Category: Trending

Jenny Evans is a mom to six kids. And, yes, she knows that’s a lot.

That doesn’t stop people from asking her, though. The kinds of comments she gets from friends and even from complete strangers would have you thinking she hadn’t actually thought this whole “six kids” thing through.

“One of the questions I get asked constantly as a mom of six is ‘Why do you have so many kids?'” she says.

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Surveys show that the average American thinks two or three kids is ideal. So six seems to absolutely blow people’s minds, and they feel compelled — nay, entitled — to receive an explanation. Evans is sick of it.

In a hilarious video posted to her Facebook page, Evans tackles the absurd question with the, uh, thoughtfulness it deserves.

In the video, which has since gone viral, Evans feigns a moment of realization: “That’s a good question. Why do I have so many kids?”

She then launches into a tirade of satirical answers she might offer well-meaning strangers who ask her about the size of her family.

At the very end of the video, Evans briefly touches on the reason she has six kids. The real reason, that is.

“It’s because I like them,” she says in the clip.

“We never had ‘a number’ or consciously decided we were going to have a big family, but simply made room for one more whenever we felt like we could,” Evans told ABC News. “Having a new baby join the family and watching everyone’s relationships with everyone else grow is the most amazing thing. I just never get tired of that.”

Americans are actually having fewer kids overall these days, so concern about over-population and resources is wasted on questioning one individual family’s choices. Besides, we shouldn’t judge, shame, or question people who have lots of kids while simultaneously stigmatizing people who choose not to.

Evans’ video is simply a fun reminder to live and let live. Having no kids is fine. Having six kids is fine. So is seven or eight or however many you choose to — or not to — have.

At the end of the day, it’s as simple as this: How you choose to build or define your own family isn’t a choice you should have to defend.

Check out the rest of Evans’ hilarious responses (all of them!) in the video below:

This article originally appeared on 10.25.17

Do we all, instinctively, find the same types of bodies attractive? Or do TV, movies, and pictures in magazines subtly influence what sorts of bodies we’re attracted to?

Researchers at Newcastle University in the U.K. set out to study this question — and walked away with some really fascinating new data.

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The question they posed: Do people who have limited access to TV have different beauty ideals than those who watch more frequently?

It’s hardly a secret that Hollywood prefers thin. A 2003 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that female characters who have bigger bodies were few and far between on TV at the turn of the last decade. When they did appear, they were less likely to have romantic partners and “less likely to considered attractive.”

Things have improved in recent years but only slightly. And popular reality shows like, “The Biggest Loser” continue to sell the idea that weight loss is the ticket to feeling attractive.

It raises the question: Would we feel differently about our bodies if we didn’t watch so much TV? Or if we saw more positive portrayals of people with bigger bodies on the air?

It’s really hard to study this because there aren’t a lot of places left in the world that don’t have access to Western media.

In order to get good data, you need to talk to people who not only rarely or never watch TV and movies, but who are hardly even exposed to them and the culture they help generate.

American TV and movies — and locally-produced TV and movies that draw inspiration from our TV and movies — are pretty much everywhere by now.

But there are some. And that’s where the researchers went.

Specifically, they went to the east coast of Nicaragua, which is home to a number of remote villages, some of which have no or only partially electricity.

Researchers found a remote village with little TV access and asked participants there to react to various images of women’s bodies of different sizes.

The subjects were asked to rate each image on a scale of 1 to 5. Their responses were compared with those from an urban area and a similar village that had greater access to broadcast media.

Critically, the two villages chosen were very similar culturally — previous studies have had difficulty separating out media viewing habits from other cultural variables that might account for the difference in how the images were perceived. Standards of beauty vary from culture to culture, including certain cultures that prize fatness (much like the “thin ideal” in the West, this is often similarly harmful to women and girls).

The result? Participants in the village with the least media access preferred bodies with a higher body mass index on average than those in the urban area and more connected village.

There are caveats, of course.

Using BMI to measure normal versus abnormal weight has become increasingly controversial recently. It’s also impossible to draw big, sweeping conclusions from a single study.

But it’s real data. And it does suggest that perhaps we’re not hardwired to find smaller bodies attractive.

“Our data strongly suggests that access to televisual media is itself a risk factor for holding thin body ideals, at least for female body shape, in a population who are only just gaining access to television,” said Dr. Lynda Boothroyd, senior lecturer in psychology at Durham University and co-leader of the study.

In other words, the more TV we watch, the more we’re likely to be attracted to lower-weight bodies. The less TV we watch, the more we’re likely to look favorably upon higher-weight bodies.

Most importantly, it’s evidence that there’s nothing inherently attractive about weighing less, and nothing inherently unattractive about weighing more.

It’s just something we made up.

But the good news is that we can un-make it up.How do we do that? Here’s one idea: Let’s get more people with more bodies of more shapes and sizes we can get on TV, in movies, and in glossy magazines — giving them real lives, real flaws, real romances, and presenting them, at least every so often, as attractive. Like, you know. Real people.This article originally appeared on 02.26.16

Middle schoolers aren’t exactly known for their kindness and thoughtfulness, at least in popular culture. The standard image of tweens is a toxic combo of selfishness, hubris and insecurity that leads to all manner of foolishness.

But as someone who’s taught in middle schoolclassrooms and raised three kids through that stage, I can attest this age group gets an unnecessarily bad rap. Sure, middle schoolers can be moody and awkward and immature, but they can also be thoughtful and kind and justice-minded. They are beginning to hone their perception of life’s big issues and figure out their place in the world. They usually care more than they appear to and are often more compassionate than we give them credit for.

At this age, we can also see the evidence of a loving upbringing in a kid’s character. Such was the case with one of Matt Eicheldinger’s students, a sixth grader who always rubbed his necklace with his fingers when he talked to people. When Eicheldinger asked the student why he did it, his answer spoke volumes.

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In an Instagram video, Eicheldinger shared that the student was from another country, he was friendly and personable and he always wore a green square necklace, which he would rub whenever he was talking to someone.

One day, Eicheldinger asked the student if he would tell him about the necklace. The sixth grader said it was made of folded paper containing prayers for him from his loved ones—prayers for peace, love and kindness. If you’re guessing he rubbed the necklace because he was thinking of those who were praying for him, you’d be half right. The full reason is a beautiful example of compassionate selflessness.

Watch Eicheldinger explain:

See on Instagram

It would have been sweet enough if the kid were just drawing on his family’s prayers for strength or confidence, but the fact that he was wishing for others to have the good things he himself had experienced is so heartwarming.

“My grandma used to make us those to wear too… it is called a tahveez … thank you for sharing!” wrote commenter eduwaseem. “Brings back memories of my childhood! I don’t wear one anymore but I did as a kid. Never thought to rub it while talking to others though. What a sweet kid to do that! Melts my heart!”

“Sooo beautiful!! I once had a student who made the sign of the cross every time when heard a siren,” shared mel_13_mel. “She told me that she would stop whatever she was doing and say a prayer that everyone would be alright, including the emergency workers who might be witness to something really difficult. That always stuck with me. Such a kind, generous and simple thing for an 8-year-old to do.”

“Well I wasn’t prepared to tear up this fine Monday morning. What a sweetheart of a young man, 💙” wrote kendrasmom724.

“I am an elementary school teacher. I teach in an area where the majority of the families are immigrants,” wrote fullmoonshenanigans. “They have some of the most heart-wrenching, courageous,, & beautiful stories. I’ve always wondered, how can I share these stories with the rest of the world? How can I share so that people can have a better understanding of what immigrants go through, and why? How can I teach these people to have empathy & compassion towards all living beings?”

One way to teach empathy and compassion is through modeling those qualities, and this student gives us a wonderful example of what being a compassionate role model looks like. Kids may learn a lot from us, but as this story shows, we have a lot we can learn from them, too.

There’s a growing trend in some countries where more men are sitting to pee instead of standing up. This trend has caught on most prominently in Germany, where 62% of men now say they sit every time or most of the time.

The reasons for the change in public opinion in Germany are that it’s more hygienic for men to sit because there’s no splash back and it’s much easier to aim. In some places with communal living, standing to pee is greatly discouraged, and it’s now considered rude to stand to pee when visiting a friend’s house.

Things aren’t the same in the USA, where only 23% say they sit most of the time. The stand versus sit debate has caused a problem in a family, so a pro-sitting mom of three took to Reddit’s AITA forum to ensure she wasn’t in the wrong.

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“After we potty trained our sons I kept making sure that they were sitting to pee. They are young and don’t really care. They can use a urinal when we are out somewhere,” she wrote. “My brother-in-law was over last month and saw my oldest boy in the bathroom by accident. … Anyways my brother-in-law made a joke about my son not stinking up the bathroom. My son told him that he was just peeing. For some reason my BIL took offense at this and started bugging my husband about his sons sitting to pee.”

This is where things get interesting because, in many cultures, it’s seen as effeminate for men to sit and pee, which is probably a big reason why nearly 4 out of 5 men in America prefer to stand.

“My husband then started telling the boys that if they are only peeing that they should stand,” the mom continued. “They boys don’t have great aim, but they make up for it with a short attention span. When I went in the bathroom after a few days of that it was gross. I turned around and walked out.”

The mother then told the dad that if the boys were going to stand to pee, then he could take responsibility for cleaning the “toilets, floors and walls” in the bathroom. “I said it was his idea for the boys to stand to pee, so he had to deal with the consequences,” the mom wrote. “He did it but he is upset about me unilaterally making this decision. Like he did about the boys.”

One can see the dad’s reasoning for having the boys stand to pee. Because if they sit to pee at school, they could deal with bullying from other boys. The mom’s position—that if they’re going to stand instead of sit, she’s not cleaning up the mess—also makes sense.

The commenters on the post overwhelmingly sided with the mother.

“I will never understand why it’s socially acceptable for boys and grown-ass men to spray bathrooms like tom cats because they choose to stand to urinate. It’s unnecessary and unsanitary. Either aim better, clean up after yourself, or sit,” Consistent-Leopard71 wrote.

“All the people with penises can clean up after their penises,” Turkeygreen added.

The consensus among the commentators was that there’s nothing wrong with sitting to pee and it shouldn’t be seen as masculine or feminine. Many folks also thought that if you’re adamant about the kids doing something less hygienic, you should probably clean up after them.

Pink‘s Summer Carnival Tour has been a whirlwind. The singer has been handed a wheel of cheese by an audience member, and the ashes of a death mother from another. She notably paused her show in Austria for an important reason: “I’m gonna eat my damn chocolate,” she told the crowd. “I can’t concentrate.”

When it comes to big concerts, it’s good to know set times so as to get to the venue on time, find parking, and head to your seats. According to sources like National World and The Pink News, the “Just Give Me A Reason” singer typically hits the stage at 8:50 sharp, with curfew at 11.

At her gig in Cincinnati, Ohio, she paid tribute to Sinéad O’Connor following her tragic passing. “When I was a little girl, my mom grew up in Atlantic City and I used to go down to the Ocean City Boardwalk with my $10 and I would make a demo tape,” Pink told the crowd. “I would make a little cassette tape and imagine it was my demo for the record company.”

She continued, “And it would always be either ‘Greatest Love of All’ by Whitney Houston or ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ by Sinéad O’Connor. So in honor of Sinéad, and in honor of my very, very talented friend Brandi Carlile I asked her if she would come out here and sing this song with me.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene has never been so good at attacking Joe Biden. Sometimes she heckles him like a child. Other times her insults sound like compliments. Last month the MAGA lawmaker tore into all the “big government programs” the sitting president has enacted, comparing them to ones concocted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt that helped everyday Americans pull themselves out of the Great Depression. That didn’t sound like much of an attack. Biden even cut her words into a campaign ad. And he’s still feasting on it.

As per Mediaite, the commander-in-chief was in Michigan Tuesday touting the year-old Inflation Act and other policies that have helped states adversely affected by out-sourcing, including Wisconsin. These bills have been so good that even Republican lawmakers who initially trashed it have reluctantly admitted they’ve helped their constituents. Biden made sure to call them out on that one.

“Folks, every Republican voted against our clean energy investment known as the Inflation Reduction Act,” Biden told the crowd. “The vast majority voted against the bipartisan infrastructure law. But that didn’t stop them from claiming credit for protecting the health of their constituents by getting rid of the lead pipes or putting to work in building new roads and bridges.”

Biden then singled one of them out.

“You have Marjorie Taylor Greene – the very quiet lady from Georgia,” he said, winkingly. “Well, she’s talked about, ‘What Biden’s doing is what Roosevelt did, what Kennedy did!’ Well, yeah.”

Greene actually mentioned LBJ, not JFK, but close enough. Here’s the chilling portrait Greene painted about the Biden administration last month:

The Great Society were big government programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and welfare, the office of Economic Opportunity, and big labor and labor unions. Now, LBJ had the Great Society, but Joe Biden had Build Back Better. And he still is working on it. The largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs that is actually finishing what FDR started that LBJ expanded on.

Yeah, sounds awful.

(Via Mediaite)

On Monday, Donald Trump didn’t just nab his fourth indictment. He also added another 13 criminal charges to the many he’s received from those other three cases. For those keeping count at home, the former president has amassed a whopping 91 counts against him, or 91 more than any other American president in history. Congrats? How many of these will end in convictions, if any, remains to be seen, but what if he’s found guilty of all 91? Well, then he’d be spending quite a lot of time in the slammer.

Mediaite broke down the amount of jail time Trump faces with each charge should he receive the maximum sentence, which is unlikely. Here’s the latest batch, in the case from Fulton County, Georgia DA Fani Willis, pertaining to his alleged attempts to interfere in the state’s 2020 election:

1. Count 1: Violation Of The Georgia Rico Act – 20 Years

2. Count 5: Solicitation Of Violation Of Oath By Public Officer – 3 years

3. Count 9: Conspiracy To Commit Impersonating A Public Officer – 2.5 years

4. Count 11: Conspiracy To Commit Forgery In The First Degree – 7.5 years

5. Count 13: Conspiracy To Commit False Statements And Writings – 2.5 years

6. Count 15: Conspiracy To Commit Filing False Documents – 5 years

7. Count 17: Conspiracy To Commit Forgery In The First Degree 2.5 years

8. Count 19: Conspiracy To Commit False Statements And Writings 2.5 years

9. Count 27: Filing False Documents – 10 years

10. Count 28: Solicitation Of A Violation Of Oath By Public Officer – 3 years

11. Count 29: False Statements And Writings – 5 years

12. Count 38: Solicitation Of Violation Of Oath By Public Officer – 3 years

13. Count 39: False Statements And Writings – 5 years

Put together, that’s a shocking 71.5 years. But that’s only one of the four cases. What about 34 felony counts from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s case involving alleged hush money? Or the 37 counts (plus three added later) from Jack Smith’s classified documents case? Or the three from the Jan. 6 case?

If you put all those together (and generously round up), the big guy gets an epic 713 years in the clink.

Granted, Trump will likely not serve the maximum sentence for any of these charges. Nor would he be convicted on all of them. Or maybe he might! There’s a chance he did a lot of criming. Or maybe he’ll find sentences cut down by throwing some of his pals under the bus.

(Via Mediaite)

If you’ve watched Lars von Trier’s movies, you’ll know he isn’t exactly a romantic-seeming dude. Melancholia (starring Kirsten Dunst, Alexander Skarsgård, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Kiefer Sutherland) might be the least controversial of his most recent works and probably the one that’s least traumatizing to watch if you haven’t dabbled in his body of work. Von Trier, however, is looking for a new body of sorts. He is seeking, via Instagram, a new “girlfriend/muse” to inspire his final installments in the cinematic realm. He supposes that there are “a few decent films left in me,” if he can find the motivation.

You can thank (?) IndieWire for the find, and anyone who has watched Antichrist may have already closed the browser window, but hear him out at least. Via an Instagram video, Von Trier lists what he apparently views as the potential dealbreakers for anyone interested, and yes, he admits that this is basically a personal ad:

“All this is as suggested meant as an old-school contact ad, where I, without knowing the least about social media, am looking for a female girlfriend slash muse. And despite of all the whining, I still insist that on a good day, in the right company, I can be quite a charming partner. All enquiries regarding this ad must be sent to [omitted].”

So, there you have it. I remember seeing a few actors do this back in the MySpace days, and come to think of it, at least one of them got married, although god only knows how things actually turned out. You can watch von Trier’s video below, and if he turns up at the Cannes Film Festival with a special lady in a few years, then you know what happened.

(Via Indiewire)

As the Barbie movie continues to be a pop culture phenomenon whose charm not even Joe Rogan can resist, the casting directors for the film recently opened up about populating the film with a wild assortment of Barbies and Kens.

While Ryan Gosling obviously scored the role of the main Ken, others like Simu Liu played various incarnation of the iconic accessory. However, the actors auditioning reportedly felt the need to show off their action figure abs, which wasn’t necessary. According to casting directors Allison Jones and Lucy Bevan, this happened a lot while picking actors for the “beach off” scene.

Via The Credits:

Before it became a go-to quote in the Barbie fandom lexicon, rival Ken’s challenge — “I’ll beach you off any day, Ken” — was one of the film’s audition lines. “Those scenes were fun to audition,” said Bevan. “Some of the Kens would take off their t-shirts, and we were like, no, no, you don’t need to take off your t-shirt. But Simu [Liu] just nailed that [line] in the film.”

As an aesthetic match to Barbie, you would assume Ken has to be in killer shape, but Jones and Bevan revealed that writer/director Greta Gerwig was genuinely more concerned with the actors matching the personality of their respective Kens. Rock-hard abs weren’t a concern.

“The thing that Greta did always stress was that none of these people were sarcastic or winking at the camera. They were really Kens and Barbies,” Jones said. “She really made the characters for who she liked best in different auditions.”

Barbie is now playing in theaters.

(Via The Credits)

Starbucks needs to chill tf out. The world-renowned coffee brand has over 30+ iced and blended drinks on its menu and that is, quite simply, too many. I’d guess that the average person has explored maybe 1/10th of the entire menu (unless you’re me, I’ve tried them all), and truthfully there is absolutely no need to order anything out of your comfort zone — nothing at Starbucks is delicious enough to cause you to stray from whatever your favorite drink already is.

So when we heard Starbucks was launching a brand new summer menu of six new cold drinks… we straight up ignored the news. I’m sorry Starbucks, but that’s six on top of your previously exceeded allotment. You can’t make people care about all those drinks!

And yet… every time I visited a Starbucks this summer, I saw that summer menu, looking at me, taunting me, calling to me. So I finally gave in. I’ve now tried all six of the Starbucks summer drinks and ranked them from least essential to most delicious. The full summer menu includes the Frozen Pineapple Passionfruit Lemonade Refresher, the Frozen Strawberry Acaí Lemonade Refresher, the Frozen Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Refresher, the Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino, the Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino, and the Chocolate Cream Cold Brew.

Hardcore Starbucks fans will notice that at least two of those drinks aren’t new at all but are actually returning favorites. Are they worth the trip to the Starbucks drive-thru? Let’s find out, starting with our least favorite of the six.

6. Starbucks Chocolate Cream Cold Brew

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

There isn’t anything really new here aside from the chocolate-flavored cream foam. The flavor and build are identical to Starbucks vanilla-infused cold brew. The vanilla flavor falls a little flat here, tasting a bit watery, but the cold brew coffee has a nice soft mellow flavor to it.

The chocolate cold cream has the faintest hint of chocolate notes but otherwise tastes pretty flavorless. Once the cream is mixed into the drink, it tastes identical to the Vanilla Cream cold brew.

The Bottom Line:

Totally redundant, it does nothing to improve the Starbucks cold brew experience and barely even registers as being chocolate flavored.

5. Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino Blended

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

Here is what frustrates me about this drink — it’s nearly identical to Starbucks’ menu staple, the Java Chip Frappuccino, only better. The Java Chip is simple, it features chocolate chips and chocolate syrup blended with Starbucks’ Frappuccino coffee base. The Mocha Cookie Crumble features the same build with some added chocolate cookie crumbles with chocolate sauce on the whipped cream, which makes the drink objectively better.

The chocolate notes are much more pronounced here thanks to the cookies and chocolate sauce and overall the drink has more texture thanks to the crumbles. It tastes like what the Java Chip wants to be — so why isn’t this a menu staple? Why do we have to wait until summer to have a better drink?

Make this a staple Starbucks, and ditch the Java Chip.

The Bottom Line:

The Starbucks Java Chip Frappuccino, elevated. More texture, more chocolate, more better.

4. Frozen Strawberry Acaí Lemonade Refresher

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

The next three drinks in our ranking are all frozen versions of Starbucks’ Lemonade Refreshers, and I really feel like Starbucks knocked it out of the park with all three. The Frozen Refreshers really speak to the season by taking pre-existing drinks from the Starbucks menu and remixing them to fit in with the weather.

My least favorite of the three is the Strawberry Acaí, only because it feels like it covers the same ground as the other two drinks. Each of the three drinks features strawberry puree as a base, but this one comes across as pretty one note.

It tastes like frozen strawberry with a sweet and tart lemonade twist, the acaí doesn’t really come through at all. It’s not bad by any means, but compared to the other two this one comes across as boring.

The Bottom Line:

The least essential of the new Frozen Refreshers.

3. Frozen Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Refresher

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

A nice medley of flavors, the drink begins with a tart strawberry flavor before tropical mango notes take over, finishing with a sweet lemonade finish. A scoop of diced dragonfruit brings some nice texture to this drink, but on its own is flavorless.

The Bottom Line:

Tropical, sweet, and tart, the perfect summer beverage.

2. Frozen Pineapple Passionfruit Lemonade Refresher

Tasting Notes & Thoughts

Your personal ranking of pineapple and mango is going to determine whether you like the Frozen Pineapple Passionfruit Lemonade Refresher over the Frozen Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Refresher. I’m team pineapple! I just think the tart and sharp flavors of this drink are more pleasing and complementary.

Once again, tart strawberry dominates the flavor palate, followed by a citrusy tropical flavor and a strong lemonade finish. The freeze-dried pineapple adds a bit of texture and helps to emphasize the tart flavors of this drink.

The Bottom Line:

This drink comes across like a drinkable Bigstick Popsicle, aka the greatest popsicle on Earth.

1. Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

Last summer I named Starbucks’ Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino the best blended drink on the entire menu, and now here we are a year later and I still feel that way. The fact that drink still isn’t a permanent fixture on the Starbucks menu annoys me to no end.

What makes this drink work better than the stock Caramel Frap is the more interesting build. Instead of being one note, this drink has three different flavors of caramel here, it begins buttery and light, courtesy of the stock caramel syrup, but is topped with a layer of dark caramel sauce that has rich molasses undertones, and a slightly salty caramel sugar topping the whipped cream.

It has that sweet caramel flavor you love from Starbucks, but richer, and a textural element that helps make the drink taste more decadent.

The Bottom Line:

If your go-to order at Starbucks is the Caramel Frap, you need to try this ASAP. It takes a good thing and makes it even better. This is hands down the best drink on the Starbucks summer menu, even if it is just a returning recipe.