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I am a research worker on the BeFINE research study, and I feel very privileged to be part of a team that seeks to empower and hold space for underrepresented voices. Our study aims to understand and provide new ways regarding how best to support the well-being of Black families in the UK. The originality of this research excites us as it consists of active steps that seek to amplify opinions and experiences that are often overlooked. From reading this short piece, we hope readers will gauge how important this area of research is and share our excitement in supporting communities that have for so long struggled with access due to major barriers and social inequalities. The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black minority ethnic communities has been widely acknowledged and has led to a greater spotlight on groups exposed to pre-existing health and social inequalities. There is a growing literature documenting the adverse impact of COVID-19 on families, and the health and wellbeing of children and young people specifically from racial minority groups. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Black minority communities have and are experiencing higher levels of mortality, hospitalisation, food insecurity, grief, and loss. Furthermore, declines in mental health have also been reported by Black ethnic minorities in a UK report as a consequence of financial fears and issues with housing and employment ignited by the pandemic. However, in the context of data indicating that non-White racial minority groups constitute 14% of the population across England and Wales, very little is known about the impact of the pandemic on families from racial minority backgrounds. As a means to improve health research, there has been an ongoing call for greater involvement of patients and the public within research from prioritising ideas for investigation to sharing and implementing findings. This form of involvement offers both a community perspective and lived experience that will allow health research to better meet the needs of diverse populations. However, despite an increase in patient and public involvement, participation from minority communities, including Black ethnic groups remains limited. The absent narratives from these communities and the lack of opportunities to offer input into health research has major consequences on healthcare and outcomes. Photo by RF._.studio from Pexels The Be FINE project Despite growing awareness and documentation of the health and social disparities faced by Black communities in the context of COVID-19, there is a lack of understanding of how families from Black racial communities have been specifically impacted and what could be done to best meet their mental health and wellbeing. Thus, to address some of these issues, the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) COVID-19 rapid response has funded the Black Families Involvement in New E-learning (Be FINE) project. The study is led by Dr Valentina Cardi (Principal Investigator) and colleague, Dr Juliana Onwumere from King’s College London. The project has two main aims: firstly, to understand the experiences and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the parents and carers of children and young people (6–24 years) from UK Black minority ethnic communities; secondly, to explore with parents and carers the type of online information they would find helpful to develop skills to support the mental health and wellbeing of their children. Image by Rubbia Ali Advisory group involvement To meet the needs of this target group and ensure their lived experiences and perspectives remain at the centre of the project, we established and are working in partnership with a key stakeholder and lived experience advisory group, comprised of members from Black racial minority communities. Members within the group are from all walks of life and their knowledge, insights, and lived experiences are invaluable in informing and guiding decisions throughout the research process. The group has provided the space, structure, and safety for dialogues on relevant issues impacting the community and the research. The discussions and individual narratives are reflective of the wide range of perspectives within the same racial communities, which is too often overlooked within research. For all advisory group members, the experience of being involved in research decision-making was a new experience. To reflect on this, we have co-produced with the group a written piece of work (yet to be published) about their experiences and recommendations on how to support greater inclusion from other community members in health-related research. Over the next few months, we will be asking adult members of Black families to complete online surveys and participate in focus groups to get their unique perspectives of the challenges experienced and possible solutions. We hope the findings will advance our understanding of the unmet needs of a neglected and under-researched group. We also hope this project will develop into a wider programme aimed at developing online tools which are easy to access, acceptable, and feasible to use for Black families. These resources will be co-developed with members of Black ethnic groups and will overcome the limitations of treatments developed for, or adapted from, other ethnic groups rather than being specifically designed for the target population. Photo by Alex Green from Pexels We encourage readers from Black ethnic groups who care for children or young adults to participate in our study and complete the online survey to get their views represented in the next stages of research. The link to the survey is: https://bit.ly/3KIiO13

Photo by Melike B on Pexels My Chronic Illness Left Me Isolated, but Through Embroidery I Found Threads of Connection Overnight, at the age of nine, I went from an energetic, sociable child to housebound and isolated as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) and other comorbidities shrunk my world to my bedroom. ME is a chronic, fluctuating disease that causes symptoms such as severe fatigue, post-exertional malaise, pain, sleep problems, and brain fog. It can leave people bed or housebound, and there is currently no cure. As the years passed, I tried every form of low‐energy activity that I could do from bed. Seven years after first falling ill, my grandmother handed down to me pearlescent threads, sparkly fabrics, dazzling beads, fluffy clouds of silk fibre, and all manner of other interesting materials. Figuring I had nothing to lose, embroidery became my newest low‐energy activity and I was captivated. At first, embroidery was just a hobby to cut through some of the boredom that comes with the isolation of chronic illness. But in those pearlescent threads and sparkly fabrics, I found much more than just a hobby I could do from bed. I found a mindfulness practice to cope with the isolation of chronic illness, as well as a way to connect with my disabled and chronically ill identity, and an online community. Chronic illnesses, such as ME, often go hand in hand with isolation, causing feelings of loneliness and negatively impacting mental wellbeing. A 2023 study found that “social isolation is often an unavoidable consequence of living with ME” due to fluctuating and severe symptoms that often result in people with ME being “confined to the home and isolated.” This study tells a story that resonates deeply with my own experiences of ME and isolation. Before I became ill, I was happily in school and playing with friends on the weekends. After first falling ill, I spent an hour or two a day in school before crashing out with exhaustion on the weekends. My isolation became even more acute when mainstream education became impossible and, whilst best for my education, being at an online medical-inclusion school left me almost completely isolated. Embroidery became a way to cope with the feelings of loneliness and frustration that come with severe and fluctuating symptoms and the isolation of being often housebound. However, everyone experiences ME and other chronic illnesses differently. Embroidery is, for me, often an accessible art form I can do from bed as a person with moderate ME. However, there are periods where symptoms, such as hand pain and severe fatigue, prevent me from being able to access it. Furthermore, people with the severest forms of ME, who also suffer the severest manifestation of isolation, may be unable to access any craft as severe ME can leave people bed-bound, unable to sit upright or tolerate any light, touch, or sound. Chronic illness is complex, so what is accessible and helpful to some people may be inaccessible to others. Photo by Barbara Krysztofiak on Unsplash The Mindful Power of Embroidery Embroidery is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of mindfulness. Meditation, yoga, and breathing exercises are perhaps more synonymous with the word. Mind states that mindfulness “works by taking your focus to the present moment and away from other thoughts.” The repetitive popping sound of a needle piercing through tightly pulled fabric. The long whoosh as thread zips its way through the newly created hole. The considered concentration of where to place each stitch, each colour, each thread. All of these culminate in a creative, mindful practice to enjoy from bed. The concentration, creativity, and repetitive actions help to distract my brain from my symptoms and the loneliness that comes with social isolation. Plus, simply stabbing tiny holes into a piece of fabric can be cathartic in and of itself when symptoms and isolation get tough. Many studies show that textile crafts, such as embroidery, have a positive effect on mental health and wellbeing. A recent 2026 narrative literature review emphasised the “therapeutic benefits of textile craft in improving participants’ mental health and wellbeing,” particularly helping people through depression and negative thoughts by providing repetition, structure, simplicity, and a sense of purpose and achievement. Hand & Lock, one of the UK’s leading embroidery brands, claims that embroidery can alleviate stress by releasing neurotransmitters that promote wellbeing and reduce stress hormones, as well as reducing anxiety, lowering blood pressure, decreasing heart rate and keeping the brain healthy. Hand & Lock stresses the mindful qualities of embroidery, stating that it keeps “us in the present moment, silencing the parts of the brain implicated in generating negative emotions.” Connecting to my Disabled Identity Photo by Author I started my embroidery journey with simple designs promoting this feeling of mindfulness, but I soon realised that the art form offered a way to explore and express my disabled identity. Being socially isolated causes isolation from people with similar experiences, making disability and chronic illness lonely to navigate. Art can bridge this by giving disabled people a way to express their personal experiences, identity, and emotions. My first big embroidery project was based on the disability pride flag. On a background of black fabric to represent disabled people who have lost their lives, I stitched five nerve cells (representing the neurological aspect of ME) in the five colours of the disability pride flag (each of which represents a different type of disability). Researching the piece allowed me to learn more about disability pride and to express my experience through symbols that meant something to me, such as tiny forget-me-nots to represent the ME community and a nod to kintsugi to represent resilience. More recently, as I embarked on a journey of discovering the value of mobility aids, I sourced an old wheelchair wheel and stitched nine panels representing nine disabled artists. Developing this piece gave me a greater feeling of connection to the community I had become a part of. Photo by Author Connecting with Others I shared images of these embroideries online, which resulted in connections with people across the world, especially other people who were similarly isolated due to disability or chronic illness. Initiatives such as the Chronic Market (an online marketplace for artists and artisans with ME/CFS to sell their work and tell their stories), online crafting meetups, or simply people sharing images of art on their personal social media accounts all create an online art community. Online communities are incredibly important to chronically ill people, providing a way to connect with people even when housebound. Online communities based around art provide social connection and a space for a collective mindfulness practice or the creation of a platform for people to express their identity, tell their narratives, and engage with other people who have similar lived experiences. Threads of Connection When I first experimented with embroidery, I never expected that a combination of threads, fabrics, hoops, and needles would provide a tool to cut through the isolation of chronic illness. Embroidery has given me a medium through which to express my emotions and experiences, and to connect with others. In embroidery, I have found a sense of community, even when I’m unable to leave my bed. This article has been sponsored by the Psychiatry Research Trust, who are dedicated to supporting young scientists in their groundbreaking research efforts within the field of mental health. If you wish to support their work, please consider donating.

Image generated with AI by Author Ever heard of picture perfect? Clicking posts, attracting attention, wanting to feel validated. Validated. Something so many teenage girls, like me, crave the feeling of. Ever looked at yourself in the mirror and not seen your true potential? All you see is what others want of you. All you see is a dysmorphic image of who you seem to be, a monster to you, and a so-called ‘perfect girl’ to others. My name is Joana. I am 14 years old, and I am living through the challenges that life throws my way. I have written this piece so you can truly grasp the importance of staying true to yourself without losing yourself in the process. This piece is about coming to terms with self-acceptance. Does Life Have a Meaning? “I will never be good enough… Why am I not as pretty as her?”, I say, watching my phone, admiring who he chose to spend the ‘rest of his life with’ instead of me because she was more ‘popular’. Gaining popularity. Popularity. But at what cost? Social media has killed pure intentions, leaving a mask of jealousy towards others and a deep insecurity towards your appearance. Trapped in a body where you must be how others portray you, never being yourself. Emotions get bottled up so deep, causing loneliness and thinking people will never understand you for being you. Stereotypes. Boys cannot cry because that makes them weak. Girls have to keep a full face of makeup, or else they look tired and sick. We are in constant connection. Our generation is constantly online, yet somehow, loneliness always creeps in. We feel connected to others, creating relationships, meeting people from social media. But are these connections ever really there? Constant rumours, people judging because they don’t really know the real you. The urge to show off, to feel like you are worth something. Did we ever have the freedom to be ourselves? Then the feeling of having no one emerges... Somebody just walks away because you dared to show your true self. Was it worth it? Was it ever love? All of a sudden, nothing is as bright as it used to be. Loneliness is a room of black and white. An unbearable escape. Feeling everything so deeply, yet nothing at the same time. You have no motivation. Why live? Once you reach that room, only changing your mindset can get you out. Living Loneliness Loneliness. It has driven me to do crazy things, leaving my mental health to deteriorate rapidly. There were times when I felt like the only way to distract myself from this constant aching was to take it out on myself. “You are stupid, you are ugly, you will never amount to anything”. I am the worst voice in my head, the darkest, the most dangerous of all. Connections. Connections. I have many connections now, but the idea of who I am supposed to be ruins the way I present a perspective of myself. Every relationship I ever had was never deep. I question every day if any of my friends ever enjoyed my presence. Hiding will forever be easier than putting myself out there just to get judged. Then I lost everyone and everything. All in a couple of hours, just because my so-called ‘friends’ made comments about me over a simple photo. Mockery, backstabbing, absolute betrayal. Oh, how shallow it was, everything I had. It could go away so rapidly. Loneliness. I feel worthless. Because no matter how many times I would put myself out there, no one seemed to care enough to give me a “like”. This is how social media works. It’s the Insta, Snapchat and TikTok game. Either you hide your true self forever and get considered popular, or you choose to be yourself and get constantly judged by people who do not know any better. It is hard to enjoy little things when you are stuck in something so big. And oh, is it scary... You are scared you will do something so bad that no one will be able to save you, just because you feel like you have no one. You have no one to call. You have no one to open up to. Feeling this is a deep melancholy of sadness. Thinking, feeling, watching. Watching. Watching everyone live their lives while you struggle to get out of bed. You are lonely. Fighting your inner demons, you may say. But you’ve grown so comfortable having them inside your head that fighting them feels like you will have no one in the end. Becoming too comfortable with these mind-eating demons that maybe, if you keep them a little longer, you will learn how to make friends with the darkness. Never has a day gone by when I didn’t feel like a walking ogre. Destroying everything I touched, leaving remains of happiness, until it turned to putrid ashes. I believe I am everyone I have ever loved, making me an incredibly difficult person to comprehend. Finding a life worth living. A term used by my therapist. I always felt like therapy never worked; however, if you do not want to change, then no one can save you from the hole you are digging. Deeper and deeper, entering a pit of loneliness and despair, until you look up and see how far from the sky you’ve dug. How do I get back up? Too much work, might as well continue digging, maybe there is a way out using less effort. After spending countless days drowning in sorrow, I got up. I started slowly shovelling dirt back into the hole I had created, not to bury myself alive, as I thought, but to reach the sky. I still constantly reminisce about the days when I was happy and such a sweet, innocent soul. But life goes on, and getting up is the hardest part of growth. Trust me, I would have buried myself there, letting the worms feel my empty heartbeat and taste everyone I have ever let in, in hopes of being finally understood. But I did not. Image provided by Author Life Worth Living I never thought I would make it past 12. Yet here I am, still pushing and trying my hardest to become the best possible version of myself. There is always a way out. Even if you lose yourself in the process. Finding myself again will forever be worth everything I have done to get to where I am today. Because what is a life worth living without the constant mistakes and lessons you learn along the way? Everyone has their struggles, making them the people they are. Minds are a complicated thing to depict. This is a good thing, otherwise, who are you without everything you’ve been through? We are playing the game; we experience loneliness like no generation before. And we get blamed for it by the same people who invented social media and put a mobile phone in our hands at 7 years of age. But we are stronger than that. I am Joana, a 14-year-old girl who has struggled to get where she is today. That is the joy of living. And there is so much more to life than staring at a phone the whole day. This article has been sponsored by the Psychiatry Research Trust, who are dedicated to supporting young scientists in their groundbreaking research efforts within the field of mental health. If you wish to support their work, please consider donating.

We accept pitches for original articles on lived experience and creative short stories. Submit a pitch We only consider pitches submitted via this form We only accept pitches for articles on lived experience and for short stories ; pieces on all other topics are by invitation only. Do not submit pitches for pieces that you have already published elsewhere. Familiarise yourself with ITM to ensure that your topic is aligned with our content and has not been covered before. Our payment process can take up to 90 days. Please note that for international payments, there can be further delays. ITM is an inclusive digital magazine and therefore we encourage participation from people of colour, individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, individuals with a mental or physical disability and individuals from a lower socio-economic background. First Name Email Pitch Title Is this a... Choose an option Bluesky: Last Name Country Has your previous work been published? * Required Yes No Website or portfolio link: Instagram: Please write a short pitch (max 200 words). Submit Thanks for submitting! We aim to get back to you about your submission by email.

Inspire the Mind has the pleasure of working with established writers, who's work is displayed in this section about Fatherhood and Men's Mental Health. Our Articles on: Read Now Transforming the Narrative on Fatherhood and Mental Health I’m William Nicholson, a dad of 3 and an activist for social and systems change. I’m passionate about supporting health and wellbeing... Fatherhood and Mental Health Wiliam Nicholson Nov 19, 2021 5 min read 'Who's the real Dad?' Two-Father Families and Surrogacy Any parent can experience mental health difficulties in the perinatal period (from conception to one year following birth), regardless of... Fatherhood and Mental Health Zoe Darwin Nov 11, 2021 6 min read Struggles with 'Imposter Dad' Syndrome I’m Michael and I’m married to Wes. We met by complete chance in June 2012 at Birmingham Pride no less, both single and not looking for a... Fatherhood and Mental Health Michael Johnson-Ellis Nov 10, 2021 7 min read Fathers and Perinatal Loss  - Why we still have a long way to go “I was so anxious and couldn’t enjoy being pregnant, because I was so worried to attend every scan in case it was bad news; I couldn’t... Fatherhood and Mental Health Kristi Priestley Nov 4, 2021 6 min read Stillbirth: Learning to live with trauma Learning to live with trauma Hi. I’m Jamie. At the time of writing this, I’m 43 years old, living in north London with Kath, my wife, and... Fatherhood and Mental Health Jamie Cowen Nov 3, 2021 5 min read Paternal perinatal depression: It's time we brought fathers into the perinatal agenda ‘With the elation came a significant adjustment to the novel, demanding and various roles that accompanied the arrival of Olive’. In... Fatherhood and Mental Health Vaheshta Sethna Oct 28, 2021 6 min read Becoming a Father during lock-down and Postnatal Depression Becoming a Father during lock-down and Postnatal Depression Ever since around 17-years of age I’ve suffered from some form of mental... Fatherhood and Mental Health Joe Straker Oct 27, 2021 7 min read The Perpetual Birth “How exciting!” “Aren’t they gorgeous!” “How’s your sleep?!” Just a few of the typical responses new parents are greeted with after... Fatherhood and Mental Health Jane Iles Oct 21, 2021 6 min read Lightning Can't Strike Twice? A fathers experience of childbirth. I want to start this with a huge thank you. To our friends and family who have been there with us, to the amazing NHS staff who helped... Fatherhood and Mental Health Arran Williams Oct 20, 2021 7 min read Reframing Fathers' Mental Health: An interview with Elliott Rae An interview with Elliott Rae, founder of "Music.Football.Fatherhood." “It was 2015 and mental health wasn’t really a thing at that... Fatherhood and Mental Health Carmine Pariante Oct 13, 2021 5 min read

Our articles focus on the intersection between mental health, science and society. We do this with the help of writers with lived experience and academics who have dedicated their lives to this research. Our Articles on: Read Now On Defence Mechanisms, A Woodpecker, Good Omens and My Marathon It was Saturday, the 25th of April 2026, The Day Before My Marathon. The London marathon, obviously. I thought I was chill about running it, but in reality, I was just in denial. It is easier to pretend that something is not true or is not happening; it gives us the time to adapt to the distressing/upsetting/anxious thoughts or events, either in anticipation (like me) or after they have happened. Denial is one of the defence mechanisms, so-called by psychoanalysts because the Carmine Pariante May 14 4 min read ‘Tis Season of Whimsy: But What Does This Really Mean to be Whimsical? It seems that my social media feed is full of the word ‘whimsy’ at the moment. Move over nonchalance, welcome whimsy. It’s being covered on Instagram and Tiktok. It’s being picked up by podcasters. But what is it really? According to the Cambridge English dictionary, the word whimsy refers to ‘unusual, funny, and pleasant ideas or qualities.’ It ties in well with imaginative, playful ideas that aren’t particularly serious or profound. Riddhi Laijawala May 13 4 min read The Marathon Mirror: What the Distance Reveals About the Human Mind They say everything you ever wanted to know about yourself, you can learn in 42km. This may sound dramatic, however as it turns out the road really is a brutal teacher, as well as a mirror. For most of my life, I would have rolled my eyes at this. If someone had told little me that I would go on to cross three marathon finish lines before the age of thirty-two, I would never have believed them, probably laughed, and definitely presumed they were talking about someone the Hannah Grencis Apr 24 5 min read Secrecy to Solidarity: Menstruation and the Communities Women Form Throughout life, women often experience a series of shared transitions. From menstruation and reproductive health to pregnancy and motherhood, and later life stages such as menopause, quietly creating forms of connection and community. My own experience with menstruation was one of the first times I noticed how these unspoken communities began to form. When I got my first period, it felt like a secret I was embarrassed to carry. Kiera Moore Apr 8 5 min read Fig Trees and the Paradox of Choice As I approach the end of my master’s degree and find myself once again confronted by the question of what comes next, I am reminded of Sylvia Plath’s 1963 semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar. In this book, Plath beautifully illustrates indecision and future possibilities through her fig tree analogy. “I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked." Sophie Murray Apr 7 6 min read 3 Life Lessons I’ve Learned From Sourdough Bread It seems that I do have a trend of finding life lessons from my hobbies and interests. Two years ago, I wrote a piece on how ballet taught me life lessons. Then, I wrote about the deep symbolism of children’s movies, and finally, Taylor Swift. These are just some of my hobbies and interests alongside my full-time job as a researcher, and part time PhD. Riddhi Laijawala Apr 1 4 min read I am Running For The Animal World I am running for the animal world. I am running the 2026 London Marathon in support of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the charity that runs the London Zoo and a range of amazing international conservation programmes. The adult in me – and hopefully those of you who want to support my 42 km of sweat and tears – is proud to support the conservation charity, but I would be lying if I did not also acknowledge the child in me who still feels so excited at visiting the Zoo Carmine Pariante Mar 31 4 min read My Time in Japan: The Importance of Belonging to Mental Health Last year, I spent six months living and working in Japan. I worked at the World Expo, a role that allowed me to meet people from a wide range of backgrounds. It was an experience that stayed with me long after I left, not because it was extreme or overwhelming, but because it quietly changed how I understand belonging and mental health. Being in a place where I didn’t fully fit in made me more aware of how much our sense of well-being is shaped by whether we feel connected Isabella Fowden Mar 12 5 min read The Weight of Belonging: A Reflective Lens Through Frankenstein Community building has become something of a trend, especially over the past year. The more I scroll through social media, the more events I see. While I enjoy seeing people come together, it can also feel overwhelming to be flooded with Instagram posts and WhatsApp groups promoting countless events and gatherings. Traditionally, communities are formed by groups of people connected through shared spaces or common interests, religion, culture, ethnicity, or values. Layecha Fidahoussen Feb 24 4 min read Learning to Embrace Mistakes When I was studying in high school, I came across a quote by Karl Popper, a philosopher and academic, that really caught my attention. He once said: “Avoiding mistakes is a narrow-minded ideal. If we don’t dare face those challenges that are so difficult as to make the error almost inevitable, knowledge will not be developed. It is from our more daring theories, including those that are wrong, that we learn the most. No one can avoid making mistakes, but the important thing i Lucia Maggioni Feb 13 4 min read Reclaiming Girlhood: How Pink Became Political I've been curious all my life—from collecting samples for my microscope as a kid to investigating psychiatric biomarkers as a PhD student now—but for me, this curiosity didn't belong in the same box as dresses and pink. I was never girly. I put up a fight against my mother whenever she tried to put me in dresses when I was a toddler. Throughout my childhood, my wardrobe mostly consisted of my brother’s hand-me-downs, and even now in my late twenties, it’s a sea of black, blu Theresa Kolb Feb 10 5 min read An inclusive and relevant pregnancy book is exactly what we need Pregnancy is expected to be a “one size fits all” phenomenon. Every stereotype of a pregnant person involves peeing on a stick, sharing the happy news with your partner, throwing up every morning, and having a straightforward delivery where you’re screaming out in pain until the miracle of life is pushed out of your body. Riddhi Laijawala Dec 18, 2025 3 min read Nostalgia: Aching for the Ordinary How nostalgia makes us yearn for our own memories. Time moves forward whether we follow it or not. Nostalgia, however, waits.It lingers in old songs, in familiar streets, in the scent of a season or a person we thought we had forgotten. And when it finally returns, it pulls us gently, and sometimes painfully, back into a moment we can no longer touch. Caroline Lackner Dec 12, 2025 5 min read Sexual function, the unexpected casualty Some things in life you never expect to lose. Your orgasm is one of them. Anna Verey Dec 4, 2025 4 min read A critique of Vogue’s ‘embarrassing boyfriend’ concept And there we have it. As of October 2025, boyfriends have become embarrassing, according to Vogue. An article published on 25th October talks about boyfriends being embarrassing, and about women being uncool or losers because they have romantic partners. This controversial piece has been discussed all over social media, and on popular news outlets, with Instagram celebrities sharing their opinions, either agreeing, or disagreeing with the piece. I came across the p Riddhi Laijawala Nov 17, 2025 5 min read How Parents Can Talk to Their Teenagers About Sex and Pornography Dads, what would you say in a letter to your sons? The Adolescence star Stephen Graham recently called on fathers to share messages to their sons for a new book call ‘Letters to Our Sons’. Photo from Bloomsbury Publishing An ongoing national conversation promoted by this psychological crime drama about a 13-year-old who is arrested for the murder of his female classmate continues. Much of that conversation has been about bullying, toxic masculinity - a term for stereotypicall Rachel Kelly Nov 6, 2025 4 min read Monday stress doesn’t retire when we do Image Source: cottonbro studio on Pexels I’ve never found Mondays particularly stressful. Over time, I’ve learned to manage my energy more intentionally, and as a freelance journalist, I’ve picked up strategies that work for me. For instance, if I work over the weekend, I try to keep my Mondays lighter, a way to ease back into the week and protect my mental balance. But if I worked in a company or had an office role with fixed hours, that kind of adjustment would be much hard Giulia Mondaini Nov 5, 2025 5 min read Beyond the Label: How Synthetic Fibres Impact Our Health My research in mental health and neuroscience is fuelled by a deep curiosity about how the world around us, everything from our... Nuriza Tukiran Oct 10, 2025 4 min read Helping teenagers make friends and build supportive relationships When Prince Harry gave an impromptu speech last week at the Diana Award in central London, he talked of the loneliness that many young people experience, describing how they could feel isolated if “lost and separated from a group.” Research also confirms that young people are experiencing high rates of loneliness, often at higher levels than older age groups. A large review identified loneliness as peaking between ages 18 and 29, with one in three young adults reporting f Rachel Kelly Oct 2, 2025 5 min read Bonded by Anxiety My mind is calm; my breathing is slow and persistent; and my hands aren’t shaking. I couldn’t have said that years ago, and I most certainly would not have gotten where I am without him. My partner, Roger, was the saving grace I never saw coming, but when I needed it the most. Roger and I met by chance, through a Meetup group (a site that allows people to join groups based on personal interests and hobbies). We only spoke a few words, and it was months later before we began l Samantha Wood Sep 19, 2025 5 min read Finding Your Roots: It’s Okay to Start Over I lost myself some time ago. I searched in vain until I found her in my bedroom mirror. Nineteen years later. Melina Belén Aug 13, 2025 5 min read What can parents do about teenage drug taking? Let’s begin with good news. Young people in general are taking fewer drugs: around 17% of 16–24-year-olds took drugs in 2022–23, compared to 21% in 2019–20. However, such activities may be catastrophic for some teenagers, whose developing adolescent brains may never recover from taking toxic substances. Rachel Kelly Aug 6, 2025 5 min read Reducing Smartphone Use Among Adolescents Of all the topics that concern parents, teachers, and caretakers of teenagers right now, I have found that the most worrying is how to reduce their phone use. Rachel Kelly Jul 10, 2025 5 min read Working From Home Is The Best (And The Worst) Before Covid forced many of us into pyjamas and endless Zoom calls, I was already working remotely and had been since 2017. In fact, I ran a successful blog about it and felt confident telling people how to manage their freelance time and stay productive at home. The problem was, over time, my social skills were taking a nosedive. Back then I had no idea what working from home so often was doing to me, but slowly, it was chipping away at my confidence and my ability to be aro Caitlin McAllister Jul 9, 2025 5 min read Swipe Right for Friendship: A Deep Dive into App-Based Socialising Moving to a new city, country, or even continent is exhilarating—until one uncomfortable reality sets in: suddenly, your support network is a hundred miles away, and the comfort of familiar friendships around the corner is replaced by the daunting task of building new ones from scratch. Theresa Kolb Jul 1, 2025 5 min read How ‘down bad’ can you be when dating? If you feel like dating is a Sisyphean task, you’re not alone. As a neurodivergent woman, I’m probably (definitely) considered an... Chloe Johnson Jun 25, 2025 4 min read How finding new hobbies in my 20s helped improve my wellbeing “What are your hobbies?” This is quite a common icebreaker when having a conversation. For quite a few years, when someone asked me that, I actually had to think about it, and didn’t quite have an answer. After all, scrolling endlessly on social media in the evenings isn’t really a hobby, is it? As a part-time PhD student and a full-time researcher, finding new hobbies over the past 2 years has been a great way for me to unwind and find a suitable work-life balance. Riddhi Laijawala Jun 17, 2025 4 min read The Gift of Teenagers: Connect More, Worry Less We live in a time of huge worry about our teenagers and their mental health – from fears of a phone-obsessed adolescence to concerns about an offline world of bullying and drugs. But what if we parents, caregivers and teachers don’t need to be so fearful? What if our teenagers are a gift we can all learn from? Photo by Duy Pham from Unsplash You may be reading this and thinking, She’s mad! Teenagers a gift? More like a nightmare! Moody. Snappy. Communicating via the occasiona Rachel Kelly Jun 12, 2025 5 min read Three things I have learned from running the London Marathon When telling people that I was training for the London Marathon, most people would reply by telling me that they "could never do it". Even established runners, even people who had run half-marathons, would tell me that they could not do it, ever. And that, of course, is not true. Carmine Pariante Jun 4, 2025 5 min read The Fragrant Connection Between Our Sense of Smell and Aromatherapy As Ramadan comes to an end, the scent of fresh henna (a temporary form of body art) on my hands brings back a flood of memories from... Layecha Fidahoussen Apr 15, 2025 4 min read 1 2 3 4 5