Tag: spinster club

Feminism in YA panel – Waterstones Piccadilly

So last night something amazing happened. This…

Standing-room only for a talk about feminism in Waterstones flagship store in London Piccadilly, and I was lucky enough to be a part of it.

Anna James, Holly Smale, CJ Daugherty and I spend a lot of our spare time bemoaning the patriarchy. So we thought we’d add in an audience and see if people were interested. You. Are. Interested. It was a magical, empowering, inspiring evening and I love how many kick-ass feminists came to listen. Here are my best bits.

  • My left boob had a lot to say. Before we’d even started, we turned on the mikes and mine deafened the room with extremely loud interference. I didn’t know my left boob had so much to say about the patriarchy, or that it was so impatient to do so. But the evening started with me having to apologise to a room full of packed people for my angry boob and that basically set up the mood for the rest of the evening.
  • Holly Smale’s feminism omelette. Holly S made some great points about how different authors are ‘breaking eggs into the feminism omelette’ in different ways. It was SUCH an important point to make on how we class a book ‘feminist’ or not. Yes, Geek Girl has modelling in it but it has SUCH a strong message of empowerment and being true to yourself. As Holly S said, female characters don’t have to “shoot a squirrel through an eye at 20 metres” to be feminist.
  • When CJ kept giving me goosebumps, so much so that I had to clutch her. She talked about Allie’s journey in Night School and how she went from always being the girl who’s rescued, to rescuing herself. I got all emotional and just sort of grabbed at her and she was awfully nice about it.
  • Anna’s insightful comments about pubic hair. And how she’s noticed it’s only ever male writers who write descriptions of women’s pubic hair in sex scenes. Particularly ‘the historical novels and the blossoming bushes’. You can NEVER UNSEE this now.
  • The fact that I wasn’t politely asked to leave. I mean, I at one-point went ‘off-piste’ and started imagining aloud Katniss dripping period blood onto The Careers when she was stuck up that tree. And then I lost my temper and got…rather animated when a question came up about men who feel using the word ‘feminist’ emasculates them. I yelled the word “BALLS” a lot, and at some point screeched “I’M THE ANGRY FEMINIST MONSTER OF YOUR NIGHTMARES” and yet nobody told me to get in the sea, so thanks for that.

The amazing people who came. You asked insightful and challenging questions – about intersectional feminism and your concerns for the future of feminism. You told us of your own feminist battles. You were empowered and enlightened and just…ON-IT and I feel so positive about the future of feminism with a room full of people like you. So thank you so much for coming!

And one more thing – ONLY THREE DAYS UNTIL HOW HARD CAN LOVE BE? COMES OUT!!!!!

How Hard Can Love Be? is here!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!

THE FINAL COPIES OF HOW HARD CAN LOVE BE? HAVE ARRIVED

There are so gorgeous and BRIGHT and amazing. And they are out on Feb 1st! And, if that’s not exciting enough, the first edition of these babies have EXCLUSIVE content. So get your grabby grab-hands out!

I so hope you love Amber’s story as much as I do. It’s much more soppy than Am I Normal Yet? Because not all boys are sex maniacs and/or general ballsacks like Ethan and Guy. 🙂 

LOOK LOOK AT THEM!

Do tweet me your photos and feedback once you get your copies. Spinster Club forever!

Goodbye TheSite.org!

So today was my last day working as an editor for
TheSite.org. I’ve been working at the charity for FIVE YEARS and I cannot
believe how much things have changed since then. I started as a junior
journalist, writing a book called Soulmates on my commute in…and my oh my where
things have gone from there.

TheSite.org is an incredible place for young people. It
gives advice and support about every single problem you can possibly imagine
growing up. And, to mark the end of my time here, I’m sharing the work I did
there that I’m most proud of.

Porn vs Reality

Porn is an unavoidable part of young people’s lives and you
see the consequences of it when you work at a youth charity. From boys worrying
their penises are too small or they’re struggling to get turned on by ‘real’
girls– to girls feeling pressured into doing sexual acts they’re not ready for,
or feeling like their boobs aren’t big enough. Combine that with a lack of sex
and relationship education at school and…well… quite frankly it’s a mess.

So, I wrote the script for this video ‘Porn Vs Reality’. The
video went viral within a day of upload and is now a recommended teaching
resource for secondary school students. This video also made the front-page of
a right-wing newspaper who declared it the death of humanity. Note: This usually means you’ve made A Good Thing 🙂

My vagina looks like
a turkey

It’s a truth not-very-universally acknowledged that girls
worry their vaginas look like turkeys. In fact, not a day goes by at TheSite
where we don’t hear from someone worrying their vaginal lips are too big and
flappy (thanks again, porn!) It got to such epidemic levels, that I managed to
convince Vlogging GODDESS Hannah Witton to put a turkey hat on and set things
straight.

Panic Attack Monster

TheSite is such an incredible resource for anyone
experiencing mental health problems. I learned so much and it fed into my books
so much – particularly self-harm and anxiety disorders. We also did an amazing
project on Anxiety and Depression funded by Comic Relief, that ended in our
Panic Monster campaign – aiming to raise awareness and reduce stigma of panic attacks. 

Embarrassing bodies

Bodies don’t behave. And young people are more likely to
google their…unusual symptoms than ask friends. So I have spent the best part
of five years writing about smelly willies, hairy nipples, missing periods,
swollen ballsacks, tight foreskins, and ingrown bikini hairs. I’d like to thank
the amazing Dr Ranj, who was always happy to offer some medical insight about
all these – usually during an explicit phonecall before 10am.

A real highlight for me was getting shortlisted as Sexual
Health Journalist of the Year for my article about condom-related erectile dysfunction
(otherwise known as ‘The Condom Flop). Photo of the Editorial Team at the Sexual Health Awards with Dr Ranj below. 

So, what next?

It’s been the most incredible five years. Working at TheSite
has – without a doubt – made me a better writer, and mostly just a better
person. My colleagues have been amazing and inspiring and I’ve enjoyed every moment of my time here. But the Spinster Club trilogy is getting so
exciting that I really don’t have the time to spin both my TheSite plate and my
authoring plate anymore. But I hope to continue working with them ad-hoc, both
as a writer and as a relationship advisor. And leaving is giving me time to write
A Very Exciting New Book 

So goodbye TheSite! It’s going to continue to be such a huge support for young people, long after I’ve left. Growing up isn’t always easy, but this website really does help. 

Exclusive How Hard Can Love Be? proofs are IN

ARRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Hang on a second….

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHH

Look, just LOOK at what arrived today!! 

It’s only one of the special limited-edition proofs of HOW HARD CAN LOVE BE? with its exclusive anti-Valentine’s Day DOUBLE FRONT COVER?! 

These should be tumbling their way out of the Usborne office into the hands of lucky bloggers and reviewers and competition winners soon! Keep an eye out on my Twitter if you want to get your hands on one. But, if you can’t get one, FRET NOT. Because these proofs won’t have AMBER’S ARTWORK inside, starting each chapter. The finished copies will. I’ve had a sneaky peek at the artwork and it is STONKINGLY beautiful. Plus, the first print-run is going to have exclusive content too. So there is SO MUCH to look forward to which is why I am so CAPS-LOCK this morning. 

Here’s a peek at the inside cover of the DOUBLE FRONT COVER…

Save our NHS

This is a bit of a serious post today. But, last night, I got this rather-desperate message from my university housemate. She’s a junior doctor (and she’s AMAZING – honestly, the amount of times she patched us up at uni) and, quite simply, everything she loves and cares about her job, her life, and the NHS, is being decimated by our government. 

So, if you want Bree to have been adequately looked after when she was in hospital. If you want Evie to know that care *is* there if she has another relapse. Or if you want all the real people in your life to be looked after when they’re sick, please do take the time to read this and sign the petitions. 

Thanks, you wonderful, lovely, spinsters you. 

Dearest
friends

I hope that you will put up with me having my five minute
post-night shift rant & take a minute to read this. I’m writing because in
the last few months those of us working in the NHS have become increasingly
worried about its future. We discuss it constantly at work, but we’re
disappointed by the poor press attention that the new NHS changes are getting
& it’s important to me that I feel like I‘ve done my small bit to get the
message out there.

I think this is something that has been going on for a while,
but I was completely oblivious to new what was going on until the government
announced that they are going to impose unfair and unsafe contract changes on
all junior doctors. At the same time as this there was also a quiet move to opt
out of the European Working Time Directive and also restrict strike action in
the public sector.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/11732668/david-cameron-working-time-directive-eu-referendum.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11599020/Tories-to-bring-in-tough-anti-strike-laws.html

At this time, those of us in the NHS started to finally pay
attention to what was happening. We have had meetings and thousands of us have
begun to protest and will soon be considering strike action. I know that this
is a difficult topic. Emergency care will still be provided and our Consultant
colleagues, who we appear to have the support of, will work on the wards to
make sure that patients do not come to harm, but I wanted to just write a
couple of paragraphs about why the British Medical Association is balloting us
to do this, because when this day comes we need as much support as possible.

The term junior doctor applies to anybody from day one after
medical school to the day before becoming a consultant or qualified GP- this
will be a minimum of 5 years , but for most of us will be in excess of 10
years. We are currently protected by the European Working Time Directive. This
means that our average weekly hours are limited to 48, with a maximum of 91
hours in a consecutive seven day period. This protects us from going back to
the days when Doctors worked 24 hour on-calls. It’s stating the obvious but
research has shown that over-worked, tired Doctors make mistakes. After all,
would you want your relative being operated on by a Surgeon who was in their
14th hour of work, or put to sleep by an anaesthetist who had been on call for
24 hours? Opting out of the EWTD would mean that we lose our safeguards that
protect us from these shift patterns, Jeremy Hunt has already stated that in an
11 hour shift we should only be entitled to one twenty-minute break.

We would also suffer a significant pay-cut, the details are
not clear yet, but estimates would suggest that people with high out-of-hours
commitments (I currently work one in three weekends either days or nights, a
week of nights every six weeks and an on-call 13 hour day every six days) could
lose between 15-30% of our salary, as normal working hours will be reclassified
as 7am-10pm Monday to Saturday. Just as a side note, we do not get paid if we
cannot leave work on time due to sick patients and extra pairs of hand being
needed to ensure that they get proper care. In the jobs I have done so far, I
have regularly worked anything from 1-5 unpaid hours per day. I revise around
three hours per night for three months leading up to each of the six exams I
will have to take. This year I will also pay around £3500 (not refunded) in
registration, medical indemnity and union fees, exams and courses. I will move
hospital around Merseyside between every 3 and 12 months, I get no choice about
where. I work Christmas, miss friends weddings and reunions, miss my familys
birthdays. I am the same as every other junior doctor out there, we are all in
a similar situation- we work the same hours and have the same extra commitments
necessary for us to do our jobs to the best of our abilities.

The reason I’m telling you all this is because I love my job.
I wouldn’t change it for the world, I couldn’t think of a bigger privilege than
what I do day-to day and I would never have even thought of telling you all
this unless everything that we work for as junior doctors was being threatened.
We are being completely devalued and demoralised, treated like an easily
replaceable workforce and presented as lazy, money-grabbing ‘juniors’ who
shouldn’t complain because we went into medicine as a vocation. We want to take
action against these changes, which are both unfair and more importantly unsafe.

However, to make sense of all of this you have to put it in
perspective. The government are privatising enormous chunks of our NHS, 70% of
NHS services between April 2013-2014 were awarded to the private sector. 77 MPs
currently sit on the boards of firms that bid to run NHS services, they will
directly profit from privatisation of our NHS. The most expensive cost in the
NHS is its staff. Junior doctors are just the first in a long line of cuts, if
we lost this fight it will be nurses and physios and hospital porters next. A
cheaper workforce is a more attractive bid for companies lining up to profit
from running hospital services. Our NHS is not perfect, but privatisation is
not the answer. We measure our success in terms of patients, private companies
measure success in terms of profits- this will mean pay cuts, staff cuts,
increased pressure on those left to manage struggling wards and a demotivated
and demoralised workforce. Just look at what happened to Hinchinbrook Hospital,
the first privately run hospital, where the company pulled out of its contract
after only 3 years, leaving the Hospital in special measures. Is this where we
want our friends and relatives cared for?

The NHS is unbelievably important, most of us were born
there, it looks after our families and friends when they are sick, it looks
after the vulnerable and the elderly. It’s one of the best health services in
the world and spending on healthcare per person is also one of the lowest in
the world. Your level of care if the same regardless your wealth. This is so
precious that we cannot afford to put our NHS in the hands of companies who put
profit in front of patient care. We cannot afford to let our NHS go.

If you have read this far I am enormously grateful to you. If
you want to find out more, there is plenty posted to my facebook page and
plenty online that makes interesting reading. There are petitions against
back-door privatisation of the NHS and for the doctors strike on 38 degrees,
the daily express, the guardian etc and if you agree with any of what I have
written then I’d be really grateful if you would take the time to sign these,
it’s so important that people are behind this and supporting us. Please talk
about this with your friends and family so the news about what is going on is
spread. If you feel so inclined, please feel free to email your MP with a
couple of lines to show your support, they need to be inundated to realise how
important this is. Share this with whoever you like if you want to.

As Aneurin Bevan, who spearheaded the development of our NHS
said “The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight
for it.“

#squadgoals, Taylor Swift and loving YOU

image

‘Calvin Harris can smoulder and bulge in his pants as much as he
wants to. He’s not the part of Taylor’s life I’m most jealous of.

…It’s her squad.

I want to be at her pool parties. I want to be backstage posing
for pics. I want HER TO BE MY BEST FRIEND EVER…but more than anything…I
really want to nab all of her friends….’

Read Holly’s feature on squads, trophy boyfriends and loving yourself over at Maximum Pop!