Late one night, I was alone with my then two-month-old daughter, who was asleep in her bassinet while I got ready for bed. In a heartbeat, she went from sleeping peacefully to wailing, her tiny arms and legs flailing and a look of pure fear spreading across her face. I rushed to her, scooping her … Continue reading
Sometimes, I catch myself feeling homesick for the most intense points in my life. For example, when I studied abroad in college and experienced acute loneliness or when I was depressed after a bad breakup in graduate school and lived on the couch. After my father died, I was not ready to be on the … Continue reading
There was really no point in my pregnancy that I was not afraid I was going to lose the baby. In part, that fear stemmed from the emotional rollercoaster that pregnancy after loss can be under the best circumstances. And, in part, it arose from finding out that the baby and I had a single … Continue reading
In 2011, right around the time I transitioned from earning a Master’s degree to my Ph.D. program, Peggy Orenstein published Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture. Orenstein had made her career as a journalist by reporting on the issues that adolescent girls face and on her own … Continue reading
Ph.D.s and Pigtails 