girl talk

24/8/16 today my boyfriend told me i’m too good at making excuses. he didn’t mean it as an insult, but i took it as one. and now, hours later, as i dip in & out of the clouds, in a blue pleather seat, alone and thousands of feet above the ground, i realise he’s right. in my head, they’re not excuses. they’re rationales. they’re logical explanations as to why i can’t do something. but, as i stand myself mercilessly in the interrogation spotlight, it is obvious to me that i have been making excuses all my life. excuses that will...

how far have we goneto look likewomenwho don't look like that;to fit ourlivesinto a well-lit square; to squeeze intojeans that don't stay blackin the wash?

at what point do our bodies stop being ours? at what point do we hand them over to be the property of mean girls, society’s guidelines, the male gaze? at what point do we stop measuring ourselves in skint knees & freckles, and start doing so in inches and dress sizes and other people’s opinions? at what point do we leave the sanctity of untouchable childhood and enter a world where we are defined by men who want to fuck us, girls who are subliminally taught to feel threatened by us, and soul-sucking corporations who want us to all be...

it’s 7.44pm and i’m on a train from hungary to austria. a carriage so orange & yellow, complete with curtains and overheard lamps, that you could be forgiven for thinking the final stop on the line was 1974.  until about 4pm today, the plan was to board a flight from budapest airport to london stansted tonight. a flight that was booked weeks in advance, that i’m checked into, that will echo my name around a departure lounge 150 miles from where i will be at 8.50pm. i’m en route to austria because i’ve always wanted to see vienna, because it...

four months ago I was working in a job which I had outgrown but continued to try my very hardest at as a result of the fierce loyalty I had for the business & its people. when I handed my notice in after 5 and a half years I was met with cold indifference, shunned for the remaining 4 weeks, and abruptly dismissed the day before I was actually supposed to finish up.  this not an attack, this is not bitterness, these are simply the facts as they happened.  luckily for me, this only served to aid the blind leap...