“I was quiet. I didn’t want to cause a scene. I didn’t know better.”
‘He’s mixed-race, right? He’ll always have yellow in him.’ I was SHOCKED.’: Asian woman shares experience with racism, ‘Silence is not an option’
‘I said goodbye to my kids at drop off, with a plan in place to be executed that afternoon.’: Mom of two celebrates 2 years sobriety, finds love
“To the outside, I was this happy-go-lucky, life of the party with no worries. I’d wake up with an empty bottle of wine next to my bed and no recollection of drinking it because I took an Ambien. I’d go to bed every night, begging to not wake up the next morning.”
‘We don’t know anything for sure, but…’ The doctor sat down with a grave expression.’: Mom gives birth to son with ultra-rare chondrodysplasia punctata
“I was swiftly and abruptly thrust into an entirely different world than any of my friends. I sat alone in the grief and stewed.”
‘I wasn’t comfortable in my own skin. I was there for everyone else but not for myself.’: Limb difference advocate urges ‘stop comparing yourself to others’
“I was a people pleaser. ‘If I put their needs before mine, maybe they’ll like me more.’ Deep down, I wasn’t happy with myself.”
‘I looked down during my shower, bleary-eyed from yet another 4 a.m. wake up call, to a baby crawling between my legs and toys scattered between my wet feet.’: Burnt out mom urges ‘you don’t have to love every second’
“My 3-year-old sat chattering on the toilet I still need to scrub, while the shrieks of her siblings pierced the background. I had a laundry list of things running through my mind that needed to be accomplished and not a single clue how I was going to make it come to fruition. And I was weary.”
‘My lungs were running out of space. One by one, experts turned me away. I knew there was purpose in the pain.’: Osteogenesis Imperfecta warrior urges ‘life is worth fighting for’
“‘The risks are too great. You should just live with what you have left.’ I still felt in my heart this was something I needed to do.”
‘You’re so strong…’ 3 little words I often hear as a parent to a very special girl.’ I don’t want to be, but here I am, giving the middle finger to her diagnoses.’: First-time mom shares special needs journey
“After weeks of grieving, we said ‘screw it.’ We decided we were 100% going to up and move our entire lives to a new city 7 hours away.”
‘What happened to your face and neck?’ In the blink of an eye, my brother became a monster.’: Childhood abuse survivor urges ‘letting go is the best gift we can give ourselves’
“There were blue-black marks everywhere. One never truly knows how fragile life is until you nearly lose it.”
‘You’re better off with someone younger,’ I joked, certain he’d wake up one day, realize how old I am, and run as fast as he can.’: Divorcee shares powerful love story, ‘Time is just a number’
“‘Forties is IT! Who wants an old woman like me?’ Then I met a younger man. A man who didn’t care about my age at all.”
‘At 11, I already had a gym membership and a trainer. I had 5 medications by age 13.’: Woman on weight loss journey says ‘I need to be the healthiest me’
“I’d walk my dog and people would scream things out of their car windows. I even lost out on job opportunities because I did not ‘look’ the part. It was time to do something.”