Soon after her third birthday, Alexis was diagnosed with leukemia.
It began when she was sent home from daycare with a fever. Angela, her mother, noticed Alexis seemed tired and pale. Once doctors noticed tiny red spots on Alexis’ skin, they ran a few tests and discovered Alexis had acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Her family was contacted by Make-A-Wish Alaska and Washington. Her wish? To make a cartoon about her cancer.
It’s been nearly three years after Alexis’s treatment began. She’s now finished with chemotherapy, pills, and constant trips to the doctor — her leukemia is at bay, and her life is returning to normal. So when Alexis and her family were contacted about a wish, she told them she wanted to make a cartoon to inspire others with pediatric cancer to be brave even when they’re scared.
And so Make-A-Wish, teaming up with a Seattle creative agency, set off to make her dream come true.
Alexis met up with the folks at the agency World Famousto discuss her story. While there, she helped design what her character would look like and what type of story she wanted to tell.
They decided to tell the story of Princess Alexis and how she escaped Kemia the dragon.
Kemia was lurking in the Marrow Woods as Princess Alexis played nearby. The dragon swooped in and locked her away in a castle. To escape the castle, Princess Alexis must find a magic wand hidden within its basement. Though the wand will take Princess Alexis’ beautiful hair and her strength, it’s what she must use to defeat Kemia and escape the castle.
In other words, it’s adorable, and it made me tear up the first time I watched it.
Once the animation was finished, Alexis was off to the recording studio to give her character a voice.
With a script, a microphone, and some time, Alexis and her mother both read lines to be included in the final product.
An estimated 2,670 children age 14 and younger will be diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia this year.
And now here’s where you (yes, you) come in to help Alexis’ wish: Watch her cartoon and share it with the world.
“Help us make Alexis’s wish gain worldwide attention to raise awareness of pediatric cancer by forwarding the link to her video via social media,” Make-A-Wish’s website says. Below, you’ll find the video. It’s adorable and well-worth watching and sharing.
In a small village in Pwani, a district on Tanzania’s coast, a massive dance party is coming to a close. For the past two hours, locals have paraded through the village streets, singing and beating ngombe drums; now, in a large clearing, a woman named Sheilla motions for everyone to sit facing a large projector screen. A film premiere is about to begin.
It’s an unusual way to kick off a film about gender bias, inequality, early marriage, and other barriers that prevent girls from accessing education in Tanzania. But in Pwani and beyond, local organizations supported by Malala Fund and funded by Pura are finding creative, culturally relevant ways like this one to capture people’s interest.
The film ends and Sheilla, the Communications and Partnership Lead for Media for Development and Advocacy (MEDEA), stands in front of the crowd once again, asking the audience to reflect: What did you think about the film? How did it relate to your own experience? What can we learn?
Sheilla explains that, once the community sees the film, “It brings out conversations within themselves, reflective conversations.” The resonance and immediate action create a ripple effect of change.
MEDEA Screening Audience in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura
Across Tanzania, gender-based violence often forces adolescent girls out of the classroom. This and other barriers — including child marriage, poverty, conflict, and discrimination — prevent girls from completing their education around the world.
Sheilla and her team are using film and radio programs to address the challenges girls face in their communities. MEDEA’s ultimate goal is to affirm education as a fundamental right for everyone, and to ensure that every member of a community understands how girls’ education contributes to a stronger whole and how to be an ally for their sisters, daughters, granddaughters, friends, nieces, and girlfriends.
Sheilla’s story is one of many that inspired Heart on Fire, a new fragrance from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection that blends the warm, earthy spices of Tanzania with a playful, joyful twist. Here’s how Pura is using scent as a tool to connect the world and inspire action.
A partnership focused on local impact, on a global mission
Pura, a fragrance company that recognizes education as both freedom and a human right, has partnered with Malala Fund since 2022. In order to defend every girl’s right to access and complete 12 years of education, Malala Fund partners with local organizations in countries where the educational barriers are the greatest. They invest in locally-led solutions because they know that those who are closest to the problems are best equipped to solve and build durable solutions, like MEDEA, which works with communities to challenge discrimination against girls and change beliefs about their education.
But local initiatives can thrive and scale more powerfully with global support, which is why Pura is using their own superpower, the power of scent, to connect people around the world with the women and girls in these local communities.
The Pura x Malala Fund Collection incorporates ingredients naturally found in Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil: countries where Malala Fund operates to address systemic education barriers. Eight percent of net revenue from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection will be donated to Malala Fund directly, but beyond financial support, the Collection is also a love letter to each unique community, blending notes like lemon, jasmine, cedarwood, and clove to transport people, ignite their senses, and help them draw inspiration and hope from the global movement for girls’ education. Through scent, people can connect to the courage, joy, and tenacity of girls and local leaders, all while uniting in a shared commitment to education: the belief that supporting girls’ rights in one community benefits all of us, everywhere.
You’ve already met Sheilla. Now see how Naiara and Mama Habiba are building unique solutions to ensure every girl can learn freely and dare to dream.
Naiara Leite is reimagining what’s possible in Brazil
Julia with Odara in Brazil. Captured by Luisa Dorr for Pura
In Brazil, where pear trees and coconut plantations cover the Northeastern Coast, girls like ten-year-old Julia experience a different kind of educational barrier than girls in Tanzania. Too often, racial discrimination contributes to high dropout rates among Black, quilombola and Indigenous girls in the country.
“In the logic of Brazilian society, Black people don’t need to study,” says Naiara Leite, Executive Coordinator of Odara, a women-led organization and Malala Fund partner. Bahia, the state where Odara is based, was once one of the largest slave-receiving territories in the Americas, and because of that history, deeply-ingrained, anti-Black prejudice is still widespread. “Our role and the image constructed around us is one of manual labor,” Naiara says.
But education can change that. In 2020, with assistance from a Malala Fund grant, Odara launched its first initiative for improving school completion rates among Black, quilombola, and Indigenous girls: “Ayomidê Odara”. The young girls mentored under the program, including Julia, are known as the Ayomidês. And like the Pura x Malala Fund Collection’s Brazil: Breath of Courage scent, the Ayomidês are fierce, determined, and bursting with energy.
Ayomidês with Odara in Brazil. Captured by Luisa Dorr for Pura
Ayomidês take part in weekly educational sessions where they explore subjects like education and ethnic-racial relations. The girls are encouraged to find their own voices by producing Instagram lives, social media videos, and by participating in public panels. Already, the Ayomidês are rewriting the narrative on what’s possible for Afro-Brazilian girls to achieve. One of the earliest Ayomidês, a young woman named Debora, is now a communications intern. Another former Ayomidê, Francine, works at UNICEF, helping train the next generation of adolescent leaders. And Julia has already set her sights on becoming a math teacher or a model.
“These are generations of Black women who did not have access to a school,” Naiara says. “These are generations of Black women robbed daily of their dreams. And we’re telling them that they could be the generation in their family to write a new story.”
Mama Habiba is reframing the conversation in Nigeria
Centre for Girls' Education, Nigeria. Captured by James Roh for Pura
In Mama Habiba’s home country of Nigeria, the scents of starfruit, ylang ylang and pineapple, all incorporated into the Pura x Malala Collection’s “Nigeria: Hope for Tomorrow,” can be found throughout the vibrant markets. Like these native scents, Mama Habiba says that the Nigerian girls are also bright and passionate, but too often they are forced to leave school long before their potential fully blooms.
“Some of these schools are very far, and there is an issue of quality, too,” Mama Habiba says. “Most parents find out when their children are in school, the girls are not learning. So why allow them to continue?”
When girls drop out of secondary school, marriage is often the alternative. In Nigeria, one in three girls is married before the age of 18. When this happens, girls are unable to fulfill their potential, and their families and communities lose out on the social, health and economic benefits.
Completing secondary school delays marriage, and according to UNESCO, educated girls become women who raise healthier children, lift their families out of poverty and contribute to more peaceful, resilient communities.
Centre for Girls’ Education, Nigeria. Captured by James Roh for Pura
To encourage young girls to stay in school, the Centre for Girls’ Education, a nonprofit in Nigeria founded by Mama Habiba and supported by Malala Fund and Pura, has pioneered an initiative that’s similar to the Ayomidê workshops in Brazil: safe spaces. Here, girls meet regularly to learn literacy, numeracy, and other issues like reproductive health. These safe spaces also provide an opportunity for the girls to role-play and learn to advocate for themselves, develop their self-image, and practice conversations with others about their values, education being one of them. In safe spaces, Mama Habiba says, girls start to understand “who she is, and that she is a girl who has value. She has the right to negotiate with her parents on what she really feels or wants.”
“When girls are educated, they can unlock so many opportunities,” Mama Habiba says. “It will help the economy of the country. It will boost so many opportunities for the country. If they are given the opportunity, I think the sky is not the limit. It is the starting point for every girl.”
From parades, film screenings to safe spaces and educational programs, girls and local leaders are working hard to strengthen the quality, safety and accessibility of education and overcome systemic challenges. They are encouraging courageous behavior and reminding us all that education is freedom.
Experience the Pura x Malala Fund Collection here, and connect with the stories of real girls leading change across the globe.
Childhood dishes can take you straight back to your seat at the family dinner table. Comfort meals that were served there are uber nostalgic. And there is one dish represents the epitome of Gen X and baby boomer childhoods: casseroles.
These one-dish wonders were loaded with flavor and baked to perfection. Pulled straight from the oven to the dinner table, casseroles filled the house with the smell of unique home-cooked recipes.
“Fancy Fast Chicken is delicious and so simple. Line up chicken breasts in a casserole dish. Dump uncooked stuffing over top the chicken breasts. Pour Cream of Mushroom (Onion or chicken works too) and incorporate it into the stuffing. Top with cheese of your choice, and fried onions if you’re inclined. Bake at 350 for 45min or until chicken is thoroughly cooked.” – Applepoisoneer
Chicken Curry Divan casserole
“My favorite is Chicken Curry Divan. A friend made it for me in college 40 years ago and it is a favorite to this day. Never disappoints. Many people have asked me for the recipe over the years. My best friends kids now that they are grown have each approached me for it.
1 1/2 lbs chicken breast tenders cooked and cut into bite sized pieces 3 cups broccoli in bite sized pieces 2 cans Cream of Chicken soup 1 cup mayonnaise (must be Mayo) 2 tsp curry Juice of 1 lemon Shredded sharp cheddar (use the amount you like o like a nice even cover of the top) 3/4 cup crushed Ritz crackers 3 tbsp melted butter In 9×13” baking pan layer chicken then broccoli.
Mix the soup, Mayo, lemon juice and curry together well, pour over chicken broccoli mixture evenly and smooth out. Sprinkle cheese over top evenly. Crush crackers fine, mix in melted butter well and sprinkle evenly over top. Cook at 375° for 25-30 minutes until bubbly and top brown. Serve with rice.” – karinchup
Chicken and Rice casserole
“This baked rice & cheese casserole has become a staple in our house! It’s great as a side dish, or I’ll add rotisserie chicken and serve it as a main dish.” – anchovypepperonitoni
Chicken & Dumplings casserole
“The secret of this is not to stir anything. That’s what makes your dumplings. When you dish it out, you have your dumplings on top. 2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded; 2 cups chicken broth; 1/2 stick of butter; 2 cups Bisquick mix; 2 cups whole milk; 1 can cream of chicken soup; 1/2 medium onion, minced; 1 cup frozen peas; 3 tsp chicken Better Than Bouillon; 1/2 tsp dried sage; 1 tsp black pepper; 1/2 tsp salt.
(1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees (2) Layer 1 – In 9×13 casserole dish, melt 1/2 stick of butter. Spread shredded chicken over butter. Sprinkle black pepper and dried sage over this layer. Do not stir. (3) Layer 2 – Sprinkle minced onions and peas over chicken (4) Layer 3 – In small bowl, mix milk and Bisquick. Slowly pour all over chicken. Do not stir. (5) Layer 4 – In medium bowl, whisk together 2 cups of chicken broth, chicken bouillon, and soup. Once blended, slowly pour over the Bisquick layer. Do not stir. (6) Bake casserole for 30-40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.” – Superb_Yak7074
Chicken broccoli casserole
“I made chicken broccoli casserole last week and that’s a favorite here. This is pretty close to how I do it.” – gimmethelulz
“Tater tot casserole. My mom made this at least once a week when I was growing up, but she added a quart of green beans to make it a meal. If you brown your ground beef in a good size cast iron skillet, you only dirty up one pan to make it!” – hcynthia1234, upperwareParTAY
Breakfast casserole
“I’m making a breakfast casserole this morning for brunch later—a bag of frozen hash brown potatoes thawed, a pound of sausage sauteed with peppers and onions, a brick of cheese grated, eight eggs beaten with a bit of milk and cream and some salt and pepper. Layer in a casserole, ending with cheese. Bake around an hour at 375.” – CWrend
Hamburger pie casserole
“One of my childhood favorites. Did not add vegetables or cheese though. This was an end of the month struggle meal that everyone loved.” – DarnHeather
Shepherd’s pie casserole
“Shepherd’s pie : brown 1.5 lbs ground beef with half a chopped onion, salt and pepper, drain it and then spread into a 13×9 and stir a can of cream of mushroom soup into it. Spread a drained family size can of corn on top, use a container of prepared mashed potatoes for the top layer. Bake for a half hour at 350.” – ExplanationLucky1143
Noodle casseroles
Tuna casserole
“Love my mom’s tuna noodle casserole: 1 bag broad egg noodles, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 2 cans tuna, 1 cup frozen corn or 1 can kernel corn, 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs, 1 tbsp celery salt Cook noodles per package directions, drain, then place in a 13×9 casserole dish. Mix in cream of mushroom soup, tuna, corn, 1 cup of the cheddar cheese, and celery salt. Top the casserole with the remaining cheese and bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until done enough for you.” – Pinkleton
Mock Stroganoff casserole
“Mock stroganoff – brown 1lb ground chuck. Mix in 8 oz sour cream and 1 can cream of mushroom. Add to 1 lb of cooked egg noodles. Season with black pepper. Extras – fresh mushrooms and/or onion cooked with the beef. Any precooked veggies of your choice, peas or broccoli work well. Splash of Worcestershire, soy sauce, or fish sauce. Garlic or onion powder. Parsley, thyme, or cilantro.” – Nathan_Saul
Cabbage noodle casserole
“I have a quick cabbage and noodles that uses bagged cole slaw. Cook a bag of noodles. Put aside. Cut up a lb of bacon and a med onion. Cook in pan until bacon is slightly fried and onions are clear. Add cabbage(without carrots) let sit 10 min or so. Add to noodles. It’s so easy.” – conjas11
Thanksgiving prep class is now in session! 🍂🧑🏫 If there’s one thing you need to nail on the big day (other than the turkey, of course), it’s Green Bean Casserole. This recipe tastes just like the one your grandmother used to make, if not even better! 😋 Continue reading or click the link in the @allrecipes bio to get the full recipe. Ingredients: 2 (15-ounce) cans cut green beans, drained 1 (10.5-ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup ¾ cup milk 1 (2.8-ounce) can French fried onions salt and ground black pepper to taste Directions: Gather all ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Mix green beans, condensed cream of mushroom soup, milk, and 1/2 of the fried onions in a 1.5-quart casserole dish. Bake in the preheated oven until heated through and bubbly, about 25 minutes. Sprinkle remaining onions on top and return to the oven for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let rest for a few minutes before serving. 🧑🍳: Nicole #thanksgiving#greenbeancasserole#greenbeans#thanksgivingsides
“This is the best green bean casserole recipe, it does use the canned onions but you make your own cream of mushroom and it’s soooo good. I’ve made it on random weekends, it’s not just a Thanksgiving food. I don’t know much about older foods, I just really wanted to share that recipe.”
Corn casserole
“Our family Corn custard doesn’t have crackers but we double the recipe and there’s never any left over. 2 eggs, 1 cup of sweetened condensed milk, 1/2 flour, 2 T soft butter, 1 tsp sugar, 1 can of creamed corn, 1 can of whole corn. Mix all together and bake in a 8×8 about 45 min at 350. Gotta have that!” – Psychological_Bat890
This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.
Millions of Americans seek the help of therapists for mental health struggles, and many more could use some psychological care but aren’t getting it due to affordability, lack of access, or other barriers. One of the positives to come out of the social media era is professionals sharing thoughts, opinions, approaches, and tools that the public might find helpful. While “TikTok therapy” is certainly not a replacement for actual therapy, you can sometimes find some useful nuggets.
For instance, clinical therapist Hattie Awe, LPC, shared a video laying out three things she tells her patients all the time, and judging by the four million views and 124,000+ saves of the video, people are finding it helpful.
“I am a therapist in higher level of care, and these are the three quotes that I use almost daily with the patients that I work with,” Awe begins. “It’s more of a fact, the first one, but your brain has never existed and will never exist to be happy. Your brain has no rationale of what that means, and your brain strictly operates off of safety and knowing. which doesn’t always align with what we want out of life.”
Neuroscience backs this up. Evolutionary psychologists say our brain’s primary goal is survival, not happiness. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to be happy—of course we do. It means our brain isn’t hardwired for that. It’s wired to keep us safe and secure, which means it’s naturally prone to focus more on the negative than the positive.
Awe says that idea connects to the second quote that she probably uses more than any other: “Your nervous system will choose a familiar hell over an unfamiliar heaven every day of the week,” she says. “Your nervous system will gravitate towards the things that we know, the things that we see, the things that we’ve done over and over and over again because to the brain that’s safety. It doesn’t matter if the outcome is something that we don’t want, as long as our brain knows what’s coming, as long as we know what this is, as long as this is familiar, there’s a safety in that, which is why we might find ourselves doing the same shit, engaging in the same toxic relationships, engaging in the same behaviors over and over and over again, not knowing why we keep doing it, because it’s safe to the brain.”
Somatic therapist Sarah Alpern used a similar phrase, “Your nervous system will always choose a familiar hell over an unfamiliar heaven” to explain why we might resist change even when it’s good for us and why we tend to gravitate toward the same patterns, behaviors, and situations even though they may be harming us. Predictability feels safer than change.
“Change for the better represents uncertainty, and our brains perceive uncertainty as a potential threat,” Alpern writes. “It disrupts the familiar patterns and forces our nervous system to adapt to new circumstances, which can be scary and uncomfortable.”
Understanding this can help us recognize when our instinctual brain functions are fighting us and why.
“That leaves me to my third favorite little tidbit, little quote, which is you literally cannot hate yourself in the loving yourself,” says Awe. “There is no criticizing your way to confidence. There’s no shitting on yourself into a version of yourself that you enjoy. It doesn’t exist. and you’ve probably learned all of the lessons of life that you need by hating yourself. You might as well get to the fun part of life where you learn all the lessons of life by loving yourself.”
“So validate the past versions of yourself,” she continues. “Validate the functions of the brain and the fact that it’s never really cared if you were happy. Validate how easy it is to fall in the habits of cyclical behavior, given the fact that our nervous system and brain is drawn to it. Have acceptance for that and be able to move forward. But we can’t act like the person before us doesn’t exist. And we can’t hate her for existing.”
Therapy can help people better understand how their brain works. Photo credit: Canva
People in the comments of her video shared how helpful they found Awe’s concise breakdown of these concepts.
“There is no criticizing yourself into confidence HITS.”
“u just linked up like 12 different concepts in my brain thank u.”
“This was gold! How much do I owe you?”
“I just listened to this three times through to let it sink in. I’m in a transition phase and finding it hard and I needed to hear this. Thanks!”
“I love that by being happy, you’re basically being a rebel against your own brain and nervous system.”
Other therapists weighed in on her video as well, some with quotes they frequently share with their clients:
“As a fellow staff with youth in higher level of care, I can confirm that this way of thinking is their only way to get through everyday . It’s so black and white and everyday is such a struggle trying to get them back to baseline.”
“Along with your third quote, something I’ve said to clients is something to the effect of ‘if talking to yourself that way/thinking that way worked, it would’ve worked by now.’”
“I’m a therapist, and a quote I use frequently is ‘you can be comfortable or you can grow, but you can’t do both.’”
“Psychiatrist here…. ‘Acceptance does not require approval’ is one of my favorites. I feel like acceptance is such a huge part of life but it’s such a struggle for so many people.”
A two-minute video definitely won’t cure anyone’s mental health issues, but even short tidbits like this can sometimes help shift our perspective and allow us to see the workings of our brains in a new and helpful light.
Speaking with the astronauts, a CBS News reporter noted that the Apollo 8 crew delivered a Christmas Eve message during their 1968 mission. He asked whether the Artemis II crew had a message to share for Easter. When the microphone floated to Glover, he said he hadn’t prepared anything, but offered some impromptu thoughts:
“We are the same thing”
“I think these observances are important, as we are so far from Earth and looking back at the beauty of creation. I think for me, one of the really important personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing.
And you know, when I read the Bible, and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us, who we’re created, it’s…you have this amazing place, this spaceship. You guys are talking to us because we’re in a spaceship really far from Earth. But you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe, in the cosmos.
Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special. But we’re the same distance from you, and I’m trying to tell you—just trust me—you are special. In all of this emptiness—this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe—you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together.
I think as we go into Easter Sunday, thinking about all the cultures all around the world, whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing, and that we got to get through this together.”
People of all faiths—and no faith—appreciated the message
Commenters appreciated Glover’s perspective as he looked out at all 8 billion of us on our beautiful “pale blue dot.”
“One of the most beautiful perspectives I’ve ever heard on this topic. Thank you Victor.”
“Beautiful unifying message.”
“I am not a religious person at all but this speech made me cry.”
“It gave me chills. What a beautiful message.”
“As someone who’s not religious this is the perfect message conveyed by someone of faith without feeling unwarranted or preaching in a way that doesn’t land. Delivered perfectly and I respect him for that.”
“What a beautiful sentiment we all so desperately need to hear.”
Glover’s remarks reflect what others who have viewed Earth from space have said. The emotional experience of that perspective, known as the “overview effect,” often results in a profound awareness of humanity’s place in the universe.
The “overview effect” is a common experience for people who see Earth from space
For Star Trek actor William Shatner, who went to space at age 90 in 2021, that awareness gave him a surprising feeling of deep grief.
“It was the death that I saw in space and the lifeforce that I saw coming from the planet — the blue, the beige and the white,” he said. “And I realized one was death and the other was life.”
Earth and life are “so fragile,” Shatner said. “We hang by a thread…we’re just dangling.” Seeing humanity from that distance put conflicts between humans into perspective. “We’re entangled with each other,” he said. “We have a war…the stupidity of it all is so obvious.”
Frank White, the space philosopher who coined the term “overview effect” in his 1987 book of the same name, wrote that astronauts who leave Earth generally come back with “a greater distaste for war and violence, and a desire to do something to improve life back on the surface, because they’ve seen the truth of our situation.”
Space travel highlights our shared humanity
When Glover referred to Earth as a spaceship, he wasn’t just being metaphorical. Our planet is a self-contained, closed-loop system, meaning its resources are produced and recycled here. And we are hurtling through space at about 67,100 miles per hour—much faster than any spacecraft we’ve sent into space. For all intents and purposes, we are traveling together on a giant, round spaceship.
The universe is vast, yet it’s so easy to get wrapped up in the little details of life on our planetary ship. Zooming out—seeing Earth from a distance—can help us view ourselves and our lives in a different light. Seeing our home, our people, our lives as one has the power to change something within us. It’s a potent reminder that, for all our uniqueness, we really are one.
Watch the highlights from Day 4 of the Artemis II mission:
Despite the massive amount of time we spend on the Internet, if we’re honest with ourselves, we bounce between the same five or six websites every single day. Which is fine! But living like that makes it easy to forget how vast and weird the Internet can be. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of sites out there that are truly useful little gems that make you feel like you’ve discovered some kind of cyber secret. These are the kinds of websites you bookmark immediately.
Luckily, Reddit made discovering these Internet gems much simpler. User @powerfulsites posed the following question: “What’s the most powerfully useful underground website that most people don’t know about?”
And the Internet responded in droves. (Guess the Internet enjoys talking about itself.) We grabbed 10 of the best, most wonderful recommendations, from powerful image editors to science-backed white noise generators. And once you know about them, you’ll wonder how you got along without them.
In 1971, a college student named Michael Hart typed out the Declaration of Independence on a university computer and uploaded it for anyone to download. It was free forever, and that small act of Internet generosity became the foundation for Project Gutenberg (PG). More than 50 years later, PG has grown into an incredible library of over 78,000 free eBooks in 60+ languages. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley; Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Every classic you can think of, available in seconds, at no cost.
You know that annoying, nagging feeling when you’re reading through an article that references a new study (about Internet addiction, or candy consumption, or why people feel the need to buy those AMC popcorn buckets at ridiculous prices) and you wish you could see the actual data? Google Scholar fixes that. It’s a free search engine for academic papers, journal articles, and dissertations—over 160 million documents—that anyone can use, no university login required. Just type your question and find out what scientists actually found. It’s a superpower most people don’t know they have access to.
Photo credit: Etymology Online – Screenshot of Etymology Online.
Did you know “disaster” literally means “bad star”? Or that “salary” comes from the Latin word for salt? Douglas Harper spent years building Etymology Online, a free dictionary of over 50,000 word origins, to provide information just like this to the masses. Here, you can trace the origins of modern English words back to their ancient roots. It’s the kind of site where you look up one word and resurface forty-five minutes later, cognizant of the terrifying origin of the word “nightmare.” You’re welcome.
Science confirmed what coffee shop regulars always knew: a moderate level of ambient noise makes you more creative. Rainy Cafe bottles that affect into two sliders: one for café sounds, one for rain. Blend them to your taste and get to work. No ads, no account, no upsell. Writers and remote workers have been quietly using it for years.
Removing a background from a photo used to require Photoshop skills or a graphic designer friend. And something called a “lasso tool”? Now it takes about five seconds. Drop your image into Remove.bg, and its AI cleanly cuts the background out, including tricky edges like hair and fur, then hands it right back to you. The site processes over 150 million images a month, which is, like, so many images. It feels almost like cheating.
Browser bookmarks are where good intentions go to die. Everyone has hundreds of them. Nobody can find anything, no matter how many late-night sessions you spend obsessively reorganizing them. Skip the hassle and head to Booky.io, a clean, private bookmark manager with color-coded collections you can navigate with ease. Works on every device, has a browser extension, and—crucially—doesn’t track you or sell your data.
Amateur astronomers and star enthusiasts have a very specific weather problem: “Is it going to be clear enough tonight?” Unfortunately, regular forecasts don’t answer that. But Clear Dark Sky Charts does. This beautifully nerdy site delivers hour-by-hour predictions for cloud cover, transparency, and atmospheric “seeing” for over 6,100 locations across North America. If you’ve ever wanted to stargaze but never knew when to try, start here.
Sheet music is expensive. Buying a tuba, even if it’s used and from eBay, is expensive. IMSLP is not. The International Music Score Library Project hosts over 855,000 free, public-domain scores—you’ll find Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and thousands more—that any musician or music lover can download instantly. Before this site existed, tracking down a rare orchestral score meant haunting university libraries. Now it’s three clicks away.
In 1997, an 11-year-old in Orlando named Alyssa had trouble remembering HTML codes. So, she built a website to keep track of them…and accidentally became one of the Internet’s first teachers. By her early teens, her site had 500,000 monthly visitors. Lissa Explains It All is still live, still free, and still one of the warmest places on the Internet to learn the basics of building a webpage.
In conclusion…
The Internet is bigger, stranger, and more generous than the algorithm usually shows you. These 10 sites are proof. Bookmark them. (Or, use Booky.io!) Enjoy the feeling of having found something genuinely worth finding.
Millennials have noticed a problem with their Boomer parents’ phone addiction, and they’re calling it out. At first, it seemed like harmless teasing about role reversal, but their excessive screen time just might be an issue. Dr. Sue Varma, Board Certified Psychiatrist, reveals the risks related to increased screen time in adults.
The negative effects of too much screen time have been discussed ad nauseam when it comes to children and teens. However, rarely talked about is the cognitive impact it has on adults of all ages. Given that Boomers have reached senior status, cognitive lapses are already a heightened concern for many.
It turns out that screens might be mimicking a serious issue. This can create concern and anxiety for Boomers and their children. The psychiatrist joined the CBS Mornings co-hosts for a candid chat about the research on screen time.
When discussing the impacts of screen time on adults, Varma drops a bombshell, saying, “We end up getting something called digital dementia or digital fog, where the symptoms of poor attention span, memory, concentration all go down, and it very much mimics a real dementia where you walk into a room and you’re like ‘why am I here, what did I come for, where are my keys?’ The tip of the tongue feeling, like there’s a word, there’s a name, ‘I know that person, I can picture them in my head,’ and the word doesn’t come to mind.”
Researchers Rinanda Shaleha and Nelson Roque from the Pennsylvania State University Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Center for Healthy Aging, report concerning findings. “Digital engagement among older adults also carries risks, including attention deficits, disrupted sleep patterns, social isolation, reduced physical activity, and structural brain changes that could accelerate cognitive decline and dementia onset. Extended screen exposure may further contribute to visual fatigue, chronic distraction, and sedentary behaviors, potentially exacerbating cognitive vulnerabilities,” the duo writes in a recent study.
Dr. Varma tells CBS Mornings that the symptoms can “very much look like dementia,” invoking the “if you don’t use it, you lose it” warning. This isn’t just a quirky thing that happens and stops when the phone is put down.
According to Dr. Varma, “There are real structural changes in the brain for people who are using excessive screens, and we see that a lot of older adults are using 10 hours a day. That’s seven and a half hours of TV plus four hours of phones.” She later adds that 63% of seniors “find that social media strengthens their connections.”
Not all Boomers fall into this category. Many are connecting with their community physically, but those with chronic illnesses tend to be on screens more often. Pew Research found that 41% of all adults report being online constantly, 84% say they’re online multiple times a day.
If people are interested in breaking their phone habit, she advises them to put their phone in grayscale mode. Varma adds that replacing digital things with their analog counterparts will also help break a phone habit. Finding ways to connect in person instead of passively scrolling also reduces screen time. Varma says that these small changes can help limit your screen time and re-engage your brain.
Losing someone you love is never easy, and the process is different for everyone. For some people, keeping their deceased loved one’s things exactly the way they left them is part of it. But to some people, this act of enshrinement can be viewed as unhealthy. Dr. Jason Singh argues that this behavior isn’t unhealthy at all. In fact, he explains that it’s actually your brain doing something intelligent.
In a recent video, Singh makes his case. The doctor asks, “Have you ever lost someone and couldn’t bring yourself to touch a single thing they left behind?” At this point people may be expecting that he would touch on ways to move on from this kind of grief, but he doesn’t.
Instead, he shares information about the brain that can help those who are struggling with the reality of being unable to move these items. “Here’s something you may not have realized,” Singh says. “You’re not keeping their stuff because you’re stuck. You’re keeping it because your brain is doing something profoundly intelligent.”
Singh explains that while people around you may think leaving a deceased loved one’s unwashed coffee mug untouched is unhealthy, it’s not. He shares that our brains are constantly updating information on the people we know. Like a computer system, it’s always processing new information and looking for updates. When someone we love dies, there is no new information about that person for our brains to process and categorize.
Leaving things as the deceased person left them is bridging this stalled function in a way. According to Singh, “Objects are not just objects to a grieving mind. They’re the last negotiation your nervous system has with permanence. See, when your dad passes away, or your mom passes away, something neurologically catastrophic happens that has nothing to do with sadness. Your brain, which has spent decades building a mental model of that person, their voice, their patterns, their presence, suddenly receives no more data to update that model with, and it refuses to close the file.”
He says a brain that refuses to “close that file isn’t grief” because closing it would dismantle the attachment architecture that person helped build. “So that room is not a shrine,” Singh explains. “It’s a server that’s still running, and I don’t believe you’re in denial of their death. I honestly don’t. You’re in a silent war between two parts of your brain. The prefrontal cortex, which is the logical, forward-moving, knows that they’re gone, and the limbic system. The part that holds every memory of being loved by them.”
The doctor says that Bond’s Theory explains that there is no logical way to override that program breakdown. Picture it like the old Windows buffering signal. The computer is on, it’s running, but it can’t move forward, no matter which button you press to escape the screen. Due to this theory, Singh shares that getting rid of their things may feel like participation in their erasure.
Singh’s explanation resonated with viewers deeply. One person reveals, “This is awesome, thank you. Husband’s clothing still in closets and dresser, his two pair of running shoes still under the bed. Two years, 4 months since he passed.”
Another shares, “Thank you. I thought maybe I wasn’t dealing with my husband’s death 4 months ago very healthy….I can’t even remove his things from the shower as it feels like I’m moving him out of my life and that’s the last thing I want to do. He was ,y best friend and we were married 36 1/2 years and I miss him so much it hurts every day.
It took me 3 months to finally wash his dress socks and the entire time I was washing them I was asking myself why I was washing them and what I was going to do with them once they were all washed? I matched them and put them away in his drawer and thought to myself how silly I was as these are just “things” but these socks had his feet in them and I just can’t bare to get rid of things he touched or wore or used and Ona afraid of being a ridiculous pack rat, but I have given and will continue to give my 5 adult kids his things and try to figure out what to do with the rest.”
One grieving child writes, “This was good to hear. I lost my Mama 5 years ago, my parents live with my family and we’ve barely touched anything in her room, my Dad and me go in and sit ‘with her’ when we need to and although we have taken a few things out and moved some things around it’s basically as it was when we lost her that day… mug still there, slippers by the bed, clothes folded on the chair, clothes still hanging in the wardrobe, teddy on the bed and ornaments on the shelves etc all sitting there… like they’re waiting for her to come home.”
Someone else shares, “Wow, this makes so much sense. I walk into my father’s closet, touch the clothes, smell them and then close the door. That’s all I can do right now. I also am still paying for his phone.”
Here’s something nobody warns you about adulthood: staying connected to your friends requires actual effort. Everyone’s busy. Everyone’s tired. And between work, family obligations, and that never-ending to-do list that lives in your notes app, the idea of hosting a get-together can start to feel less like something you want to do and more like something you’d need to recover from.
But what if hosting didn’t have to be such a production?
The less you have to do alone, the more fun everyone has together. Canva
These six party ideas are built around a beautifully simple premise: community. The less you have to do alone, the more fun everyone has together. So, no five-course meals. No obsessive cleaning. Just good people, a loose theme, and, if all goes well, the kind of easy laughter that reminds you why you love these people in the first place.
The Sandwich Party
The genius of this party lies in its simplicity. You supply the bread, your wonderful guests bring everything else. Deli meats, cheeses, roasted vegetables, the pesto from Costco that you’re convinced wipes the floor with every other brand, and whatever else they feel like contributing. Maybe you throw in some plates and napkins, too. Then everyone gathers around the table and builds their perfect sandwich. It’s like Subway… but this time, you’re the sandwich artist. Everyone is.
This genius idea comes from Michaela (@luckylamb420 on Twitter/X), who posted:
Because who wouldn’t want to get involved in a sandwich party? It’s interactive, requires approximately zero cooking skills, and for some reason, making a delicious little sandwich with good company is just wholesome and sweet.
Pro tip: Experiment with new flavor combinations. Interesting condiments work great here, like truffle mustard, spicy fig jam, or a good pesto (I hear Costco carries a great one…). Suddenly, your sandwich party has a proper spread. Tada!
The Swap Party
The one thing that unites us all? We have things sitting in random drawers or cabinets that we’ve never used. Never touched, really. A candle, still in the box. A skirt from a brand you no longer adore. A kitchen gadget (unused) that was purchased with the best of intentions. A swap party gives it all a second life.
Photo credit: Canva – We have things sitting in random drawers or cabinets that we’ve never used.
Here’s how it works: Everyone brings a handful of high-quality unused (or, in the case of clothes, gently used) items, and you trade them for something new to you. Think of it like free shopping with your favorite humans and no evil parking structures involved.
Pro tip: Curate the perfect shopping experience with a nice playlist bumping in the background (may I suggest one hour of Iranian jazz?), a delightful beverage option (perhaps aperol spritzes or chilled limeade?), and plenty of bags for your partygoers’ “purchases.” Also, whatever doesn’t get claimed at the end of the party? Box it up for a local charity that could put it to use.
The Productivity Party
This one sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it does. Imagine all the tasks you’ve been putting off: clearing out your inbox, paying a bill, and finally scheduling that routine dentist appointment. A productivity, or “forcing,” party gathers friends together with their laptops and their most dreaded to-do bullet points. As it turns out, working alongside other people makes the boring stuff more manageable. There’s even a name for it: body doubling. Psychologists say just being in the presence of others helps people focus and follow through.
Pro tip: Ask guests to bring something achievable—not their tax returns from three years ago (no judgment)—and realistic, something they can actually finish in an evening.
The PowerPoint Party
If you haven’t been to a PowerPoint party yet, here’s your invitation to host one. Each guest prepares a short, completely self-chosen slideshow on a topic they care deeply about or find deeply hilarious. Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
“Why [INSERT FAMOUS SINGER HERE] is overrated
Similar-looking celebrities
Things you’ve learned from watching TikTok videos
What I would do if there were no consequences for 24 hours
How everyone’s exes would fare in a zombie apocalypse
Our 2nd annual Power appoint Presentation Party and what we learned ✨ Not shown is Alex’s presentation on Money Trees and the propagations she gave everyone And Melanie’s presentation on the Real Fun Kamp!! #fyp#powerpoint#powerpointnight @Heather @Kelsey Leigh @Ash @NotEarlHickey @Tráshmañ @idesignawesome
The result? You’ll get someone earnestly arguing that a specific cartoon character is underrated, and someone else presenting a very detailed case for why their coffee order is objectively correct. It’s funny, it’s revealing, and it brings out sides of people you don’t always see.
Pro tip: The weirder the topic, the better the night. Encourage guests to go specific and strange.
The Candy Salad Party
Every so often, you need a party with exactly zero agenda other than joy…and maybe a sugar rush. That’s where the candy salad party comes into play. Ask each guest to bring a bag of candy. Dump it all into one big bowl. Eat it. That’s it. The mix of sweet, sour, fruity, and chocolatey is weirdly satisfying, and there’s something about the whole thing that just loosens people up immediately. And it’s a fun excuse to hang out.
Pro tip: Speaking of chocolate…fruity and sour candies tend to play better in the mix than chocolate. Think gummies, Sour Patch, mini Starburst. Chopped up SweeTarts Ropes… Though honestly, there are no rules.
The Potato Party
Some ideas are great precisely because they’re a little ridiculous. The potato party is spudtastic; a full commitment to a theme. Guests each bring a potato dish—fries, twice-baked, mashed, latkes, whatever speaks to them—and if anyone wants to show up in a potato-inspired costume, go ahead! You encourage it. Throw in a round of potato trivia if the mood strikes. It’s the kind of night you’ll reference for years: “Remember the potato party?”
Photo credit: Reddit – Thanks for the potato idea, Reddit!
Pro tip: Learn from a famous Bad Bunny song and lean all the way in on the décor. Take pictures. Lots of them.
Connection, that’s what we’re after
At the end of the day, these party ideas share something in common: they shift the weight of hosting from one person onto everyone, which means you actually get to enjoy your own party. Your friends leave having contributed something, made something, swapped something, or, at the very least, eaten a truly chaotic bowl of candy together.
That’s connection, baby. And it turns out you don’t need a perfect house or a spotless kitchen to make it happen. You just need to send the text.
It happens to the best of us. Sometimes we mark down important dates in our calendars only to completely space out and oops, the day has come and gone. That’s, seemingly, exactly what happened to Redditor Sure_Count_3890, a 31-year-old male who accidentally forgot his girlfriend’s birthday.
On a Reddit post entitled “Forgot my GF’s birthday and she wanted me to sign this,” he shares what looks like a performance improvement plan, not unlike one someone might get at a job review.
He further explains, “Obviously, I signed it but I feel weird about it. She (28F) hasn’t done something like this before and was kind of laughing, but when I asked if she was serious, she said she expected me to take it seriously. Note that we did have a make-up bday night already, I said sorry a lot, and I took her out for a movie and really nice dinner. She told me to post it bc she ‘knows people will back her up.’” And wow, did they ever!
Performance Improvement Plan for boyfriend, Photo Credit: Sure_Count_3890
The contract
At the top of the “contract,” it reads, “Performance Improvement Plan,” with the department listed as “Romance and Affection.” Michael (last name redacted) has the position of “boyfriend,” with Katherine as his “manager.”
The contract is pretty cut and dry. She includes a “target area,” wherein she describes the issue. “A failure to deploy date-keeping, foresight, and thoughtfulness leading to forgetting to plan, provide gifts for, and summarily plan my birthday.”
She then helpfully lays out the “employee standard.” “The employee is expected to plan events, gifts, and curate a minimum of a 1-day-long experience to facilitate celebration of their partner’s annual trip around the sun.”
The good news is she has a plan. In her idea for “Improvement Actions,” she suggests that Michael keep a record. “Employee will agree to keep redundant, numerous, and multifaceted planning tools; no reminders will be forthcoming.”
And finally, she offers a “Training and Support plan,” should Michael need assistance. “Employee has been provided with a calendar and sticky notes.”
Reddit weighs in
The Reddit comments did not disappoint. At over 34,000 upvotes, nearly 7,000 people weighed in with their thoughts. One seemed to believe that the performance review itself was in good fun, but the importance behind it was dead serious. “Sounds like she was joking about the document but said she was serious about remembering your girlfriend’s damn birthday. Remember your damn girlfriend’s birthday.”
And though quite a few were slightly tough on the lad, they noted that his girlfriend’s ability to be clear with her feelings, but in a fun, lighthearted way, was a wonderful reflection on her character. “Forgetting your partner’s birthday is a huge f#$-up at a fundamental level of a relationship. Making sure that never happens again is not a joke. The pretend ‘PIP’ and her laughing while giving it is her effort to find a way to tell him it matters, but break up the tension a bit. That’s part of the ‘joke’.”
Another Redditor simply raved about her. “Honestly, I think the whole situation is absolutely fantastic on her part. She’s giving an incredibly hurtful situation some levity to show him that she’s upset, but not furious at him, and is willing to give him a chance to make it up to her by being more thoughtful in the future. All while being hilarious.”
A learning experience
As for the OP, this comment advises them to learn from the unfortunate situation: “OP, YTA, but only because you missed her birthday in the first place. Take the L here and actually remember her birthday next time. In fact, most of what’s in this PIP is actually good advice for planning an important long-term date.”
And this commenter could totally relate to the situation: “In these days of constant phones-in-our-hands and electronic calendars, it’s not that hard to set up recurring reminders in your phone.
After my first Christmas with my boyfriend passed and he didn’t buy me anything (he’s not a gift giver, but neither am I, so no major judgment), I put a reminder in his phone for two weeks before Christmas to remember to buy his girlfriend something for Christmas. 10 years later, the ‘buy your girlfriend something for Christmas’ reminder still pops up every year, and we both have a good laugh about it because I’m his wife now. He remembers, though.”
