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3 movies with predominantly black casts have dominated the box office for the last 5 weeks.

For a long time, Hollywood thought it knew the type of characters America wanted to see on screen: white and mostly male.

The cast of "Oceans Eleven." Photo via Raoul Luoar/Flickr.


As recently as last year, the Media, Diversity, and Social Change Initiative at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism compiled data on named or speaking characters in 2014's top 100 movies.

They found that only 27% were non-white. Only 30% were women.

But the 2014-2015 TV season has challenged those assumptions in in a big way.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

"Empire," "Scandal," and "How to Get Away with Murder" — three shows created and/or produced by people of color and featuring non-white leads, powerful, three-dimensional female characters, and diverse casts — were some of the biggest ratings hits of the year.

Still, TV is TV. The bigger question is:

Would that success translate to the movies?

The jury is still out, but there's some really encouraging evidence that it's starting to.

According to a recent New York Times report, three different movies have claimed the #1 Movie in America crown in the last five weeks — and each of them has featured a predominantly black cast.

Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images.

Here's Brooks Barnes, writing for the Times:

"'The Perfect Guy,' a 'Fatal Attraction'-style thriller starring Sanaa Lathan, took in an estimated $26.7 million, or about 50 percent more than analysts had predicted based on pre-release surveys that track audience interest. Screen Gems, a division of Sony Pictures, spent $12 million to make the movie, which received poor reviews. 'Straight Outta Compton' and 'War Room' have recently led the multiplex race."

The fact that these movies are kicking ass — and exceeding expectations — is great news.

Not only are they upending antiquated notions of what heroes and heroines look like, broadening the type of stories that get told, and expanding job prospects for actors of color, they're showing Hollywood:

Diversity = $

Money. Photo via iStock.

"The Perfect Guy" and "War Room" got ... pretty bad reviews, to be sure. And yet, Hollywood has already made approximately 8 bazillion terrible Spider-Man movies. But they keep getting made. Because they make money.

Let's face it. "The right thing to do" and "what's good for art" only get you so far in showbiz. But if more high-powered studio execs start believing that putting non-white, non-male faces on screen is the best way to jump-start renovations on their squash courts, then you better believe Viola Davis is going to get mighty busy mighty quick.

And a busy Viola Davis is great news for America.

It took a long time, but equality, justice, and cold-blooded capitalism are finally starting to align in Hollywood.

More money. Photo via iStock.

And if that's not the most American thing I've ever heard, than I don't know what is.

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

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Health

8 nontraditional empathy cards that are unlike any you've ever seen. They're perfect!

Because sincerity and real talk are important during times of medical crisis.

True compassion.

When someone you know gets seriously ill, it's not always easy to come up with the right words to say or to find the right card to give.

Emily McDowell — a former ad agency creative director and the woman behind the Los Angeles-based greeting card and textile company Emily McDowell Studio — knew all too well what it was like to be on the receiving end of uncomfortable sentiments.

At the age of 24, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin's lymphoma. She went into remission after nine months of chemo and has remained cancer-free since, but she received her fair share of misplaced, but well-meaning, wishes before that.

On her webpage introducing the awesome cards you're about to see, she shared,

"The most difficult part of my illness wasn't losing my hair, or being erroneously called 'sir' by Starbucks baristas, or sickness from chemo. It was the loneliness and isolation I felt when many of my close friends and family members disappeared because they didn't know what to say or said the absolute wrong thing without realizing it."

Her experience inspired Empathy Cards — not quite "get well soon" and not quite "sympathy," they were created so "the recipients of these cards [can] feel seen, understood, and loved."

Scroll down to read these sincere, from-the-heart, and incredibly realistic sentiments.

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Innovation

A student accidentally created a rechargeable battery that could last 400 years

"This thing has been cycling 10,000 cycles and it’s still going." ⚡️⚡️

There's an old saying that luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.

There's no better example of that than a 2016 discovery at the University of California, Irvine, by doctoral student Mya Le Thai. After playing around in the lab, she made a discovery that could lead to a rechargeable battery that could last up to 400 years. That means longer-lasting laptops and smartphones and fewer lithium ion batteries piling up in landfills.

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Health

This woman's powerful 'before and after' photos crush myths about body positivity

"Body positivity is about saying that you are more than a body and your self-worth is not reliant on your beauty."



Michelle Elman, a body positivity coach, helps people who are struggling to find confidence in their own skin.

After persevering through numerous medical conditions and surgeries in her own life, Elman realized a few years ago that body positivity wasn't just about size or weight. Things like scars, birthmarks, and anything else that makes us feel different of self-conscious have to be a part of the conversation, and she tries to make the movement accessible to everyone.

Sharing her own journey has been one of her most effective teaching tools.

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via wakaflockafloccar / TikTok

It's amazing to consider just how quickly the world has changed over the past 11 months. If you were to have told someone in February 2020 that the entire country would be on some form of lockdown, nearly everyone would be wearing a mask, and half a million people were going to die due to a virus, no one would have believed you.

Yet, here we are.

PPE masks were the last thing on Leah Holland of Georgetown, Kentucky's mind on March 4, 2020, when she got a tattoo inspired by the words of a close friend.

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"Fun" dad versus "lazy" mom.

Last November, Upworthy published a popular story about Chloe Sexton, a mother who went viral on TikTok for a video she made explaining “daddy privilege” or the idea that fathers are applauded for doing things that mothers are supposed to do.

"In my opinion, 'daddy privilege' is that subtle upper hand men sidestep into as parents that allows them to gain praise for simply…being a parent," she said. "You fed the baby? What a great dad! You held the baby while mommy bathed? So considerate of you! You picked up something for dinner? What would your family do without you?! It's all the little ways mothers do exactly what the world expects of them without a second thought and then watch fathers get praised for simply showing up."

Sadly, the post resonated with a lot of mothers, because it's true. Expectations for fathers are so low that men are commended for handling basic parenting tasks. But if a mother falls short of perfection, she faces harsh criticism.

Mary Catherine Starr, a mother living in Cape Cod who owns a design studio and teaches yoga, is getting a lot of love on Instagram for her cartoon series that perfectly explains daddy privilege.

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