Getting my body ‘back’ isn’t what I thought — When I got pregnant, I knew it would wreck my body. If the internet hadn’t clued me in, the volcanic amounts of vomit would have: your body is no longer yours, nausea told me. Over the next nine months, I threw up twelve pounds of body weight, then scarfed down…

Here’s what I learned — My day starts at 5:30am. Not with a shower, or a cup of coffee, but by leaping directly into work. It ends at 7:30pm, when I faceplant onto my couch. Sometimes, I get a 30-minute lunch break in the middle of the day. Usually, I don’t. This is true every…

What I found surprised me — I’m not normally hyper-political. I vote, but I don’t knock on doors. I’ve never been to a protest, and I don’t make angry calls to Congress. But recently, I realized that I had to be more involved if we want democracy to survive this bruising year, so I signed up…

A moderate American’s plan for now through Dec. 8 — I don’t typically go to protests. I’m an even-tempered, introverted writer with two small kids and not a lot of time. Wandering around in a big crowd, shouting at nobody—it’s not my thing. When an alleged rapist and con man ascended to the White House, was I horrified? Yes. But…

What beauty gives you, and what it doesn’t — I started getting love letters in sixth grade. Boys would thrust damp, nervous tokens into my hands in the hallway: Savage Garden lyrics calligraphed onto construction paper, a Backstreet Boys CD covered in heart-shaped stickers, more than a few missives folded inside notebook paper origami. …

It’s not a mentor, a colleague, or an investor—it’s something else entirely. — In my early twenties, I founded an education nonprofit. I was proud of it; students enjoyed our programs, the ranks of volunteers steadily grew. The bank account stayed in the black (if by only a hair). Left to my own devices, I would have kept the organization on that trajectory…

It’s not the reason you think. — I’m particular about my bathing suits: long shorts, and shirts that cover the midriff and cleavage. You might find me poking through the men’s trunks at Target, or making special orders online when spring comes around. A relative once complimented me on a swim shirt. “Thanks,” I said. “I love…

Don’t make the same mistake I did. — I work for a company that produces content for a very diverse audience—yet all 10 of the full-time writers (myself included) are white. It’s a problem; we make dumb cultural mistakes that we wouldn’t make if the team were more diverse. …