In January, word spread of a new virus known as “SARS-CoV-2” was causing a disease named “coronavirus disease 2019.” The virus quickly jumped from nation to nation, shutting down many aspects of life as we know it along the way. Now, most of the world is being asked to socially isolate from their friends and extended family to stop the spread. And that means spending an awful lot of time at home.
Thankfully, Disney Plus is picking up the entertainment slack. On Saturday, March 15, the company announced plans to stream Frozen 2 a full three months early to bring “families with some fun and joy during this challenging time.”
“Frozen 2 has captivated audiences around the world through its powerful themes of perseverance and the importance of family, messages that are incredibly relevant during this time, and we are pleased to be able to share this heartwarming story early with our Disney+ subscribers to enjoy at home on any device,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek shared in a statement.
According to the announcement, the movie will be available starting today, Sunday, March 15.
And Chapek wasn’t the only one who was excited to share the news.
Actress Kristen Bell, who voices Anna in the film, shared a screenshot of the film on Instagram along with the caption, “Your sisters will be here for you during crazy time! Surprise! #Frozen2 is coming early to #DisneyPlus. Start streaming this Sunday.”
Of course, nothing is really this altruistic. As The Verge noted, executives at Disney Plus likely saw an opportunity to bring on more subscribers as schools shut down and more and more people are working from home. But hey, who cares, as long as we get to enjoy something that brings us joy for a moment, right?
This does, however, also beg the question of what else may be released early due to coronavirus. On Friday, journalist Evan Ross Katz asked Bravo’s Andy Cohen if he’d consider releasing The Real Housewives of New York just a bit early, to which Cohen replied, “It’s on the table, but complicated.”
It started with sex. Searing, agonizing sex—just like the very first time I tried it. But now I was 40, and unlike when I was 20, there was no reason to be optimistic that the pain detonating across my pelvis would eventually go away.
I tried shifting my hips, curling onto my side, holding my breath, but each time I had sex, the throbbing pain roared. At first I was convinced it was a cyst—a ball of cells so large that nothing, barring a tampon, could enter. I had gone through five rounds of IVF to have my daughter, so it didn’t seem far-fetched to concoct a theory that the injected hormones had transformed into a pulsating polyp blocking my cervix. (Though highly unlikely, it was possible.) But an excruciating 15-minute vaginal ultrasound turned up nothing.
With no apparent physical problem, I was told that I probably had vaginismus, a painful contraction of the muscles around the vagina that can make sex hell. According to the Cleveland Clinic, it’s considered a primarily psychological condition, the pain arising from, “fear of sex, anxiety, past sexual abuse or trauma, and negative emotions towards sex.” Treatment often involves therapy—but I was already in therapy and had been for years. Cracking open memories and dissecting grief in a psychotherapist’s office was something I grew up with. I was flummoxed. Had I been so deep in the emotional weeds that I had unintentionally sidelined a trauma that was now wreaking havoc on my sex life? I couldn’t shake the feeling that the diagnosis was a cursory reading of my pain—yet another dismissal of women’s symptoms by the medical system.
And then came the sweat.
One night I awoke to a mosaic of perspiration covering my eyes, upper lip, and chest. It became my new nocturnal norm. Shirts turned sloppy wet. Waves of searing heat radiated from my core. Pajamas were ruined. The night sweats were only made worse by my almost-two-year-old deciding to transition from her bed into ours and lovingly wrapping her arms around my torso, head, or whatever she could cling to throughout the night. I felt like a human hot-water bottle.
Finally, with a thud, my period stopped. One month turned into two, turned into eight, and I had to face facts: This looked a lot like menopause.
By this time I was only 41—a full decade younger than the average age of women in menopause. The idea that I might be entering early menopause—or even the stage before it, perimenopause—had not even been a footnote in any of the conversations I’d had with doctors up until this point. I felt stumped by my body as it convulsed with changes I thought were meant for women much older than me. Women like my mom and my grandma. Those were the women who went through menopause—not new moms like me.
I made an appointment with an endocrinologist, who asked me a battery of questions and then took several vials of blood. A week later he called and confirmed: I was in perimenopause. My ovaries were slowing down their production of estrogen until I’d never have a period again.
I thought I had years of my youth left to contemplate what this experience might mean, but my rapidly waning fertility, and even the loss of the predictable monthly routine of menstruating, forced me to face the notion that I was transitioning into the second half of my life. I felt relieved to finally have a diagnosis, but there was also a surprising feeling of shame that I had somehow hadn’t managed to hold on to those precious nubile years quite as long as most women.
Unlike most of my menopausal relatives who didn’t start dealing with this until their 50s, I was advised to take hormones—namely estrogen and progesterone, in the form of patches, pills, and vaginal inserts—to confront my prematurely aging body. “If you go into menopause earlier than 51, the priority in terms of medical issues we worry about is your bones,” says Taraneh Shirazian, M.D., a board-certified ob-gyn and founder of Mommy Matters. “That is because between 40 and 51, you have that many years left ahead where the bones won’t get as much estrogen.”
Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale is almost here, and if you’re anything like we are, you’re taking a quick inventory of your beauty cabinet to figure out what you can justify restocking (or, well, adding). Luckily, it doesn’t take a huge stretch of reason to click “add to cart”—there are some incredible beauty deals going on for the sale this year. The best part? If you’re a Nordstrom cardholder, you can get early access to some of the best deals the sale’s offering, beginning Friday, July 12. That means you don’t have to worry about your favorite products getting sold out when the sale starts a whole week later, on Friday, July 19.
It’s not just discounts that are going during Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale Early Access, either: Expect curated sets and palettes that are exclusive to the event, often with a value that’s twice as much as what the items are selling for (we told you the sale was good). A NARS lip gloss set that clocks in at less than $10 for each gloss? That’s drugstore prices, people! A set of Mario Badescu’s incredible enzyme cleanser? $25—and there’s one perfectly sized for your gym bag, too. And if you really want to go all out, Nordstrom’s putting a five-product Sunday Riley skin care starter set on sale for less than $100. As our fave Jonathan Van Ness might say, can you believe? Read on for ten of our favorite products from the sale—just remember to nab these steals before they’re gone.
When you’re tipped off about a summer sale, like the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale kicking off this weekend, you’re likely getting ready for racks on racks of dresses and sandals. Those standbys haven’t gone anywhere, but there’s some forward-looking purchases to consider after you’ve seen what’s on sale. Judging by the top-notch footwear in this year’s assortment, the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale is inarguably the best time to buy fall shoes.
Sure, it’s pushing 100 degrees in most parts of the country, and you’re a week and a half out from vacation. The Bachelorette hasn’t accepted a proposal yet. Fall shoes are probably far from your mind (and at the back of your closet). Thankfully, Nordstrom has done the work of sorting the best-of-the-best fall shoes for you early and at lower prices than you’ll see in stores when the leaves turn. Basically buying more than one pair during this sale should be a no-brainer.
The footwear festivities kick off today with Early Access—i.e., a weeklong head start for everyone with a Nordstrom Card—so there’s very little between you and a wallet-friendly pair of leather boots (or sneakers, or flats). Ahead, we’ve picked out the fall shoes you’ll want to pick up today to prep your autumn wardrobe. After all: If you’re shopping early access, you might as well go all-in.
A large fire broke out at Coachella around 2 A.M. PST Saturday morning, following the first night of the music festival. Festivalgoers say they heard explosions and noticed that a mobile shower area had gone up in flames, with one camper reportedly fleeing from the area in his towel and calling on others to get out.
The Riverside County Fire Department responded quickly, blocking off the area and making sure everyone was safe. They contained the fire by 2:28 A.M, according to their Twitter. The Evening Standard reports that the festival sent out an alert to campers telling them to “STAY AWAY” (emphasis Coachella’s) from the burning showers in lot 4B.
As of 9 A.M. EST, no injuries have been reported, thankfully, although the footage captured by those at the festival definitely looks terrifying.
According to the fire department, there were two mobile shower trailers involved, one of which was “damaged” and the other “destroyed.”
It’s still TBD exactly what caused the fire, though some festivalgoers seem to think it was a propane tank near the shower block.
Meghan Markle managed to remain cool, calm, and collected in what might’ve otherwise escalated to a scary situation.
As reported by People, Markle was on a solo outing during her royal tour stop in Suva, Fiji on Wednesday afternoon. (Prince Harry was off exploring a nearby forest.) While visiting a market to meet with a group of local vendors to discuss the United Nations Women’s project “Markets for Change,” her security detail soon deemed the environment too unsafe for her presence and escorted her out after just six minutes. She was originally set to stay for about 20 minutes.
Her exit reportedly stemmed from crowd management issues, Kensington Palace confirmed to the Associated Press, as the market filled up with more people than the detail was prepared to handle. “It was hot, humid and uncomfortably busy and there were far larger crowds than expected,” an aide explained to The Daily Mail. “Meghan met everyone she was meant to meet and left. There would have been a lot of people who would have been keen to meet her but she did met those who had hoped to. On advice she was taken out due to crowd management issue.”
Prior to Markle exploring the markets, she spent the morning giving her first solo speech on the royal tour at the University of the South Pacific, where she praised Fiji’s commitment to higher education and reminisced about her own college days at Northwestern University. “As a university graduate, I know the personal feeling of pride and excitement that comes with attending university,” she told the crowd. “From the moment you receive your acceptance letter to the exams you spend countless late nights studying for, the lifelong friendships you make with your fellow alumni to the moment that you receive your diploma, the journey of higher education is an incredible, impactful and pivotal one. It was through scholarships, financial aid programs and work-study where my earnings from a job on campus went directly towards my tuition—that I was able to attend university. And, without question, it was worth every effort.”
While Markle and Prince Harry’s royal tour still has a few more days ahead of itself, if you don’t see as much of Markle, don’t be too surprised. The duchess has apparently cut down on some of her appearances for the remainder of the tour, owing to her pregnancy. Everyone needs some self-care, even the royals.
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