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Since Normani stepped away from Fifth Harmony and made waves in 2019 with her song “Motivation,” followed by a handful of other singles, fans have been waiting to hear what else she has in store — especially when it comes to a debut album.

Over the past few years, Normani herself has hinted at it, telling followers on social media that she had her album’s title back in 2018, but no update ever came.

Then, last month, Normani shocked the internet by releasing the title of her album, Dopamine, and the cover of it. However, she did not provide an official release date, which has re-sparked speculation of whether her new music will arrive soon.

Here’s what to know.

Will Normani Release New Music In 2024?

As of right now, it’s hard to say, but hope is not entirely lost. Normani recently responded to a fan on social media after they jokingly used business lingo to see if there was any update on her new album.

“Hi, Thank you for your patience,” Normani replied. “This matter will be addressed tomorrow at 1:59 p.m. EST. – Management.”

While it’s still unclear exactly what fans can expect tomorrow afternoon, it could be a lead single or even a hopeful release date. One thing is for sure, though, and it’s that many are excitedly waiting to see what she has planned.

Check out Normani’s post about her upcoming Dopamine album above.

Despite winning the SEC Tournament, Auburn is out of the NCAA Tournament after one game. The Tigers took on Yale in the 4-13 game in the East Region and the Bulldogs were able to come out on top, 78-76. It was a shocking loss for a team with real national title aspirations, and it came in about as painful of a manner as possible — Auburn choked away a 10-point lead in the second half, missed three free throws in the final 10 seconds, and got multiple looks at a winner that just did not fall.

After the game, noted Auburn alumnus Charles Barkley was gracious in defeat, as he made it a point to say it was a disappointing loss while giving credit to Yale for their performance.

But of course, there was no universe where Barkley was going to get out of this one unscathed. And while Shaquille O’Neal isn’t there to make fun of him over the loss, Kenny Smith is. Smith and Barkley tend to go back-and-forth about their schools — Barkley really loves making fun of North Carolina when the opportunity arises — so Smith had a bit of fun at Barkley’s expense.

Chuck tried to get him back by pretending to call Tom Izzo and begging that the Michigan State Spartans take down the Tar Heels on Saturday, but credit to Smith for getting one over on Barkley here.

Envision Festival — known to create eye-opening transformational experiences for all who attend — returned to the lush jungle canopies of Uvita, Costa Rica two weeks ago for a week full of intentional partying and and unparalleled celebration. Also, as our travel lead Steve Bramucci once said, “Some hugging.”

Centered around the pillars of sustainability, health, movement, education, art, music, and spirituality, the festival provided an onslaught of tools and resources – from sustainability experts, mindful movement educators, and renowned music producers – to reawaken attendees and allow their natural growth into higher beings. Sounds hippie-ish and it is and… if you’re going to keep reading you’ll have to roll with it.

Not only is Envision Festival a spiritual awakening, but it’s also one of the world’s most epic parties. During the day, attendees found themselves at inspirational talks and workshops from world leaders on topics spanning psilocybin medicine, breathwork techniques, resistance stretching, regenerative farming, and more. At night, fire-lit drum circles were heard at nearly every corner while the dancefloors ignited with worldly rhythms soundtracked by global DJs and artists, including Daily Bread, Elderbrook, Gordo, Of The Trees, STS9, The Polish Ambassador, TroyBoi, Ayla Nereo, Thought Process, Wreckno, and more.

From its famous sunset beach hangs to its hedonistic nights, dive into these photos of Envision Festival 2024 to relive the experience of this world-renowned event.

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Waitlist for Envision Festival 2025 is now open here.

The bar has been set awfully high for the best game of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, and it’s going to be incredibly difficult for anyone to beat it. The Colorado Buffaloes, which needed the First Four to qualify for the field of 64, took down Florida in the 7-10 game in the South Region, 102-100.

With 4:30 left in the second half of a high-scoring affair, Tristan da Silva dunked to give Colorado a 13-point lead. It looked like the Buffs did more than enough to build up a big lead, but then, Florida got hot, riding transfer guard Walter Clayton Jr. to a 19-6 run that included some absolutely insane shot making from the former Iona star. To tie it, Clayton got the ball after Cody Williams split a pair of free throws and drilled a three from way behind the arc.

But there was too much time left on the clock for the Buffs. With 6.1 seconds remaining, Colorado got the ball into the hands of K.J. Simpson, who got a little fortunate that the referees didn’t call him for a push off. It created just enough space for a jumper that touched every bit of the rim before ultimately going in.

Clayton did get a look from 3/4 court, and if he was only one step to the left, he probably ends up banking it in. But instead, his effort was just a little off, and as a result, Colorado earned a date with Marquette in the second round.

You may think the Illuminati secretly rules the world, but it’s actually cats. Cats have been treated like gods since the start of human civilization, whether it was the ancient Egyptians or those of us in the modern world who would do anything for our furry friends.

And to conquer the world, cats need cutting-edge military technology. That’s why Suck UK creates awesome cardboard gadgets you can buy for your cats.

“These fun and playful toy houses for your cats are designed to add a sense of adventure to their daily lives about the house. Why spend an afternoon relaxing in a boring, plain old box, when there’s the opportunity to become a life saving fireman, thrilling tank driver or LA socialite?!”

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“Sit back and have a giggle at your cat ‘doing human things’ and help keep them away from clawing your favorite sofa!”

“These cardboard playhouses come in various humorous designs; the Tank, the Catillac, the Fire Engine, Plane, and for those kitties with a bit more style, the Cabin and Tepee.”

“There’s no need to glue or tape and they easily fold away if you need a bit more space around the house.”

Just look at these guys having so much fun…

They even have a plane, every army needs an air force after all.

As you can probably imagine, people are loving the vehicles, though their cats are still turning them down for plain cardboard boxes. One customer writes:

“A few weeks down the line, they both play with it but not as much as the huge cardboard box I got for free from a supermarket… But I like it, so maybe that’s what counts! It does look impressive, with color printing on the inside and outside.”

And they don’t only do vehicles. Your cat could be a superstar DJ, too.

This article originally appeared on 12.12,.19

Even though he was born “Katherine Elizabeth,” Skylar lived like a regular little boy for most of his childhood.

He was happy.

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This is Skylar.

But when puberty hit, he started feeling intense pressure to be “normal” and fit in. So he tried to present as more traditionally “feminine.”

But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was denying a huge part of himself. Late in high school, he started taking testosterone.

Skylar started feeling more comfortable immediately. And before he knew it, he was at his “dream school,” having the time of his life. And taking lots and lots of pictures of himself.

Access to medical care played a big part in Skylar becoming the person he is today, but that wasn’t all.

Check out his story and walk five years in his shoes. It’s definitely a perspective we don’t see often enough:

This article originally appeared on 08.30.14

With all the miraculous blessings that a baby brings, the life you had before it came into the world is gone forever. No more spontaneous outings, putting your own preferences first, being reckless and carefree. Of course these sacrifices are well worth it, most parents would agree. But that doesn’t mean they don’t feel some grief over their former selves.

And it’s this fear of missing out, aka FOMO, that has one mom thanking her lucky stars that she didn’t have her first child until the ripe old age of 33.

Style content creator and new mom Kristie shared in a TikTok video how having a childfree 20s helped her going into her pregnancy at 33 with zero worries of missing out.

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“Becoming a first-time mom at 33, 10 out of 10, hear me out,” she said in the clip, acknowledging that pregnancies later in life aren’t without potential risks.

But, at least in her experience, having “15 years to be selfish” allowed her the opportunity to really become ready to be a mom on an emotional, mental and financial level.

So now that she is pregnant, she feels like she has “been there, done that” with the pre-mom activities, and can completely appreciate the new chapter of her life.

“This has been such an amazing time. I haven’t done a lot in the past three and a half months. I’m just kind of soaked in the time with my daughter. Not watching everybody’s Instagram stories, traveling or going out to dinner or going out on the weekends. And I’m not like, ‘I wish I was doing that.’ I’m like, ‘I’ve already done that. I’ve already done that a lot.’”

Nowadays, she’s perfectly content to “just enjoy the little things,” like the cup of coffee she’s about to have as her daughter takes a nap.

@astylechild

but also somehow simultaneously feeling like a teen mom

♬ original sound – Kristie

Kristie’s video clearly struck a chord with other moms who had their first kids later in life, and had similar positive experiences.

“34 with a 2 month old! PhD, JD done and more secure and no fomo! We lived and ate well!” one person wrote.

“100%. Had my first baby at 33 and I cannot imagine having one in my 20’s!! I’m glad I had my selfish time pre baby ❤️” another added.

Others simply agreed that just because our biology tends to favor getting pregnant in our 20s and even younger, life doesn’t often accommodate for that kind of timeline.

“I just turned 30 and the thought of having children anytime soon is WILD to me,” one person wrote.

As the Mayo Clinic explains, “The biological clock is a fact of life. But there’s nothing magical about age 35. It’s simply an age at which risks become more discussion worthy.” And that’s a great way of framing it. Sure, there are things to be aware of, like fertility issues, health risks, and potential complications—but that doesn’t mean it’s unwise to hold off on starting a family until you’re fully ready.

Frankly, the societal pressure to have a baby before 30 might be due in part to the medical risks, but let’s be honest: it’s also another way women are taught to feel “past their prime” after the first quarter of their entire life. Luckily, women like Kristie sharing their stories helps break through that kind of stigma.

Summer is just around the corner, that means it’s time to break out those razors and put on some shorts. That means retailers are starting to advertise their their summer collections to prime people for the newest trends. But there are some trends that may need to be retired before they catch on if you take the reviews of women online.

Free People, a specialty lifestyle brand for bohemian styled fashion, have released a new style of shorts. The internet seems to be slightly confused on if the material they received from the retail brand is supposed to be shorts or something else entirely. They’re supposedly shorts, but they’re “micro shorts,” which are similar to shorts you’d see in the wild.

They have two leg holes, a hole for your body and less material than pants. Checks off all the requirements for a pair of shorts…except, they appear to be about the length of underwear. That’s not an exaggeration and to prove that point a couple of women bought some to try on so you don’t have to. The videos are not only honest but hilarious.

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In one video Nicole Walters, a New York Times best selling author and mom to three girls decided to order the shorts to see how they looked on someone with, “thigh meat.” She wears a size 12 and often jokes about being a curvier on the bottom. When she pulled the shorts out, it looked as if she was going to have to perform a magic trick to get them on. They looked to be the size a small child would wear, but they seemed to have gone on easily even though they looked extremely uncomfortable. She looked uncomfortable. The viewers likely looked uncomfortable.

“Oh wow. They’re in there and by in there I mean everywhere. There’s a lot of thigh meat happening right now in the, this region,” Walters says as she gestures at her upper thighs. “There’s some thigh meat, um…uh…I feel like they’re definitely in some places that I didn’t know I had.”

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A post shared by Nicole Walters (@nicolewalters)

Walter’s review of the shorts has people in stitches as she jokes about her Christianity falling out of the shorts.

“It’s the Barbie walk for me lol!!! Thank you for your service,” one person says.

“The way you warn us that you’re going to turn around almost made me scream with laughter,” someone writes.

“I’m just going to go ahead and dial 911 for help bc looks like you may need the jaws of life to come out them shorts…lol!! Your commentary had me dying laughing..lol,” another commenter jokes.

In another Free People “micro shorts” try on video, Nicole Story Dent braved the itty bitty shorts to show her audience the summer trend they can look forward to seeing. The first pair of shorts has multiple flaps that appear to be large pockets which inspires Dent to pretend to fly in them before the discomfort sinks in.

“It’s kinda giving waitress…if they ever want to make a Waffle House-Hooters hybrid, we have their uniform, she says. “We have been asking for more pockets so they delivered. Speaking of delivered, you could deliver a baby without having to take these shorts off.”

Dent guesses that the shorts would be more like “jundies” or “janties” than jorts, the shorthand term for jean shorts. Commenters couldn’t stop laughing at her description of the shorts while others provided her with words of wisdom.

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A post shared by Nicole Story Dent • Relatable Millennial + Momhood Content (@nicolestorydent)

“Do NOT drop it low in these jundies, that kind of contact with the club floor is NOT hygienic,” someone writes.

“‘There is nothing vegan about these. There is absolutely a cat being harmed!’ I’m cackling! You really should win something from Free People for this! @freepeople we found your next model,” another person jokes.

“This is the kind of content the internet was made for, it’s just so good. However my thighs started getting chafed just watching this,” someone laughs.

Surely these shorts were made for someone and they will look fabulous on whoever that person may be. But right now, there are a lot of confused, thoroughly tickled ladies on the internet who know they are not the target audience. If you’re brave enough to give these micro shorts a try, go ahead and stock up on some baby powder for all the chaffing.

Oh, society! We have such a complicated relationship with relationships.

It starts early, with the movies we are plopped in front of as toddlers.

GIF from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”

And continues through adolescence, still through entertainment.

“I’d rather die than stay away from you.”

GIF from “Twilight.”

And then guess what happens? We’re peddled some more of what we’re supposedly meant to be aiming for when we’re adults.

“I was the one girl he chose from 20 other girls to be with. Now I know I’m special!” — me, mocking probably very sweet people.

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GIF from “The Bachelor.”

There are so many examples of this, it’s difficult to narrow them down. Not to mention all the social cues coming in all stealth-bomber-like to beat one’s psyche into submission. Like when single people go to weddings, their family members casually ask them, “When will YOU settle down?” And when a friend goes through a breakup, it’s almost instinctive to reassure them that there’s someone out there for them.

But what if not everyone is supposed to pair off? What if some people are — wait for it — happier when they’re single?

It’s kind of a radical notion in this culture, where pairing off is treated more as a foregone conclusion and universal life goal.

A study in 2014 from the National Bureau of Economic Research said that married people rated higher in happiness measurements than single people did.

You might have taken that study at face value.

But hold the phone! There’s another recent study from University of Auckland’s School of Psychology that tells a more complete story by comparing happiness levels among a very specific group of singles and marrieds.

How? Well they looked at something called “avoidance goals” and “approach goals.”

What are avoidance and approach goals?

Well, what motivates each person is different. Some people are motivated by going after what their desired outcome is. Some people are more concerned with avoiding undesirable outcomes. People are often mixed bags, displaying some traits of avoidance and some traits of approach, and where they’re at with it can change with other factors in life. But on the entire spectrum, some people fall on one distinct end or the other.

In the new study, it held up that low-avoidance singles were a little bit less happy than low-avoidance married people. In other words, people who were more approach-goal motivated and married DO experience a bit more happiness.

But, interestingly, researchers found that singles who fall more on the high-avoidance side of the spectrum showed the same level of happiness as high-avoidance marrieds.

And theoretically, for those happy high-avoidance singles, they could very well find themselves miserable in a relationship for whatever reasons they avoid them in the first place. In individual circumstances, singlehood may be the best choice for some.

What does it all mean?

Some people love love and want to find their happily ever after. There’s nothing wrong with that, and society supports that model. More power to them!

But for those of you wondering if you’re weird or broken because you seem to prefer single life, there’s nothing wrong with you. Don’t let society pressure you into doing things their way, you magnificently beautiful lone wolf!

This article was written by Angie Aker and originally appeared on August 27, 2015

It’s cold and flu seasons, folks. During this time of year, we’re all on a mission to avoid the demon viruses that threaten to invade our bodies and wage Armageddon on our immune systems.

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But no matter how much vitamin C we consume or how diligently we wash our hands, we still have to rely on others to be smart about exposing people to their sick germs.

And that goes doubly for kids, who inexplicably do things like lick their own palms and rub communal crayons under their noses.

That’s why a mom’s recent Facebook post about keeping kids home when they have a fever has been shared more than 170,000 times. Samantha Moriá Reynolds shared a photo of a thermometer with a temperature of 101.4 with the following message:

This morning, Sam woke up and noticed her son wasn’t feeling well.
Sam took her son’s temperature, and wow! A fever.
Sam gave her son Tylenol and then…
Sam did NOT send her son to school.
Even after the fever went down a couple hours later, Sam did NOT send her son to school.
Sam missed work knowing that the well-being of her son and the kids who attend his school is more important than work missed.

Sam’s son was invited to THREE birthday parties over the weekend. Sam’s son has been so excited to go, but he will unfortunately also have to miss them because Sam’s son is SICK. Sam knows passing along a sickness would not be a great birthday gift regardless of how bummed her son may be.

Sam knows her son is still contagious until he is fever-free, WITHOUT medication, for 24 hours. If Sam’s son is running a fever at 7am on Sunday, Sam’s son will also not be attending school on Monday.

Be. Like. Sam.

Some parents will give their kids fever-reducing medication, the fever will go down, the kid will feel a bit better, and off they go to school. But fever meds like Tylenol don’t do anything to kill the virus that’s infecting the kid’s body. They just mask the symptoms of the illness and provide some relief to a miserable kiddo. If a fever goes down with medication, the child is still sick and still contagious.

The same goes for adults who try to tough it out by popping a Dayquil before heading off to work. If you want to infect your coworkers and make them hate you, keep doing that.

Granted, some parents may have a hard time finding childcare or taking time off work, and there’s a lot to be said for employers being understanding and granting leave to care for sick children. Our whole society needs to work together on this front to make sure people don’t feel like they have no choice but to send a sick kid to school. But that starts with parents insisting that their feverish kids stay home from school until they are no longer a threat to other people’s health and well-being.

The coronavirus outbreak keeps making headlines and the mounting death numbers from it are making people nervous, but the truth is that the plain old flu already kills thousands of Americans every single year. This season, more than 8,000 people have already died from flu and flu complications, and we’re still in the thick of the season.

The best way to keep illness from spreading is to stay away from other people when you are sick and to keep sick kids home until they are fever-free for 24 hours.

Be like Sam. Keep sick kids home. It takes a village to keep us all healthy.

This article originally appeared on 01.30.20