Reader
The Burden Of Being A First-Generation Immigrant
I learned very early that to be an immigrant in this country meant I didn’t have the luxury of choosing what I wanted. (An excerpt from the anthology The Good Immigrant.)
Nicole Dennis-Benn
Elizabeth McCracken’s Weird Fiction Breathes Life Into Old Tropes
“I think all writers have this Platonic ideal of the book they’re going to write next, and then you realize that you’re hamstringed by your own obsessions.”
Maris Kreizman
We’re Finally Listening To Lorena Bobbitt. Why Did It Take So Long?
Documentaries that rethink decades-old scandals, like Amazon’s Lorena, are becoming routine. But when will we start extending public empathy in real time?
Scaachi Koul
"The Water Cure" Is BuzzFeed Book Club's March Read. Check Out An Excerpt Here.
Read the dream-like dystopian novel along with BuzzFeed community's most avid readers.
Sophie Mackintosh
Ryan Adams And The Betrayal Of Teenage Girls
When I was a teenager, Adams’ songs convinced me that men had feelings too. But just because someone is sensitive doesn’t mean they care about you.
Anna Held
The Cultural Appropriation Convo Around Ariana Grande Is Too Simplistic
Criticisms of Grande’s “cultural appropriation” are complicated by the fact that R&B-infused pop has been the foundation of her career — and she’s always sought to credit the black artists who influence her.
Michael Blackmon
Blackface Hasn’t Just Returned — It Never Left
Recent instances of blackface — from Virginia’s Gov. Ralph Northam to Gucci’s fashion choices — only reinforce the unfailing consistency of American anti-black racism.
Bim Adewunmi
Ariana Grande And Dua Lipa Are Joining Pop Culture’s Lesbian Lookalike Party
Doppelgänger imagery sometimes reduces queerness to a symbol or fetish — but subverting that trope can be a way to consider the link between self-recognition and desire.
Shannon Keating
Meet The Beauty Influencer Who Isn’t Afraid To Say What She Thinks
Jackie Aina has been unapologetic about holding the makeup industry accountable to the black women who buy its products.
Darian Symoné Harvin
Planning To Pay For Top Surgery Taught Me To Be Good At Budgeting
Since I got my first job, saving up for medical transition shaped my ability to budget — for better and for worse.
Parrish Turner
Here’s Why So Many Americans Feel Cheated By Their Student Loans
A social and financial divide is forming — between those who have student debt, and those who do not — that will have ramifications for decades to come.
Anne Helen Petersen
“Now You Have A Seven-Hour Rehearsal Where You Have To Sing And Cry": After Parkland Students Survived The Shooting, Their Show Had To Go On
Dave Cullen captured inside details of how a group of teens grew into leading activists of the #NeverAgain movement. Read an exclusive first excerpt of his book <i>Parkland</i> out Feb. 12.
Dave Cullen
"Russian Doll" And "The Good Place" Want Us To Be Better
At the heart of both TV shows is the belief that while we might all die alone, the key to getting through life is by being kind to one another. (Spoilers ahead!)
Bim Adewunmi
A Huge Climate Change Movement Led By Teenage Girls Is Sweeping Europe. And It’s Coming To The US Next.
Students are going on strike around the world to demand action on climate change, in a movement led almost entirely by teenage girls.
J. Lester Feder
"The Bisexual" Is The Queer Women Drama Of My Dreams
Desiree Akhavan’s Hulu series offers everything I needed — and didn’t get — from The L Word the first time around.
Shannon Keating
Why Are “Bohemian Rhapsody” And “Green Book” Still Oscar Frontrunners?
As this turbulent award season comes to an end, Hollywood appears to be closing ranks around two controversial movies (and their creators) that don't really deserve to be defended.
Alison Willmore
The Robert Mueller Fan Club
Imagine telling yourself in 2003 that you’d be able to purchase a novelty prayer candle featuring the face of George W. Bush’s FBI director.
Katherine Miller
I’ve Been Committed To A Psych Ward Three Times — And It Never Helped
For those of us living with severe mental illness, the world is full of cages. (An excerpt from Esmé Wang's The Collected Schizophrenias.)
Esmé Weijun Wang
“The Real Housewives Of Atlanta” Shows How Impossible The American Dream Is
More than just a meme generator, the hit reality series reflects the bourgeois panic triggered by the 2008 recession.
Niela Orr
Glenn Close Cares About The Role, Not The Oscar
Just before her seventh Oscar nomination for The Wife, Glenn Close talked with Bim Adewunmi.
Bim Adewunmi
Does LGBT Media Have A Future?
It’s a dark time for media — LGBT media, especially. What got us here? And how might we survive?
Trish Bendix
I Built My Masculinity From Pieces Of The Boys I’ve Loved
Before I came out as trans, I felt equal parts desire to be with boys and to become them. Turns out, the boys I tried to be weren’t actually boys after all.
Jamie Beckenstein
Bodega Beans Are The Best Thing To Eat When You’re Broke
During the years I spent paying off my credit card debt, I came back to one special, budget-friendly recipe over and over: bodega beans.
Jaime Green
The US Is Fascinated By Mexican Cartel Bosses. The Truth Is Less Entertaining.
Growing up in Sinaloa, I’ve been surrounded by the mythology of drug lords all my life. But the truth of cartel violence is stranger — and more complicated — than the legends.
Ana Karina Zatarain
We Asked A Bunch Of People Why They’ve Ghosted Someone They Dated
"Dump people the way you want to be dumped."
Lam Thuy Vo
How Do You Calculate The Emotional Cost Of Ghosting Someone?
A data-driven exploration of ghosting: how we ghost, why we ghost, and what emotional debt we owe the people we date.
Lam Thuy Vo
"Sugar Run" Is BuzzFeed Book Club's February Read. Check Out An Excerpt Here.
After 18 years spent in federal prison, Jodi McCarty finds herself in a rundown Georgia motel, drawn to a captivating single mother. (An excerpt from Mesha Maren's <i>Sugar Run</i>.)
Mesha Maren
The Gym Isn’t Usually A Safe Space For Fat Women, But It’s Become My Sanctuary
After a lifetime of assuming I would never excel in a sport, my body is proving me wrong.
Fancy Feast
What Happened To Lindsay Lohan?
A decade after Lohan’s career first unraveled, she's attempting a comeback with Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club on MTV — but we’re still trying to understand exactly what went wrong.
Scaachi Koul
Why I Can’t Bring Myself To Do The "10 Year Challenge"
The "10 Year Challenge" meme imposes a specific kind of narrative on our lives, in which the line on the graph should only go in one direction: up and up and up.
Zan Romanoff
