Felix, 33, took the world record from Bolt in Doha after a 4 x 400 mixed-gender relay race victory. She’s competed in four Olympics and won nine medals, six of them gold, but what makes this victory even more important is that it’s Felix’s first since giving birth to her daughter, Camryn, ten months ago.
The birth wasn’t easy. Peoplereports that the Olympian suffered from severe preeclampsia and gave birth via C-section. “It’s different, definitely challenging. I think for any new mom when she returned to work just, you’re exhausted and you’re balancing your family and what it all looks like,” she told the magazine in July about getting back into her training routine.
After her major accomplishment this weekend, Felix simply tweeted, “Humbled???.”
Since then, she’s spoken out about what this victory means as a mother. “Our journey to motherhood and back is bigger than us and bigger than sport. I believe it’s about overcoming and that is something we all have to do,” she wrote on Instagram yesterday. “I have seen the power of the collective. The need to speak your truth. It’s a pivotal time for women in sport. We can create change. Women, let’s support each other. Uplift and encourage. Open doors for one another. Celebrate and elevate each other. We can all win. This is sisterhood.”
It seems her daughter, and other mothers, are her biggest inspiration. “Life looks different. Cammy is 10 months old today. Figuring out this mom life,” she said. “I’ve had to fight a lot this year- for my health, for my daughter, for women & mothers, for what I deserve and for my fitness. I’m really proud to be at my 9th world championships and this one is extra special because my baby girl is in the stadium to watch it all.”
Felix, a new Athleta ambassador, has an impressive record of using her platform to advocate for women—and especially mothers—in sport. After Olympian Alysia Montaño called out her former sponsor Nike for not supporting pregnant athletes, Felix (and fellow Olympic runner Kara Goucher) also spoke up. “What I’m not willing to accept is the enduring status quo around maternity. I asked Nike to contractually guarantee that I wouldn’t be punished if I didn’t perform at my best in the months surrounding childbirth,” she wrote in a New York Times op-ed in May. “I wanted to set a new standard. If I, one of Nike’s most widely marketed athletes, couldn’t secure these protections, who could?”
It’s safe to say Felix has set a new standard: Women can be mothers and champions.
Late last month Glossier sent the internet into a frenzy with a cryptic Instagram post: a photo spinning gold “G” and a link to a mysterious new account called Glossier Play. The news kicked off hundreds of comments, tweets, and articles wondering what the new venture could possibly be.
Guesses spanned from sex toys to weed (I’d be into both, tbh), with many thinking it wouldn’t be a product line at all, but some kind of platform like a music streaming service or new online community.
When the brand finally dropped this month, it seemed so perfect that no one guessed. Glossier Play is a line of high-pigment, colorful makeup that the brand refers to as “dialed-up makeup extras.” And that’s the perfect description. The six piece collection is a departure from Glossier’s previous skin-focused offerings and includes glitter gel pots, rainbow bright eyeliner pencils, a liquid highlighter, glossy lipsticks, and two tools. In the campaign images the models are still wearing minimal skin makeup, and the products all seem fairly intuitive to use (glitter doesn’t require the same amount of skill level as contouring), so the OG brand’s DNA is still there. And of course, it’s all impossibly cool.
The launch got mixed reviews, some were thrilled with the glossy, glittery offerings, and others were disappointed in the fact that it was more makeup products. I personally sat somewhere in the middle. While I think creating a whole separate brand for Play seems like an interesting marketing call—and was a little disappointed it wasn’t something out of left field—after watching Troye Sivan (one of my many internet boyfriends) pout and apply glitter in the campaign video, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
When the entire collection landed on my desk, I got the hype. Having been stuck in a neutral rut for months, it made me actually want to make plans so I could wear fun makeup. Not that the products wouldn’t look good at the office (our senior beauty editor, Lindsay, calls the Glitter Gelée “Adult Glitter” and has worn it to work on more than one occasion), but even the brand says the products “make getting ready the best part about going out.”
At this juncture of my life, I really only go out if I’m promised dancing. That being said, I have been let down by many a makeup product that can barely hang on through a night of drinking, sweating, and getting my life on the dance floor. Given Glossier Play’s disco-heavy positioning and Colorslide Eye Pencils’ 12-hour claim, I thought the line might be up for the challenge.
The Look
Despite being captivated by the glitter, I was really excited to get into the Colorslide eyeliners, and decided to make them the base of my look. I started by creating a cat eye with the teal shade Hardcore Velvet, and lined my waterline with the baby blue Early Girl. I used a small brush to smudge the two together for a watercolor effect, and oh my God was I impressed. As a cat-eye addict I generally stick to liquid, but these pencils made me rethink my whole world. They are somehow creamy enough to glide on no problem, yet could also easily make a sharp wing—and didn’t do that weird crumbly thing in my lower waterline.
I then patted the Glitter Gelée in Phantasm, a larger iridescent glitter on with the Detailer tool, a little silicone brush that I found helpful for getting a thin, even layer. To be honest I didn’t love how the glitter looked with the liner (maybe too much action for my small eyes), but I have since tried it solo and it’s very pretty. I finished the look with a swipe of the Niteshine liquid highlighter in Pale Pearl, a baby pink, on my cheekbones and nose, and the Vinylic Lip in Pony, a taupey-brown.
A bride has started an intense debate on Reddit after having an adults-only wedding ceremony—and asking one guest who brought her children to leave.
The Knot first reported that an anonymous bride posted a recap of her wedding-day drama on Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole?” thread. In her post, the bride said that she and her husband-to-be wanted a child-free event—and had requested an adults-only wedding on their invitations—but ran into some trouble when a guest brought her two kids, a toddler and a baby.
The bride says she allowed the children and their parents to stay through the ceremony but asked her wedding planner to confront the family at the reception.“At the actual wedding ceremony, I let it slide. I was preoccupied for obvious reasons,” the bride wrote. “I also thought that maybe they planned not to attend the reception or to have someone pick the kids up before it started.”
That didn’t happen, so the bride says she decided to intervene: “My event planner went to talk to the couple. I could tell they were arguing with my event planner though so I went over to help him. I think they thought I came to rescue them because they started going on about how rude my event planner was. I explained that I had actually sent him over to discuss the children. I reiterated that the event was child-free and said that I had stated so clearly on my invitations.
“The wife gave a sort of apology and then assured me that they were capable of minding their own children to make sure they didn’t get in the way of anything. I said that wasn’t really the point,” she continued. “That’s when my now-husband comes over and he and the other woman’s husband begin going back and forth and things got a little heated.
“Finally I snapped and said that they just needed to go, which, thankfully they did without much more noise. Still, the whole scene was incredibly embarrassing which is exactly what I wanted to avoid.”
The bride reiterated that her invitations requested that the wedding be adults only. “To be clear, all of my invitations stated that there were to be no children at this wedding,” the bride said in her post. “But she and her husband showed up with their infant and toddler (who I think is like 3-4).”
“I really hate that my wedding day had to be somewhat marred by this incident. According to my mother, everyone was talking about it and I guess enjoying a little dramatic entertainment,” she said.
The bride’s post has since gone viral, racking up more than 1,500 comments since it was posted to Reddit three days ago.
“I’ve had wedding invites and save the dates that say ‘we love kids, but this is an adults-only affair.’ Easy and explicit without being rude,” one commenter said. “The assholes we’re [sic] the ones who brought their kids to an explicitly child-free event. And then caused a scene when they were asked to leave,” another wrote.
Some, however, thought she could have handled the situation differently—and the bride updated her original post to add that “a few family members felt it was inappropriate to kick out the couple.”
Her edit also addressed the comments that other Reddit users left on her post. “Thank you all so much for the feedback. What I’ve gotten from this is that most people think that the couple was rude,” she wrote. “The feedback here has helped me not to feel guilty about that and just realize that not everyone has the same ideas about tact and manners.”
You can read the bride’s entire saga on Reddit. But it’s ultimately a good reminder for anyone planning on going to a wedding: Read the invitation before bringing the whole family.
Last year, on August 14, former radio DJ David Mueller was found guilty of groping Taylor Swift during a 2014 pre-concert meet-and-greet in Denver. After a lengthy litigation process—which involved Taylor countersuing Mueller for a symbolic $1, after his initial lawsuit alleged that her sexual assault claims cost him his job—the judge officially dismissed Mueller’s case.
At the time, Taylor offered a prepared statement to thank the judge and her lawyers for “fighting” for her and other sexual assault survivors in the courtroom. And Tuesday night, on the anniversary of her winning verdict, Taylor offered more poignant statements about her trial during a stop on her Reputation tour.
“A year ago I was not playing in a stadium in Tampa, I was in a courtroom in Denver, Colorado. This is the day the jury sided in my favor and said that they believed me. I guess I just think about all the people that weren’t believed and the people who haven’t been believed, and the people who are afraid to speak up because they think they won’t be believed,” Swift said, according to People. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry to anyone who ever wasn’t believed because I don’t know what turn my life would have taken if somebody didn’t believe me when I said something had happened to me. So I just wanted to say we have so much further to go, and I’m so grateful to you guys for being there for me for what was really a horrible part of my life.”
She continued, “I wanted to thank you for just kind of…I mean, I know when I meet you guys at meet-and-greets and after the shows, you guys tell me about the hard times that you’ve gone through in your lives, and I really appreciate you trusting me with that information. And you know, you guys have seen me go through so many ups and downs in my life just due to the public nature of the way my life is, and I just wanted to say that I’m so happy to see you and to have you and know you through the ups and the downs in my life. Sorry, I just haven’t really talked about it, and so I’m just not composed at all.”
While Taylor was speaking about her sexual assault, fans held up $1 bills around the stadium to show their support. See a few examples, below:
As I prepped for my nuptials, I knew I didn’t want a traditional bachelorette party, but I definitely wanted some form of celebration with my friends. I was already feeling uncomfortable with the traditional pressures of a wedding ceremony and reception and frustrated with the subtle gender roles forced on me. I felt like I had to be the one to decide wedding colors, plating choices, table dimensions, invitation fonts, and so many more details.
It quickly became clear to me that in the eyes of society (and the wedding planning industry), the bride is the dreamer and decider of all aesthetics and the groom isn’t expected to be capable of making such decisions. Instead, he gets a slap on the back and glass of whiskey while the bride frantically creates Excel spreadsheets and Pinterest boards.
“It’s the bride’s day. You only get to do this once,” people around me said, encouraging me to enjoy the frenzy. “Hopefully,” I shot back sarcastically.
I tried to take a “whatever” attitude toward these choices, but I realized every lackadaisical response I served my mother and friends caused more drama. Being a “whatever” bride doesn’t make sense to people: It sets them in a panic, wondering how it’s possible for you to not have an opinion. So I pretended to care about linen fabrics and quietly decided the bachelorette would be done on my terms.
The bachelorette parties I’ve attended have fallen into one of two categories. Either the party mourns the death of singlehood with stripper-centered entertainment, or it mourns the death of girlhood with light-hearted games and giggling whenever anyone says the word “penis.” Neither choice was enticing or applicable to me.
At the time of my engagement, I’d been living with my partner and our dog for six years, so the death of a “single” lifestyle had already happened. I think it may have quietly passed in the middle of the night when I accidentally farted and he didn’t stop big-spooning me, or perhaps it happened once we started asking each other twice a day, “Did the dog poop?”
To create positive pre-wedding vibes, I realized there was only one event that could give me what I wanted: a cleansing ceremony. Specifically, a d*ck-cleansing ceremony.
And as for my “girlhood,” as far as that’s code for “virginity,” that too had dissolved well before I hit my thirties, and I had zero regrets about that. Even the tradition of wearing white for your wedding gave me pause, even though I planned to go along with it: As a mature thirty-something woman, why should I wear a color associated with virginal purity? Cultural norms may praise the virgin and throw shade on promiscuity, but I refused to have a bachelorette party that did too.
My bachelorette, I decided, would be a celebration of my transition into marriage, and there would be no mourning of past lives. In order to celebrate my future, though, I still felt I needed to honor my past. After all, each past lover helped me grow into the partner prepping for a healthy and loving marriage, so gratitude to former relationships was a must. To create these positive pre-wedding vibes, I realized there was only one event that could give me what I wanted: a cleansing ceremony. Specifically, a dick-cleansing ceremony.
In terms of technical flow, I wasn’t entirely sure what a dick-cleansing ceremony would entail. I’m not particularly spiritual, but I grew up in a Latinx household that frequently burned sage to clear or recover from mal ojo, or negative energy. I figured if I came with pure intentions, I could sketch this out.
I decided I needed my ceremony to provide two things:
1. Blessings to my new phase of marital sexual freedom.
Did getting married mean I was destined to watch Big Bang Theory, purchase socks for my husband to wear under his sandals, and succumb to sexual monotony? Nah. But it did represent a new phase for me and my husband, one marked, I hoped, by hot sex. In my dick-cleansing ceremony, I wanted my best friends to send me happy future coitus wishes.
2. Cleansing of any leftover vibes from my past lovers.
I’m grateful for everything I learned from them. Past lovers have taught me to be more considerate, generous, and vulnerable, but I wanted any residual juju left on me by them to disappear. As Drake says in “Nice For What,” “You ain’t stressin’ off no lover in the past tense. You already had them.” It was time for me to channel past experiences into marriage.
The last step was to educate my bachelorette party attendees and get their buy-in. I explained the purpose of my dick-cleansing ceremony to the group and prepared them to direct positive energy with me. In an uncharacteristically Bridezilla-like moment, I also set a dress code of sorts, demanding they wear something that made them feel powerful.
As for the script, I suggested that on the day of the ceremony we just improvise and see what happened. My friends were intrigued, but also skeptical about how we could possibly cleanse 14 years of sexual activity in one go. I reminded them that there was no wrong way to do this since I was literally making it all up: I just needed them to come ready with positive energy, which everyone confirmed they were fully capable of bringing.
My bachelorette party was held over a weekend in Palm Springs, filled with desert vibes and lots of snacks. Saturday night was the scheduled dick-cleansing ceremony, and my girlfriends came dressed in their most powerful looks: Envision seven women dressed as a mix of Stevie Nicks, Rihanna, and Lily Tomlin. We were off to a strong start.
We gathered around a table and placed three large penis-shaped candles in the center. These candles represented my sexual past and would be burned accordingly. My friend Lisa then asserted herself as the lead bruja and explained that once the candles were lit, the ceremony would begin, and once they were out, the ceremony would end. As Lisa lit the candles, we all became strangely solemn — then, to my surprise, each girlfriend brought out a contribution to the ceremony.
To cleanse the space of negative vibes, Stassi lit a sage smudge stick and placed it in the center of our circle. She also brought rose quartz crystals, which are said to open your heart chakra and allow more love to enter your life. Katie brought a framed painting of a Día de los Muertos husband and wife with the inscription “Until death separates us” in Spanish, which she placed in the center of our circle, alongside the penis candles. She and her husband had received it as a wedding gift the previous year, and she hoped it would bring my marriage good luck.
PHOTO: Courtesy of Nicole Dellert
Brittany brought handmade cards with images of Dolly Parton, Erykah Badu, vaginas, wombs, and entwined lovers printed on the front; she scattered them face-up on the table and told us to channel these images into our ceremony. Finally, Scheana brought the holy sacrament of tequila for ceremonial shots. The vibes were officially set.
Instinctually, we all held hands to form a circle and took a breath, and Stassi suggested we each share a happy wish for my new marital sex life. As each friend took their turn, I felt like Sleeping Beauty when the fairies gave her wishes of beauty and song, except my fairies were my closest girlfriends giving me blessings of a strong libido and sexual adventure. Close enough.
I felt like Sleeping Beauty, except my fairies were my closest girlfriends giving me blessings of a strong libido.
When the last wish had been shared, we were all still holding hands, and it felt electric. Maybe it was the tequila or all the snacks we had eaten, but I felt powerful. We sat in a solemn circle, smiling in silence, and as the shadows of the dick candles lit the face of each one of my friends, I was filled with gratitude for all of them. Not only were they humoring my request to hold a ridiculous and totally made-up dick-cleansing ceremony, they came willing to play, and that moved me.
Then, at the perfect moment, Lisa leaned over and blew out the dick candles. The ceremony was officially over. We sat looking at each other until I broke the spell by announcing, “I just felt my hymen grow back.”
It hadn’t, nor did I want it to, but I did feel refreshed, grateful, and eager to embrace my next phase of life. For me, a bachelorette filled with penis straws and strippers wasn’t going to provide that. My DIY ceremony did. Bachelorette parties can be beautiful occasions that recharge brides for the pre-wedding sprint and center them in what’s important. Mine reminded me that love and gratitude is the center and driver of life transitions, not seating charts or invitation card stock. Whatever way you do it, taking a breath to enjoy the lessons you have learned and the unconditional love of your friends is a proper send-off to married life — whether or not that breath also blows out a dick candle.
For anonymity, all names have been replaced with the names of the cast of Vanderpump Rules.
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The 2018 Grammys were a bust for women, to be honest, but there was one saving grace from the evening. Actually, make that two saving graces: Beyoncé and her 6-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter. These two stole the show at the Grammys, hands down—and Bey didn’t even perform. They just lived their lives, and dozens of photographers were there to capture it.
Seriously, every facial expression Blue made throughout the evening sent Twitter users ablaze. Things hit a fever pitch when a clip of Blue seemingly telling Beyoncé and Jay Z to calm down during the show went viral. It’s a hilarious, endearing moment that confirmed Blue’s actually the one calling the shots in the Carter household. As she should be!
And now we have even more proof of this: A photographer at the Grammys snapped a pic of Beyoncé holding Blue’s snacks and juice box, and it’s quickly taking over the Internet. For good reason, too: To the world, Beyoncé is this untouchable music deity, but to Blue she’s just her mom who holds the snacks for safe keeping. That’s incredibly humbling, and it’s a nice little reminder that everyone—even Beyoncé—is a human being. Here’s the pic:
PHOTO: Getty Images
Of course, the Twitter reactions to this have been pretty great. “While we were all looking for #Beyonce at the #Grammys, she was out getting snacks for #BlueIvy,” a radio station tweeted. “She’s wearing $6.8 million worth of diamonds, but who cares? Beyonce clutching Blue Ivy’s juice box is everything,” tweeted someone else.
Below, peep the best (and funniest) reactions to Beyoncé being a regular-AF mom at the Grammys.
