personal essay

first person

Mama Outsider: No Place Like Home

“Every day since my father died has been at least a little fucked up. There is no such thing as a non-fucked up day when you are a Daddy’s girl…

Asha —

Apr 28, 2016

first person

In A World Lacking Lesbian Rom Coms, I Made My Own

“Sidetrack is a show largely about my life and my experiences, because after years of watching so much television that erased me, I just wanted to write myself in.”

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya —

Apr 20, 2016

health

When Medicine Doesn’t Speak the Right Language for My Body

“Forming new habits isn’t easy, especially when your entire profession runs on a highly specialized vocabulary — but you know what else isn’t easy? Listening to how “abnormal” my body…

Carrie —

Apr 18, 2016

health

Disability and the Gym: Let My Body Do the Work

“I like toughness because it acknowledges an uncomfortable, complicated truth—that being disabled is hard—but rejects pity as an acceptable response. Instead, it gives my body credit for outlasting, adapting, and…

Carrie —

Apr 6, 2016

gender

Skydiving in Two Genders: An Essay on Trans Visibility

“I decide I’ll test the durability of a BB cream by Tarte at thousands of feet in the air, then feel ashamed at worrying so much about how I look,…

Gabrielle Bellot —

Mar 31, 2016

gender

On Performing in The Vagina Monologues When You Don’t Have a Vagina

“There’s an annoying song that’s only playing all the way through all day long on some days. Others, I can barely hear the chorus, and others I can’t hear it…

Mey —

Mar 29, 2016

first person

Broad City, Ilana and Space Enough for Bothness

I remember the day I found out that Ilana from Broad City wasn’t biracial. I Googled around until I found evidence that there were others like me: biracial girls who…

Aisha —

Mar 23, 2016

first person

The Pace of Queer Time

“I’ve been thinking recently that queer time for me is a self-declared snow day. A chance to stay in bed and explore ourselves unhindered by the outside world. A chance…

Lila —

Mar 16, 2016

first person

Grandma’s House on Memory Lane

“As an adult, I wrestle with the stupid irony of having watched my grandmother live out her Alzheimer’s and not remembering anything about it.”

Isabel —

Mar 10, 2016

first person

Life, Death and Surrender: It’s Hard to Know When It’s Time to Say Goodbye

On losing a pet, resilience and vulnerability, human frailty and animal intelligence, and everything that goes into saying goodbye.

KaeLyn —

Mar 1, 2016

queer fashion

I Looked at my Body and Said Yes: Where Disability and Style Meet

I think I’d gotten it into my head that disability is always, on some level, supposed to feel bad. Like if I fought myself all the time, I was somehow…

Carrie —

Feb 22, 2016

first person

How Rape Jokes Sound Inside Queer Bodies

If the performer had known that I write about the horrific violence against my community by day and process the trauma of that work in my journal by night, maybe he…

Adrian —

Feb 19, 2016