York City. She shed light on his inability to pass single-payer healthcare, properly fund public education, and stay away from the influence of real-estate developers.
In her post-election remarks in front of a lively crowd at Café Omar in Brooklyn, Nixon spoke about how her campaign has already changed the conversation. "We took on one of the most powerful governors in America. It wasn't easy," she said. "We had to fight just to get on the ballot. We had to fight just to get a debate. We started with nothing and we earned every single vote. The establishment came at us with everything they had."
"I'm not discouraged, I'm inspired, and I hope you are, too," Nixon said. "We have fundamentally changed the political landscape in this state. We have changed what is expected of a Democratic candidate running in New York and what we can demand from our elected leaders."
Thanks to Gov. Cuomo's $30 million in campaign cash and his glitzy endorsements — Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden — Nixon faced an uphill battle. His campaign also reportedly spent as much as $500,000 a day in its final sprint, as they became increasingly worried that the youth and progressive energy around Nixon could topple his empire.
Those who voted for Gov. Cuomo largely cited his experience. Monjula Ray, 40, who lives in Greenpoint, said she voted for Gov. Cuomo because he has already accomplished many progressive wins, like legalizing same-sex marriage. "He is a highly effective governor and he's the reason my wife and I could get married in New York," Ray tells Refinery29.
Ray says she was turned off by the fact that Nixon often said Gov. Cuomo "governed like a Republican."
"Find me a Republican governor who has gotten his state gay marriage, a path to a $15 minimum wage, and free college for those who can't pay for it. It's absurd," says Ray.
Nicole Smith, 33, who lives on the Upper East Side, also says she voted for Gov. Cuomo because he's been around the block. "While I haven't agreed with a lot of decisions Cuomo has made over the years, I think he stands a better chance of ensuring my rights as a woman stay intact in NYC. This was also confirmed through Planned Parenthood's endorsement of him." [ Ed. note: The organization's state political action committee endorsed the governor.]
Some of Gov. Cuomo's tactics, such as last-minute campaign mailers that implied Nixon was anti-Semitic, did give Smith pause, but it didn't stop her from voting for him. "The mailers were desperate and obviously the team is feeling the heat, really disappointing."
Millennial women who voted for Nixon said they did so because they were ready for change. "I voted for Cynthia because a ton of the issues she spoke about aligned with what I was concerned about," Kim Garcia, 21, who lives in Yonkers, tells Refinery29. "I commute to school in the city and the subway not running on time is a hassle. I don’t think Cuomo has done much in the eight years he was in office."
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Maniac is nigh, and Netflix has just released another teaser for the series. This new video heavily features Jonah Hill and Emma Stone as two star-crossed patients (and maybe lovers) of an experimental medical facility. Owen (Hill) is there because he is schizophrenic. Annie (Stone) is there because she is depressed, and has been for a very, very long time. Each are given drugs (I think) that take them on various journeys (literally? mentally? emotionally?) where they wind up meeting each other again, and again, and again, in various timelines and in various wigs.
The first teasers and trailers for the series were successfully cryptic, leaving viewers confused at what exactly is going on — and why is Justin Theroux wearing that wig? But now, the dust appears to be settling, and the trippy thriller is coming into focus: it's more Inception than Superbad...and I'm upset!
All I want is a limited comedy series with Stone and Hill and this isn't it. I see far too few jokes, too few embarrassing moments, and absolutely zero mention of Goldschläger. Still, Cary Fukunaga's version of Hill and Stone's relationship is more serious and nuanced than a Judd Apatow stoner-com, and there's no denying the chemistry between these two still steals every scene. The intensity of these two leading roles aren't anything new for the Oscar-winning actress, and Golden Globe-nominated actor, but it's still a bit strange seeing them together under such serious circumstances. But I guess I'm ready to sub in my laughs for gasps to watch the series if it means finally figuring what the hell it's about.
Check out the teaser, "Connection," below:
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Since passing 30, I’m finding I’m getting breakouts along my jawline before my period. I’ve always had pretty clear but dry skin most of my life, so I was not prepared for this! They tend to last up to, and sometimes more than, a week and can be quite painful. Why is it happening in this particular place and how can I make them stop, or at least get rid of them quicker? I’ve tried using a topical salicylic acid treatment but it doesn’t seem to do much.
Help!
Alex, 32
Adult acne is a cruel cosmic joke of enormous proportions. Sure, it sucks having it as a teenager, but at least you’re somewhat united in it, as your friends will probably be suffering too. Plus, you can chalk it up to something of an awkward caterpillar phase along with the mood swings, orthodontia and questionable style choices (you couldn’t pay me to be 15 again, honestly).
Getting it again in adulthood – or for the first time if you made it through adolescence unscathed – feels especially unfair. You’re meant to be at your most confident, your most professional and put-together, but please take comfort in the fact that you’re really not alone. Private dermatology clinics say they’ve seen a 200% increase in the number of patients wanting acne advice in the last two years, and clinical trials ballpark the number of women who suffer from adult acne as anywhere between 12% and 41% of women.
I first asked clinical facialist Kate Kerr, who I’ve entrusted my skin with for the last two years, for her take. "Acne here is very common in your 30s," she began. "It’s often hormonal, but not always. These types of spots you’re describing don’t necessarily mean you have a hormonal imbalance, which is why blood tests may come back with normal results. However, your oil glands may have become sensitive to the levels of hormones you’re naturally producing. Mid-cycle, when your oestrogen production dips and your testosterone levels don’t have anything to hold them back, you can expect to see more breakouts."
You’re not imagining the pain, either. "These kind of spots on the jawline can often turn nodular or cystic. They sit deeper within the skin and create more inflammation closer to the nerves – hence why they’re so sore," added Kerr. As outlined, while your acne might be triggered by hormones, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have an ongoing imbalance per se – it’s more that your sebum production takes any fluctuations as a cue to start whizzing into action. "Lifestyle factors such as stress, poor diet, lack of sleep will all have an impact on our hormones," noted Kerr. "Often with women in their 30s it could be choosing to come off the pill or other hormonal contraception. It can take time for our hormones to balance after a long time on it."
As for treatment, picking and squeezing is not going to help. I’m not totally against pimple-popping (there is a right way to extract, but that’s for another time) but as your spots are under the skin, there’s nothing to 'pop', so to speak – but there is a lot of scarring to leave if you’re not careful. As Kerr told me: "If you exert any pressure on the surface, you can cause trauma underneath leading to more spots, post-inflammatory pigmentation and scarring. Plus, your body will create more white blood cells as a response, which only further inflames the problem."
And as they’re under the skin, a topical salicylic product probably won’t get you very far. I asked consultant dermatologist at the Cadogan Clinic, Dr Anjali Mahto, for some advice on oral options. "After proper, clinical examination and assessment by a consultant dermatologist, drugs such as spironolactone and Roaccutane (isotretinoin) can be helpful for deep, painful spots known as nodules and cysts. This is particularly the case if you’ve got a lot of the spots and they’re persistent and if they result in scarring or affect your mental health and self-esteem. Both medications have the potential for side-effects and a thorough consultation to assess for suitability must take place first."
Roaccutane is fairly well known, but spironolactone is a little newer to the skincare scene. "It’s actually an 'off-label' drug for acne," explained Dr Mahto. "This means that it is not actually licensed for the treatment of acne in the UK and should only be prescribed by a General Medical Council registered consultant dermatologist for safety reasons in this context." It was designed to treat cardiac problems like hypertension primarily, but the reason it’s beginning to crop up for acne treatment is that it’s an androgen blocker, which helps curb the testosterone problem we mentioned earlier.
My advice to you would be to go and see a dermatologist who can take a full skin history from you, look at the blemishes, make note of their details and work with you for a treatment plan. Depending on how severe your spots are and how much they’re impacting you, you can decide on a tailored skincare regime or oral options, but do bear in mind that these nasty nodular ones will be harder to beat topically than, say, a handful of whiteheads.
Good luck!
Daniela
Got a question for our resident beauty columnist Daniela Morosini? No problem, qualm or dilemma is too big, small or niche. Emaildeardaniela@refinery29.uk, including your name and age for a chance to have your question answered. All letters to ‘Dear Daniela’ become the property of Refinery29 and will be edited for length, clarity, and grammatical correctness.
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Unless you've been avoiding the news for the past few years, you'll know that period poverty in this country is a big problem. An extraordinary one in 10 girls have been unable to afford sanitary products. A similar number have had to "improvise" their sanitary wear, using things like socks, T-shirts or tissue paper.
The statistics (from a study done by Plan International UK) make for shocking reading. Even more so when you take into account that not having access to sanitary products can end up with girls missing school – an integral part of them getting ahead and making their place in this world.
Period poverty doesn't stop at schoolgirls, of course. The growing homelessness problem in this country has highlighted another need. As if living between couches, shelters and the streets isn't hard enough, imagine having your period without regular access to bathrooms, or the sanitary products needed. And what about asylum seekers? Unable to work while seeking asylum means no money to buy anything, let alone pads, tampons and the rest.
One part of the UK gets it. Scotland has had period poverty on its radar for a long time and recently became the first country in the world to pass a ruling that will provide free sanitary products to all school-age girls. It's a huge leap forward, and the country should be immensely proud.
However, that's Scotland. What about the rest of the UK and Ireland? Well, luckily there are some incredible organisations – both nationwide and local – that are doing their bit to help out the women in crisis in their areas. Click through to find out what's happening near you, and how you can get involved to help #endperiodpoverty.
The Red Box Project UK-wide
These guys are a UK-wide organisation of volunteers which "quietly ensures that no young woman misses out on her education because of her period." They give boxes stocked full of sanitary wear to schools; all products have been donated via the network of collection points in community locations from cafés to public offices, libraries to shops.
They say: "We now have 118 projects across the UK and two set up in the USA. There are now over 800 active red boxes, 200 people involved and over 750 donation drop-off points. The project grows every day as the need becomes more and more apparent.
We think that it is beyond belief that young women are unable to access suitable sanitary protection and we will continue to work hard to combat period poverty."
How you can help: You can donate sanitary pads to your local Red Box, donate money via their website (even £2 would make a huge difference), volunteer your own time to help organise or even set up your own Red Box in your community.
Bloody Good Period London & Leeds
These guys supply asylum seekers, refugees and others who can't afford the costs of having a period with donated sanitary products. They currently stock 15 asylum seeker drop-in centres in London and Leeds, although they'd like to stock more across the UK.
They say: "We think it's outrageous that period poverty should even be an issue in 2018 in this country, and we're not afraid to shout about it – because we think it's completely unacceptable that anyone should have to stuff a sock in their knickers when they bleed, or not go to school, or work, or basically go about their day because of the insecurity that comes with having to use loo roll instead of a pad, or reuse blood-soaked pads that pose a serious risk to their health... or any of the other shocking scenarios that we hear about all too often."
How you can help: Loads of ways! Donate via their JustGiving page, buy supplies via their Amazon wishlist, apply to volunteer (there are loads of different jobs: managing the locker where they store donations, help with graphic design, marketing and much more) or, if you like comedy, attend one of their Bloody Funny comedy nights. The next one is 2nd October at the Conway Hall in London.
The Trussell Trust UK-wide
This network of food banks has been instrumental in helping families across the UK feed themselves, especially over the past few years. They don't just collect food though; they also collect toiletries – sanitary products, in particular.
They say: "Where a family is experiencing financial hardship and has been in receipt of emergency support from a food bank, that household may inevitably include women struggling to access vital feminine hygiene products. £2-5 per month is just too much of a stretch for some, and if a family has two teenage daughters it’s only too easy to see how this monthly expense could become unaffordable. For this reason, the vast majority of our food banks go above and beyond the provision of food and stock what The Trussell Trust believes must be considered as a basic necessity. The Whitehawk food bank in Brighton runs a fantastic scheme called 'Monthlies', where young women can collect a pack of sanitary products, chocolate and wipes on a monthly basis."
How you can help: You can, of course, donate pads, tampons, etc. to your local food bank or via one of their many supermarket collection points. Otherwise, you can donate money, volunteer your time or even fundraise for them. More information here.
Freedom4girls
Leeds-based charity who collect donations from individuals and companies like Bodyform, (who donated 3,600 packets of sanitary towels to the charity), and distribute them out to women and girls in the community and worldwide who are in need.
They say: "We actively support women and girls in both the UK and worldwide, who struggle to access safe sanitary protection. We envisage a world in which no girl or woman suffers from period poverty or stigma associated with their periods. No girl should miss school because she is on her period. No woman should be forced to miss work because she is on her period. Please help us end worldwide period poverty, together!"
How you can help: There are around 50 donation stations around Leeds you can use to drop off sanitary products. Alternatively you can donate money , attend a workshop making re-usable sanitary products, or set up a donation station of your own.
Homeless Period Ireland Dublin and Nationwide
Now with 24 different collection points across Ireland, Homeless Period exists to help women in crisis by taking your donations and distributing them among various homeless shelters and food banks.
They say: "After witnessing the significant number of homeless women in Dublin and the lack of access to basic sanitation and female hygiene products, in December 2016 the Homeless Period Dublin initiative was born with a view to helping women and girls who found themselves in this situation every month and highlight the issue to the general public. The Homeless Period Ireland hopes to educate people about period poverty and the 'silent struggle' of many women living in Ireland, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. We want the government to take action as Scotland did this year with the introduction of a scheme that gives free sanitary products to women in need. Periods happen every month and unless you are experiencing it, it’s not at the forefront of people’s minds. The women we donate to are always incredibly grateful as it makes them feel like they are not forgotten."
How you can help: Take your donations to one of Homeless Period's drop-off points, or drop them an email to donate your time to help collect and organise the donations.
The Homeless Period Southampton
Founder Kirsty heard about sanitary product donation schemes around the UK but didn't think period poverty would be a problem in Southampton, until she was proved wrong when a charity she used to work for told her how much providing menstrual products to clients cost their organisation.
They say: "This inspired me to build an online community of volunteers who could help me fill and empty collection boxes across the city so we could donate products to local shelters, refuges, support groups, care homes, supported accommodation and more youth charities. We're a small project, and we're not here to change the world or even eradicate homelessness in the city... we just want to give vulnerable people one less thing to have to worry about, and also ensure these brilliant local charities aren't spending chunks of what precious funding they have on something as basic as a pack of towels. At Christmas, we held a big packing party which we called the 'Festive Period' party and the turnout was amazing! One mother and daughter duo had decided not to buy Christmas presents within their family, and instead had pooled all the funds into buying a sackful of menstrual products and chocolates to donate – it was so touching!"
How you can help: Leave donations at one of their drop-off points around Southampton or donate via Amazon or GoFundMe. To get involved in the Southampton project, find Kirsty on Facebook: @PeriodSoton. "Alternatively," she says, "anyone interested in starting their own project, they can drop me a message and I'd be happy to advise!"
The Lunar Project York
Founded by a group of young women after doing outreach work with rough sleepers and realising that the women had no access to menstrual products. The Lunar Project are aiming to eradicate period poverty in York by 2020.
They say: "We provide local community services with our pink boxes, 80-litre crates full of a variety of supplies including clean underwear, which service users can help themselves to. We continue to work to not only eradicate period poverty in York but to smash the stigma surrounding menstruation which has contributed to period poverty. We have supplied hundreds of our service users with products over the past year and ensure any women who are rough sleeping are provided for."
How you can help: "We always welcome fundraising through our GoFundMe page and donations of supplies which can be donated to York libraries throughout the city."
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A lot of things can affect the way you learn about periods and how you experience them. But what about religion? At times revered as a celebration of life and womanhood, menstruation can also suffer under the shadow of shame and stigma in many religions and cultures.
Some religions raise issues around 'purity', while strict rules and customs can dictate what a woman can or can’t do during her period. At the same time, menstruation can also be seen as something to be honoured.
Whether your first period means being showered with gifts or sneaking pads from your mother’s stash, everyone’s experience is different and personal. We spoke to three women from three different religions (Judaism, Catholicism and Islam) and asked them to reflect on how their beliefs have affected their experience of learning about periods, their bodies and sexuality.
Sian
I can’t remember exactly how old I was when I learned about periods but I do know that in primary school it was talked about in a sex education class. I wasn’t properly aware of what would happen to me until I was around 11 or 12 and my friends started to get their periods.
I went to a Jewish secondary school and took Jewish studies at GCSE but I didn’t really learn how periods would impact a future relationship with my husband until the lead-up to my wedding. In Judaism, when a woman is due to get married they’ll learn a lot about their period and how it fits into a Jewish marriage, and so I attended classes on being a Jewish wife and what it meant.
I am a practising Jew but it wasn’t until this point that my religion had a real impact on my attitude towards my body and my periods. It made me much more aware of my period, how long it lasted and when I was due – mainly to ensure I hadn’t bled for a certain number of days before going to the Mikvah (a ritual bath used for cleansing purposes by men and women) to be pure and clean for the wedding.
A huge part of the classes was around my period, and how it would affect the physical and emotional relationship with my husband. Within the Jewish religion, once a woman starts to bleed she is no longer 'pure' so isn’t allowed to touch her husband. This time of the month is known as Nidah and it is for the entire time the woman is bleeding, followed by seven clean days. Although I don’t keep it, the ideas behind it make total sense to me: it creates space in the relationship to focus on the emotional needs of each other without the physical needs getting in the way.
What I learned highlighted the power of the female body and reminded me what a period represents: that the female body has the ability to grow life. My mum was always open about periods growing up and my dad, not surprisingly, didn’t want to hear anything about it. I know my husband won’t want to talk about it much with our daughter when the time comes.
Yusr
I am deeply religious and spiritual and I see Islam as a way of life so it affects every decision I make. Externally, I don’t look very religious as I don’t wear a headscarf or cover up, so people are often surprised when I tell them I pray five times a day.
However, I think it is a personal connection between oneself and God. It has helped me through very tough times and keeps me grounded as a person.
My mum has always been quite open about periods. I remember a great celebration when I first started my period at the age of 12 – my mum would shower me with gifts, as well as calling up and telling other family members, embarrassingly enough, as it was celebrated as an entrance to womanhood.
My dad never really spoke about it at all, except to congratulate me when I first started. He was outnumbered by females (my mum, sister and myself) so there was plenty of period talk but he never really got involved.
I’d been quite desperate to start my period so I could feel more 'adult' and join in with friends who had already started. However, I remember when I first noticed I was bleeding, there was an unexpected sense of sadness and loss which made me cry. I think it was a mourning for my childhood and I regretted having been so desperate to start. Seeing how positive and celebratory my mum was made me feel a lot better.
I was taught how to calculate when my period was due and my mum encouraged me to write the dates of my period in a diary, which I am so grateful for as I have a brilliant awareness of my body and when I am ovulating. I’m always prepared for my periods before they start and aware of how they’ll affect my mood.
The Quran mentions menstruation several times, so I think that normalised it for me and I felt less embarrassed asking questions as it wasn’t a taboo subject. During Eid, if I’m on my period, I don’t pray – although I still attend Eid prayers in the mosque. I also don’t fast or pray on my period but I’m still able to join in any celebrations and will still cook and eat with the family during Ramadan, so I don't feel exempt.
As a young teen it was sometimes embarrassing when I had to sit out of prayers; I’d get teased by male cousins and friends as they knew the reason why. As I got older though, I felt a sense of importance.
I think that the body is in a state of constant worship when we’re menstruating so we don’t need to pray when we’re on our periods. I’m aware some people believe that women aren’t allowed to pray or have sex during their period because they’re 'dirty' but this isn’t the case. It’s actually a blessing to be able to take a paracetamol and have some chocolate when I’m on my period, instead of fasting from sunrise to sunset, so it’s definitely not a form of oppression.
This makes me feel respected and well looked after by the religion as I’m still able to worship, but in a way that honours my body at a time when it may be feeling more run-down and tired or weak.
Olivia
I always think of my upbringing as pretty Catholic – I went to church every Sunday and used to do readings and sing in the choir. I also went to catechism classes and did my Holy Communion. Dara O'Briain is quoted as saying "I don't believe in God, but I am still a Catholic" and I feel that sums up my family and their beliefs. It is more of a cultural thing.
My relationship with religion was really positive actually. My grandparents were devout Catholics and my granddad went to church every day of his life.
I had no education about periods until it was way too late, and even though I was at a secular secondary school, I don't think anything like that was mentioned until GCSE science, when we studied reproduction. There was lots of shame around sex and sexuality that was nothing to do with religion. Everything I learned about periods was through girls with older sisters.
I think I was about 14 when I started my period and I was way too embarrassed to tell my mum. She eventually confronted me as she noticed all her sanitary pads going missing.
I think because of their parents and their Catholic upbringing, my own parents just didn't know how to talk to me about sex. My dad never attempted to (thankfully) and my mum got so embarrassed she didn't really make any sense. Although her intentions were good, it definitely left me confused and feeling like sex was something to be really, really embarrassed about.
I thought there was some physical indicator to adults everywhere that let them know if you had sex, like a flashing neon light, and I also thought you only had to do it once to tell God you were married and wanted a baby. I remember when my older cousin told me the whole story, I didn't actually believe her.
I don't think my religion stigmatises periods, but definitely sex and female sexuality. Luckily, I never absorbed that messaging. I recently did a reading at a friend's Catholic wedding and felt strongly about the mentions of wives being subordinate to their husbands. I have no negative feelings towards religion, but I really hate the outdated patriarchal teachings.
I think if it was up to religion, I would be pretty clueless about my body and think my only role in the world is to get married and reproduce. But to be honest, my experience of secular education wasn't much better. I still can't get over the lack of information women get about their own bodies. We’re taught to feel ashamed about our periods, sex and sexuality, and it takes years to unlearn. Also, period poverty in the UK – one of the richest countries in the world – is despicable. We can't blame religion for that.
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Tickled pink. Red with rage. Got the blues. Green with envy. Shrinking violet.
Colour permeates every aspect of our lives but, until recently, fashion had a very long love affair with black. Think of designers’ end-of-show bows, when they would emerge onto the catwalk, serious in staid black, a signifier of their focus and dedication to the art they create. Think of industry giants like Diana Vreeland, the Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue editor, who favoured clothes as black as her raven hair, or creative director Grace Coddington, who is rarely seen out of the obsidian shade.
What about the unspoken rule that New Yorkers simply don’t wear colour, a notion satirised in the 1957 Audrey Hepburn musical Funny Face. Maggie Prescott, the fictitious editor of a fashion magazine, said to be inspired by Vreeland, bursts into song proclaiming pink to be the season’s colour du jour. After the number – "Think Pink!" – a colleague asks if she’ll be donning the saccharine shade. "Me?" she replies. "I wouldn’t be caught dead." From Coco Chanel’s legendary 1926 little black dress through to Helmut Lang’s '90s minimalism and Olivier Rousteing’s penchant for black’s all-out sexiness at Balmain, fashion has been obsessed with black for aeons.
This hasn’t always been the case, though, and throughout fashion history colour tells a rich story of class, politics, consumerism and self-expression. Although it’s difficult to pin down an exact moment in time when humans started employing colour in garments, a look through art history shows how vital colour was in making a statement about its wearer. "Colour in clothing, especially bright, saturated and vibrant colours, were often highly symbolical and reflected the status of those wearing the clothes," Dr Alexandra Loske, art historian, curator at the Royal Pavilion & Brighton Museums, and author of upcoming book Colour: A Visual History, explains.
The colour purple, for instance, Loske says, was worn by emperors and empresses, as well as the heads of churches. "The Byzantine Empress Theodora is often depicted wearing a purple robe, the dye a Tyrian purple made painstakingly from the secretions of Murex snails. Unsurprisingly, the dye and colour is called 'Imperial' or 'Royal' purple. It reigned supreme until the chemist William Henry Perkin invented 'Mauveine', an artificial purple, in 1856, when it became purely a colour of fashion." Red was typically worn by those in royal positions, Loske explains, thanks to its allusion to expensive cochineal dyes, while the Virgin Mary is often depicted in religious paintings wearing blue: "A wondrous, exotic, and expensive pigment ultramarine, made from the gemstone lapis lazuli."
While we associate white with "purity, virtue and perfection", Loske highlights its reservation for the refined upper and middle classes, because it wasn’t suitable attire for those working in laborious – and thus dirty – industries. "Think of the gauzy neo-classic dresses worn by women in the early 19th century – greetings from Jane Austen’s characters! – or the frilly white shirts worn by men in the romantic period," she says. Now, white retains its moral connotations (it is still the colour expected of most brides) but finds itself workplace-appropriate – albeit a very different kind of work.
Historical class associations of colour can be seen in even the most interchangeable hues. Loske highlights the difference between indigo and black: "Curious, given how close they are in chromatic terms, that they are miles apart when we think of 'blue collar workers' and blue jeans as the epitome of 'working class' yet black suits or LBDs are associated with elegance, success, sophistication and formality." Significant meaning can be found in every nuance of colour, proving that what we wear is never simply about taste.
With the turn of the 19th century came the availability of synthetic dyes, and with it, the age of consumerism and the inevitable boom of the high street and fast fashion. While the rise of accessible colourful clothing was progress for the democratisation of self-expression, it sometimes backfired. "Green was popular in women’s clothing through the 19th century," Loske explains, "but many of the 'modern' green dyes were arsenic-based, and copious cases were reported of women dying of the poison being released once they started sweating in their clothes."
While there’s no danger of being poisoned by your favourite pea green midi dress in 2018, our renewed appetite for colour mirrors the dawn of consumerism, over 100 years ago. From Sies Marjan, the brand that brought acid yellow silk dresses, electric blue suiting and burnt orange knitwear to a previously pitch-dark New York Fashion Week schedule, through to Kenzo’s use of paintbox-bright colour-blocking separates, via Delpozo’s milky pastel hues, scene-stealing colour has made waves from the catwalks to the high street over the past few seasons.
"Roksanda’s collections are always full of colour," Natalie Kingham, fashion and buying director of Matches Fashion, explains. "The AW17 show comes to mind, which featured beautiful reds, mustards, and blue tones. Richard Quinn and Halpern also use colour well; their collections are always bright and unforgettable." And it’s not just designer collections that are awash with colour; stroll down Oxford Street and you’d be hard pressed not to find a fuchsia blazer or duck egg blue prairie dress. What exactly has made us brave the bold and ditch black in favour of a kaleidoscopic wardrobe?
Well, the restrained palette of normcore enjoyed sovereignty for some time, influenced by Phoebe Philo’s Céline and the success of outdoorsy brands like Fjallraven and Patagonia, and our magpie-like attraction to colour could be seen as a direct backlash to that. We waved goodbye to neutrals and said hello to the all-out maximalism of Alessandro Michele’s Gucci, all royal purple and high shine gold. Of course, like at the turn of the century, it could come down to consumer demand. Trends move faster than ever before, reflecting our 21st-century impatience and need for new: what better way to grab a shopper’s attention than a vivid shock-factor shade?
Like all things, it may be shaped by our relationship with social media. "I think that Instagram has made our customers braver in their colour choices, and given them guidance on how best to clash colour and wear it confidently in everyday situations," Kingham states. Steeped as we are in a digital alternate reality that trades in the currency of aesthetics and peacocking, is it any wonder that the brightest colours receive the most likes? When highly saturated unicorns, rainbows and glitter rule the Instagram grid, it makes sense that we’d step up our sartorial game to cultivate the most aesthetically pleasing feed. "Social media suits and perhaps demands colour," Loske says. "How else to stand out?"
The same could be said of street style, which now has just as much influence on our shopping habits as the fashion month collections themselves. Gone are the days when Susie Lau was the only show attendee with a penchant for pop-colour print. From Julia Sarr-Jamois to Paloma Elsesser, street style is saturated with every shade in the spectrum.
For Leatrice Eiseman, executive director at the Pantone Colour Institute, the high-riding wave of colour is down to the kids. "Our relationship with colour has changed hugely," she explains. "Today, people are more open – especially younger people, or people who think young – to defying the old and absolute colour rules about what is appropriate for certain uses. I think this is all to the good – using colour is a creative exercise and shouldn’t be bound by too much dogma." Could it be that, in the face of dark and heavy clouds over the political, social and environmental aspects of our lives, we’re embracing colour as an act of defiant optimism?
Eiseman certainly believes so: "Just as we reached for coloured crayons as children, giving us the freedom to create, colour still offers the opportunity for creative expression and enables us to escape and fantasise." This, too, could be reflected in the naming of two colours after the youngest generations: millennial pink and Gen Z yellow. As millennial pink was first employed by a switched-on, smart generation of young women to reclaim the femininity of a new wave of feminism, yellow represents the hopeful outlook of the activist teens of Gen Z. "Millennials are very aware of how pink has become a colour that is no longer meant for women only, but can be worn by men, too," she says. "Gen Z yellow speaks to hope and optimism – something so necessary in thinking about the future."
Elizabeth von der Goltz, global buying director at Net-A-Porter, says that sales of both hues have increased significantly over the last year. "There’s something very uplifting about both colourways, something we’re seeing more often," she explains. Within colour’s triumphant return to fashion, which other shades have stood out, dominating both the catwalks and high street? Nicoll Blue was created by London Fashion Week and Pantone to honour the life of late designer Richard Nicoll, who often used the duck egg hue in his collections. While it was created in 2017, the soft pastel has enjoyed a renaissance this year, appearing on the catwalks of SS18, from Eckhaus Latta to J.W.Anderson.
Tomato red and hi-vis orange have emerged as joyful favourites over the past few seasons, with the former featuring heavily on the streets of fashion month AW17 via head-to-toe tonal get-ups inspired by vivid collections from Ashish, Dior, Balenciaga and Valentino. The steady influence of streetwear, meanwhile, where the mundane – and bizarre – becomes elevated, may explain the popularisation of the latter, once the preserve of builders and baggage handlers. Fenty x Puma and Raf Simons presented very tongue-in-cheek takes on hi-vis orange jackets at AW18, which resulted in the shade multiplying across the high street this summer.
Finally, one that has shaped much of our collective consciousness this year is Pantone’s colour of the year 2018: ultraviolet. Pantone draws inspiration for its selection everywhere, from the natural world to art and film. "Even strong social issues, such as causes and movements can inspire specific colours," Eiseman explains. While many attributed ultraviolet to the Purple Rain musician and creative force Prince, who died the previous year, it was, in fact, inspired by new scientific research. "Ultraviolet was inspired in part by new research on anthocyanins, as they are found in purple foods and we now know how beneficial they are in the human diet." Could the aubergine emoji have been responsible?
Our relationship with colour is constantly evolving. Perhaps millennial pink won’t mean what it means today in 50 years' time; after all, pink ’s feminine connotations only came about after the Disney-fication of the colour in children’s clothing. Who knows what the colours that have shaped the past few years will come to mean in the future. This changing story may see the prevalence of black return to fashion, too. A classic, flattering and multifaceted colour, it manages to be both mysterious and self-important, anonymous and attention-drawing. And while that return may be inevitable, history guarantees that colour will prevail in its prismatic and joyful way.
Scarlet: dress by Eudon Choi, coat by Simone Rocha, shoes by Aeyde. Tangerine: dress by LF Markey, trousers by Chalayan, sunglasses by Beyond Retro. Gen Z Yellow: Coat by Angel Chen. Ultra Violet: shirt by Beyond Retro, trousers by Bogdar. Nicoll Blue: top by Paula Knorr, trousers by Kaimin, dress by Adeam, shoes by Aeyde, bag by Roksanda. Millennial Pink: blazer by Gabriella Hearst, top by Ermanno Scervino, skirt by Alice McCall, tights and socks stylist's own, bag by Shrimps.
Update (14th September 2018): Lena Dunham has responded to the backlash surrounding her involvement with a controversial Revolve sweatshirt, posting on Instagram that she would "rather go naked than promote exclusivity".
In the caption of a photo of herself naked in the bath, Dunham appeared to distance herself from the brand. She said she would be "only repping brands that cater to ALL women" in upcoming TV appearances.
"In response to the sweatshirt debacle of yesterday, I’ve had some amazing dialogue with other women about representation, reclaiming negativity and size inclusive clothing brands, she wrote.
Original story (13th September 2018): Lena Dunham has found herself in hot water on social media over her involvement in creating a sweatshirt that has been perceived to be "fat phobic".
On Wednesday, a sweatshirt designed by LPA and sold by online retailer Revolve attracted an immediate social media backlash for its slogan: "Being fat is not beautiful, it's an excuse." Countless people on Twitter and Instagram described it as fat phobic and encouraging of eating disorders. Many also criticised the brand for using a slim white model, selling only up to an XL size and for charging over £100.
Model Tess Holliday tweeted a screenshot of the sweatshirt and called the brand "a mess", while others including actor Jameela Jamil asked the brand what on earth it was doing.
Just think of how many people at @REVOLVE had to approve this concept before it got printed on a shirt, produced, and put online. There are SO MANY things you can do to “raise awareness for cyberbullying” that are not this...? like multiple people actually signed off on this wtf pic.twitter.com/vJgvfSWklW
so the brand that doesn’t cater to women above a size 10 @REVOLVE made these sweatshirts to combat “internet trolling” but decided to put the sweatshirt about fat shaming on a skinny model. pic.twitter.com/4WaeVHDjn2
Hey @REVOLVE what the actual fuck is this??? You actually were my favorite place to online shop but the fact that this made it through however many people it did and on to your website is so fucking mind blowing and disappointing. Biggest fail of a campaign I’ve ever seen pic.twitter.com/mdhOMFXV7n
The item was part of a line of sweatshirts featuring similarly offensive quotes, which had been intended to shine a light on the abuse and trolling women face daily online. The quote in question was originally directed at model Paloma Elsesser. Emily Ratajkowski, Cara Delevingne and Suki Waterhouse were also involved in the collection with Dunham and Elsesser.
Then Lena Dunham waded into the row on Instagram and was similarly condemnatory, but revealed she was involved in creating it. She admitted that while she had actually been involved in creating the line alongside other women including Elsesser, after being asked by her friend Pia Arrobio (who created the brand LPA), she hadn't been aware of how the sweatshirt would be marketed.
Dunham said the sweatshirts were meant to "highlight quotes from prominent women who have experienced internet trolling & abuse", with the proceeds intended to "benefit charities that help young women by empowering them to express themselves through writing and art."
She went on to condemn the optics of Revolve's marketing, which "presented the sweatshirts on thin white women" without consulting her or any of the women involved, "never thinking about the fact that difference and individuality is what gets you punished on the Internet, or that lack of diversity in representation is a huge part of the problem (in fact, the problem itself)."
She went on to withdraw her support for and association with the collab, while insisting that she still supported her friend's brand, LPA. "I am deeply disappointed in @revolve’s handling of a sensitive topic and a collaboration rooted in reclaiming the words of internet trolls to celebrate the beauty in diversity and bodies and experiences that aren’t the industry norm."
London-based artist and social issues advocate Florence Given first drew attention to the problematic sweatshirt, which has since been pulled from Revolve's website, with a series of screenshots on Instagram. She posted screenshots of a direct conversation between her and LPA. A spokesperson for the brand called the situation a "nightmare" and told Given: "The whole point was the exact opposite of this."
Revolve said in a statement that the collection had been released "prematurely" on its website and "without context of the overall campaign". It said the image "regrettably featured one of the pieces on a model who's size was not reflective of the piece's commentary on body positivity."
The company continued: "We at Revolve sincerely apologize to all those involved – particularly Lena, Emily, Cara, Suki and Paloma – our loyal customers, and the community as a whole for this error.
"The collection has been pulled. We are proud to donate $20,000 to "Girls Write Now" in the hopes that those who need it can still benefit from what was to be a meaningful, insightful and impactful collaboration by LPA."
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The new iPhone Xs Max is the biggest yet from Apple with its 6.5-inch screen, which is all very well for those with big hands, but the rest of us – particularly women – will run the risk of a shattered screen every time we use it one-handed.
This hasn't gone unnoticed, and Apple is facing a backlash for making phones that are too large to fit in the average woman's hand. The tech giant also recently revealed that it would be discontinuing its 4-inch iPhone SE, which drew ire online.
People have been calling out the company on Twitter for failing to take women's bodies (and needs more broadly) into account. The average female hand is an inch shorter and and almost half an inch less wide than a male hand.
"Welcome to the big screens" says Apple and women like me with small hands who need the most secure phone for safety reasons are stuck with something they can't hold and constantly risk dropping. Company that designs $5 billion headquarters without a childcare center for the win. pic.twitter.com/Owzy51RsrH
Thought the iPhone XS meant xtra small so I’ve gotten myself xtra excited about something finally fitting in my xtra tiny hands again. Sort your marketing out @Apple.
Even campaigners and politicians have joined the chorus of dissatisfaction. Sophie Walker, the leader of the Women's Equality party, said a disregard for women's needs was a thread that ran throughout Apple and described the male-dominated company as "obsessed with size".
She told The Telegraph: "Apple's UK Head Quarters has a gender pay gap of 24%, and men's bonuses are 57% higher than women's. So do I think the boys at the top consider women when making design decisions? No I don't.
"Until companies like Apple have women represented equally at senior levels – as in all areas of business, politics and the public sector, women's needs are an afterthought. The boys at Apple are obviously obsessed with size but sometimes performance matters too."
Feminist campaigner Caroline Criado Perez, who was behind the introduction of a Millicent Fawcett statue in Parliament Square and the Jane Austen £10 note, said she had repetitive strain injury (RSI) from having an iPhone 6, which stopped when she switched to an iPhone SE.
Anyway I’m of course delighted the mail picked up the story but my god the RAGE in the comments. Equality doesn’t mean pretending I have man hands...sorry
"It genuinely does affect women's hand health – women do buy more iPhones than men – it just baffles me that Apple doesn't design with our bodies in mind," she told The Telegraph. "We should be furious about this, we are paying just as much money for it as men for a product that doesn't work as well for us."
Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, also said women's needs were frequently ignored in design and technology development. "The default standard is always that which suits a man. Companies have got to get better at recognising that their idea of normal should account for all their customers."
Sam Smethers, the chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said women's lives would improve if companies took their needs into consideration more often. "Whether it be services, products or the world of work, if we started in a different place with things designed by women for women we would improve women's lives & we would all benefit."
Apple has yet to comment on the issue.
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Pret is already one of the best high street chains – if not the best – for vegan food, and its upcoming autumn menu just made it an even bigger draw. The menu, launching on 25th September, features three new vegan sweet treats among its 15 new items, many of which are also veggie.
Vegan and GF treats
Not content with getting everyone (veggies and carnivores alike) hooked on its existing irresistible vegan snacks – the dark chocolate and almond butter cookie and chocolatey coconut bite – it's introducing even more. Soon to be added to the menu are dark chocolate almond butter bites with sea salt (£1.45), dark chocolate salted almonds (£1.45) and a coconut and mango bowl (£2.99) with coconut yoghurt and granola.
Image courtesy of pret.
There's also a new almond butter and jam brownie (£1.60) on its way for gluten-free eaters, inspired by peanut butter and jelly.
Breakfast
Pret is launching baked "power omelettes", a current favourite in the US, in the UK for the first time. Pick between the veggie egg white power omelette (£3.50; pictured above) with feta, red pepper, spinach and Italian cheese, and a cheesy ham and spinach version (£3.50). For the sweet-toothed, there's a new jam croissant (£1.70) coming soon to sit alongside its existing butter, chocolate and almond pastries.
Image courtesy of pret.
Hot food
New (non-veggie) macaroni cheese alert! Brace yourself for a lasagne macaroni cheese (£5.50), combining tubetti rigati pasta, a mature cheddar béchamel sauce, cauliflower florets and beef cooked in a rich tomato sauce and topped with breadcrumbs.
Image courtesy of pret.
There's also a range of new toasted baguettes in selected shops only: spicy chicken (£4.99), salt beef and pickles (£4.99), artichoke and mozzarella (£4.75), and prosciutto and mozzarella (£4.99).
The chain will also continue serving its popular vegan and veggie hot food options, its pea and mint soup (£3.60) and Tuscan bean soup (£3.60). The autumnal pumpkin spiced latte (£2.85) will also be making a comeback, which can be made vegan if ordered with soya or rice-coconut milk.
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After a client at an Albuquerque, NM spa got an infection, health officials in the state have urged anyone who got a "vampire facial" at the spa to get tested for HIV and other blood-borne infections, including hepatitis B and hepatitis B.
"It is very important that anyone who received a vampire facial or other injection related service at the VIP Spa in May or June of 2018 come to the Midtown Public Health Office for free and confidential lab testing and counselling," Lynn Gallagher, cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Health, said in a statement released on Tuesday.
As you can probably tell the vampire facial — which is supposed to boost healthy skin cells — is not for the faint of heart. (Kim Kardashian famously wept through her own facial on an episode of Kourtney and Kim Take Miami and later said it's the one treatment she'd never do again).
When done properly, the vampire facial is safe, but if clinics don't sterilise the micro-needling pen or dispose of it between facials, for example, that might expose patients to infections.
In this particular case, the New Mexico Department of Health's statement says that VIP spa has been shut down for further investigation because "practices were identified at the spa that could potentially spread blood-borne infections such as HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C to clients." And Michael Landen, MD, epidemiologist at the New Mexico Department of Health, told local news network KOAT that upon inspection, he was concerned with the way the spa stored, handled, and disposed of needles.
While it's not exactly clear how the needles at VIP were used, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C can be spread through needlestick and other sharp injuries, mucous membrane, and skin exposures.
"That's concerning, because if needles aren't handled appropriately, you could potentially increase the risk of a blood-borne infection," Dr. Landen told KOAT.
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That was Lyndsey Scott 's first reaction when she saw the trolling responses to an Instagram post shared one week ago by the popular tech account coding.engineer. The post shows a nearly 10-year-old photo of Scott, a former Victoria's Secret model, walking down the runway, clad in lingerie and surrounded by a train of colourful balloons. It is overlaid with text: "This Victoria's Secret model can program code in Python, C++, Java, MIPS, and Objective-C," and accompanied by a caption that reads "Coding Is For Anyone!"
The post would not have been newsworthy if everyone prescribed to that truth. Unfortunately, we know this is far from reality, and the backlash to Scott's photo became just the latest in a string of incidents that show the steep cliff facing women in tech.
Scott says she didn't become aware of the post until a few hours after it went up on Instagram, when someone tagged her in the comments. There, she saw a range of demeaning and hostile responses, which ranged from the creepy ("I love her, she's mine, stay away. She's my precious!") to the grossly discrediting ("Yeah she can write Hello World").
Many others came to Scott's defence before she chimed in with her own comment, which she later she shared on Twitter: "I have 27481 points on StackOverflow; I’m on the iOS tutorial team for RayWendelich.com; I’m the Lead iOS software engineer for @RallyBound, the 841st fastest growing company in the US according to @incmagazine, I have a Bachelor’s degree from Amherst where I double majored in computer science and theatre, and I’m able to live my life doing everything I love. Looking at these comments I wonder why 41% of women in technical careers drop out because of a hostile work environment."
Despite her many accolades, Scott's used to not being taken seriously. She doesn't think it's because she's a model. Instead, she attributes it to being a woman in tech.
"[I've seen] people who aren't models, they're just women, get the same sort of treatment on the internet and in real life," she told Refinery29. "If someone doesn't look like the image that people have in their mind of the conventional programmer, they often have to do more to prove them false."
These beliefs are reflected in the numbers: According to the National Centre for Women and Information Technology, women made up just 26% of the computing workforce in 2017. This figure falls to just 3% for women of colour.
Scott, who came to New York after graduating college to pursue acting, fell into modelling when she signed with an agency that represented both actors and models. She soon earned an exclusive contract with Calvin Klein, and then landed the crème de la crème of the modelling résumé, a spot in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show lineup, in 2009.
"If someone doesn't look like the image that people have in their mind of the conventional programmer, they often have to do more to prove them false."
But after modelling for several years, Scott decided she wanted to re-focus on her acting career, and moved L.A. In search of a way to support herself while going on auditions, she picked back up computer programming, which she had studied in school. She quickly found that just because she knew how to code didn't mean others would treat her like a professional.
"I'd walk into a room of programmers and say, What are you talking about, and they'd say, Oh, you wouldn't be interested," she says. "I'd be avoided — no one would want me on their team, or I'd end up on a team, and they would give me a small task. People would slip up sometimes and say that I was learning to code, or starting to code, instead of talking about me like I was an actual iOS developer."
So Scott took the situation into her own hands: She started answering questions on Stack Overflow, where developers go to share knowledge and can earn industry cred by answering others' posts. After just a month, she rose to number one on the site's list of iOS programmers. That screenshot of her top ranking (left) was finally enough to help her land a few gigs, which led to others. Now, she builds apps for clients such as the Aids Walk, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and Susan G. Komen Foundation — while also acting and screenwriting.
She sees her knowledge of the modelling and entertainment industries as a major asset to her work as a programmer:
"When you're a programmer, technology is nothing unless you have other interests to apply that to," Scott told Refinery29. "Any other interests that I have come in handy when I'm doing work for various companies, because technology is a part of people's real lives. It's not isolated."
This is a perspective that is just starting to take root within the tech industry now, as platforms like Facebook are forced to grapple with the real-world impact of issues such as election interference and fake news.
Scott, who has advocated for more diversity in tech in recent years, is hopeful that the Instagram post is another opportunity to bring light to the problem. She's already heard from many women as well as men, who have reached out to share their own stories of adversity and support, giving her hope.
"There's this rallying of powerful women who are willing to talk about what they've been though, and raise their voices to change it so [we can make tech] a safe space for everyone."
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