It was just last summer that Flo Milli released her debut mixtape, Ho, Why Is You Here?, which propelled the Alabama native to the front lines of hip-hop’s newest class of rappers. She would later perform at the 2020 BET Hip-Hop Awards before landing a spot in the 2021 XXL Freshman class. Now she’s hard at work on her official debut album, which she gave some insight into during a profile with Clash Magazine.
“This project is different from Ho, Why Is You Here? because of the versatility of it,” she said. “I’ve been trying new things but you guys have got to stay tuned to see!” Aside from being one of rap’s most promising young acts, Flo Milli is also navigating through young adolescence. When asked about finding a balance between career and life, she shared some important advice about the way we use social media.
“My number one piece of advice would be to not compare yourself to others on social media. I know social media is a big thing in our generation and people of my age tend to do that, looking at whether the other person has more success than you do; I would say do not let that stop you. If anything, let that empower you to do better than your peers. A lot of people get discouraged and don’t pursue things because they aren’t good enough. As women we possess the ultimate superpower and create life! Everyone should always stick to their individuality and move at their own pace to the top.
You can read the full profile with Clash Magazinehere.
The situation in Afghanistan continues to be febrile, with the Taliban taking over the capital city of Kabul, all but ensuring the nation is theirs. Harrowing images of people desperately trying to be evacuated abound. Who’s to blame? People are pointing fingers everywhere, even those whose hands are dirty. One of them is Donald J. Trump, who absolutely deserves part of the blame. (Then again, he’s also been praising the Taliban.) But he’s been trying to pass the buck anyway, albeit in his usual clumsy way.
On Tuesday, the former president fired off one of his cryptic and chaotically written press statements, revealing his latest take on the tragedy happening on the other side of the globe. It was a mere six words, plus two em dashes: “This could be—Afghanistan—another Dunkirk.”
Ignore, if you can, the sloppy syntax. Did he not realize he could do a second draft and replace “This” with “Afghanistan,” making it not only one word shorter but also clearer? There was a more pressing matter, though, and it was this: He seemed to imply that Afghanistan, where the situation looks dire, could turn into another Dunkirk, which is to say the World War II battle that turned into a mass rescue operation.
But…did he mean that the evacuation of Dunkirk, which saw hundreds of thousands of Allied troops rescued from the French port by all manner of crafts, was not a huge success? Because it was. There was even a very popular movie about it, from a very popular film director, released early into his presidency.
Of course, Trump could have meant this as a rallying cry — that nations and peoples could come together to help evacuate people from Afghanistan, just like in Dunkirk 81 years ago. But that’s not Trump’s style. Trump’s style is belligerence and ridicule and pumping himself up above all, even if it’s upon a hill of lies.
And so people online, as they so often do, dragged Trump for saying something that was either not so smart or so poorly worded that it made him look like an idiot.
Former President does not appear to understand that the evacuation of Dunkirk was considered to be a huge success. pic.twitter.com/gAgkdRres9
The former president doesn’t seem to understand that the evacuation of Dunkirk is one of the British’s finest hours of the 20th century. pic.twitter.com/FBzFEUTSgx
Anyone with an IQ over the sea level who has 5th grade level history knowledge would know how dumb this is. The Dunkirk rescue operation was a huge success.
But..if you were a fervent Nazi/Nazi supporter, you would see it as a failure. So this now makes perfect sense…. pic.twitter.com/flzInUAFD3
I’m speechless. I accept Trump is an unlearned idiot, but does he have NO ONE near him who has read a book or knows anything about history? Dunkirk was one of the greatest rescue missions of all time. Or…is that what he meant? Couldn’t be. What an idiot. You too, @realLizUSAhttps://t.co/C4lZTkFfXV
Trump wasn’t the only one in the party he’s called home for the last decade or so to confuse the Dunkirk evacuation with a failure, which, again, it was certainly not.
Show me you know absolutely nothing about Dunkirk and Churchill without explicitly stating you know absolutely nothing about Dunkirk and Churchill https://t.co/htOg7ULrYT
At the end of 2019, Summer Walker released her debut album, Over It, which broke the record for the largest streaming week for an R&B album by a female artist. It also gave the singer her highest-charting release, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Now Walker is wrapping up work on her sophomore album, and though a title or release date have not yet been shared, she recently revealed some of the artists that will appear on it.
In a post to her Instagram Story, Walker revealed that SZA, Lil Durk, and Ari Lennox are among the acts that are involved. “Riding around listening to this album, can’t choose which is my favorite song… it’s between durk sza and ari ft,” the singer wrote in the post before adding, “they all so good.”
It would be the first time that Walker has collaborated with any of the aforementioned artists. But if her past work proves anything, it’s that she can create excellent chemistry with various artists. Over It featured excellent collaborations with Bryson Tiller, Usher, Jhene Aiko, 6lack, PartyNextDoor, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and Drake.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
In an interview with Malika Andrews on ESPN’s The Jump, veteran free agent point guard Isaiah Thomas said his ‘only goal’ is to be on an NBA roster. Earlier this week, Thomas — along with Mike James and Darren Collison — reportedly worked out for the Lakers.
“That’s the only goal…is to be in the NBA, to be on a roster. I know I got the talent to do it.”
Point guard Isaiah Thomas on his summer workouts with NBA teams, his health and more: pic.twitter.com/ykHN28xSWs
“That’s the only goal…is to be in the NBA, to be on a roster,” Thomas told Andrews. “I know I got the talent to do it. I’m finally healthy. And I know that when it does come, I’m going to take full advantage of it and do it with a smile on my face.” Thomas was asked if he’s worked out with teams and, without naming teams, said they “went well” and that he’s “100 percent ready to go.”
“It’s been very cool just because I’m a student of the game,” Thomas said. “I love basketball so much. I love playing in Pro-Ams or at LA Fitness or the YMCA. I’m playing everywhere. This is the first summer I’ve been completely healthy and been allowed to play in those things. That’s all it is. I took a few years hiatus from the summer pro leagues and now I’m back, you know, trying to put on some good performances for the people who come to watch.”
The 31-year-old Thomas last played in the NBA on a 10-day contract with the Pelicans, appearing in three games and averaging 7.7 points and 1.7 assists per game.
Tony Hillery was living the high life, running a limousine company and wearing Prada suits, when the financial crisis of 2008 hit. He lost his business and lines of credit and felt like he was too old to start over.
He kept reading about underfunded schools with no art, gym, or music—a sharp contrast to the private schools his kids had attended. So one day, he decided to take the subway to Harlem to see what he could do.
“I couldn’t have been more arrogant,” Hillery told Humans of New York. “I walked through the doors of the first elementary school I could find, asked for the principal, and said: ‘I’m here to try to break the cycle of poverty.’ She assigned me to the lunchroom, and that’s where I started volunteering five days a week.”
Hillery talked to the kids at lunch and they gravitated toward him. They called him “Mr. Tony” and treated him like Santa Claus. Their goofiness reminded him of his own kids.
“So when I learned that almost half of them were living in homeless shelters, that shit drove me crazy,” he said. “It tore me up. I was looking for some way to help—anything.”
He spotted an abandoned community garden across the street—the kids called it the ‘haunted garden’—and decided to clean it up. He got the paperwork processed through the Parks Department and spent six weeks hauling out all the junk. He had no idea what he was going to do with the space other than clean it up.
“Then one morning a little girl tugged on my shoulder. A tiny little thing with glasses so big,” he said. “Her name was Nevaeh. ‘Heaven’ spelled backwards. And she said: ‘Mr. Tony, why don’t we plant something?'”
Hillery didn’t know anything about gardening, but a Google search showed him that it was hard to mess up growing herbs. So he got a dump truck of organic soil, some clearance herbs at Home Depot, and invited Nevaeh’s kindergarten class to come and plant the first seedlings.
“There wasn’t much structure in the beginning,” he said. “A lot of times I’d just sit around with the kids and look at clouds. But over time the garden became a sort of outdoor science classroom. All of us were learning together. If something died, we’d just try a new spot. We learned about worms, and ladybugs, and praying mantises. Then we learned about food systems. I couldn’t help but notice the diets of these kids: all sugar and processed food. Some of them couldn’t name a single vegetable. But how could you blame them? There are 55 fast food restaurants in this community, but not a single supermarket.”
Hillery and the kids started growing vegetables, and a handful of kids got really involved and invested in the garden, including Nevaeh. She came to everything Hillery planned—camps, nature walks—and though she was quiet and reserved at first, she started taking ownership of the garden.
“Those became her plants, not mine,” he said. “Whenever volunteers came to help with composting– Nevaeh would take the lead. And if you were doing it wrong, she’d grab that rake right out of your hands.” That was 10 years ago. Since then, Hillery has expanded from one garden to 12 urban farms throughout Harlem and created an entire youth-oriented growing organization called Harlem Grown. Kids throughout the community help plant and tend the crops, learning science and agricultural lessons with hands-on experience. Since it started, Harlem Grown has given 6,000 pounds of organic produce to the community for free. Even Nevaeh’s mom has gotten involved, serving as the Agricultural Director of the farms.
But Hillery explained to Humans of New York that the point of Harlem Grown is not just to grow food, but to grow healthy children.
“When you sit in this garden on a summer day—you hear things. There are fourteen homeless shelters within a four-block radius. So when it’s hot outside, and the windows are open, you can hear the stress of poverty. Sometimes mothers will yell at these kids like they’re grown men. They’ll call them names. They’ll tell them: ‘you can’t,’ and ‘you won’t.’ And after awhile the kids start to believe it.
When they first come into this garden— they’re so freakin’ happy. Especially the really young ones. But at the end of the day, they’ll say: ‘I’m going home.’ And home means shelter. It’s an epidemic, man. 115,000 kids in this city are living in shelters. It’s a freakin’ epidemic. But it’s invisible. You’d never know these kids are homeless, because they’re so happy.
But something happens around 9, 10, 11. I see it all the time. Those eyes dim, man. It’s just life. There’s too much stress around here. And they grow up fast. They lose that light. I just want to slow it down, that’s all. I want them to have a safe place where they can just be them. That’s all any of us want, right? To slow it all down so we can find out who we are?”
Hillery said he arrogantly went to Harlem thinking he had the answers, that he was going to fix kids. But in the past ten years, he’s learned that they didn’t need to be fixed or to become like him—they needed to stay like their young and happy selves. He was 52 pounds heavier and depressed before Harlem Grown, living a life that was all about things and money. The kids have taught him he was doing it all wrong.
And Neveah? She’s sixteen now and an honor roll student.
“Recently she had a C in math,” Hillery told Humans of New York, “so I said: ‘Let’s find you a private tutor, I’ll pay for it.’ But she wouldn’t let me. She grabbed the rake out of my hand. She said: ‘No Mr. Tony, I got this myself.’ And she got a 93 on that final.
She was the tiniest little thing when I met her. With glasses so big. But even back then she had everything she needed. It just required a little protection. And a little time. She just needed some space to grow.”
Well done, Mr. Tony, tending to the hearts and minds of the children of Harlem and helping them bloom.
Gunna has spent most of the year teasing the release of his next album, Drip Season 4., which will be the first installment in the rapper’s trademark series, which started in 2013. So far he had yet to share a single from it. That changed on Wednesday with the release of “9 Times Outta 10.”
The track, which boasts production from Taurus, finds Gunna flaunting his winning ways and bragging about his ability to make money and stay ahead of the competition, even when they try to bring him down. The single is also accompanied by a video that shows the bright and dark moments of the rapper’s life.
Drip Season 4 will be Gunna’s first full-length release since he dropped Wunna last spring. The album, which had features from Young Thug, Roddy Ricch, Lil Baby, Travis Scott, and more, became one of the most popular hip-hop releases of 2020. Gunna also appeared a few times on YSL’s compilation album Slime Language 2, which was released earlier this year.
Recently Gunna collaborated with Polo G for “Waves” and Lil Tecca on “Repeat It.”
You can watch the video for “9 Times Outta 10” above.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Alan Dershowitz has often complained that, after he started lending his support to Donald J. Trump, often defending acts many would consider indefensible, he lost a lot of friends. It’s even made his summer jaunts to Martha’s Vineyard, where the Obamas have a lavish estate, awkward. One encounter may have been testier than most: He got yelled at by no less than Larry David, who was pretty, pretty, pretty mad.
According to a “spy” for Page Six, the Seinfeld co-creator and Curb Your Enthusiasm maven let the famed lawyer have it on the porch of a convenience store on the wealthy New England island. The snoop even wrote down the exchange, as it was too surreal to not be documented:
Dershowitz: “We can still talk, Larry.”
David: “No. No. We really can’t. I saw you. I saw you with your arm around [Former Trump Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo! It’s disgusting!”
Dersh: “He’s my former student [at Harvard Law]. I greet all of my former students that way. I can’t greet my former students?”
David: “It’s disgusting. Your whole enclave — it’s disgusting. You’re disgusting!”
David then reportedly walked away. Dershowtiz, meanwhile, tried to save face by revealing a T-shirt underneath the one he already had one, which bore the words “It’s The Constitution Stupid!”
Dershowitz — who described himself as a “liberal Democrat” who “voted for Biden just as enthusiastically as Larry did — confirmed the incident to Page Six, saying that he and David used to be friends but that David broke up with him after he started working for Trump.
And he’s not the only one. Heated exchanges, he said, are “typical of what happens now on the Vineyard.” He added, “People won’t talk to each other if they don’t agree with their politics.” People like David screaming at him in public is, he said, “the price of principle,” adding that he believed Trump’s first impeachment was unconstitutional. (Hence the T-shirt.)
Dershowitz dismissed David as a “knee-jerk radical,” claiming he “takes his politics from Hollywood. He doesn’t read a lot. He doesn’t think a lot.” He also said David was “guilty of contemporary McCarthyism,” and that “[Joseph] McCarthy would have been proud of him.”
That said, he said he would “extend a hand of friendship to David,” should he ever want to have a less shouty discussion. “I won’t get into a screaming match with him. If he wants to scream, he’ll have to scream alone.”
If the encounter sounds like it could wind up on some future Curb Your Enthusiasm episode — much like his him being disinvited from Barack Obama’s birthday bash out of fear of overcrowding during a pandemic — Dershowitz didn’t think so. David got so mad at him, he said, that his face turned red, adding, “I was worried that he was going to have a stroke.”
After thing simmered down, Dershowitz also left, driving away in what the Page Six spy described as “an old, dirty Volvo.”
When it comes to single malt Scotch whisky, there’s an aging sweet spot that tends to fall around 12 years. Generally speaking, that’s enough time to create pronounced, nuanced, and rich flavors, but not so long that the price of the juice in the bottle skyrockets. If you grab yourself a 12-year-old single malt from a well-known distillery, you can rest assured you’re going to get a high-quality, if beginner-level spirit.
Solid stuff at a good price.
Below, you’ll find eight of our favorite 12-year-old single malt Scotch whiskies to drink right now. Some are household names and others are lesser-known offerings, especially outside of Scotland. All are exceptional, nicely aged expressions you won’t soon forget — click on the prices if you want to try one!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Scotch Whisky Posts of 2021
Even if you don’t know anything about scotch, you’ve probably heard of The Glenlivet. The brand’s flagship expression is its 12-year-old single malt. This double oaked expression is aged in both sherry and bourbon casks before it’s vatted, proofed, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a lot of fruit on the nose. This is followed by sweet caramel and toasted vanilla beans. The palate is filled with dried fruits, sticky toffee, vanilla cream, and the backbone of rich toasted oak. The finish is sweet, malty, and subtly spicy.
Bottom Line:
Honestly, if you buy any whisky on this list, make it The Glenlivet 12. For the price, it’s hard to find a better expression.
If you’re a fan of blended whisky, you probably know Aberfeldy as one of the main whiskies used to make Dewar’s. Aberfeldy 12 is a member of the brand’s “Last Great Malts” along with Royal Brackla, Aultmore, The Deveron, and Craigellachie. It’s aged in a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks for 12 long years in Speyside before it’s vatted and proofed with local lake water.
Tasting Notes:
The nose swirls with aromas of sweet sherry, raisins, vanilla, and slight citrus. The sip reveals hints of sweet malts, vanilla beans, candied orange peels, and charred oak. The last sip is sweet and spicy with citrus and caramel.
Bottom Line:
Fans of sherry-finished single malts will love the bargain price of this sweet sherry-centric whisky. It’s a great sipper on a cool late summer night.
Highland Park is the bold, Viking of the Scotch whisky market. The most northern distillery in the country, it’s located in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. Its 12-year-old expression is matured in a combination of sherry-season European as well as American oak casks.
Tasting Notes:
Complex notes of wet grass, sweet clover honey, candied orange peels, and caramel are prevalent on the nose. The palate is highlighted by the flavors of citrus zest, toffee, vanilla beans, and gentle, warming smoke throughout. It all ends with notes of pepper and caramelized sugar.
Bottom Line:
There are few 12-year-old whiskies more complex than Highland Park 12. Instead of knocking you out with smoke like some of the Islay expressions, the smoke is simply one of many flavors that work together to create this complex whisky.
Glen Moray doesn’t have the name recognition of some of the other “Glens” in the whisky world. Its 12-year-old expression spends all twelve years of its aging process in used bourbon barrels. The result is a sweet, oaky, rich whisky well-suited for mixing or sipping neat.
Tasting Notes:
Aromas of toasted vanilla beans, dried orange peels, wood char, and mint swirl around the nose. The palate is filled with caramel candy, raisins, apricots, and a gentle, nutty sweetness throughout. The finish is warming, sweet, and memorable.
Bottom Line:
This is an approachable single malt for people who aren’t too keen on sherry-finished whiskies. This is one is all rich oak and caramel.
Often, Highland whiskies have at least a hint of peat smoke. The appeal of this sweet, soft whisky is the fact that it doesn’t have any smoke (a fact the brand makes an effort to highlight). Well-known as Scotland’s slowest distillation process, this 12-year-old expression is filled with cooking spices and fall flavors.
Tasting Notes:
The nose brings forth scents of dried orange peels, honey, wood char, and vanilla beans. From the first sip, you’re met with notes of caramel apples, cinnamon sugar, candied oranges, and oak. The finish is a nice combination of sherry sweetness and wood.
Bottom Line:
Fans of Highland whiskies looking for a solid, sweet, unpeated expression should look no further than Glengoyne and specifically their 12-year-old offering.
This single malt is a sherry fan’s dream. Matured in a combination of first-fill and refill Oloroso sherry butts for all twelve years of the maturation process, this expression is spicy, sweet, and highly sippable. A truly memorable whisky for fans of sherry-matured single malts.
Tasting Notes:
This award-winning whisky begins with aromas of cinnamon sugar, fresh mint leaves, dried orange peels, and butterscotch. Take a sip and be transported to a world of ripe berries, oaky wood, dried fruits, vanilla beans, and sweet treacle. You’ll be met with just a hint of smoke at the very end.
Bottom Line:
If Glen Moray 12 is the single malt for sherry haters, Tamdhu 12 is the whisky for people who want their whisky to be filled with a ridiculous amount of sherry sweetness and ripe fruit flavor.
Glenfiddich is one of the most well-known Scotch whisky distilleries for a reason. Its 12-year-old expression is extremely complex. Matured in American oak barrels and European sherry butts for a minimum of 12 years before being mellowed in oak marrying tuns, it’s known for its rich, oaky, sweet flavor.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is filled with ripe fruit, sweet sherry, caramel, and rich oak. The palate is littered with hints of ripe berries, dried fruits, sticky toffee pudding, sweet malts, and more oaky wood. The finish is long, warming, and smooth.
Bottom Line:
When it comes to 12-year-old single malts, there are few more complex than Glenfiddich’s expression. It’s sweet, rich, and filled with memorable oaky flavors.
Aberlour 12 is a constant on “best beginner scotch” lists. This is because this beloved single malt is aged in a combination of European oak and sherry seasoned casks. The result is an extremely mellow, rich, subtly sweet whiskey well-suited for slow sipping in a Glencairn glass.
Tasting Notes:
The nose begins with hints of caramelized apple, ripe fruits, raisins, and butterscotch. The palate stars notes of sweet sherry, ripe berries, chocolate fudge, caramelized sugar, and rich oak. The last few sips are sweet, spicy, and highly memorable.
Bottom Line:
Aberlour 12 is one of the unsung heroes of the introductory single malt whisky world. It’s sweet, slightly spicy, and completely sippable.
As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.
Tony Hillery was living the high life, running a limousine company and wearing Prada suits, when the financial crisis of 2008 hit. He lost his business and lines of credit and felt like he was too old to start over.
He kept reading about underfunded schools with no art, gym, or music—a sharp contrast to the private schools his kids had attended. So one day, he decided to take the subway to Harlem to see what he could o.
“I couldn’t have been more arrogant,” Hillery told Humans of New York. “I walked through the doors of the first elementary school I could find, asked for the principal, and said: ‘I’m here to try to break the cycle of poverty.’ She assigned me to the lunchroom, and that’s where I started volunteering five days a week.”
Hillery talked to the kids at lunch and they gravitated toward him. They called him “Mr. Tony” and treated him like Santa Claus. Their goofiness reminded him of his own kids.
“So when I learned that almost half of them were living in homeless shelters, that shit drove me crazy,” he said. “It tore me up. I was looking for some way to help—anything.”
He spotted an abandoned community garden across the street—the kids called it the ‘haunted garden’—and decided to clean it up. He got the paperwork processed through the Parks Department and spent six weeks hauling out all the junk. He had no idea what he was going to do with the space other than clean it up.
“Then one morning a little girl tugged on my shoulder. A tiny little thing with glasses so big,” he said. “Her name was Nevaeh. ‘Heaven’ spelled backwards. And she said: ‘Mr. Tony, why don’t we plant something?'”
Hillery didn’t know anything about gardening, but a Google search showed him that it was hard to mess up growing herbs. So he got a dump truck of organic soil, some clearance herbs at Home Depot, and invited Nevaeh’s kindergarten class to come and plant the first seedlings.
“There wasn’t much structure in the beginning,” he said. “A lot of times I’d just sit around with the kids and look at clouds. But over time the garden became a sort of outdoor science classroom. All of us were learning together. If something died, we’d just try a new spot. We learned about worms, and ladybugs, and praying mantises. Then we learned about food systems. I couldn’t help but notice the diets of these kids: all sugar and processed food. Some of them couldn’t name a single vegetable. But how could you blame them? There are 55 fast food restaurants in this community, but not a single supermarket.”
Hillery and the kids started growing vegetables, and a handful of kids got really involved and invested in the garden, including Nevaeh. She came to everything Hillery planned—camps, nature walks—and though she was quiet and reserved at first, she started taking ownership of the garden.
“Those became her plants, not mine,” he said. “Whenever volunteers came to help with composting– Nevaeh would take the lead. And if you were doing it wrong, she’d grab that rake right out of your hands.” That was 10 years ago. Since then, Hillery has expanded from one garden to 12 urban farms throughout Harlem and created an entire youth-oriented growing organization called Harlem Grown. Kids throughout the community help plant and tend the crops, learning science and agricultural lessons with hands-on experience. Since it started, Harlem Grown has given 6,000 pounds of organic produce to the community for free. Even Nevaeh’s mom has gotten involved, serving as the Agricultural Director of the farms.
But Hillery explained to Humans of New York that the point of Harlem Grown is not just to grow food, but to grow healthy children.
“When you sit in this garden on a summer day—you hear things. There are fourteen homeless shelters within a four-block radius. So when it’s hot outside, and the windows are open, you can hear the stress of poverty. Sometimes mothers will yell at these kids like they’re grown men. They’ll call them names. They’ll tell them: ‘you can’t,’ and ‘you won’t.’ And after awhile the kids start to believe it.
When they first come into this garden— they’re so freakin’ happy. Especially the really young ones. But at the end of the day, they’ll say: ‘I’m going home.’ And home means shelter. It’s an epidemic, man. 115,000 kids in this city are living in shelters. It’s a freakin’ epidemic. But it’s invisible. You’d never know these kids are homeless, because they’re so happy.
But something happens around 9, 10, 11. I see it all the time. Those eyes dim, man. It’s just life. There’s too much stress around here. And they grow up fast. They lose that light. I just want to slow it down, that’s all. I want them to have a safe place where they can just be them. That’s all any of us want, right? To slow it all down so we can find out who we are?”
Hillery said he arrogantly went to Harlem thinking he had the answers, that he was going to fix kids. But in the past ten years, he’s learned that they didn’t need to be fixed or to become like him—they needed to stay like their young and happy selves. He was 52 pounds heavier and depressed before Harlem Grown, living a life that was all about things and money. The kids have taught him he was doing it all wrong.
And Neveah? She’s sixteen now and an honor roll student.
“Recently she had a C in math,” Hillery told Humans of New York, “so I said: ‘Let’s find you a private tutor, I’ll pay for it.’ But she wouldn’t let me. She grabbed the rake out of my hand. She said: ‘No Mr. Tony, I got this myself.’ And she got a 93 on that final.
She was the tiniest little thing when I met her. With glasses so big. But even back then she had everything she needed. It just required a little protection. And a little time. She just needed some space to grow.”
Well done, Mr. Tony, tending to the hearts and minds of the children of Harlem and helping them bloom.
A dad in Australia has symbolically adopted his trans daughter’s bestie, who’s also trans, after she was rejected by her father.
In a video that has over 2.7 million views on TikTok, Mat Stevenson, an actor who played Adam Cameron in the popular Aussie soap opera “Home and Away,” signs a certificate stating that Belle Bambi is now part of the family. It was a wonderful gesture of support for a girl grieving over the loss of a parent.
Stevenson’s daughter, Grace Hyland, is a popular TikTok star with over 238,000 followers.
“My BFF’s dad left because she’s trans,” Hyland captioned the TikTok video. “So we did this: Dad is adopting her! He’s always supported me, and he wants to support Bambi, too. We’re sisters now!”
Stevenson’s decision to embrace his daughter’s friend after transitioning sets a wonderful example for other parents. Studies show that family rejection increases the odds of substance misuse and suicide attempts in transgender and gender non-conforming people.
LGBTQ youth who have parents who affirm their gender identity and sexual orientation are almost 50% less likely to attempt suicide than those who do not.
Bambi posted a personal video about the adoption on her TikTok account as well. The video begins with shots of her with her father who allegedly rejected her after transitioning. She looks obviously distressed about losing such an important person in her life just because she wanted to be herself. It’s impossible to imagine how much that hurts.
“Some days I think about how my dad left me because I’m trans,” Bambi says in the video.
“I’ve got something for you,” Stevenson says, holding up the adoption certificate. After signing the paper he gives Bambi a big kiss on the cheek.
“He adopted me,” Bambi wrote at the end of the video.
And that’s the bloody tea 👀 #trans #lgbt #mrg #summerheightshigh #foryou
Recently, Stevenson and Hyland appeared on The Project on Australian television to discuss her transition.
“So for me it really made sense,” Stevenson told The Project. “All through Grace’s early years, she would gravitate to all things female. And when I saw Grace run towards authenticity and just jump over all the hurdles to do so, I, without doubt, had a front-row seat to the most courageous thing I’d seen.”
Hyland says she knew she was a female “as young as maybe four or five, just really feeling that I was a girl.” She went on to say she “couldn’t explain it” and thought she was “weird or destined for a life of unhappiness.”
The good news is that Hyland has wonderful support from her parents and friends which means that she has a great chance of being happy and healthy.
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This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
l Summer Walker confirms 
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