An art student designed a smart but simple fashion line to help refugees.

Fashion student Angela Luna was just two weeks into her senior year of college when she decided to scrap her thesis project and her post-graduation plans. A fashion design student at Parsons School of Design, Luna had always been interested in evening wear, and her talent for couture helped her land a job at Abercrombie…

Fashion student Angela Luna was just two weeks into her senior year of college when she decided to scrap her thesis project and her post-graduation plans.

A fashion design student at Parsons School of Design, Luna had always been interested in evening wear, and her talent for couture helped her land a job at Abercrombie & Fitch right after she graduated.

She had a change of heart when she saw the news about the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis.

Suddenly, in the grand scheme of things, those coveted designer contracts to make $4,000 Prada pants didn’t seem so important to Luna anymore. Instead, she wanted to help the millions of people who were displaced and struggling to survive in their transient states.


Angela Luna, photo by Lorenzo Costa. Used with permission.

Luna started sketching ideas for a line of fashionable-but-functional outerwear specifically designed to address the issues refugees were facing every day.

According to the New School’s student paper, Luna’s teachers and mentors were skeptical, even shocked, when she proposed the idea to them. Was her new vogue just a way to profit off a tragedy? Why was she throwing away the industry work she’d already secured?

Angela, right, with designer Donna Karan. Photo by Parsons School of Design/Fiona Dieffenbacher. Used with permission.

But Luna’s passion project eventually won over her critics.

“It is a statement of current events: not making a trend out of tragedy, but channeling major global issues into fashion,” she explained in her artist statement about the project. “It is as much a political statement as a fashion statement. Fashion is often considered superfluous and detached from global concerns, and now is the time to create change.”

The result of her work? Design for a Difference, a fashion brand that’s “functional and designed to serve a particular purpose” while also “stylish enough to be worn on the streets of Manhattan.”

“Each jacket responds to an issue that a refugee faces on a daily basis,” Luna said in an interview with WBUR.

The inaugural collection, “Crossing the Boundary,” includes several weather-resistant cloaks that can convert into tents for one or two people:

Photo by Jessica Richmond. Used with permission.

There’s also a reflective jacket that can be turned into a harness for carrying children:

Photo by Jessica Richmond. Used with permission.

This one can be used as an inflatable flotation device:

Photo by Jessica Richmond. Used with permission.

Another one can be configured as a backpack:

Photo by Jessica Richmond. Used with permission.

And those designs are still just the beginning!

Photo by Jessica Richmond. Used with permission.

Despite the faculty’s initial hesitations, Luna ended up winning the school’s Womenswear Designer of the Year award in 2016.

And her graduation was just the start of an even brighter future in the fashion-for-a-cause industry.

Luna’s line has already gained the attention of the UN’s refugee agency, and she’s been in conversation with numerous humanitarian aid groups about the ways her work can aid refugees and internally displaced people across the globe.

For now, her plan is to head to the Amsterdam Fashion Institute to continue her education — and one day, to launch her own company, committed to design intervention for global issues.

According to her website, Luna’s ultimate goal is to launch her own brand that emulates the TOMS “one-for-one” model, where every time someone buys an item, the company provides a free one to a refugee in need.

“It’s kinda crazy how this thing that was a huge risk now is leading towards me turning down two job offers so that I can keep it going forward,” she told the New School’s student newspaper.

“I don’t want to sound snobbish or something, but the idea of designing something that doesn’t really solve a problem to me right now is so unappealing.”

Photo via Angela Luna/YouTube.

Luna’s artist statement sums the project up nicely:

“Creating clothes that assist these refugees are not where this collection ends. It ends with a discussion being created about human rights issues through unexpected platforms that have not been previously explored.”

Check out the video below to learn more about Luna’s revolutionary work with Design for a Difference.

  • Sunbather doesn’t budge when Harry and Meghan’s entourage has to walk around her. She’s the internet’s new hero.
    Photo credit: Mark Jones via Wikimedia Commons(L) Meghan Markle and Prince Harry; (R) A sunbather reads a book.
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    Sunbather doesn’t budge when Harry and Meghan’s entourage has to walk around her. She’s the internet’s new hero.

    A beachgoer couldn’t be bothered by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s visit and the internet is absolutely obsessed with her: “The level of not giving a f* I dream of achieving.”

    When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited Bondi Beach on April 17, they were surrounded by the usual circus: paparazzi, crowds, bodyguards in matching uniforms, the whole production. One woman lay on her mat in the middle of it all, scribbling in her notebook, wearing sunglasses, and apparently not giving a single thought to any of it.

    A TikTok clip posted by News.com.au captured the moment as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex walked the beach during the final day of their Australian tour. Their entourage had to navigate around her. She did not look up. The royal couple’s eyes tracked her as they passed. She continued writing.

    News.com.au summed it up in their caption: “One woman’s complete indifference is peak Bondi attitude.”

    @news.com.au

    One woman’s complete indifference is peak Bondi attitude. #princeharry #meghanmarkle #bondibeach #sydney #royals

    ♬ original sound – News.com.au

    The internet agreed enthusiastically. “The level of not giving a f* I dream of achieving,” one commenter wrote. “Peak unbothered,” said another. “Well done to that lady for not giving a damn,” a Facebook commenter added.

    The coda that made the story perfect: a TikTok commenter recognized the woman as her sister and revealed she thought the crowd had gathered around an actor.

    Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, viral, Australia, celebrity
    Aerial view of Bondi Beach in Australia. Photo credit: Canva

    The visit itself was a quieter affair than Harry and Meghan’s 2018 Australian tour, when they were still working royals and the reception was considerably more ceremonial.

    This trip included stops to support volunteer first responders at the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club, a Masterchef Australia appearance, and promotion of Meghan’s As Ever lifestyle brand. The Guardian described it as less a royal tour than something else entirely. One woman on a beach mat seems to have agreed.

  • A Stanford study paid 36,000 people to stay off Facebook. The results were hard to argue with.
    Photo credit: CanvaA young woman looks at her phone in bed.
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    A Stanford study paid 36,000 people to stay off Facebook. The results were hard to argue with.

    “Getting rid of my Facebook and Instagram accounts was the best thing I’ve ever done.”

    A large Stanford University study paid roughly 36,000 Facebook and Instagram users to log off in the weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election and found that the people who stayed off felt measurably better.

    The study split participants into groups: about 275 were paid to deactivate their accounts for six weeks, while others logged off for just one week. Both groups showed improved emotional well-being compared to those who kept scrolling, but the effect was more pronounced for Facebook users who went longer without it.

    The results broke down along some interesting lines. Facebook users over 35 showed the biggest mood improvements, along with undecided voters and people without college degrees. Among Instagram users, the 18-to-24 group benefited most.

    None of this is entirely shocking in the abstract since most people have a pretty good intuition that less time doomscrolling means more mental breathing room. What makes this study notable is its scale. This wasn’t a self-selected group of digital detox enthusiasts. These were ordinary users, many of whom presumably went back to their feeds afterward, and the boost showed up clearly in the data.

    social media, mental health, Facebook, research, wellness
    Young people staring at their phones. Photo credit: Canva

    The comment section on ABC News’s video coverage said it more plainly: “Getting rid of my Facebook and Instagram accounts was the best thing I’ve ever done.” Another: “The worst thing about social media is that people are in it for hours and they don’t even realize it.”

    The study doesn’t argue that everyone should quit. It does suggest the relationship between habitual social media use and emotional well-being is real, measurable, and probably worth paying attention to.

  • A child star from ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ got expelled while filming.  The principal framed the letter Robin Williams wrote in response.
    Photo credit: 20th Century FoxRobin Williams as the inspiring English teacher John Keating in "Dead Poets Society."
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    A child star from ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ got expelled while filming. The principal framed the letter Robin Williams wrote in response.

    Robin Williams wrote a letter to the principal who expelled his 15-year-old co-star during Mrs. Doubtfire. The principal framed it. And still didn’t let her back in.

    Lisa Jakub was 15 years old and filming Mrs. Doubtfire when her high school sent her a letter saying not to come back.

    She’d been a 9th grader at a Canadian school when production started. With no internet to submit work digitally, she’d set up a system to mail her assignments back and forth. It worked … until it didn’t. A few months in, the school decided the arrangement wasn’t working for them, and Jakub was out.

    At 15, she was devastated. Robin Williams noticed she was upset, and did what Robin Williams apparently just did: he wrote a letter to the principal asking them to support her education and her career.

    Jakub shared the story during a Mrs. Doubtfire cast reunion on the Brotherly Love podcast, and the punchline is perfect: “The principal got the letter, framed the letter, put it up in the office, and didn’t ask me to come back.”

    She got into the University of Virginia anyway. When she did, a teaching assistant handed back a statistics assignment with the note: “Dear Doubtfire Girl, you got a B-.”

    What she also got, from her time on set with Williams, was something harder to grade. She described working with him as a crash course in presence and spontaneity, which was a total departure from the scripted rhythms she’d learned as a child actor. “We had always used a script, so I knew when it was my turn to speak, I could say my line. Then you go on set with Robin, and it’s like, who the f*ck knows what’s going to happen now?”

    He also later wrote her a recommendation letter for college. The school never did ask her back. She turned out fine.

  • An elderly woman’s card kept declining at Walmart. The teen cashier didn’t hesitate for a second.
    Photo credit: CanvaA cashier hands change to a customer.

    Brent Cabahug moved from the Philippines to Minnesota with his mom and sister. He’s a high school senior at Stillwater Area High School, and Walmart is his first job. He’s been saving up to buy a car.

    During a shift in late January, an elderly woman came through his checkout line and her card kept declining. The line grew restless. Cabahug walked around the register and paid her $80 grocery bill himself. Then he went back to work.

    Another customer in line, a mom of four named Dani Dircks, watched the whole thing happen, as reported by WCCO. “I watched this cashier, knowing nothing about him, walk around, knowing nothing about that lady, and he didn’t care,” she said. “He didn’t care in that moment who she was, who she loved, who she voted for.”

    kindness, teens, immigration, Walmart, pay it forward
    A young cashier rings up an item at the store. Photo credit: Canva

    Dircks wanted to do something. She learned Cabahug was saving for a car, planned to help his family buy a house after graduation, and intended to become a nurse. A leg injury had ended his volleyball career, and he’d redirected his ambitions toward healthcare. She started a GoFundMe. It has raised over $12,000 toward a $14,000 goal.

    Cabahug didn’t pay $80 expecting anything back. He paid it because that’s apparently just who he is. The rest took care of itself.

    The story brings to mine this viral classic:

  • The fascinating reason people looked much older in the past than they do today
    Photo credit: via Vsauce/YouTubeNorm was only in his 30s?

    Ever look at your parents’ high school yearbooks and think people looked so much older back then? All of the teenagers look like they’re in their mid-30s and the teachers who are 50 look like they’re 80. When we watch older movies, even those from the 1980s, the teenagers appear to be a lot older as well. Why is it that they looked so much older? Was life harder? Did people act more mature? Did they spend more time outdoors and less time playing video games? Is it their sense of fashion? Were they all smokers?

    Educator Michael Stevens, who runs the super-popular Vsauce YouTube channel, explains the phenomenon in a video called, “Did people used to look older?” In it, he explains that people in the past appear a lot older due to retrospective aging.

    What is retrospective aging?

    This is how it works: when we see people in the past, they are wearing outdated styles that we associate with older people; therefore, we think they have aged rapidly. For example, a teenager in the 1950s may have been in fashion while wearing thick Buddy Holly-style glasses.

    anti-aging, youth, why do i look older, how to look younger, treatments for looking younger, anti-aging products
    Buddy Holly was 20 years old in this photo. Photo credit: upload.wikimedia.org

    But as people age, they tend to cling to the fashion of their youth. So many people of that generation continued to wear the Buddy Holly-style glasses into their 50s. So when younger people see those glasses they see them as old people’s glasses and not a hip kid from the ’50s.

    So in the photo from the ’50s, the teen appears to look a lot older because our perspective has been tainted by time.

    But it isn’t all just an illusion. Stevens also points out that people did age faster back in the day due to differences in nutrition, lifestyle and medicine. In addition, he also does a deep dive on how a person’s name can affect their appearance, referencing the Dorian Gray effect, which theorizes that cultural stereotypes linked to a name come to be written on the faces of their bearers, as well as the name matching effect, in which people whose faces “match” their names tend to be better perceived.

    Why do young people today look younger than previous generations?

    It might be worth noting that, in addition to healthier lifestyle options, younger generations have more access to anti-aging procedures than ever before. “Tweakments,” like fillers and botox, are less expensive and more readily available than ever, not to mention every anti-aging cream, serum, and cleanser known to man. And many millennials and Gen Zers take advantage of that, whether prompted by selfie anxiety, a growing obsession with youth, or some other motivation.

    Plus, millennial and Gen Z fashion often honors their inner child. Nostalgic cartoon tees, colorful prints, cutesy accessories, etc. Granted, under the retrospective aging theory, even those styles could one day look dated, but they are so youthful that it’s hard to imagine that being the case. That said, can’t wait to see a bunch of geezers sporting those broccoli haircuts.

    This article originally appeared four years ago. It has been updated.

     

  • Florida zoo captures adorable moment when a newborn baby sloth meets his dad
    Photo credit: Photo from Upworthy LibraryA proud sloth dad was caught on camera.
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    Florida zoo captures adorable moment when a newborn baby sloth meets his dad

    If you thought adults sloths were cute, wait ’til you see this baby.

    Teddy, the two-toed sloth, has become a proud papa, and thanks to a video posted by the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, we all get to witness his adorable reunion with his newborn son. Mama sloth, aka Grizzly, gave birth to their healthy little one in February 2022, delighting more than 3,000 people on Facebook. Mama sloth was probably happy to give birth because a sloth’s gestational period is an entire year.

    The video, posted to the Florida zoo’s YouTube page, shows Grizzly slowly climbing toward her mate, who is at first blissfully unaware as he continues munching on leaves. Typical dad. Teddy quickly kicks into love mode once he sees his precious cub, however. Pretty soon it’s nothing but a sweet nose nuzzle fest. Be still, my sloth-loving heart!

    “Special Delivery! We have some big news to tell you: Grizzly had a baby! Grizzly and Teddy (the father) are Hoffman’s two-toed Sloths, and the family is doing well,” the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park announced on Facebook.

    How do sloths raise their young?

    As with most mammals, male sloths don’t typically care for their young. Usually, a sloth mama will go it alone, spending up to six months with the little one clinging to her chest as she traverses the trees. Eventually she’ll spend time teaching the cub to climb, forage and even do the “poop dance” (yes, it’s a real thing with sloths). However, the zoo is allowing the father to be involved in the baby’s upbringing if he so chooses.

    “But since that is how they’ve elected to, we felt it was really important to keep them here that way,” a zoo curator said. “Mom and baby need time to bond together, and Teddy, very smartly, decided to give them some space.” In a follow-up video, Sarah, one of the zoo’s bird and mammal curators, praised Teddy for “very smartly” knowing when to give Grizzly and baby their “much needed space.” Healthy boundaries at their finest.

    Why this birth was especially remarkable

    The birth of the baby sloth is also notable because of the parents’ advanced ages. At the time of the birth, 37-year-old Grizzly was one of the oldest sloths ever to give birth, and 47-year-old Teddy was one of the oldest sloths ever recorded. The birth was the couple’s fourth child. They came to St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in 2019 from Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. The Hoffmann’s two-toed sloths can be found in tropical rainforests across Central America, Northern South America, Peru, and Brazil.

    The family currently lives at an exhibit in the park known as Sloth Landing, where visitors can get up close with the animals while learning about the conservation of rainforest animals. “The Rainforest Encounter places you up close and personal with the sloths, even providing opportunities to touch these shy animals. A brief introduction will provide an overview of the species’ habitats, behaviors, and diet, and you’ll also learn about the conservation work being done at the Alligator Farm to protect sloths throughout the world,” it says on the zoo’s website.

    It looks like this sloth family of three will continue cuddling away at their sanctuary, and the internet is here for it.

    This article originally appeared four years ago. It has been updated.

     

  • Dad demands DNA test after his daughter is born with the ‘wrong’ eye and hair color
    Photo credit: via Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels and Anna Shvets/Pexels Can he be the father?

    The presumed father of a newborn baby was skeptical of his paternity after the baby girl was born with blonde hair and blue eyes. He and his wife of two years have brown hair and brown eyes, so he thought there was no chance it was his child.

    The wife reassured her husband that they could have a blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby and that, quite often, a baby’s hair and eye color can change over time.

    But the husband “freaked out at this and refused to listen,” the wife wrote in a viral post on Reddit’s AITA page. Instead, he “demanded a paternity test and threatened to divorce me if I didn’t comply, so I did.”

    The husband and his family created problems when there wasn’t one

    The man was so confident that after the baby was born, he moved into his mother’s house while he awaited the results of the DNA test. The wife stayed home with the baby and was helped through the first few weeks by her sister.

    couple, parents, father, paternity tet, dna test
    Couple after an argument. Photo credit: Canva

    To make things worse, the wife’s mother-in-law began to make threats. “My mother-in-law called and informed me that if the paternity test revealed that the child wasn’t his, she would do anything within her power to make sure that I was ‘taken to the cleaners’ during the divorce,” the mom shared on Reddit.

    Finally, three weeks after the child was born, the DNA test results arrived and the husband came home to read them with his wife. “I was on the couch in the living room, so he sat next to me and we started to read the results,” she wrote. “They showed that he was the father and my husband had this shocked, kinda mortified look on his face with his eyes wide as he stared at it.”

    The wife said, “I told you so,” and laughed in his face. In the post, the wife also notes she has “zero history” of cheating.

    Can two brown-eyed parents have a blue-eyed baby?

    Although it is rare for two people with brown eyes and brown hair to have a blue-eyed, blonde-haired baby, it is entirely possible. According to genetics researchers, when both parents have brown eyes, the chance of having a blue-eyed baby is roughly 6%, though this can increase if blue eyes run in either family. And, as the wife noted earlier, a baby’s eye color can change over its first year of life.

    Further, two people with brown hair can have a blonde-haired child if both parents carry the recessive gene for blonde hair. The blonde hair may darken over time as well.

    If the father had done a quick Google search on the topic, he would have quickly realized that there was a very strong case that he was the father and the drama could have stopped before any damage was done to the marriage.

    The support from Reddit users was huge

    The positive part of this story is that the wife’s post on Reddit earned her a ton of support from people who thought her husband’s antics were utterly inappropriate. The support probably also helped to put her husband’s wild behavior into perspective while she determined their future. The wife felt bad about laughing at her husband, but most people thought it was appropriate, given her husband’s initial response.

    “Not only doesn’t he have a basic grasp of genetics, he threw a tantrum and left you immediately after having the baby to struggle alone for almost a month,” CrystalQueen3000 commented. “He’s lucky all you did was laugh in his face.”

    A lot of commenters thought that the woman should leave her husband for accusing her of cheating and leaving her alone with the child.

    “Honestly, if my husband left me for weeks after giving birth due to a faint assumption like this, I would be done. I can’t be together with someone who abandoned me when I needed them desperately,” another commenter wrote.

    This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.

  • Sorry, ‘Miss Congeniality,’ meteorologists agree April 25 isn’t even close to the perfect date
    Photo credit: The Chow Hall/YouTube & CanvaA scene from "Miss Congeniality" and a woman enjoying the sun.
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    Sorry, ‘Miss Congeniality,’ meteorologists agree April 25 isn’t even close to the perfect date

    “I’d have to say April 25th because it’s not too hot, not too cold. All you need is a light jacket.”

    In 2000’s Miss Congeniality, Sandra Bullock’s character goes undercover as an FBI agent posing as a contestant in a beauty pageant. One of the film’s most memorable lines comes when the pageant host, portrayed by William Shatner, asks Miss Rhode Island to describe her “perfect date.”

    Shatner’s character is beside himself when Miss Rhode Island, played by Heather Burns, describes her perfect calendar date instead of a romantic rendezvous. “I’d have to say April 25th because it’s not too hot, not too cold. All you need is a light jacket,” she responds.

    Since the movie’s release, April 25 has become known in some circles as “Miss Congeniality Day,” a pop-culture holiday celebrating the amazing spring weather.

    Does April 25 have the best weather of the year?

    However, does April 25 really have the best weather of any day of the year? Is it the day when the Earth is at the perfect distance from the sun so it’s not too hot and not too cold? The meteorology team at WeatherBug, a people-first forecasting app, analyzed U.S. weather patterns from 2018 to the present day and found that, unfortunately for Miss Rhode Island, April 25 isn’t even close to the best day of the year.

    The WeatherBug team discovered that October 8 is “The Perfect Date,” claiming that it “most consistently delivers the ideal combination of comfortable temperatures and minimal rainfall across the country.” October 8 is the strongest contender for the “Perfect Date” title because it consistently delivers the lowest amount of rainfall, just 0.0573 inches, and a comfortable average temperature of 66°F.

    weatherbug, weather chart, good weather
    “The Perfect Date” Photo credit: WeatherBug (used with permission)

    April 25 ranks 80th, with 0.1297 inches of rain and an average temperature of 60°F. Over the past eight years, the best day for weather in America was May 9, 2022. There was virtually no rain and an average temperature of 68°F nationwide.

    “Through years of daily weather pattern monitoring and weighing precipitation amounts by population size through WeatherBug’s extensive database of active users, we’ve determined April 25th might hold a special place in pop culture, but the date actually ranks 80th measured against the 365 days of the year,” Brittney Gomez, a meteorologist at WeatherBug, said in a statement. “April 25th saw an average of 0.1297 inches of precipitation in the past 8 years, with an average temperature of 60°F. So, while it might not be the ‘perfect date,’ April 25th is still ‘light jacket’ friendly.”

    What are the hottest and coldest days of the year?

    The team also found that the hottest day of the year is July 14, reaching a nationwide average of 81°F, and that January 20 is the coldest, averaging just 33°F.

    When most people hear that April 25 is the nicest day of the year, they probably take it at face value. It’s a nice spring day—who’s gonna challenge the idea? However, the opinion is coming from Miss Rhode Island, a woman who misunderstood a very basic question at a beauty pageant. While we all nodded our heads in agreement, we never considered the source of the information. So, good on WeatherBug for challenging the status quo and giving us a reason to look forward to early October.

Nature

Florida zoo captures adorable moment when a newborn baby sloth meets his dad

Family

Dad demands DNA test after his daughter is born with the ‘wrong’ eye and hair color

Pop Culture

Sorry, ‘Miss Congeniality,’ meteorologists agree April 25 isn’t even close to the perfect date

Parenting

Genius parents devise bedtime ritual: son is allowed to stay up late, but he has to run