Smart is the new sexy and being intelligent is cool again. For a while there,we were afraid the “dumb shallow girl” role had become new normal. We noticed girls and young women embracing this and dumbing themselves down to be attractive. Sure, the Marilyn Monroe thing exudes sensuality but believe me, Marilyn Monroe played the role that men loved but in reality Norma Jean Baker was a smart cookie that made calculated decisions and seized opportunities to enhance herself into becoming a lucrative brand- even negotiating a salary that was unprecedented for women in Hollywood at her time. So, guess what, when its all said and done its cool to be intelligent, cultural, conscious and have a humanitarian spirit. Just ask, human right attorney, Amal Clooney. That very handsome leading man that she calls her husband is only one aspect of who she is. Her work, intelligence and heart shows us that being smart is definitely the new black and will always be in style.
Fall is here and that means winter is even closer. While we all at times get down about the weather the best part of winter is that we’re closer to fashion week. 2016 is going to be epic and beautiful. Grab your fashionable coats and get ready for our favorite designers to serve us with their latest style.
The Lebron James-produced hit series adds depth and dimension to television.
The second season of Lebron James’ breakout hit, Survivor’s Remorse premiered this Saturday on STARZ. Created by Mike O’Malley the comedy is executive produced by James, Maverick Carter, Victor Levin and Hilton Smith. Ahead of Saturday’s premiere, STARZ® and XFINITY® hosted a red carpet premiere coordinated by 135 street agency. The Source was in attendance at the exclusive premiere in Atlanta.
Survivor’s Remorse offers a look inside the meteoric rise of Cam Calloway (Jessie T. Usher) who’s transitioning from normal life in Boston to the limelight after signing a lucrative pro-basketball contract. The show is raw and well-written offering an array of different perspectives pertaining to family, finance, culture and “fitting in” to mainstream standards. Arnold who plays Cam’s protective mother and Epps who plays his hilarious Uncle Julius deliver Emmy-worthy performances and Teyonah Parris beautifully shines on the show where characters actually have layers, depth and complexity.
Arnold who has had a long successful career since her days playing Pam on Martin feels blessed about her longevity. “I really give all the honor to God and I’m grateful for the opportunities I have. My fans get to see a different side of me on Survivor’s Remorse.” Epps who’s currently in character for his role as “Richard Pryor” says audiences will be in for a great unpredictable ride. “There’s a lot to look forward to and you don’t want to miss it!” Survivor’s Remorse airs Saturdays at 9:30.
-Abesi Manyando
@abesipr
photo credit: Reginold Benjamin
photo caption: Tichina Arnold, Mike Epps, Teyonah Parris and the cast of Survivors Remorse on the red carpet
African head wraps have always been a constant in our fashion, culture and tradition. At traditional weddings, ceremonies, and gatherings we were always asked/encouraged to cover our hair out of respect. Of course in ancient times Queens wore the most magnificent of wraps. There has always been something beautiful, bold, freeing and empowering about head wraps not to mention the perks of less hair maintenance at times. Now more then ever, African prints and traditional wear are becoming infused into mainstream fashion. From runways, to magazine spreads and all the gorgeous African-inspired femmes at Afro-punk the wrap life is as it always has been an alluring accessory. For those who want to wear a head wrap and may not know how to tie it or what style works for you maybe I’ll have my sister, Liywalli post a tutorial. Until then, check out the Wraplife at www.thewraplife.com and www.naturallycurly.com for tips on how to wrap.
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For some reason, waffles always remind me of vacation. Maybe it’s because I associate them with hotels where you can make your own waffles for breakfast. So when I make them at home, it always feels like a special occasion.
These waffles would be perfect for a holiday or celebration, or any time you want breakfast to feel a little noteworthy. They are amazing topped with Cream Cheese Drizzle (recipe follows), but I also love them with just a drizzle of maple syrup.
Preheat the oven to 200° F and preheat a waffle iron. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl to combine.
Combine the melted butter and brown sugar in a separate large bowl. Whisk in the egg yolks and buttermilk. Mix the cocoa powder and red food coloring in a small bowl to make a smooth paste, then whisk the paste into the butter mixture. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until moistened (the batter should be slightly lumpy).
Beat the egg whites in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Stir one-quarter of the egg whites into the batter to lighten it. Then fold in the remaining egg whites gently but thoroughly.
Spray a waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray or brush with melted butter. Cook the waffles according to the manufacturer’s instructions. As they’re done, put them on a baking sheet and slide them into the oven to keep them warm while you cook the remaining waffles.
Cream Cheese Drizzle
Ingredients
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
¾ cup confectioners’ sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
A pinch of table salt
3 to 4 tablespoons milk
Directions
To make the cream cheese drizzle: Beat the cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and salt in a bowl. Beat in enough milk to make a pourable mixture.
In a small saucepan, combine spiced rum, amaretto, almond milk, cinnamon sticks, and star anise pods. Heat to a simmer and remove from heat. Let steep for at least 5 minutes. Pour into a glass and garnish with ground cinnamon.
– 1.5 oz. Spiced Rum
– 1 oz. Amaretto
– 4 oz. Almond Milk
– 2 cinnamon sticks
– 2-3 pieces whole Star Anise Pods
– Ground cinnamon, for garnish
In a small saucepan, combine spiced rum, amaretto, almond milk, cinnamon sticks, and star anise pods. Heat to a simmer and remove from heat. Let steep for at least 5 minutes. Pour into a glass and garnish with ground cinnamon.
Blake Lively is currently on the promo tour for Age of Adeline, and when she isn’t being asked questions about her daughter James, she’s getting changed.
When we chatted with model Erin Heatherton, she gave us her go-to breakfast (aka our two favorite items on one plate): Eggs and avocado. Here’s how to make it like she does, because who doesn’t want to eat breakfast like a model?
With Spring finally here, we decided it was time to celebrate possibly our favorite drink of the season (or every season for that matter): Wine. On our recent trip to Napa.
“Today I was asked when I realized I was in the wrong body. As much as it took me a really long time to come to terms with it, I think I have known since I can remember—since I could even think about gender or notice it. I was thinking about when I was in pre-K ,and I would dress up as Cinderella and do girl things. If I decided to wear a dress or roleplay as a princess, my teachers would tell me I couldn’t do it because I was a boy. So when you have everyone in your life telling you that you’re a boy, you kind of start to believe it, even though none of it comes naturally to you.
My transition has been a very gradual, very cerebral process. For a lot of people, it’s very easy to reduce gender to bodies, and that’s terrible. So to answer that question that I was asked today, I realized I was a woman after I was already living as a woman for about a year or so. Before that, I had this platinum blond hair, acrylics, and would dress in skirts, and wear purses—but I still identified as male. I was open-minded enough, growing up, to think that even if my outward appearance was female, I could still be male. If you read enough queer theory, you realize any sort of conjunction is possible. There are boys who want experience life as women but still be boys, and that’s valid.
I never understood why people would think that men couldn’t be as beautiful as women, so for a long time I didn’t have a word for myself. I was like, ‘I’m not a boy but I can’t let myself be a woman.’ So at the time I was like, ‘OK, I’ll be something else.’ It was weird for me, and in some ways, my thinking allowed me to keep putting off how I felt inside by just covering it up with this cerebral explanation.
[blockquote author=”” pull=”normal”]There is a lot of psychological tension in trying to discuss anything with gender identity.[/blockquote]
I used to wear a lot more makeup. I fucking love Boy George, and I would put on that amount of makeup—like Boy George amounts of makeup. My eyeliner would like reach my hairline. I would go really crazy with it. I would try to overcompensate. Now I’m much more toned down, but I feel like all girls have that phase when experimenting with makeup for the first time. Though, if I started off putting on the amount of makeup I wear now, I knew I would just look like who I really am, and I think I was just not ready for that.
I was 14 years old when I got my first taste of makeup. I was in a band as the lead singer and we were playing one of our first shows. At that point all I could get away with was straightening my hair maybe once a month. So yeah, I was at my first show, and I remember finding a Revlon retractable black eyeliner in the bathroom.
I put it on my waterline, not even thinking about the fact that I could get an eye infection as I picked it up off the floor—it was disgusting. I guess the cool thing about being in a band is that there is so much more freedom. There’s the classic ‘Dude (Looks Like A Lady)‘-feel. I felt like I could wear the eyeliner, and no one would care because I was at a rock show. Then I wore it again to a crowd that was more of a hardcore scene, and it wasn’t a cool experience. They were screaming at me to get off the stage and calling me the F word. I was just like, ‘Wow, OK.’ I was 15 at that point. It was a terrible wake up call to me, all because I was wearing eyeliner—it’s not that big of a deal, and yet, people are already policing me for not performing this gender that I’m pretending to be. Obviously I was doing a shitty job at performing male. Sometimes I tell people that I really feel like I was in drag for over a decade, in the sense of performing male gender roles. I’d end the night and make sure to wipe off my eyeliner before I got home.
I had really bad acne in high school, so I’d get away with wearing coverall and that’s it. Still, my mother would look at me from her bed—I did, and still do, my makeup in her room because it has the best lighting—and be like, ‘What are you doing?’ I used to tell my mom like, ‘Don’t worry! I’ll never wear mascara!’ But it all happens…100 YouTube tutorials later you emerge in full face [Laughs].
I always admired makeup. I’d watch my grandma doing her makeup, and she’d always be put together. She would tell me that photos are forever, you can’t take it lightly, and you have to perfect it. Little things like that really stuck with me. Without my mother’s permission, I dyed my hair platinum blonde as a teenager. Having white hair changes your life, regardless of gender identity. It is a really crazy experience. You learn about so many different sides of people and how they perceive you—it’s crazy. It was motivation, I guess, and it was the first instance of feeling like I can’t hide myself.
I was really obsessed with Final Fantasy at the time, especially the Final Fantasy villains. If you really look at a Final Fantasy villain and analyze it, it’s a female head on a male body. I felt connected to the possibility of being really pretty, even if my body didn’t match up—there was a chance for the head portion to be on-point and consistent with how I view myself. After that, I started really diving into makeup as identity. Beauty can be a big deal for all girls, but beauty for a trans girl could be life-or-death. There’s moments when you could be placed in danger for not passing as a woman convincingly enough. One time I was walking with my friend and a guy was trying to holler at me, then he took out a knife. Makeup is much more serious to trans women. Even cis girls can relate—they get attacked and bullied in schools, growing up, because they’re not pretty enough.
I really feel bad for a lot of trans people and trans women who don’t have the experience [with makeup] before they come into themselves and have to learn to do their makeup in no time. They’re 35, they have kids, and they need to transition then—that’s the bravest thing ever. That’s not to say that I think people transitioning later in life necessarily need to wear makeup to be who they are. I just identified with it. The way I did it was just like how every girl picks up makeup skills—where your mom is like, ‘You can only put on lipgloss.’ You need time to practice, so it looks good. I used to just have these Zen three-hour makeup sessions. Of course, during the day I just wear tinted moisturizer, concealer, and maybe mascara. Sometimes I’ll do a wing, but just a little bit on the outer edge. But at night…at night is when I’d really take my time. I’d do my makeup from 7pm to 10pm and go out at midnight.
