"Jafari provides the nuance to a Muslim girl falling in love that hasn’t always been depicted in adult romances. It’s messy, there's secrecy, and the anxiety of it is always battling against the euphoric feeling."
Lucy Harbron writes about growing up in the Tumblr and Skins era, and being taught that love is supposed to hurt and pain makes you a better artist. But is that true?
"There was no word in my vocabulary for how I felt. I just knew I didn’t want to be a girl. But I didn’t want to be a boy either. I just wished that I could be me. With no strings attached. But this didn't align with what I had been told every Sunday at church."
Our columnist Chloe Plumstead reflects on the difference between salaried work and working for ourselves, and how to balance finances whilst letting go of asking "what actually am I?" in order to invest in true, long-term happiness.
This month, Charlotte Moore writes about the question bisexual people know all too well, where the harmful stereotype comes from, and how to navigate it.
"I wanted to help people, but I was forgetting what that looked like. I found myself asking the same question repeatedly: had I been looking after the most important asset to this cause, my own health?", asks Beauty Dhlamini.
Gail El-Halaby writes about the unexpected joys and valuable lessons she has learned during an intergenerational friendship with Jane, a 72 year old ex-MP.
"You know how there are some people predisposed to moving madly when writing plot twists? Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé decided to go hard and never go home in that category."
Haaniyah Angus writes about how integral university and education was to her identity and mental health, and what graduating from it all now means for her.
"I look for you at Piccadilly Station every time my train pulls in. My eyes lift just above the line of the crowd, searching for your giant headphones, for your tall frame decked out in oversized North Face."
"A woman in front of me clutches flowers, she’s chatting into a phone and changing in Stockport for Stepping Hill. Her mum is coming out of hospital today. I watch two women in their twenties embrace at a bus stop. Their arms intertwined. They look like hope, personified."
"There’s a strong connection between fellow Mancunians. I feel this whenever I meet one outside the city. Our conversations automatically flow — finding common ground has never been so easy."
