Dressing Older Won’t Help Us Grow Up Any Faster By Samantha Rosenberg Photograph by Carina McCallum From blunt bobs to oversized wool coats, young adults are increasingly dressing older than they are. We as humans are biologically wired to seek control and authority, and one way to achieve this is dressing older than our age. I find this to be both completely valid and absolutely ridiculous. Somewhere between beginning college and building a LinkedIn profile, we’ve decided

Despite what pop culture or social media tells you, having more than one best friend can actually make for a healthier, more balanced social life by Isabella Hobbs Photo by Serenidy Ryan Throughout middle school, high school, and even the first semester of college, I felt so much pressure to find my forever best friend—my future bridesmaid —just like all the TV shows I grew up watching had depicted. I saw Monica and Rachel, Blair and Serena, Summer and Marissa, and I drea

(specifically about avoiding difficult conversations) Sophia Ong Photograph by Carina McCallum My least favorite trope in books is the “miscommunication trope.” You know–the one where an event or verbal exchange is taken one way by one character, another way by the other, and they sulk in secrecy for 70% of the story before finally having the Conversation That Fixes Everything. I’m left shaking at my Kindle, thinking: “Just talk to each other!” Frustratingly, the miscommunic

Displacing places displaces people By Lheyaa Mathivanan Photograph by Serenidy Ryan Do you miss late-night dining? Well, so do I. I’m not talking about the food—though a greasy basket of fries hits different when you’re delusional from midterms. Late-night dining was one place at BU where you didn’t have to be anyone. You could just show up, grab food, sit with friends, and laugh about absolutely nothing. You could have a textbook open, but the productivity was optional

What people should want in a relationship. Sofia Galarneau Graphic by Charlie Tran One of my least favorite activities is to talk about romantic relationships with friends; the simple reason is that romance is dead, and it depresses me to talk about it. When I was younger, I would watch movies like “The Proposal” or “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” and would picture my future relationships with my dream guy. He would make big public declarations of love, stare at me in awe j

In a culture that glorifies exceptionalism, being “normal” has quietly become a source of shame. Rhea El-Madhoun El-Yafi Graphic by Katie-Ann Small There’s a quiet panic that follows a lot of us around, not loud enough to name, but constant enough to shape everything we do. It’s the fear of being ordinary. Not failing, exactly. Not doing badly. Just blending in. Being average . Living a life that doesn’t stand out, doesn’t impress, doesn’t make anyone pause and say “wow.”

Who’s This Generation's Kate Hudson? By: Samantha Rosenberg Photograph by Mia Bianco Rom-coms used to dominate the movie industry, with films like How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days , She’s the Man , and 13 Going on 30 . Now, the best out there is People We Meet on Vacation . There aren’t any new, iconic rom-coms that I can laugh and cry over, and I need that back—now. Instead, what do we get? Sequels. Reboots. Random, half-hearted romantic subplots that are hidden beneath an act

How these one-sided relationships are really affecting the youth’s mental health. by Isabella Hobbs In the age of social media, parasocial relationships are not a new conversation. Psychologists for years have been warning of the harm of these one-sided obsessions. Parasocial relationships used to consist of fictional characters or Hollywood starlets. Though still negative, these obsessions didn’t hold the same weight they do now. Social media platforms — especially ones th

By Sophia Ong There’s an important distinction between reputation and reality. Photo By Diya Kapoor My first semester of college, I had a professor with 75 “Awful” reviews on Rate My Professor. I’d gotten a late acceptance and lost the class selection war, stuck with the few classes that still had open seats. But the lectures were interesting, the exams were intuitive, and the professor was incredibly passionate and engaged. Maybe I got lucky, but everyone I knew who attended

Why moving, rebranding, and ‘new era’ energy rarely fixes anything By Lheyaa Mathivanan Graphic by Katie King Remember when you dyed your hair right after that breakup? Or when your wardrobe shifted from bold colors to clean neutrals because everyone else was doing it? Or when you got a septum piercing, a few impulsive tattoos, and quietly decided this was your new personality? Maybe you moved, deleted old photos, unfollowed people, started drinking matcha instead of coffee,