1. You no longer care what people think. You own your style, your flaws, your awesomeness. You ain’t got time for no janky nonsense. 2. There’s no guilt when turning down invites, saying no to things that don’t serve you and sending regrets. You know where you need to be and put yourself there; no…

Dad will arguably be the most important man in a daughter’s life. Through him, she will learn what “right” looks like. And a good Dad usually will do these things: A good Dad will send spoken and unspoken messages to his daughter. She will learn what to expect, demand. What’s more, ingrained in every cell…

Recently I read an article called, “Dear Target, Why Are All Your Shorts For Girls So…Short?” In the piece, the author wrote a cheeky (no pun) article about the lack of options for tween girl’s athletic shorts at Target. Her post has since been shared thousands of times, and the comment thread is heated. In…

There are a few things I want to share with my daughter about the rollercoaster ride she's about to take called middle school.

Here you are. Standing on the doorstep of teenage-ness. Brace yourself, buddy. They don’t refer to them as the years of angst for nothin’. There will be irrational emotions that arise in your heart and plummet into your gut without warning; there will be acne and body odor and other physiological weirdness; there will be…

There’s a thing about having your dad die when you are just barely 22-years-old. The eye rolls. The condescending tone. The unapologetic lack of any sort of humility. Thinking you know it all. Losing a parent young was like being pummeled by a tidal wave, caught in the wrath of a turbulent wake. Worse. My…

For people with eating disorders, it’s not how others see them that counts. It’s how they look at themselves. June 5 My gymnastics coach told my mom I was too big for the sport. “She has hips and a waist.” So, I started eating bread and water. Then, I counted calories today. I only ate…

I’ve often wondered what I will say to my kids the next time there is another senseless act of violence against innocent people in our country? And here we are again, trying to understand a school shooting that’s left more than a dozen high school students in Florida dead on Valentine’s Day. In explaining these…

Are you sure you can handle being a military wife? A question that was actually posed to my 25-year-old self. How the heck would I have known what kind of wife I was ready to be? Seriously. Did other brides-to-be get asked similar questions? I’d never been a wife, for goodness sake. All I knew…

  Dear Husband, I apologize. I realize, I haven’t always been a good wife. Well, actually, I’ve known it for a while. But, I’ve just been too stuck to admit it. I know what you might be thinking… I’ve been a good mom. Sure. I do what I need to do. Sure. I have done…