Entertainment
A Career Move That Makes Me Teary
This past month, three women told me about a career move that left me feeling emotional…
Hanging in each of their offices is their childhood photo. The reason behind this adorable decision? Every time they look up to see their younger selves in all their girlhood glory — complete with rosy cheeks, cheese-y grins and sparkling eyes — they remember a piece of themselves that deserves the very best. Grace during times of failure. Patience in moments of frustration. The kindest encouragement. And then — here’s my favorite part — they try to treat their current selves with all that tender love.
Social strategist Peyton Dix (above) hung a baby photo of herself above her desk. “I’m often a critic and a b*tch to myself,” she told Elle. “I have to remind myself, ‘Oh, there’s a little girl that’s always learning and exploring and trying her best, and, like, be f*cking nice to her.’
When I asked Peyton how she came up with the idea, her response surprised me: “I saw a meme format on Twitter that shared various funny photos, and said, ‘When you’re being mean to me, this is who you are being mean to.’ At first, I laughed, but then I took it seriously, wrote the quote on a sticky note, and placed it below my own photo.”
Illustrator Jordan Sondler says displaying a photo of her preteen self in her apartment (above) keeps her career mission front of mind. “My biggest dream is to make art and work to help scared and depressed kids like I once was,” she told me.
Lastly, Gabriella Llewellyn, a writer and mother of three, says the collage of childhood photos she displays reminds her why she carves out time for hobbies: they bring her joy. “The reason I sew and read and garden isn’t because I’m trying to be the world’s best sewer or read 45 books in a year. I do these things to keep my inner child alive and happy. I do these things to make her proud.”
After talking to the three women, I decided to try the approach myself, and I made this photo my phone’s screensaver:
Little me with my grandpa and brother.
For the first couple days, whenever I glanced at my phone — and I hate to admit this — the feeling that flooded my mind was embarrassment. What type of person puts their own photo as their screensaver? I’d think. This should be a photo of my kids, not me.
But as time passed, when I’d glance down at my phone and see tiny Jannelle, decked out in that red beret and pleated skirt (slay), I’d smile. The other day, I even caught myself imagining how I must have felt in that moment: loved and safe. She deserves to feel loved and safe, I thought. And then it happened, so naturally. My follow-up thought was, I still deserve to feel loved and safe. A statement that should be such a given. But one, I realized, that I sometimes need help remembering. That’s why I’ve decided to keep my childhood photo front and center.
Do you display any of your childhood photos? Leslie Knope does, too! And what about yourself do you take pride in?
P.S. An anxiety trick, and what are your three core values?
Entertainment
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Entertainment
BookCon 2026: Authors Rachel Reid, Stephanie Archer talk hockey romance and how it could change the sport for the better
With the fervor of Heated Rivalry, there’s a fierce desire among book readers for even more hockey. On Sunday, April 19, at BookCon, the “You Had Me at Hockey: A Look at One of Sports Romance’s Hottest Genres”, authors Rachel Reid (Heated Rivalry, Game Changer), Emily Rath (Pucking Around), Ngozi Ukazu (Check Please), Stephanie Archer (The Wild Card), and Kate Cochrane (Wake Up, Nat & Darcy) were joined by moderator and fellow author Bal Khabra (Collide) to discuss the rise and continued success of hockey romance.
Khabra kicked off the panel, asking just how hockey became so popular. Ukazu joked that it was as if the genre “escaped containment,” like when the Omegaverse went mainstream, while Reid described the mystery around hockey, saying, “what [the players] are doing seems impossible.” Archer also added that the sport itself is exceptionally hard on the body, and the celebrity around players, especially in Canada, is fun to play with.
But there’s more to the genre’s success than the tropes. “It has to be said,” Rath argued, “that the cornerstone of why this is so popular in publishing is racism.” She went on to say that straight, white women’s voices dominated the romance genre for so long, pointing out that hockey is also the whitest sport. Among major league sports, the NHL is the most predominantly white. In 2022, ESPN reported that 83.6% of league players and staff were white, compared to the NFL, where 25-27% of players are white, or the NBA, where white players make up 17.5% of the league.
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Zooming into the genre, the authors also spoke about the writing process. They dove into the deeper aspects of their work, even the smut. Rath said, “I think the least sexy thing you can ever do is write a sex scene.” A similar sentiment came up during Reid’s Saturday panel, where she described using the sex scenes to further the emotional arc. When readers ask authors if they can skip the spice, Archer says of her own books, “No, you can’t skip the sex scenes. You’re missing so much character development if you don’t go on the journey with them.”
The panel turned to the future, too. Many of the authors write BIPOC and queer representation into their novels, in a genre that often centers on whiteness and homophobia. “We’re writing the world as we want it to be,” Rath said.
Reid has found that there is progress toward a future that these authors and their readers want to see, saying that the NHL is interested in working with them. “People on the inside, they really want to work toward change and want to make this happen.”
With the hockey fandom at an all-time high, there’s a whole team behind these authors ready to drive change.
Entertainment
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Credit: BJ’s Wholesale Club
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StackSocial prices subject to change.
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