It’s Melania Trump‘s birthday, and the White House decided to celebrate by posting a photo of her on social media. “Happy Birthday, @FLOTUS,” the White House wrote on its official Instagram and Twitter pages.
But of course the Internet couldn’t let well enough alone. People on Twitter immediately started turning the photo WH chose into memes. After all, the pic was an interesting choice. It’s of Trump sitting on the far end of a couch, alone, as dozens of paparazzi take her picture. There wasn’t a cute headshot the White House could have posted? A candid? Just this couch photo?
Check it for yourself below. I’m not surprised the memes are rolling in.
Here are just a few (very funny) examples.
This isn’t the first time Melania Trump has been at the center of a White House meme. Remember over the holidays, when people were freaking out over the red Christmas trees the Trumps picked as decorations? Those memes still slay me, TBH.
According to People, Donald Trump said last year he didn’t get a big birthday present for Melania because he was too busy.
“Well, I better not get into that because I may get in trouble,” the President said on Fox & Friends, per People. “Maybe I didn’t get her so much. I tell you what, she has done—I got her a beautiful card. You know, I’m very busy to be running out looking for presents, OK! But I got her a beautiful card and some beautiful flowers.” He did, however, give Melania a shout-out in an email campaign. “Melania is my rock and foundation, and I wouldn’t be the man I am today without her by my side,” he wrote at the time last year.
This is Melania Trump’s third birthday in the White House as FLOTUS.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are very busy royals these days. Not only are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex preparing for the birth of their first child, they’ve moved into a new house, launched an Instagram account, and just this morning we learned Prince Harry is teaming up with Oprah Winfrey for a new docuseries about metal health.
Luckily, it sounds like the royal couple will get to relax a bit before their baby arrives now that they’re settled into their new home, Frogmore Cottage, in Windsor—a wedding gift from the queen. And, in a not-so-surprising twist, their new digs sound amazing. “One of the reasons they wanted to be in Windsor was to have space and privacy,” a source tells Vanity Fair. “They felt very overlooked at Kensington Palace. At Frogmore they can go to ground, which at the moment suits them perfectly.” Apparently, “Fort Knox”-level security measures have been put into place. “No one can get close. Harry and Meghan have made Frogmore their very own fortress,” another source tellsVanity Fair. “Right now it seems they just want to hide away.”
We don’t have any photographs of the estate’s renovations, but it’s been reported the couple built an annex to the home for guests—specifically Markle’s mom, Doria Ragland, who’s expected to be in the U.K. for the birth of her first grandchild. The space could also be used for a nanny if they opt for one. They also planted an organic vegetable garden, according to the Daily Mail, which seems super on-brand for Markle, whose first major project as a royal was the charity cookbook, Together.
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And just because the Sussexes no longer live right by Prince William and Kate Middleton doesn’t mean they won’t have royal neighbors. The queen herself is often nearby at Windsor Castle and Sophie, Countess of Wessex—who is married to Prince Charles’ younger brother, Prince Edward—lives close with Edward and their two children. “The queen likes the idea of Sophie being an unofficial mentor to Meghan,” a family friend tellsVanity Fair. “Sophie is often at Windsor taking the kids riding on the queen’s horses and playing at the castle. It’s a quiet lifestyle, very much the kind Harry and Meghan want for their little one.”
It all sounds pretty idyllic, if you ask us. Now let’s hope we get a glimpse inside Frogmore sometime soon—perhaps once Baby Sussex arrives.
What points resonate as you’re making the case for this investment—is it about pure representation, as in, the Republican Party should look like the country? Is it about the fact that suburban women’s support for Trump seems to be dwindling and an emphasis on women could shore up some of that support? How is the conversation playing out?
I think the framing for these men is, “We think Elise is right. We need to focus more on this as a party and we want to support this initiative.” Men in leadership understand the importance of diversity in the party, the importance of winning young voters, winning diverse voters, winning suburban voters. I think they’ve listened. They understand this needs to be a priority.
When Sen. Susan Collins was thinking of running for governor in Maine, then-Sen. Heidi Heitkamp sent a text to her that said, in short, “Please don’t.” Heitkamp wanted a woman on the other side of the aisle to be her partner on some of the issues that they were working on. Have Democratic women reached out and said, “Great job. We would love to have more Republican women to work with us on some of these issues, whether that’s health care or child care or education”?
Yes. I have heard from women across the aisle, and I’ve heard from them publicly. I appreciate it. Cheri Bustos [of Illinois] who is head of the DCCC, which is the campaign arm for the Democratic Party, has said that she believes it is important for there to be more women in Congress and that means more women in both parties. I have felt very encouraged by my colleagues on my side of the aisle, but also women on the Democratic side, and I think that speaks to the broader point of why having women in elected office is so important. We tend to be more bipartisan. We tend to be legislative workhorses who want to get our work done, not run to our separate corners.
Four Democratic women senators are now in the race for president, and these are women who are considered frontrunners, which is a milestone just in terms of representation alone. Do you ever feel lonely as a conservative woman in a time when your ranks are so diminished?
I do not. I think about [former U.N. Ambassador] Nikki Haley and Sen. Martha McSally [of Arizona]. Sen. Susan Collins is on the ballot in the Senate. We have amazing women. Our stories tend not to get told in the media as much as Democratic female candidates. And that’s something I also want to change, but I feel very much at home with my female colleagues on the Republican side. I just want to increase those numbers. I think overall it’s good to have as many female role models as possible, regardless of what your political ideology is.
From the 2016 election until now, have there been flash points, especially around gender and sexism, that have made you question your place in the party?
I have a very independent record from President Trump. I have spoken out against his rhetoric regarding women, and I have disagreed on some of his policy decisions. I think that’s one of the reasons why I was overwhelmingly re-elected this past cycle, which was a really tough cycle in the northeast for Republicans.
As I’ve said, the issue the Republican Party has had with women voters predates President Trump. I think it’s been magnified with this administration and I do think some of the rhetoric has had an impact. We saw that at the polls in 2018. But I am a Republican and I’m hoping to help define the Republican Party as we head towards the future. But I worked on the Romney-Ryan campaign in 2012, and we lost single professional women ages 18 to 30 by over 30 points. That is a problem, and it’s going to continue after this administration. We have to rebuild our coalition.
Although I was born on the cusp of Gen Z, I identify with a lot of millennial stereotypes. I have social anxiety, a baby pink Away suitcase (totally worth the money, IMO), and I’m addicted to my phone. Recently I’ve fallen into another trope newly associated with my generation: I’ve become a plant mom.
I’m certainly not alone in this obsession. In 2016 more than 5 million millennials took up gardening for the first time, according to the National Gardening Survey. And in 2017 the number of 18- to 34-year-olds who bought plants reached an all-time high. Altogether, the gardening industry raked in a record $47.8 billion last year. It could be Instagram or a growing interest in our health as more studies are confirming the benefits of houseplants, but plants are now as much a millennial status symbol as Glossier and weighted blankets.
My journey started slow, a succulent here and there to make my college dorm feel more homey. When I moved into my first apartment, I adopted a tall leafy plant that I found on the street. In hindsight, this was probably a terrible idea, but what first-apartment decoration really ever is? Now in my current place, cacti and small palms line the windowsill in my living room. Flowers from Trader Joe’s cover my kitchen table, bedroom, and living room. A bodega bamboo plant sits on my dresser among my collection of perfume bottles and vintage ashtrays, and a planter shaped like a young pope holds an ivy plant on the window by my bed.
With every big, waxy Monstera leaf or pint-size succulent that flickered across my feed, my inner green thumb ached.
Before I knew it, my house held almost as many plants as pairs of shoes, and I couldn’t pop into a bodega or Trader Joe’s (two of my favorite spots for affordable plants) without leaving sans greenery. To be completely honest, the reason I first become a plant hoarder is the same (embarrassing) reason I make most of my decisions these days: Instagram. I follow more models and It Girls than people I know in real life, and it no longer felt like enough just to dress like them, I wanted to live like them too.
With every big, waxy Monstera leaf or pint-size succulent that flickered across my feed, my inner green thumb ached. I didn’t even know I had it, in fact, until literally all I could think about were plants. How would a cactus look in that corner? Ooh, what about a palm over there? I wondered as I aimlessly scrolled away, designing in my head to try an emulate the apartments I lusted over online. For every selfie posted with a lush green leaf in the background, I picked up another bouquet in hopes that it would make me more like the person I wanted to be.
Of course, that’s not how it works. Buying more plants didn’t make me more photogenic or outgoing—but it did make me feel like an adult who has her shit together. Instead of spending money on a quick thrill like a new lipstick or sweater I’ll wear once, I was purchasing something beautiful for my home. Studies have shown that houseplants can make us feel calmer and reduce toxins in the air. I’d like to think that’s mostly true. There really is something cozy and relaxing about being surrounded by greenery, especially when you get so little of that living in a city.
My plant purchasing habits also made me feel responsible in a way I never have before by giving me something to take care of. I’m not quite ready for a pet, and kids are way far off in my future—if at all—but I still have that maternal ache to care for something. Enter my collection of house plants. They don’t have names, but I lovingly refer to all of them as “she.” They give me something to tend to; plus, they help make my small, cluttered apartment feel a little more like a sanctuary.
PHOTO: Bella Cacciatore
My non-Insta material dresser—despite the plants
The problem is I’m a terrible plant mom. About 70 percent of the plants I bring into my apartment die within two months. Buying the plants only gives me the illusion of responsibility, but I have absolutely no follow-through. I’m awful at remembering to water them. Thankfully, my boyfriend is much more attentive, and I credit him for keeping our plants alive at all. My apartment has very little natural light and is shared by five people, so it’s super crowded and things are constantly being moved around. This isn’t a great environment for plants to flourish, and my apartment is often so messy that caring for them seems pointless. It’s not having them there magically transforms my space into an Instagram apartment.
And still, I continue to buy them. The initial thrill is so good that I convince myself this time will be different—this is the plant that will beat all the odds and live. But I’ve had to set a few ground rules. I won’t spend more than $20 on a plant (my boyfriend doesn’t follow this rule, though, so we have a few plants from The Cactus Store), and I tend to stick to succulents or cacti since they require less attention.
Although I longingly scroll through The Sill’s Instagram, I will not invest in a plant from them until I prove to myself I have the skills to care for it. Instead, I stick to corner stores and the local greenmarket. If I’m looking for something a little more interesting, I’ll splurge a bit at Rosehip and Other Times, which are both in my neighborhood and have reasonably priced plants. And for those not in NYC, obviously Urban cornered that market quick. (There’s an entire “Grow Shop” section on its website.) I’ve found I’m more likely to keep something alive if I keep it in a cute vessel—that way it feels more permanent—so I buy vintage planters and vases on Etsy as motivation.
Even though I’ve proved myself time and time again an unfit plant mom, I won’t let it stop me. The allure that, if I could just take care of it, I could be the woman I’m meant to be is too strong. Maybe one day.
Bella Cacciatore is a beauty assistant at Glamour.
When Fuller House premiered on Netflix nearly three years ago, a whole generation of ’80s and ’90s kids were excited to check back in on the Tanner family. What followed was a fervor of binge-watching, trend pieces, and Michelle Tanner GIFs, but the buzz tempered by the second season. (How rude.) There were still milestones—an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Children’s Program in 2018, for example—but the sitcom mostly settled into a comfortable routine.
By the end of season three, though, that shifted. Fuller House returned to its roots while simultaneously laying the groundwork for its future. Becky, Jesse, and Danny decided to move back to San Francisco so Danny and Becky can host Wake Up, San Francisco again; DJ and Steve reunited; and Fernando bought the Gibbler house. These events allowed the series to keep the family-friendly vibe, while tapping into more modern storylines: namely, the non-nuclear family structure.
Full House (and, as a result, Fuller House) has always been about a non-nuclear family—but it was because of circumstances like the death of Danny’s wife or DJ’s husband, not choice. That’s not the case in season four, which premieres on Netflix today: One of the main storylines will center on Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber) being a surrogate for Stephanie Tanner (Jodie Sweetin).
PHOTO: Mike Yarish/Netflix
The seeds for this actually began back in season one, when it was revealed that Stephanie is unable to have children. Then, in season three, she discovered she had a few eggs left but wouldn’t be able to carry a baby. Enter surrogacy as an option. But Stephanie was in a serious relationship with her boyfriend (and Kimmy’s brother), Jimmy Gibbler, and wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable asking him to be the father should one of her eggs be viable. Turns out he was, and by the season’s end an embryo was implanted in Kimmy. Now she’s pregnant—whether it’s a single or multiple birth is TBD.
It’s a sign that Fuller House isn’t stuck in ’90s nostalgia that Stephanie and Jimmy aren’t married or engaged or even concerned about it. They’re just a couple in love who want to have a baby together. Imagine that happening on Full House with Jesse and Becky? For 30-something Stephanie, her biggest priority is starting a family—not worrying about her forever partner.
“It’s definitely not your traditional sitcom storyline of boy meets girl and they have a baby. I think this is more relevant.”
“It’s definitely not your traditional sitcom storyline of boy meets girl and they have a baby,” Andrea Barber tells Glamour.com. “I think this is more relevant. For a lot of people having a child is not so straightforward—it’s complicated and messy. I’m glad the show went there and didn’t just drop it in season one. It’s been evolving for four seasons.”
The story of Stephanie’s fertility was originally creator and former executive producer Jeff Franklin’s idea. When season one premiered, he told TV Line he wanted one of the three lead women to not have kids—for now. “The backstory I created for her was that she’s a free spirit, traveling the world. She’s into her career and into having fun, and I thought this would be a really interesting aspect to that character—and touching,” he said at the time.
However, executive producer and co-showrunner Steve Baldikoski says that before Franklin departed the series last year he made it known that he wanted season four to be about Kimmy’s surrogacy. “In the last moments of season three, we revealed that Kimmy was pregnant with Stephanie and Jimmy’s baby,” Baldikoski says. “The challenge for [executive producer and co-showrunner] Bryan Behar and I was exactly how that would play out for the year. We wanted to have something that was real and tangible to pull Full House into the modern era of Fuller House.”
So, unlike other sitcoms that have tackled surrogacy (see: Friends, Superstore, The New Normal), the focus will be more on the relationship between Kimmy and Stephanie rather than the baby.
PHOTO: Mike Yarish/Netflix
“Kimmy is so happy that she’s finally an important part of Stephanie’s life,” Barber says. “She’s been rejected by Stephanie for many years; now these characters are bonding in a way they’ve never been able to before. Kimmy doesn’t want to let go of that. [She doesn’t want] to feel like an incubator. She wants to feel more important than that, which I think is pretty valid.”
It is valid, given viewers have watched these two evolve from an eccentric 10-year-old and a precocious 5-year-old to the adult women they are today. “They’ve literally watched us grow up on TV,” Barber says. “To watch this fictional character go through such important life moments is incredible and so poignant.” That’s why she wanted the writers to explore Kimmy and Stephanie’s “mature friendship” as a sisterhood. “I’ve just been delighted for the last two seasons to have these wonderful, funny, tender moments with Jodie [Sweetin].”
Of course Full House has always tackled big subjects—DJ’s eating disorder; the death of a close family member—but they were settled in the span of a 22-minute episode. For that reason alone, Baldikoski and Behar wanted to see Stephanie’s fertility storyline through. “Bryan and I like dealing with these real issues over the entire season, not just a single episode,” Baldikoski says. “We like to think that if you’re going through something, it’s best to deal with it in a realistic way and carry it through a season. It’s not just one and done.”
“It’s a life-changing moment that we’re all going through—and as realistic as it can be for a sitcom.”
Baldikoski relied on personal stories and research to prep for the storyline. “While Fuller House is not a medical show or a drama, we do have writers who are very familiar with [surrogacy] and had different experiences with that. So we relied on a little bit of that and also sent people off to do research. Without invading anyone’s privacy, there was a lot of sharing about our writer’s experiences and the experiences of friends and friends of friends.”
Barber, a mom of two, hasn’t had personal experience with surrogacy, so she turned to one of her closest friends who did. “Her cousin was her surrogate,” she says, adding that she understands the complexities that come with that. “I would suspect…surrogates don’t want to feel just like baby machines. They want to feel important too.”
As for the birth scene, which will happen toward the end of the season, Barber had a request for the writers: make the labor as realistic as possible. “Sitcoms tend to do really silly births with lots of screaming, and it isn’t like that,” she says. “I wanted there to be an emotional connection, a tender moment between the women. They honored my request—and Jodie’s request—that it just not be a silly birth. There’s silliness trying to get to the hospital, of course, but when it comes to the actual birth scene it’s not gratuitous or over the top. It’s just a wonderful moment, and that’s what I had been hoping for for two seasons. They did it.”
Barber adds that you’ll still see lots of realistic sweat and awkward expressions. “It’s not a flawless, beautiful, ‘my makeup is perfect’ birth. It’s a life-changing moment that we’re all going through, and as realistic as it can be for a sitcom.”
PHOTO: Adam Rose/Netflix
The producers also got the rights to Joni Mitchell’s “The Circle Game” to play over an emotional montage. “I’m choked up as I talk about it,” Baldikoski says. “If it doesn’t make Fuller House fans choke up, I don’t know what will. It’s a beautiful scene. Andrea is amazing, Jodie is amazing, Candace is amazing, Adam [Hagenbuch, “Jimmy”] is amazing. We are very proud of it.”
As to whether the episode will serve as a series finale or season finale, Barber and Baldikoski hope there’s a season five in Fuller House‘s future. After all, there are plenty of stories that can stem from this surrogacy. “Usually surrogates don’t live in the same house as the birth mother,” Barber says. “I would love for them to explore that.” And what effect will this new baby have on Kimmy’s teen daughter, Ramona, and her partner, Fernando? How will Kimmy’s relationship with Stephanie change once the baby arrives? “Those are some pretty rich story areas that we have to deal with going forward,” Baldikoski says.
Whatever happens, Baldikoski hopes this will resonate with viewers. “Families come in all shapes and sizes. You don’t have to be a nuclear family anymore. People can feel comfortable with whatever family situation they have as long as they are loved. We want to show that the Fuller/Tanner clan is very inclusive. We’ve even included the first openly gay teenager on the show [this season], who is a friend of Ramona’s. As DJ says, ‘The door is always open.’ That’s our guiding philosophy of the show: Everyone’s welcome.”
Fuller House season four is now streaming onNetflix.
Corruption runs so deep on House of Cards that its major characters can, at times, seem comically evil. It takes an honest, kind, and unpretentious character to remind the viewer how genuinely frightening it must be to work alongside power-obsessed politicians. In the sixth—and final—season, now on Netflix, that character is Kelsey Stewart, a White House tour guide who becomes Claire Underwood’s press secretary and whose regard for Claire begins in awe and evolves into fear. (Caution: Spoilers ahead.)
Kristen Sieh, the actor who plays Kelsey, tells Glamour that House of Cards’ showrunners (Melissa James Gibson and Frank Pugliese) specifically wanted Kelsey to be at the opposite ethical pole from Claire. “Melissa and Frank were saying to me that Kelsey is the only person with a heart in the show,” Sieh explains, with a laugh.
Claire and Kelsey’s personal lives are entangled this season based on a mutual connection to Tom Yates, Claire’s former lover who last season engaged in an impromptu act of intimacy with Kelsey in the White House press room. Kelsey’s naivety in handling the incident puts her in peril when Claire convinces her to take down the Vice President by falsely linking him to Tom’s death, an event that Claire herself caused. With convincing pathos, she tells Kelsey, “I’m not going to let the Vice President get away with this. You and I as women—we have to fight back. I need you by my side.”
Women’s anger and retaliation is a dominant theme in the show’s final season, and Claire Underwood (well, actually, Claire Hale—she uses her maiden name as president) is determined to make the White House a place for women to flourish in place of the men who, in Claire’s view, resent the very idea of a female president. She promotes Kelsey to press secretary and installs an all-female cabinet, all while making asides to the camera, as only a House of Cards anti-hero can, that she’ll undermine these female colleagues as she sees fit. In a complicated twist of feminism, Claire helps women advance politically by keeping them on the tightest of leashes.
PHOTO: David Giesbrecht/Netflix
Devious as Claire is, Sieh believes that female villains like her are still worth celebrating. “I think it’s beautiful to watch women step into these roles that we love to hate. The scenes between Patricia Clarkson and Robin [Wright] are some of the most exciting moments of television that I’ve watched in a long time. And Diane Lane—she ends up plotting the assassination of the president. The most interesting part about feminism in this season is that power is the corrupter. Power and tyranny come in all the different forms imaginable,” she says.
When Kevin Spacey was removed from the show and Robin Wright took his place as star, many viewers noted that Claire was the more interesting Underwood all along. Her unshakeable focus and cold-as-ice demeanor were fascinating to watch, in part because they existed in the shadow of her husband. It wasn’t until the latter half of season five that Claire’s ambition surged past Frank toward the Oval Office. Now, in the show’s final season, Claire holds the reigns. But her presidency is exemplified by the same cruel narcissism as with her predecessor—only this time, those ominous footsteps you hear through the West Wing hallways are not the clomps of Frank’s wingtips, but the taps of Claire’s heels.
“Something I love about this season is the tropes of femininity,” Sieh says. “Like loving bags and hair and clothes—all these tribal ideas are turned on their heads.” In one climactic scene, Claire gives a Kelsey a purse while announcing that Kelsey’s role as press secretary will be temporarily silenced so Claire can control the messaging from the White House. “She hands me a purse,” Sieh says. “It’s the same purse [Claire] brought when she poisoned Tom Yates. For Kelsey, there’s this absurdity of a hyper-feminine interaction with Claire, who’s this bulldog.”
PHOTO: David Giesbrecht/Netflix
That scene, in which Claire says icily, “I’ll let you know when you need to speak,” leaves Kelsey stunned and heartbroken at realizing the true nature of her boss. With so much villainy, what is the show saying about a president who empowers women while underhandedly controlling them? Is empowerment even the right word?
“I think it is,” Sieh says. “How you behave or allow yourself to be manipulated or not, or keep your ideals intact, that’s the personal journey. But just being in the room is incredibly important.” In other words, Kelsey would eventually wizen up and figure out the system. “That’s where you get wisdom.”
When we speak, it’s the day before the midterm elections, and Sieh turns her thoughts to female representation in Washington. “I was just looking up how many female congresswomen there are,” she says. “There are only 23 female senators and only four women of color.” Within a day, more than 100 women would win seats in Congress, representing an array of ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientations. With hope, they’ll blend some of Claire’s savviness and Kelsey’s integrity. Surely both characters would be happy to hear more of those tapping sounds through the halls of Congress.
