May 23, 2022
My Mother, My Ex, and Facial Feminization Surgery: A Comic
I believe so strongly in the beauty and autonomy of body transformation, but I’m worried that will erase the small visible echoes of my (and my mother’s) history of survival.
Getting Famous On Tumblr Ruined My Relationship to My Body
In the time since being an active Tumblr user, I’ve seen our cultural standards for what is “desirable” shift so much.
May 17, 2022
Finding Salvation in Death Cab for Cutie
I needed her to tell me that it was okay to doubt, to yearn, for the lyrics in our headphones to mean something sacred—with or without God.
May 05, 2022
For Queer Girls, Simping Is a Love Language
I’m embracing the label, with all its yearning, try-hard connotations, because desire shouldn’t be embarrassing and love does require trying hard.
May 02, 2022
My First Taste of Protest In a Thai Roadside Café
Will it challenge how they feel about the kingdom? The nationalistic pride of what it means to be Thai?
Apr 21, 2022
Can We Dance as the World Falls Apart?
When Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February, I found myself asking: What pleasures are permissible during wartime?
Apr 19, 2022
The Curious Lives of Ski Migrants
Look closely and you see something that has been left behind, mourned, and reassembled from new parts.
Apr 18, 2022
A Final Kampai for Angel’s Share, My Favorite Bar in New York
Why not form friendship around a love of good drink, openness, and a desire to treat each other with fairness?
Apr 13, 2022
My Father Tried to Preserve Nature—And the Best of Him—In His Writing
My father has been gone for so long now. There’s nothing for me to escape anymore. I read his book to try to believe him again.
Apr 12, 2022
Little Girls Get to Be Ingénues—What About Big Girls?
Make me thin, I told God. Make me pretty. I added to the list: Make me Annie.
Apr 11, 2022
Finding Love When You’re Forty and Happily Single
My identity is tied up in my singleness, my childlessness, and I’m not sure I want to let that go.
Apr 06, 2022
Learning to Live in a Body That Fights Itself
I have spent most of my life hating the fact of having a body. It makes sense that my body would eventually start to hate me back.
Apr 05, 2022
On Playing Risk and Studying the Maps of Colonialism
Soon after I bought the game, I began to obsess over another map, one that also didn’t fully exist.
Mar 31, 2022
Unlearning My Immigrant Mother’s Ideas of Beauty
Like many immigrant daughters, I’m of a lineage of women who didn’t put themselves first.
Mar 31, 2022
After My Divorce, I Found Comfort in Cohousing
I’m not sure I want to be vulnerable or join a community. I’m not sure I even remember how.
Mar 30, 2022
In the US Health Care System, You’re Not a Patient. You’re a Consumer
On some level I know the system is designed to break me down, but I feel guilty because I am good at letting it.
Mar 28, 2022
Teachers Are Told to Ignore Their Bodies, But Chronic Pain Made Me Listen to Mine
I have never been as vulnerable with students as I was then, having to tell the fifth graders I was in pain.
Mar 23, 2022
Covid-19, Memory, and Remembering My Grandma
Can I trust the sparse memories in my long-Covid brain? If I don’t record this, will my Frankenstein-ed memories escape, just like Grandma’s did?
Mar 16, 2022
Understanding Madness and Mental Health Through Lucha Libre
Luchas Libres remind me of the advice I got on my first roller coaster ride: “You have to scream the whole time. It’s only fun if you scream.”
Mar 14, 2022
Group Chats Don’t Replace Friendship—They Can Keep It Alive
The group chat is a means, not an end. Not what our friendship is, but what keeps it alive.
Mar 08, 2022
