Arn't I A Woman?

30 Days of Healing Presents: How to Stop Needing External Validation  New Video Blog! 

The last year of my life has been one of the most challenging and hardest. The last year of your twenties must be terrifying for most though, right? Even if only subconsciously, as your mind starts to prepare you for the symbolic death of your youth.  I don’t think being in your thirties is old-  “old” is a construct, anyways. And there are also numerous studies that show that our age has little to do with our happiness, so the idea of getting older as "scary" is mired more in our beliefs than in an actual relationship to reality. I think what is scariest for people as we age into adulthood is the goals we have set for ourselves to reach by certain ages; often these approaching milestones are cruel reminders of our failure to reach what we were “supposed” to, as if life exists on the same linear trajectory for each person. In America, at least, there seems to be more emphasis on the relationship between women and age; the pressure on men to get married and have children...

Hi, I don't blog here anymore. I have started a new blog here focused on healing and self-love, I promise it's not as schmaltzy as it sounds! : http://30daysofhealing.tumblr.com Start your own 30 days of healing and join me! xoxo Jessie Minden

The thing about anxiety is that it’s great at covering up depression. I think I truly forgot I was depressed these past few months while I began school, because I was too anxious to feel it. It was still there, lying dormant inside me; waiting to erupt without warning at the most inopportune time; but anxiety was my leading lady this fall. Now that I have some “time off” I have to make up for the work I missed during finals week and I’m feeling the pressure of getting in forty hours. Not having money of your own during the holidays to buy gifts for the people you love, especially when you want so badly to express it to them, elicits feelings of ineptitude and inadequateness- I don’t care what anyone says. Also, bills. Instead of enjoying the almost 30 lb. weight loss I’ve made, I am racked with terror about whether I can maintain it. I want to plow face first into a chocolate fountain and I want it to rain wine and champagne in my mouth. Overindulgence as self-harm is...

by Jessie Feigert and Laura Sweat Femininity and sexuality are fundamentally policed in our society, and there’s no time of year when this is more obvious than on Halloween. Women experience Halloween as a day of concentrated misogyny, representing the opportunity for men to sexualize us, and then bash and ridicule us for this very sexualization. Realizing that this misogyny manifests itself in a multitude of ways for women, we wanted to open up a dialogue of our personal experiences which recognize the no-win situation women are placed in on this holiday. Both of us experienced a response to our images being policed; and the following is a conversation about it. Jessie : I love Halloween. It’s my favorite holiday- candy, costumes, and Monster Mash?? Yes, please! Halloween is symbolic for people; it’s the one day of the year you get to become someone else with little to no repercussions. For one day- if you choose- you can strip yourself of labels imposed both internally and ...