Author: Jawdah Hannad Basara

The fact that Noah Cyrus somehow became the story after leaving a Lady Gaga concert last summer is subtly telling. She wore a beanie, a leather jacket, hot pants, and a bra top, just like any 25-year-old would on a hot night out. It was an easygoing, self-assured ensemble. There was nothing especially calculated about it. Nevertheless, she was all over the place by the following morning. The pictures quickly gained popularity. She appeared to be a typical person, not because she had done anything especially noteworthy. Apparently, that was sufficient to go viral on its own. There was an…

The moment someone takes a before-and-after picture of you, posts it without any context, and asks the internet to comment is one type of cruelty that only affects women in public life. Bebe Rexha experienced that at the 2026 American Music Awards. With the caption, “Be honest… what’s your first thought?” a user on X shared a side-by-side photo of the singer that showed how much she had changed over the years. To put it simply, Rexha’s response was flawless. “My idea is that my new album, Dirty Blonde, will be available on June 12th. Preorders are currently being accepted.…

Most British kitchens have a drawer that contains takeout menus, extra batteries, and rubber bands that have lost their elasticity. A bag of McCain chips is probably kept in the freezer somewhere close to this drawer. That has been the situation for many years. The brand has evolved into something of an institution—not in the grand ceremonial sense, but in the more subdued, sincere sense that things become a part of daily life. You’re not motivated to grab McCain chips. They work, so you reach for them. The appliance that sits on the counter next to the kettle has changed…

There comes a time, sometime in late November, when the oven is the most contested kitchen appliance. The turkey requires it. It’s necessary for the roast potatoes. The bread sauce, the pigs in blankets, and the parsnips are all lining up and fighting for room on a rack that wasn’t made with a full Christmas spread in mind. The air fryer begins to resemble a lifeline rather than a gadget during that brief period of mild domestic chaos. It’s surprising how frequently people ask if stuffing balls can be cooked in an air fryer. It turns out that the answer…

A certain type of comfort food from Britain doesn’t require reimagining. All it requires is heating. For decades, Fray Bentos pies have been quietly displayed on store shelves, requiring only an oven, a shelf, and roughly 30 minutes from the buyer. The round tin with its characteristic pastry lid has served as a sort of culinary shorthand for getting through the week for a generation of students, single-person households, and people who just couldn’t be bothered. However, when air fryers began to appear on every kitchen counter in the nation, something changed. People started asking the obvious question all of…

Yorkshire puddings on a Sunday have an almost ceremonial quality. British home cooks have been carrying out this ritual for generations: the batter must wait patiently on the counter, the oven must be blazing hot, and the oil must be smoking in the tin. This may be the reason why many people thought it was a little absurd to make them in a Ninja air fryer. After that, they gave it a try. The short answer is that you can cook Yorkshire puddings in a Ninja air fryer and get really good results. Not a concession. Not a consolation prize…

A tourist is currently doing it incorrectly at a table in a tearoom somewhere in Cornwall, most likely next to a window overlooking a gray stretch of sea. The cream was applied first. Locals have taken notice. I won’t say anything, but something has changed, and the afternoon seems a little less welcoming than it did just now. This is the cream tea debate, a centuries-old dispute between Devon and Cornwall about how to properly dress a scone that has somehow outlasted empires, survived two world wars, and is still, contrary to all reasonable expectations, genuinely unresolved. Cream first, or…

Being the person that everyone else depends on can lead to a certain kind of weariness. The Welsh actress Joanna Page, best known for her role as Stacey in the popular BBC series Gavin & Stacey, is well aware of this weariness. Four kids. A television career. A household to manage. She stopped taking care of herself at some point during all of that; it wasn’t abrupt or dramatic, but rather the gradual, cumulative process that most people go through. Here, breakfast was skipped. There at midnight, a packet of crisps. It accumulates. The intriguing thing about Page’s description of…

A version of this story has a comment section at both the beginning and the end. Anonymous and ugly, it’s the kind of thing that lurks on sports forums at two in the morning. People on the internet decided it was fair game when Fallon Sherrock’s face started to swell noticeably in 2017 due to medication she was taking for a kidney condition. The weight changes, the puffiness, the altered look of a woman who was already managing a serious health condition while raising a young son alone. People continued to type despite it. The fact that those individuals didn’t…

In public life, a woman’s body attracts a certain kind of attention that shows up unexpectedly and won’t go away. 2025 has been a year of true transformation for Mae Whitman, the kind that begins on the inside and eventually manifests on the outside, but the discussion somehow keeps returning to her appearance rather than the experiences she has truly had. On August 28, 2024, Whitman gave birth to her son, Miles. Shortly after, she was back on camera, filming Twelve Dates ‘Til Christmas in Ireland for Hallmark, all the while navigating the emotional and physical fog that comes with…