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Why Naya Rivera decided to share her abortion story.

The actress opens up about her 2010 abortion.

Naya Rivera is best known for her role as Santana Lopez on "Glee" from 2009 through the show's 2015 finale.

While she hasn't been especially active in the entertainment world since the show closed up shop, she's been hard at work on her memoir, "Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes and Growing Up."

Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images.

In the book, Rivera opens up publicly about the fact that in 2010, on a day off from filming, she had an abortion.

As soon as this news made its way online, Rivera was hit with a wave of dissent as well as support. In 2016, abortion is still a very controversial topic to discuss openly, but she wants to help change that.

It was important to her to share her story so other people can learn from her experience.

"It was very scary to open up about everything," she told People. "It's not something a lot of people talk about, but I think they should. I know some people might read it and say, 'What the Hell?' But I hope someone out there gets something out of it."

Photo by Stefania D'Alessandro/Getty Images.

She's absolutely right: Abortion is not something a lot of people talk about. The reality is, however, that a significant percentage of people who are able to become pregnant terminate a pregnancy at some point in their lifetimes. Statistically speaking, you know someone who has had an abortion (even if you don't know that you know a person who has had an abortion because it's not exactly something people lead with when introducing themselves).

In recent years, lawmakers have taken drastic steps to restrict abortion rights across the U.S. To combat that, reproductive rights advocates are working hard to fight the stigma that surrounds it.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, between 2011 and July 2016, 334 pieces of legislation aimed at restricting abortion access have been enacted by states.

While pro-choice advocates have won a few key battles in the courts, much of the fight remains in the realm of public opinion. If the goal is to help people understand why access to abortion is a necessary right, it's important to demystify and destigmatize the procedure. A huge part of doing that comes from telling the stories of people who have had abortions.

That's where hashtags like #ShoutYourAbortion and video campaigns like the one actress Amy Brenneman took part in come in, and yes, you guessed it, where Naya Rivera's openness and honesty in her memoir come in.

Rivera is now a happily married mother of an 11-month-old son.

In 2014, she married actor Ryan Dorsey. The following year, the two welcomed their son, Josey Hollis Dorsey, into the world. Rivera is, like nearly 60% of all women who have had an abortion, a mother.

Rivera and her husband, actor Ryan Dorsey. Photo by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for March Of Dimes.

"I hope Josey will read [the book] one day," she told People. "I hope it gives him a better perspective on the issues women face."

Family

Korean mom has a perfect response to the teacher who called her son's lunches 'disgusting'

Good for her for standing up for her child's culture.

via Roman Harak/Flickr

A Korean mother and her son

A recently posted story on Reddit shows a mother confidently standing up for her family after being bullied by a teacher for her culture. Reddit user Flowergardens0 posted the story to the AITA forum, where people ask whether they are wrong in a specific situation.

Over 5,600 people commented on the story, and an overwhelming majority thought the mother was right. Here’s what went down:

“I (34F) have a (5M) son who attends preschool. A few hours after I picked him up from school today, I got a phone call from his teacher,” Flowergardens0 wrote. “She made absolutely no effort to sound kind when she, in an extremely rude and annoyed tone, told me to stop packing my son such ‘disgusting and inappropriate’ lunches."

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parenting
Joy

Airbnb host wakes his guest up in the middle of the night so she wouldn't miss the northern lights

Best. Host. Ever.

@penslucero/TikTok

Pency Lucero taking in the Northern Lights

Seeing the northern lights is a common bucket list adventure for many people. After all, it ticks a lot of boxes—being a dazzling light show, rich historical experience and scientific phenomenon all rolled into one. Plus there’s the uncertainty of it all, never quite knowing if you’ll witness a vivid streak of otherworldly colors dance across the sky…or simply see an oddly colored cloud. It’s nature’s slot machine, if you will.

Traveler and content creator Pency Lucero was willing to take that gamble. After thorough research, she stumbled upon an Airbnb in Rörbäck, Sweden with an actual picture of the northern lights shining above the cabin in the listing. With that kind of photo evidence, she felt good about her odds.

However, as soon as she landed, snow began falling so hard that the entire sky was “barely visible,” she told Upworthy. Martin, the Airbnb host, was nonetheless determined to do everything he could to ensure his guests got to see the spectacle, even offering to wake Lucero up in the middle of the night if he saw anything.

Then one night, the knock came.

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nature
Family

Dad found out his son bullied a kid at school and came up with a brilliant teaching moment

"I told him that we have the opportunity to make things right."

@thehalfdeaddad/TikTok

Dad on TikTok shared how he addressed his son's bullying.

What do you do when you find out your kid bullied someone? For many parents, the first step is forcing an apology. While this response is of course warranted, is it really effective? Some might argue that there are more constructive ways of handling the situation that teach a kid not only what they did wrong, but how to make things right again.

Single dadPatrick Forseth recently shared how he made a truly teachable moment out of his son, Lincoln, getting into trouble for bullying. Rather than forcing an apology, Forseth made sure his son was actively part of a solution.


The thought process behind his decision, which he explained in a now-viral TikTok video, is both simple and somewhat racial compared to how many parents have been encouraged to handle similar situations.
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fatherhood
Family

Badass bikers show up for abused children, offering advocacy and protection

They become an abused child's "biker family," and they let the child—and everyone else—know that NO ONE messes with their family.

Bikers Against Child Abuse/YouTube

When you are a child who has been abused by people who are supposed to protect you, how do you feel safe?

That question is the heart of Bikers Against Child Abuse International (B.A.C.A.), an organization dedicated to creating "a safer environment for abused children." With specific training and extensive security checks, the frequently big and burly members of B.A.C.A. serve as protectors of chid abuse survivors, giving vulnerable children people to call on when they feel scared, and even showing up in court when a child asks them to.

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bikers
Joy

Facing a tiebreaker, Olympians asked if they could share a gold medal. Pure joy ensued.

@peacockTV/Twitter

When Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi both landed their high jumps at 2.37 meters, they were in the battle for Olympic gold. But when both jumpers missed the next mark—the Olympic record of 2.39 meters—three times each, they were officially tied for first place.

In such a tie, the athletes would usually do a "jump-off" to determine who wins gold and who wins silver. But as the official began to explain the options to Barshim and Tamberi, Barshim asked, "Can we have two golds?"

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olympics
Pop Culture

Christopher Walken dancing in over 50 movies all perfectly spliced into a single music video

Most people don’t know he studied dance as a child.

via YouTube

These days, we could all use something to smile about, and few things do a better job at it than watching actor Christopher Walken dance.

A few years back, some genius at HuffPo Entertainment put together a clip featuring Walken dancing in 50 of his films, and it was taken down. But it re-emerged in 2014 and the world has been a better place for it.

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dance
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