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Want to Change the World? Talk to Kids.


It occurred to me: “What if this is what I do? Maybe I write for kids to help me get through the days of dealing with grown-ups. Maybe kids are the remedy for the news.”

So one night, when the news became too much again, I wrote a book called The Someone New. It’s about a very nervous chipmunk named Jitterbug who is afraid to welcome someone new to her forest, specifically a wonderful snail named Pudding who has to leave his home after a flood. In the end (spoiler alert!) Jitterbug learns from her friends that new can be scary, but kindness is stronger than fear. I think you get the metaphor.

Did I write this for kids? Of course I did. Grown-ups don’t want to read books about nervous chipmunks, and otters named Duffles and Nudge. Their loss, honestly—they are solid otters that make some really good points. But I also wrote it because, in my heart of hearts, “welcome someone new” and “kindness is stronger than fear” is what I want to tell adults.

Kids encounter new things all the time—new kids at school, new experiences, even new foods. It makes sense to be a little fearful of them. But unlike adults, kids are open to change. If you give them new information, they don’t immediately get defensive or call it #fakenews. They take it in, and if it makes sense to them, they try to incorporate it into their lives.

Earlier this month, Donald Trump tweeted that four U.S. citizen members of Congress should go back to the “crime infested places from which they came.” Just reading it was a gut-punch. Less than 24 hours later, crowds at a Trump rally chanted, “Send her back!” about Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)—again, a U.S. citizen.

I felt helpless: Is this just the America we live in now?

I didn’t know what to do, so I did the adult thing and took to Twitter. I offered to give away five copies of The Someone New. Did I think I was going to make a dent in all the horribleness that was going on? Absolutely not. Was it a way to make myself feel like I was doing something, when I had no idea how to help? For sure.

But something happened. A few minutes after I made the offer, a woman I had never met messaged me—she wanted to send me money so I could donate more books. She didn’t want anyone to know her name. She was just reading the same news I was and wanted to do something.

Great. So I was going to give away 10 books. Except just as I started to type that, I got another message—a friend who felt helpless and thought that maybe giving away another five books about how kindness is stronger than fear might help. So 15 books—until it was 20 because one girl I hadn’t talked to since high school got int ouch, and then 25 thanks to a stranger who was terrified of being the kind of person who hears people chanting “send her back” and does nothing, and then within a couple of hours it was well over 50 books and I had to say STOP DONATING BOOKS BECAUSE I AM NOT TOTALLY SURE I AM EQUIPPED TO MAIL THIS MANY BOOKS AND ALSO I AM CRYING.

I went to bed feeling…hopeful? I woke up to a phone call from my publisher, who said, “Why don’t we donate all those books? So all the money people were spending on books can go to a charity for immigrant kids.” And they did, and it did.



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Dreamers Can't Be Licensed Nurses in Some States. In Arkansas, One Woman Decided to Change That


I still remember the first time I put on my white coat. It was an October night in 2017, and along with 119 other nursing students in identical blue scrubs, I’d gathered at the Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, for a white coat ceremony. With 300 friends and family members watching, we crossed the stage to receive our coats, then recited the Nightingale Pledge, vowing to devote ourselves to our patients’ welfare.

The ceremony, which marked the start of our clinical training, was simple but deeply meaningful. Afterwards, I went to celebrate with my family and friends. Since I was little, I’d dreamed of helping others. My white coat meant I’d made it. Soon I’d be a real nurse, treating real patients.

Then I got home, checked Facebook and my happiness evaporated. At the top of my feed was an article warning that the Arkansas State Board of Nursing had begun denying nursing licenses to DACA recipients.

That meant me. I’m a Dreamer, born in Mexico and brought to America at age six. I feel American, but don’t have an unrestricted legal status, so the new policy meant I wouldn’t be able to work as a nurse. Even though I was halfway through my education, there was no road forward.

As I read the article, the world seemed to move in slow-motion. In that moment, everything changed. I felt my dream shatter.

I’m the oldest in my family, and my two brothers always looked up to me. After my parents separated, my mom worked three jobs to support us. While she worked in restaurants or cleaned houses, I picked up after them, fed them snacks, and became the household second-in-command.

It was tough, but my mom never let go of her dream: to give us a good life and a good education. She succeeded: I’m the first in my family to graduate from high school and the first to earn an associate’s degree. When I finish nursing school next December, I’ll be the first to earn a bachelor’s degree, too.

That’s been possible because of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which allows Dreamers to work and study without fear of deportation. Getting DACA in 2012 changed my life, letting me take jobs in restaurants and other local businesses, save money, and plan for college.

Even with DACA I didn’t qualify for financial aid, scholarships, or student loans, so I worked my way through community college. My real dream was to study medicine. As a child, my eyes would fill with tears during TV ads for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, longing to help the sick children I saw. I knew I couldn’t afford medical school, but I found I could afford a nursing degree and that was close enough.

The more I learned about nursing, the more I felt sure I’d discovered what I was meant to be. Later, during my clinical training, I had a light-bulb moment while working in the emergency room, suddenly aware that I felt a sense of belonging amid the adrenaline. I knew then I wanted to be an ER nurse.

Our country needs more young people to have those light-bulb moments and become nurses. According to the Arkansas Department of Health, all but one of our state’s counties are suffering healthcare worker shortages. More than half a million Arkansans live in areas with too few primary medical, dental, and mental health workers.

Often, it’s immigrants like me who fill those gaps. Research from New American Economy shows that 27.7 percent of physicians and 15.8 percent of nurses are born abroad. Almost 14,000 Dreamers work in healthcare jobs, according to the Migration Policy Institute. But that number could be far higher. Just 11 states allow DACA recipients to gain professional licenses, so like me, many thousands of aspiring healthcare workers find it impossible to achieve their dreams.



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Stranger Things' Cara Buono on the Season 3 Scene She Asked To Change


“In that moment you see her partner with their kid and it’s like, ‘Jesus, don’t do it,'” Montgomery says. “And she doesn’t, which I think is really redemptive. Because for Billy, he’s not really going out on that much of a limb. He’s a single guy, a young dude. He’s flirting with her—but for her, there’s so much more at stake.”

Buono says the scene wasn’t originally scripted that way, though. Karen was supposed to walk down the stairs and only see her husband, Ted, sleeping in his chair. But Buono felt that actually could have given her more reason to meet up with someone, so she asked co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer to include Holly in the scene. That way Karen would really have motivation to stay.

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“There are few things that really spark a strong feeling for me, but it was important,” Buono says of her decision to ask the Duffers to alter the scene. “I immediately said to them, you have to put Holly in there. If not, it might give her pause. But to see Ted with their daughter, it’s like, ‘That’s my family.'” Buono points out that Karen is the head of the household, and the Wheelers are a source of stability in Hawkins. “People have family meals there. It’s safe, it’s together, and she realizes she can’t do this to her family. She realizes it’s not about her. She’s the grownup, and she has to make the grownup decision for her and Billy.”

However, Buono says she would have liked a few more flirtatious scenes with Karen and Billy. “That flirtation would have been fun to do,” she says. “Maybe a scene in a diner…you know, not straight into a hotel room. Like, ‘Let’s have a cheeseburger and flirt a little bit more!’ Just a little more courting.”

That said, Buono says she still see Karen turning Billy down in the end. “It’s a different show if it goes in that direction of Karen having an affair, as fun as it would have been to explore.”

And while it seems Karen and Billy’s storyline has ended—although, it’s not called Stranger Things for nothing—Buono hopes her character will get a chance to evolve in season four. “I always thought Karen was someone who would have gone to law school and be a public defender to give people a voice. Or, after everything that happens in Hawkins—because people are moving away and real estate has gone down—she becomes a realtor. Like, ‘I know things seem a little unstable here, but now’s a great time to buy!'”

Jessica Radloff is the West Coast editor at Glamour. Follow her on Twitter @JRadloff and on Instagram @jessicaradloff14.





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Making Your Jeans Blue Takes a Lot of Water. This New Process Could Change That.


You’ve read the headlines about how polluting fashion is, how brands have been guilty of greenwashing products in their marketing, and how shoppers are demanding sustainability more than ever. It’s not just newcomers building conscious businesses, being vocal, and advocating for change in the industry. More and more, we’re seeing heritage brands course-correct, investing their resources and know-how into real innovation. The latest contribution comes from one of the most well-known American denim companies, and it’s addressing one of the most contaminating steps that goes into making a pair of jeans.

Wrangler decided to tackle indigo dyeing—“because it has the most significant visual and ecological impact on the planet,” Roian Atwood, the brand’s Senior Director of Sustainability, tells Glamour in Valencia, Spain, during a visit to the factories that are producing its new collection. (Disclosure: Wrangler paid for my travel and accommodations for the purpose of reporting this story.) “When you see a blue river ecosystem, there’s no way morally, ethically, and from a good corporate citizenship standpoint that that is okay.” Documentaries like 2016’s RiverBlue and 2018’s Fashion’s Dirty Secrets have brought attention to the issue of water waste and contamination as a direct result of clothing manufacturing at a global level. Still, when something as popular and enduring as denim requires thousands of gallons of water just to dye it its signature blue, you need more than awareness to address the problem.

“The reality is that, if we can cut it off at the source, if we can create a technology that has no waste water and that minimizes the water consumption, we’ve solved for a really big industry issue,” Atwood says. That’s what two years of research, testing, and collaboration between the iconic Americana brand, Texas Tech University, Gaston Systems, and the Spain-based fabric manufacturer Tejidos Royo hopes to be bringing to the table.

Wrangler is introducing Indigood, which it bills as its most sustainable denim to date and the first ever to use a foam dyeing technology. According to the brand, it uses 90 percent less chemicals and 60 percent less energy than the traditional dyeing method, and it creates zero water waste.



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6 Women-Led Sex Startups That Want to Change How You Think About Pleasure


The tech industry may be notoriously male-dominated, but an increasing number of sex tech and femtech companies are led by women. At the same time, the way we define, think about, and have sex are constantly evolving—and women are at the forefront of this evolution. It makes sense: Who better understands what works for women than us?

Beyond selling sex toys (even if they are super fun ones), these women-led companies share a loftier goal: to facilitate honest conversations and maybe even change the way we think about female pleasure and sexual health.

Photo courtesy of Maude

Maude‘s mission is to “make sex better for all people.” Frequently referred to as the “Everlane of vibrators” (which is appropriate considering one of the founders was an early Everlane employee), Maude often praised for it’s super minimalist aesthetic. The design and overall vibe of Maude definitely doesn’t scream sex toys. Their line of vibrators and and personal lubricants look more like they belong inside of a spa—calm, simple and aesthetically pleasing.

That’s intentional—founders Dina Epstein and Eva Goicochea wanted to create a more inclusive line of sex products that felt less out-dated and gendered. You won’t find hot pink rabbit-shaped vibrators at Maude—everything is designed to fly under-the-radar if you want to leave it out on your nightstand. From essentials to a custom sex kit to a quickie set, Maude has it all. Best of all, everything actually works (really well) and everything ships for free.

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pPhoto courtesy of Damep

Photo courtesy of Dame

Dame Products‘ focus is on couples’ toys that even out the playing field between penises and vaginas. (Currently, it’s an uneven one: Research shows straight women have the fewest orgasms, while straight men have the most.) Dame started with just two toys and they’ve both made history. Eva, a hands-free couples’ vibrator, raised more money through Indiegogo than any other toy on the platform and Fin, a finger vibrator, was the first sex toy ever to crowd-fund on Kickstarter. (The site actually changed its rules to allow that to happen). Since then, they’ve released three more sex toys, most recently the Kip, and one very cute o-face hat.

Though they come in wildly different shapes (and cute colors) all of Dame’s toys share a common goal: empowering people to get what they want in bed. “I want to make sex more pleasurable for all, but particularly for those individuals with vulvas,” says CEO Alexandra Fine. “I want to make quality, reliable tools that help vulva owners achieve more pleasure—an act that I’m 100 percent positive will increase pleasure for all, decrease stress, and make the world a happier place.”

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pPhoto courtesy of MysteryVibep

Photo courtesy of MysteryVibe

Women-run startups aren’t just getting us to talk about sex more—they’re aiming to change how we talk about it. In that spirit, MysteryVibe cofounder and Chief Pleasure Officer Stephanie Alys created Crescendo, a vibrator that adapts to each user’s vagina by bending and twisting. Its versatility is meant to eliminate taboos about who uses sex toys and how.

“We felt for too long that pleasure had been segmented and categorized: separate toys for men, for women, for couples, G-spot toys, clitoral toys … the list goes on,” says Alys. “We wanted to make something that better represented the huge diversity of human bodies and the ways that we experience pleasure.”

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Lioness cofounder and CEO Liz Klinger has a different way of facilitating discussions around sexual health and pleasure: She wants to track them. Her company’s smart vibrator collects data about users’ vaginal temperature and movements through an app, which keeps them informed about how their bodies work and what techniques work best for them personally. Think of it like an Apple watch for your vagina.



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Paid Family Leave Would Change Working Women's Lives. Could a New Bill Make It Happen?


Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who’s a little less than a month in her presidential run, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) plan to reintroduce the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act on Tuesday—a bill that would create a national program to provide up to 12 weeks of partially paid time off for workers dealing with either their own health (including childbirth and recovery) or the health concerns of a child, spouse, parent, or domestic partner. Workers would be able to earn up to 66 percent of their wages up to a capped amount, and it would be funded by a small payroll tax (two-tenths of one percent) paid by employers and employees

Thanks to the new class of Democratic representatives, there’s a chance the bill will in fact pass the House of Representatives this time around. (Gillibrand and DeLauro first put forth the bill in 2013.) “There is very serious momentum,” DeLauro told the Huffington Post. “We’ve got a new Congress, we’ve got the largest majority of women and young people.” For the bill to pass the Senate, however, Republicans would need to join Democrats, an uphill climb.

Still, the bill is better positioned to attract bipartisan support than ever. Because in 2019 it’s not just Democrats who committed to paid leave. You may remember that in his 2017 speech to a joint session of Congress, Donald Trump said, “My administration wants to work with members of both parties to make child care accessible and affordable, to help ensure new parents that they have paid family leave.” And the issue is one Trump’s daughter and senior advisor Ivanka Trump has championed, albeit with a mixed reception from advocates. She is also reportedly working on a plan of her own with Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)

DeLauro described family leave as now being at the “center of the debate, rather than the fringes.” HuffPost reports that 29 percent of candidates in 2018 made paid family leave a part of their campaign platforms, up from 4 percent in 2014.

The hope is all this conversation will lead to actual forward momentum on an issue so vital to American workers, but one that has remained unchanged at the federal level since the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) passed in 1993.



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