Annie in wonderland

  Put In the Work This started because I saw a video on TikTok. A teenager was arguing that the word scrying was ableist because they didn’t know what it meant. And my first thought was simple: Look it up. Not because I’m dismissing struggle. But because that’s how learning works. And that’s where I think we’re getting confused. Somewhere along the line, we’ve started mixing up difficulty and discrimination . Those are not the same thing. Difficulty is when something is hard to do, understand, or overcome. Discrimination—like ableism—is when barriers or prejudice exist because of disability. And yes, ableism is real. And it isn’t always obvious. Sometimes it’s overt. Sometimes it’s structural. Sometimes it’s a lack of access, support, or accommodation. That matters. But not knowing a word? That’s not discrimination. That’s learning. And learning starts in a very uncomfortable place: Not knowing. You don’t know what you know until you know what you don’t know. And that’s okay. Tha...

In the age of social media, where everyone strives to be a creator, influencer, or trendsetter, it's no surprise that mundane aspects of everyday life are being repackaged and presented as groundbreaking trends. TikTok, in particular, has become a hotbed for this phenomenon. Let's take a closer look at a few of these so-called trends: underconsumption, de-influencing, and crunchy moms, and call them what they truly are – just living. Underconsumption: Living on a Budget The latest buzzword making the rounds is "underconsumption." Sounds fancy, right? In reality, it's just a new way of saying "living on a budget." For generations, people have been managing their finances carefully, prioritizing needs over wants, and making do with less. It's called being financially responsible, not a revolutionary trend. Rebranding basic money management as underconsumption does a disservice to those who have been practicing it out of necessity, not for the sake of a...