Category: Lifestyle

Friendship Breakups Exist, and Sometimes They Hurt Worse

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By Nicole Mitchell
Photos by Justina Kellner

“I’m going to break up with my best friend after this.”

That’s what I said during my first appointment with a new therapist after she asked me what I was going to be doing after our appointment.

As a military brat, I grew up with friends in all places, so the inevitable ending and beginning of friendships was nothing new for me. But this friendship was like no other. We spent most of our time together throughout our last years of high school: time at school, sleepovers, hanging out at coffee shops, and even holidays were spent exclusively together. 

Then there came a time when we just weren’t clicking anymore. That friendship we had in high school was changing. Gradually, our relationship felt one-sided and different. We hardly ever talked, and when we did it felt as if I had to control the conversation completely. I had lost my best friend, but we were still pretending that we were okay.

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Catcall + BABE Collective want you to celebrate and nurture friendships with us

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By Catcall Staff

“Women’s friendships are like a renewable source of power.” – Jane Fonda

Have you been missing your friends recently? We have. The pandemic has many of us feeling distanced from our friends, but womxn friendships are one of the most authentic and loving experiences that uplift and empower us. So let’s spend some time nurturing those relationships.

BABE Collective and Catcall have teamed up in a total friendship move (seriously, we’re friends too who want to love and support each other!) to make time for those relationships in our life. Join us for Friendship Hour—a virtual, slumber-party-vibes, babes + besties hang where we focus one loving ourselves and the womxn we surround ourselves with.

We’re kicking off our FIRST monthly Friendship Hour on Thursday, Nov. 5. Yup… two days after the election. We’re going to need some serious love no matter the outcome (GO VOTE. FLIP THE SENATE. WE GOT THIS BABES.), and our friends will need love just as much.

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Justice Gatson is a grassroots organizer fighting for a better Kansas City

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Bad Ass Babes: Justice Gatson

Words & Photos By Kelcie McKenney

As a grassroots movement organizer, fighter for the end of police brutality, manager of bailout funds, legislative advocate at the ACLU, and a doula helping Black mothers bring babies into the world, Justice Gatson has been fighting for a better Kansas City for a long time. 

Gatson, the founder of the Reale Justice Network and a representative of the ACLU, is the organizer behind this weekend’s Women’s March where Kansas City will “unify to protect ALL Black Lives and ALL Womxn.”

Gatson grew up on the East side of Kansas City—in the same house her mother lives in today, just a few blocks from where she lives now. She was first introduced to social justice organizing at her middle school, Genesis Promise Academy, a nationally recognized alternative school for inner-city youth in Kansas City. 

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Madison Tufte’s debut novel The Anchor House lets women grow on their own terms

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By Kelcie McKenney

Madison Tufte was looking to read new books that made her feel inspired, empowered, and vulnerable, with leading female characters who experienced growth—outside of relationships. But she couldn’t find them. So she decided to write her own.

Tufts’s debut novel, The Anchor House, under the pen name Margaret Spencer was born of that quest, and is the product of over two years of secret writing before Tufte self published earlier this year. It’s a tale about three women, Winnie, Fern, and Eleanor, each struggling to grow in their own way—each both strong and vulnerable. A remote island in Minnesota sets the stage for these women’s stories, inspired by the lakes from Tufte’s home town. It’s a heartwarming look at life’s difficulties, filled with inspirational women who live life on their own terms.

In June, The Anchor House won Next Generation Indie Book Awards’ for Inspirational Fiction. We spoke with Tufte about writing strong women, and being one, as she walks us through the journey to her first novel.

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Welcome to My Vagina

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By Maddie Womack

My name is Maddie, and I have a vagina. I am the CEO/Founder of Barrier Babes,  and I also work at a sexual health clinic as my day job. This sexual health clinic has a microscope. So, naturally, I swabbed my vaginal walls and applied the swab onto a slide under said microscope.

Well, ok. First, I accidentally swabbed my urethra. (It’s right above the vaginal opening—don’t judge). That hurt. Like, really hurt. But the second time around I figured it out.

Before swabbing my vagina, I didn’t even know what a vaginal cell looked like. What even is a vagina cell? Are they just floating around in vaginas? What’s their purpose? Do they have friends? Thanks to my swabbed slide, I can explain all of this to you. Feel free to zoom in, my cells don’t bite 😉.

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