An Open Letter to Nicki Minaj

Reflections for the hip-hop songstress.

What Does A Survivor Of Abuse Look Like? Well, They Look Like Me...

As it turns out, relationship abuse does not discriminate. Domestic violence can happen to any woman of any race, religion, education level, income, or age. A victim of relationship abuse can look like anyone — even Miss New Jersey USA.

Stop Shaming Independent Women for Not Being Stereotypes

A review of the discriminatory stereotypes placed on independent women.Stop shaming independent women with fear mongering and wrongful stereotypes about isolation. Independence does not, and I repeat, does not equate to a life of isolation. Society has encouraged a dated and discriminatory picture of what a woman's life should look like in each decade of her life. These harmful stereotypes are not just unrealistic but also can cause confusion and distress when our lives do not perfectly align with these outdated ideals...

What to Do When You Are Missing Your Work BFFs While Working From Home

Why is work the number one place where adults make most of their friends? Because consistency is one of the three relationship requirements, and there's nowhere we're more consistent in our lives than where we're paid to show up regularly. Work is to adults as school is to kids: the best place to interact frequently with the same people. But what happens to all those work friendships—whose consistency relied upon sharing a breakroom, sitting beside each other, chatting in the hallway, or connecting briefly after meetings—when so many of us are now working remote?

Codeword COVID-19: The New Resource for Domestic Violence Victims

In early March, stay-at-home orders were put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Suddenly people across the world were instructed to quarantine at home. For most people, inside the walls of their home is a place of security and solace. For others, home can be a dangerous place of abuse.In an instant, domestic violence victims around the world became isolated with their abusers causing domestic violence reports to increase by 35% in the United States, according to the World Health Organization. With social isolation and the stress of the unknown, the coronavirus pandemic started to breed dangerous situations at home where violence may have never previously shown its face. Domestic violence quickly became an epidemic within the pandemic.

Would You Know If You Were Being Abused? 10 Surprising Signs of Unhealthy Relationships

Growing up I was trained to think that relationship abuse was purely physical. This way of thinking that I and so many other young people have come to know has led unhealthy relationship behaviors go unrecognized and tolerated simply because we were not given the tools to identify them.