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Three retro cans of Cherry Coke surrounded by gummy sodas and bottle caps against a jazz cup pattern
First Person Food and Drink

Cherry Coke Triptych

Giving up caffeinated soda was one of the hardest parts of being pregnant.

Sa'iyda Shabazz March 10, 2023 4 Comments
five cans of retro Britney Spears Diet Coke against a purple and gray fuzzy background
First Person

On 2018’s Britney Spears Diet Pepsi Cans and the Most Intense Gaslighting of My Career

I used to love grocery shopping after my divorce. I would buy things that only I liked.

Nico March 9, 2023 21 Comments
three cans of coca-cola classic and three cans of diet coke
First Person

Coca-Cola Used To Be Fifty Cents and We Used To Be Close

(Stop writing about the Coke when what you’re really trying to write about is the end of a friendship and then another and then another.)

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya March 9, 2023 15 Comments
organic yerba mate in Enlighten Mint flavor with chips around them and a jazz cup design in the background
First Person Food and Drink

Grind Culture Made Fizzy Energy Drinks My Toxic Writing Partner

This is not a cautionary tale or a poignant anecdote about finding myself amid waves of imposter syndrome

Julie Gentile March 8, 2023 16 Comments
an overhead shot of a nearly empty cup of soda, surrounded by gummy sodas and bottle caps
First Person

Seltzer Tastes Like Punishment

There are so many good songs about drinking but none about seltzer, have you noticed that?

Autumn Fourkiller March 7, 2023 16 Comments
The following beers: Mickey's, Coors Light, Natural Ice, Miller Genuine Draft, and Bud Light Lime
First Person Food and Drink

Beers I Drank From Ages 14 to 20 That Made Me the ‘Man’ I Am Today

Every punk party — whether it was in Ft. Lauderdale or Lake Worth or North Miami — had the exact same drink options. Either you were drinking Mickey’s or you were doing shots of Jack Daniels.

Stef Rubino March 7, 2023 18 Comments
On the right, there is a glass vase filled with lavender and some dried pink flowers. A white wall and a diagonal wood panel are in the background. To the left of the vase, there are two, hanging strings of crystals. They reflect rainbow flecks of light onto the wall.
First Person

My Hysterectomy and Early Menopause Reshaped My Sexuality — So My Queerness Found New Spaces to Inhabit

Where once my sexuality flourished in the spaces of the unknown, it is now content to be still.

Juniper Fitzgerald March 6, 2023 5 Comments
three bottles of Vintage seltzer with a jazz cup pattern behind them and a bunch of gummy sodas
First Person Food and Drink

My Seltzer, My Self

Do you remember the first time you stumbled upon a satisfaction you tried to make entirely your own?

Caroline Darya Framke March 6, 2023 16 Comments
In a sunny photo from 1976, a young woman stands on a balcony overlooking the shoreline and city behind her.
First Person

An Incomplete List of Things I Wish My Mother Would Do

46. Look at the menu beforehand.

Laneia March 4, 2023 51 Comments
In the center of the image, there is a photo of a mixed race transmasculine person with a light beard and short, curly, blonde hair wearing a black T-shirt, an open, button-up tan shirt, glasses, a chain necklace, and a gold watch. They are standing outside and holding another person's face in their hands. The other person has short, curly, red hair and wears a black coat and dangling earrings. On either side of the photo, there are blue and white hearts.
First Person

A Transmasc’s Guide to Developing a Healthier Masculine Sexuality

There are some lessons we don’t have to learn the hard way when people have already done the work to teach us.

Dev Ramsawakh March 2, 2023 5 Comments
a screen experiencing a glitch, resulting in lots of colorful jagged lines
First Person

The System Operates As Designed

Burnout is not simple tiredness. It is malaise and unexplained pain. It is a theft of spirit and the creative body.

Tamara Jerée February 27, 2023 17 Comments
on a desk sits a beaded jewelry box, a black clutch purse, a gray ring tray with assorted rings on it, a polaroid of Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya and Kristen Arnett on new year's 2023, and a very cool rock, bisected in the middle and sparkly on the inside
First Person Lesbian Weddings

I’m a Cool Rock Lesbian

By which I mean I am a lesbian who likes to look at and hold cool rocks — not that I am a lesbian into cool rock ‘n roll, but I’m sure those lesbians are great.

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya February 19, 2023 26 Comments
a dark door is slightly ajar, letting out a leak of light
First Person

An Exorcism of Sorts

The haunted house persists in horror media for a reason.

Autumn Fourkiller February 17, 2023 7 Comments
a cityscape of New Haven, CT at dusk, dappled in pink sunlight
First Person

How I Gradually Found My Queer Community in Connecticut

There were a few months where my mother, who lives back in Bangladesh, stopped talking to me after stumbling across some essays I’d written about my queerness. This confusing and heartbreaking time was when I truly understood the value of having a queer chosen family and support system.

P February 17, 2023 6 Comments
Three album covers (The National's High Violet, Erkyah Badu's New Amerikyah, and Hanna) are placed in front of a solid royal purple background
First Person Music

Three Songs for Three Heartbreaks

I was in love, then I wasn’t. One night, after a big fight. I got on my bike to make the short trek home and a song came to me.

danijanae February 15, 2023 6 Comments
A collage of torn paper in neutral tones of grey, beige, brown, and black. There are creases, tears, warps and paste layers like posters worn down on a brick wall. Some parts of the papers are aging brown and peeling out of the canvas. There are spray paint gestures in orange and pink as well. On top of the paper detritus is a ruby red ceramic tile that has been shattered into shards and then reconstructed into a heart shape. Some ceramic shards are also scattered around the canvas. Laid diagonal in the bottom right corner is a clear plastic ballpoint pen with a black plastic cap.
First Person

I Don’t Want To Write Beautiful Things

I am in the business of writing honestly, especially about the things that hurt — heartbreak, disappointment, shame, poverty.

Leah Johnson February 14, 2023 16 Comments
The top of a concrete wall is visible against a gray sky. On top of the wall, there is looped barbed wire along with barbed wire that's running horizontally. On the left side of the wall, the number 15 is stenciled in white paint.
First Person

I’m a Trans Woman in Prison, Where Being Myself Comes at a Cost

Lying on that rigid ol’ mattress, I realized: I’m transgender. Then one day without my permission, I found myself being me.

Traci Jackson February 3, 2023 14 Comments
Hard plastic fairy toys against a pink glitter background
First Person

In 1994, Sky Dancers Informed The Tiny Femme I Was Becoming

Sky Dancers were just the kind of aggressively feminine toy I was unconsciously obsessed with.

Sa'iyda Shabazz January 30, 2023 4 Comments
a fat person in an orange shirt benchpressing a barbell
First Person

Rethinking the Power of Movement, One Barbell at a Time

Up until a few months ago, I never felt very strong. I was a fat kid who grew into a fat teenager, and now I’m a fat adult.

Stef Rubino January 30, 2023 30 Comments
Robin, a red haired pale woman in the game Stardew Valley, says "Hi Spooky Nico, I was just cleaning the dust off my saw"
First Person

I Played Stardew Valley With My New Name for a Year Before Announcing It Publicly

The more I played, the more characters I made friends with, the more I liked my new name.

Nico January 11, 2023 39 Comments
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