‘Girls and Their Monsters’: The Morlok Quadruplets and Mental Health With Audrey Clare Farley

In her newest book, Girls and Their Monsters, Audrey Clare Farley addresses the Morlok quadruplets’ earliest years as a singing-and-dancing sensation and zeroes in on their coming of age and eventual descent into schizophrenia.

“I want to stress that I don’t view the quadruplets only as victims. They looked for and found joy. The book is about people living under fascism, but it’s also about bravery and defiance.”

Welfare Is *Still* a Woman’s Issue

In the richest nation in the world, it shouldn’t be this difficult to make ends meet for yourself and your family.

As a society, we can choose to prioritize parents and their families. And that starts by implementing a guaranteed income program that will empower Black families and women everywhere. The fight for guaranteed income has deep roots in the civil rights movement—and it’s long overdue.

Teen Girls Are Experiencing Sky-High Rates of Sadness and Hopelessness. Here’s What Parents Can Do to Help

A study from the CDC revealed alarming statistics about the rapidly declining mental health of teenage girls. Nearly three in five U.S. teen girls felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021—almost a 60 percent increase from 2011. Teen girls are also experiencing record high levels of rape, sexual violence, depression and suicidal ideation.

Parents and caregivers, can support them by identifying potential signs of depression or anxiety and getting them the help that they need as soon as possible. With more support and attention from their immediate community, they may begin to realize they aren’t as alone as they think. 

Sundance 2023: ‘Judy Blume Forever’ and the Enduring Power of Books

Judy Blume is most at home surrounded by books. That’s the predominant impression of a new documentary on the author’s life directed by Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok, Judy Blume Forever, which premiered at Sundance last month and will begin streaming globally on Prime Video in April.

The film relies heavily on interviews with Blume herself, a wonderfully charming presence throughout the documentary. (“I could be fearless in my writing the way I couldn’t in my life,” Blume explains in the film, referring to the complexities of her own personal life, where she chafed against the confines of her early marriages.) But one of its best components is its emphasis on the readers and how they were and still are affected by her novels.

Like Prince Harry, Survivors of Family Sexual Assault Know What It’s Like to Cope With Family After Public Truth-Telling

In his new book Spare, Prince Harry outlines the trauma he experienced as a child after Princess Diana’s death, as well as the whitewashing and abuse he and his wife, Meghan Markle, suffered at the hands of both the press and his royal family. As a survivor of sexual violence, I recognize Harry’s plight and also the incredibly painful journey of losing relatives because of truth-telling in an effort to be whole again.

How We Avoid the Rise of Another ‘Andrew Tate’

Most of Andrew Tate’s alleged criminal conduct took place in private. But his rise to fame—or infamy—took place in full public view. It is important to understand how and why all of this happened. Here are four “teachable moment” topics raised by the Andrew Tate saga:

1. Tate’s normalization of misogyny harms girls and young women.
2. The ideal of “manhood” Tate promotes harms boys and young men.
3. 3. For many uninformed young men, feminism is a hostile philosophy and feminists are caricatured villains.
4. There is a strong connection between misogyny and right-wing politics.

‘Matilda’ Spotlights an Unsettling Truth: Spanking in Schools Is Still Pervasive in the U.S.

While the much-anticipated film adaptation of Matilda, starring Emma Thompson as Trunchbull, will be sure to delight filmgoers of all ages this holiday season, the unsettling truth is that approximately 70,000 K-12 public school students are subject to corporal punishment annually.

It’s time that our communities and laws take aggressive steps to not just outlaw this practice—but to change the hearts and minds of both teachers and parents by promoting humane and effective practices that lead to long-term, positive changes in behavior.

Ending the Global Child Sex Abuse Crisis

For the first time in history, the United Nations General Assembly has designated a new annual World Day for the prevention of child sexual exploitation—and it couldn’t come soon enough.

One in five women and one in 13 men worldwide have been sexually abused as children, and 120 million girls and young women under 20 years old have been victims of forced sexual contact. Countless victims around the globe are silenced by bad laws and some countries’ legal agreements with the Roman Catholic Church that weaken, and at times completely dismantle, their opportunity for justice.

White Christians Are Still Taking Native Children

The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a case, challenging the constitutionality of the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

The lead plaintiffs, the Brackeens, are a well-to-do white, evangelical Texan couple, who are seeking to adopt a Navaho girl against the wishes of her relatives, who want to adopt her themselves. Among other arguments, the Brackeens allege reverse racism—that the law discriminates against them based on their race in violation of the equality guarantees of the U.S. Constitution. 

But this is just the most recent chapter in a long history of white people taking Native children from their parents, tribes and cultures.