#hellogiggles

[olivierzetlers]

(via GIPHY)

[benschwartzcinematicuniverse]

Do you have any videos of Ben singing? I just watched one of him harmonizing with Zooey Deschanel for HelloGiggles that was gorg and pretty and fun

I’m a big fan of ben’s if u can guess which mutual this is. I like seeing him be shiny out there in that big world 🥺 he’s cute.

Oh man, thank you for this ask. My answer is ‘nothing nearly enough’, in fact the only thing I have saved to this phone is Yeah Sure Whatever and that tiny clip he posted from the bttf table read

However

I broke my F***book hiatus to screen record this. Please enjoy a scruffy Ben singing Suddenly Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors

Also, I am terrible at guessing, but whoever you are you brought a lot of joy with this ask. Thank you!

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Patricia Riggen! "First of all a woman making a movie is something to admire. Period. Because it’s hard."

Read more in HelloGiggles's Talking to ‘The 33’ director Patricia Riggen on how to succeed in male-dominated Hollywood.

The 33 (2015) "In The 33, I believe that Patricia delivered a film that works on every level and that defies categorization."

Read more in Lou Diamond Phillips's blog post where he shares reflections on working with Riggen on The 33.

Girl in Progress (2012)

Lemonade Mouth (2011)

Under the Same Moon | La misma luna (2007)

Explore Riggen's filmography on MUBI:

[alexesguerra]

The Modern Witchcraft Guide to Magickal Herbs: Your Complete Guide to the Hidden Powers of Herbs ( Modern Witchcraft ) The Modern Witchcraft Guide to Magickal Herbs: Your Complete Guide to the Hidden Powers of Herbs Hardcover – Illustrated, December 10, 2019 by Judy Ann Nock (Author) ---Brand New-- Incorporate herbs into spells, rituals, and divination with this all-inclusive guide to the benefits of using herbal magic in witchcraft. From creating potions to using dried herbs in rituals, herbal magic is a natural way to practice witchcraft. Herbs can be used in many different ways to help set the intention through every part of a witch’s process. In The Modern Witchcraft Guide to Magickal Herbs, learn everything you need to use the most powerful herbs and use them as an essential part of your practice. Including information on which herbs are best for what kinds of spells, how to use herbs in divination and rituals, and step-by-step guides to making herbal bundles, potions, and sprays, this guidebook has all the important facts to make your herbal witchcraft a success. Jam-packed with herbal ideas, this guide is perfect for both beginners and experienced witches looking to incorporate more herbs into their practice. Beautiful and functional, it is easy to navigate and offers a detailed guide to herbal magic! About the Author Judy Ann Nock received a Master of Science degree in TESOL at CUNY City College in May 2019 and has a double bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and Theatre from The Florida State University. Excerpts from her books have appeared in Publishers Weekly, Yahoo.com, Bust Magazine, Luna Luna Magazine, HelloGiggles, Bustle, among others. Judy Ann Nock has appeared in feature articles on Refinery29 and in the Village Voice. She also performs regularly with the critically acclaimed Hoboken cave punk supergroup known as psych-O-positive. Radio stations such as WFMU and Strong Island Radio have dedicated airplay to her music and books. She lives with her daughter in New York City. Product details Item Weight : 15.9 ounces Hardcover : 240 pages ISBN-13 : 9781507211489 Product dimensions : 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches Publisher : Adams Media; Illustrated edition (December 10, 2019) Language: : English

[shopofthemoment]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: new Ilia 𖦹 Multi Stick Cream Blush Highlighter Lip Tint 𖦹 Dear Ruby Poppy Red.

[themomsandthecity]

How Can I Have a Baby When I Already Take Care of My Elderly Parents?

"When are you having a baby?" is the question I've been asked the most since marrying my husband in 2021. At 36, I often wonder the answer myself. Even though I've always wanted to have a child, I'm not sure if it's in the cards for me anymore. Especially now that both of my parents' health has severely declined. For all of my life, my mom has been in and out of hospitals, and my dad has been our rock. He recently got sick, though, and it broke me. My mom's health issues advanced so much that she now lives in a nursing home, because my dad is not strong enough to take care of her on his own. And me? I live on the opposite side of the country. Because of this, I fly from my home in Los Angeles to crash in their one-bedroom apartment in Connecticut at least once a month. I'm happy to be there to support them, but these trips are physically, emotionally, and financially draining. When I'm in town, I'm their therapist, nurse, chauffeur, cook, assistant, and maid. I'm bouncing around hospitals, riding in ambulances, and waiting with them in emergency rooms. I'm acting as a liaison between them and their doctors, pharmacists, therapists, friends, and church. My parents are my best friends who did everything for me growing up, so the least I can do is be there for them when they need me the most. Motherhood would mean I could no longer be my parents' support system, and I'm all they have. But this had made planning for a baby nearly impossible. It's hard to prioritize anything over my parents, let alone getting pregnant. I already feel like a bad wife, seeing as I've spent weeks apart from my husband in the first years of my marriage. How could I possibly add a baby to the mix? Despite knowing all this, I often imagine what getting pregnant would be like. Would I be able to make these trips across the country while pregnant? Would I be able to make these trips with a newborn? Would I be able to support my parents with a child? The reality is, I don't think so. Motherhood would mean I would no longer be my parents' support system, and I'm all they have. I know what you're thinking: even though moving to be closer to my parents may seem like the logical solution, it's not an option for my husband and me. Not only is a cross-country move more expensive than plane tickets, but our careers are here in California. I also know some people might argue that I could make it work if I wanted a baby badly enough. Plenty of women out there become mothers while taking care of their parents, or without the support of their parents entirely. But I don't know if I'm one of them. It breaks my heart thinking about bringing new life into this world while my parents are in their worst physical states. The truth is, I really would love to be a mother. I'm just not sure if I want it to happen at my parents' expense. Related: I Don't Want to Be a Mom, and No, I Won't Change My Mind --- Gabi Conti is the author of "Twenty Guys You Date in Your Twenties" and the writer, executive producer, and cocreator of Apple's No. 1 fiction podcast series "Bad Influencer." You can catch her covering entertainment news for Hollywire or read more of her work on Cosmopolitan, Giddy, Betches, Best Life, HelloGiggles, Elite Daily, Mindbodygreen, and Brit + Co. --- https://www.popsugar.com/family/baby-elderly-parents-essay-49354998?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[multiculturalamericajournal]

Entry #1: The Proud Family

The Proud Family is a children's cartoon that aired on Disney Channel from 2001 to 2005. The series centers around the main character, 14-year-old Penny Proud, and follows her life as she navigates growing up as a young black girl. As the show progresses the audience gets to see how Penny and her family members handle various trials and triumphs in their lives. Whether they be in her school activities, friendships, family relationships, or personal self-esteem struggles, there is always a lesson to learn from the very thoughtful, relatable, and dynamic characters in this show. And, while this program is extremely entertaining and fun, it also touches on some very important and necessary topics. Show creator Bruce W. Smith even stated that "he was inspired to create this series because of the lack of African American empowerment in animation". Some of the socially relevant themes and topics that The Proud Family discusses include LGBTQ rights and toxic masculinity, women empowerment, and racial stereotypes.

Specifically in the episode “Who You Calling Sissy,” conversations about the LGBTQ community were brought to light. "Penny’s friend Michael, a flamboyant designer and fashionisto, is called a 'sissy', after surprising everyone with his athletic abilities during a pick-up game of basketball" (Vaughn 2019). The word 'sissy' holds a lot of weight in this situation. The insulting term, typically used in regards to an effeminate man and carries connotations of being homosexual, is heavily used in the Black community. This episode also addressed issues including bullying, women accessorizing gay men, respecting gender identity and sexual orientation, and also the idea of toxic masculinity - the construct that doesn’t allow men to feel liberated without judgment.

Women empowerment is a constant theme throughout the series and can be noticed in almost any episode. One clear example can be found in the episode "She’s Got Game”. "Penny joins the boy’s football team after her crush mocks her and insists that girls can’t play. Comments from the football coach and other teammates show that they are still holding onto ideals from the 1950s - that women belong in the kitchen and Penny should go home and bake instead" (Vaughn 2019). However, Penny proves herself in crunch time, when the coach is forced to put her in the game, and she shows everyone that women can be good at sports too.

Similar to the consistent display of women's empowerment, racial stereotypes are often addressed in episodes of The Proud Family. “Culture Shock”, is an episode that showcases many stereotypes of Muslims. "The father is portrayed as angry and sexist, the mother as a servant of the family, and the daughter Radika feels displaced in the Proud Family house, not having to serve a male authority figure". "Toward the end of the episode, Penny shows more appreciation for the Zamin family - wearing her hijab, getting to know her host family, attending Eid, and delivering a speech about how the Zamins are just like any other family" (Vaughn 2019).

Some of these concepts have been discussed in recent media, however, The Proud Family was extremely early to the party - blazing a trail for other shows and movies to include such powerful and inclusive content. To not only show underrepresented and marginalized groups, but to dig into their true feelings, thoughts, and obstacles and the people who oppress them is truly what makes The Proud Family such an impactful program.

Sources:

Vaughn, Mikeisha. “The Proud Family Is the Representation We Needed—Then and Nowhellogiggles.” HelloGiggles, 15 Oct. 2019, hellogiggles.com/the-proud-family-representation/.

[newsconduct]

Zooey Deschanel Plastic Surgery: Everything To Know About Her

Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress and musician who was born on January 17, 1980. She began her acting career in 1999 with the film “Mumford,” and in 2000 she appeared in a supporting part in the well-known movie “Almost Famous” by Cameron Crowe. Along with her acting career, Deschanel co-founded the website HelloGiggles, which in 2015 was acquired by Time, Inc. Starting in 2001,…

[musicallyyours69]

Watch "VCK | Zooey Deschanel & Joseph Gordon-Levitt | What Are You Doing New Years Eve? | HelloGiggles" on YouTube

[best2daynews]

We tried Nurx, the Uber of birth control—here's what happened - HelloGiggles

We tried Nurx, the Uber of birth control—here’s what happened

[pooma-education]

Ways To Identify a Best Friend

Whether you have exchanged gifts or not, you may have one friend you consider your “best friend.” But, especially as you get older and go through a range of life experiences, your relationships shift and you can get closer to different people.

So how can you tell if someone is your best friend?

HelloGiggles spoke with two experts on friendship to get all the details about what makes best friend. Because even if no one is asking who your best friend is anymore, you want to confirm that your friendship is true.

Both experts shared that it’s more than normal to have different best friends throughout your life. And Nelson ,one of the experts even thinks you can have more than one best friend at the same time, telling HG, “I would say ‘best’ is a quality of relationship, not a quantity of relationship.” But if you are looking for signs to help you identify your current best friend, here are 22 ways to know your friend is your best friend or not.

1. You trust them.

“A best friend should be somebody that there’s not that fear of betrayal [with],” Bonior said. And that trust can range from your best friend keeping your secrets to always showing up for a lunch date. “There’s not that nervousness that if you reveal something that it’s going to be spread around to others. If you said you were going to meet up somewhere, there’s not that uncertainty of whether or not that person is going to show,” Bonior said.

2. And they trust you.

Bonior also pointed out that the trust in the friendship needs to go both ways. Your best friend needs to trust you just as much as you trust them. Otherwise, you are not really their best friend, are you?

3. There’s a consistency that’s true to your friendship.

Nelson , one of the experts said she evaluates the health of a friendship in three ways: Consistent interaction, vulnerable sharing, and positive feelings. When it comes to “consistent interaction,” you might think that means you can’t be best friends with people you don’t see all the time. But if your best friend lives in a different state or even a different country, don’t fret.

"I have some friends where consistency means we only talk on the phone every three months or we only see each other once a year. But there still has to be that sense of consistency. We both have to believe that the other person is still in our life. Consistency means we’re expecting to pick that back up again,” Nelson said.

With a newer best friendship, Nelson said you will need to put more time in since it’s not built-in. “If we’re building relationships, the research is showing we have to put almost 180 hours before we feel close to somebody. That’s why we feel closer to people who we met in college or who we worked with because those hours got logged in pretty fast for us. And so consistency when we’re building a friendship is really, really crucial,” Nelson said.

Whether you’ve been best friends since elementary school or your best friend entered your life in the last couple of years, you want your hangout schedule to be true to you two. “For us to feel safe and feel like you can rely on that person, we still have to have some pattern that feels comfortable and familiar to our relationship where we believe we could reach out to that person,” Nelson said.

4. You interact with them in multiple ways.

Nelson’s idea of “consistent interaction” is more than just frequent interactions over the course of your relationship. “It also includes being able to communicate in a variety of different ways,” Nelson said. “Our friendships go deeper when we’re not just interacting only on Facebook or only in person. Anything that increases the way we do consistent interaction is a way to measure the depth of a relationship.” So if you always feel free to text your friend or to give them a call out of the blue, they could be your best friend.

5. You are vulnerable with each other.

Both Nelson and Bonior brought up the importance of vulnerability in a best friendship. Nelson noted that “the more we know about each other, the more we feel safe having shown ourselves, the more things we’ve gone through together, the more we’ve seen each other in different ways,” the closer we are. “If we’re looking for the people who are going to be our ‘best’ friend, then we would be looking for people who we are sharing many different sides of ourselves with and practicing sharing vulnerable feelings, ideas, and thoughts with them.”

Bonior added, “There’s got to be a level of vulnerability with each other—being willing to open yourself up to that person and know that they’ve got your back. That’s got to be paramount. You reveal parts of yourself to them that you might not reveal to other people—and they love you anyway.”

6. They really know and get you.

Because you’re open and vulnerable with your best friend, they may know you on a deeper level. “They understand you in a way that your other friends might not,” Bonior said.

That’s especially important in the age of social media, where people may only share the positive things going on in their lives. “They really do get you. It’s not just superficial, not just pretend who you are on social media. It’s you even at your worst,” Bonior said.

7. You feel seen by them.

Nelson defines close friendship—or “frientimacy”—as “any relationship between two people where they both feel seen in a safe, satisfying way.” Similar to how a best friend truly gets you, Nelson noted that she believes “being seen” is of utmost importance. “Most of us just want friends who see us and affirm us and believe in us and if we could do that for each other, we will probably be able to survive almost anything,” she said.

8. You are motivated by one another.

Motivation comes in many forms, and your best friend should really be inspiring you to be your best self. “A best friend should be somebody who makes you want to be a better person,” Bonior said. “They make you feel inspired and you inspire each other to do better. Maybe they’re living their life in such a way that you get motivation. So that means that you genuinely admire this person and they admire you. And that even though you show each other the most embarrassing parts of yourself, overall, there’s respect there.”

9. You tell them things first.

Imagine something has happened to you at work—maybe you got a raise or maybe you had a disagreement with your boss. In the words of the Ghostbusters: Who you gonna call? According to Bonior, the answer is your bestie.

“Your best friend should be somebody that when something happens to you—good or bad—you want to call them right away. They come first on that list. You want their opinion on things and you want their understanding on things,” Bonior said. So while your parents, siblings, or significant other may be high on that list too, your best friend is at the top with them. And even if it’s not a phone call per se, you’ll be sharing your news with them one way or another.

10. They are there for the good and the bad.

Bonior noted that your best friend is someone you share all your news with, whereas other friends may only be there for you in specific times. “We all have a friend that can commiserate with the best of them. But when you have good news, they’re not that happy for you because they’d rather be commiserating. Or the person who’s happy to cheer you on and have conversations about positive things, but doesn’t want to hear it when you might be struggling,” she said. “I think a true best friend should be somebody that—good news or bad news—you want to share it with them.” And when you do share, they’ll be there to listen.

11. You share the same values.

It’s good to be friends with people who have different perspectives and backgrounds, but Bonior also believes the “same values in life” help with a best friendship. “You don’t have to be exactly like the person,” Bonior said. “But you have to have enough in common that makes you want to do some of the same things at least. And that you find some of the same things important—whether it’s ways you spend your time, hobbies, or values. I think there has to be some overlap there.” After all, some common ground is probably how you ended up friends in the first place.

12. You find ways to connect even when you’re at different life stages.

Just because you may have similar values doesn’t mean your lives are the same. “Ultimately, if we want our friendships to survive and have history, we are just going to have to get very comfortable with saying, ‘Our job isn’t to have the same experiences,’” Nelson said. She notes how people in great friendships don’t have to have certain things in common, like age, political views, or even life events. But what’s important in these cases is staying in touch and connected through the different experiences.

So, if your friend has become a mom and you don’t have kids, Nelson said you can ask questions like, “What does it feel like to be a mom? How is it different than you were expecting it to be? What’s been the hardest part? What does our friendship need to look like now?” She mentioned that this is an example of practicing “active vulnerability.”

13. You affirm each other.

Even when you don’t have a shared experience with a friend, Nelson explained how you can create “positive feelings.” She gave an example of how she’s not a mother, but she shows positive support for her friends who are. “I send Mother’s Day cards to my girlfriends who are moms every year and just say, ‘I love what a great mom you are. It’s one of the things I admire about you. I love how you’re doing it. I’m cheering you on,’” Nelson said. “So you don’t both have to be mothers, but what they need is to not feel like that that’s a taboo subject or that I’m not interested or that I don’t appreciate how hard it is. Up the positivity and up the sharing. Affirm them, point out things you’re seeing in them, ask questions. Anything you can do to help make that subject not taboo and be proud of it in their lives.”

The same applies if your friend has a different focus in her life, for example, work or dating. “We both have our things and that’s okay. We just need to use this as an opportunity to get to know each other in this new way,” Nelson added.

14. You’ve put effort into the friendship.

Both Bonior and Nelson mentioned that life transitions can threaten a friendship. But a best friendship can last through these changes when you put effort into maintaining and growing it. “You have to be prepared that a life transition will change your friendship and it will take more effort. Maybe it used to be that you saw each other equally all the time and you have to make more effort to get together because it can’t be as spontaneous as it was,” Bonior said. “You have to be prepared for and you must be realistic that you’re going to have to put forth some extra effort. If both of you are willing to put forth the effort, I think the friendship can grow.”

Nelson went back to her three main criteria for a good friendship when it comes to making an effort. “You don’t just meet somebody and all those three things are instantly in place,” she said. “Even the people that friendship seemed effortless with, you still had to build your own patterns, figure out what you’re going to do together, how often you’re going to do it together, get to know each other. We still had to learn those things.”

So while “effort” might make it seem like you’re trying too hard to make a friendship work, it can be a sign of just how much you value one another through life’s changes.

15. There’s an even give and take.

“Reciprocity is important with best friends,” Bonior said. “It’s really important that both people, overall, feel comfortable with the balance of who’s giving and who’s getting. Because if you’re giving too much or getting too much, that leads to resentment and frustration over time.” She clarified that there may be fluctuations with this, especially if you or your friend is going through a rough spot, but she said it should “roughly even out over time.” Which makes sense since no one wants to feel like their best friend is using them.

16. It may feel like a marriage.

Sure, you may have joked about marrying your best friend, but Nelson compared best friendship to marriage because you have to work on it. “With our closest friends, we will have gone through conflict and disappointment with each other. It’s like a marriage,” Nelson said. “We’re not expecting a marriage to be conflict-free. A healthier marriage means they handle conflict well and they go through it—and that should be similar for our friendships.”

Nelson added, “We don’t model that well in our culture and we tend to kind of just walk away when there’s drama or hurt feelings. But in an ideal situation, our closest friends should be the people that we practice having those conversations with when we get hurt or disappointed or have unmet expectations.”

17. Or maybe even family.

“I think at some point, friends can become family,” Bonior said. “You might have a friend that’s in such a different stage of life that if you were to have met them now, you might not have had room for each other in your lives because they’re so different and you wouldn’t have overlapped.” But she noted that shared history keeps you connected just like family—so feel confident when you stop by for Thanksgiving next year.

18. You fight.

Just like with a spouse or with family, you’re going to fight. And if you overcome those conflicts, that’s actually a really good sign for your friendship. “It’s not a matter of not having the conflict, it’s a matter of being able to communicate and work through the conflict. It’s probably not a best friendship if there’s never been hurt feelings along the way because two human beings are going to hurt each other occasionally, even if they don’t mean to,” Bonior said.

The key is, as The Beatles would say, work it out. “So in a good best friendship, you can talk about that and allow yourself to bring up difficult stuff. And you respect each other enough to learn each other’s feeling and to empathize and to listen and to try to find a way forward. A friendship that dies just because one person does something that offended the other person and now it’s over, that wasn’t a solid friendship to begin with,” Bonior added.

19. You’re willing to tell each other when you’ve been hurt.

It can be difficult to bring up when you’re hurt. “There’s some awkwardness at times,” Bonior said. “You have to have a difficult conversation every once and a while because your friend hurts you and you don’t want to rock the boat.” But if this is your best friend, you realize the importance of talking about it.

“I have seen a lot of friendships die because somebody did not want to bring up that their friend upset them, so they don’t say anything and they swallow it so long that the next thing you know, they don’t like that friend anymore,” Bonior said. “But if they would have said something way back when, then the friend would have been able to maybe change the path of the friendship and things would have been able to be salvaged.”

Nelson also mentioned the benefits of hashing things out. “Even conflict is an opportunity for us to learn more about the other person,” Nelson said. She added that the goal of friendships should be to “see our friendship as not needing the other person to reflect us—but to know us.”

20. They might not always be there—and that’s okay.

Sometimes you’re having a dilemma that you want your best friend to weigh in on, but maybe they’re a bit too occupied to give you the support you need. “There’s a whole bunch of reasons why our close friends can’t be there for us all the time and it has nothing to do with them wanting to be malicious or to disappoint us,” Nelson said, listing things like friends getting married, having a baby, traveling for work, or caring for an aging parent. So just because your best friend might not have been able to 100% support you, it doesn’t mean they aren’t your bestie.

Nelson also suggested that you can spread the supportive friend responsibility out. “If you’re feeling frustrated that your friend isn’t ‘there for you’ in the way you want them to be there for you, it’s often a sign that you should ask yourself, ‘Do I have enough friends in my life?’ It’s often not the fault of that one friend for not being everything and it’s often an invitation to us to make sure we build more support into our lives,” Nelson said. And a good best friend wouldn’t be threatened by that either.

21. Friendship may take its toll on you sometimes.

Bonior mentioned that you might feel emotionally drained due to supporting your friend—but again, that doesn’t mean the end of a friendship. “If you feel drained every once and a while because your friend is going through a hard time, that’s okay,” Bonior said. Yet, she made it clear that this draining feeling should not be constant and if it is, you may need to evaluate the friendship. “If it’s chronically still draining or you view it as a chore when you hang out with this person, that’s a sign that it’s not really a good friendship,” she added. *“There are some friends who complain about everything all the time, they take offense to everything, and they turn everything into drama—that’s not a good friend.”*

22. You like spending time with them.

This may seem really basic, but it’s actually one of the main factors of a best friendship. “One sign that’s often overlooked is just that you like spending time with the person, that you look forward to it,” Bonior said.

“Research shows we have to have five positive interactions for every negative interaction with a relationship to keep it healthy,” Nelson added. “So hopefully, with our closest, healthiest friendship, we are leaving their presence having been affirmed, laughing, gift-giving, being goofy together, having moments of inspiration together—anything that leaves us feeling positive feelings as opposed to feeling judged, competitive, or passive-aggressive.

“At the end of the day, every single one of us wants to enjoy the people we’re with,” Nelson said. And that’s kind of what having a best friend is all about—enjoying time with a person who really gets you. So even though you may be in different spaces, you can look back on this list and be reminded of all the wonderful ways you and your best friend have cultivated your friendship and how you will continue to be there for each other through thick and thin.

Thanks.

Cosmos Ennu Kwaw

M.Ed IT, Ghana

B.Ed Technology Education , Ghana

L.L.B , London

Cert. ADR, Ghana

Teacher's Cert. A., Ghana

[rhianna]

(via GIPHY)

[mrsreinhart]

So many things are happening at once I cannot fathom!

[gedanken-werden-taten]

"ja nehmt mir doch alles weg. Mein Freund, mein besten Freund und meine Freunde. Wenn es euch glücklich macht wie ich leide Na schön viel Spaß! Aber ich bin es gewohnt alleine zu sein und von allen gehasst zu werden"

@gedanken-werden-taten