Author: Tiffany Vincent

The way the internet reacts to a young actress who looks a little different than she did a season ago is almost reflexive. The Canadian actress Anna Cathcart, who portrays Kitty Covey in Netflix’s XO, Kitty, has been the target of precisely that kind of scrutiny, which can range from mildly intriguing to genuinely unsettling. Millions of people have watched TikTok videos analyzing her appearance over the last few months. Her weight is the topic. The tone ranges from worried to patronizing. It’s worth taking a moment to consider why this is even a story. Since the character’s spin-off from…

While some TV hosts, like Lucy Alexander, walk onto a sun-drenched terrace in their fifties, their confidence only recently restored and a hot flush threatening, others quietly fade away as the years begin to show. Nevertheless, they continue to perform their jobs. It’s difficult not to sense that something subtly important has been happening as you watch her navigate the last few years—not just a career change, but a sincere reckoning with a body that was changing in ways she hadn’t fully anticipated. It was almost by accident that Lucy Alexander’s weight gain entered the public discourse. She didn’t start…

At twenty-two, winning a television talent competition carries a unique kind of pressure. Millions of people have watched you and evaluated your voice, appearance, and everything else. Suddenly, you become well-known. That 2005 moment wasn’t just the beginning of Carrie Underwood’s career. It began a decades-long, genuinely complex relationship with her own body. Underwood has since acknowledged that she was consuming as few as 800 calories per day in the years immediately following her victory on American Idol. When you put it simply, that number is startling. 800 calories. For a woman in her early twenties operating at her level,…

Growing up on camera has an almost cruel quality. Every awkward year, every inch gained or lost, every bad haircut, every difficult season—all of these things are recorded, broadcast, and given to random people with opinions. Since her mother Theresa’s show Long Island Medium debuted on TLC at the age of sixteen, Victoria Caputo has lived that reality, making her family a household name in American living rooms. Ten years later, people are talking about Victoria’s body rather than her mother’s gift. She’s done acting like it doesn’t hurt. The narrative of Victoria Caputo’s weight fluctuations is not at all…

Nobody was sure what to make of it for a while. When viewers rewatched the first few episodes of What We Do in the Shadows Season 6, they noticed things like Nadja standing at slightly odd angles that didn’t fully fit the scene, clutching a box with both hands for no apparent narrative reason, and lingering behind a fruit bowl. Quirky blocking was the explanation given by some. Some immediately went to Reddit and began typing. According to most accounts, the rumors that followed Natasia Demetriou’s altered appearance were not very pleasant. Online forums analyzed her body, circulated pregnancy rumors,…

When you’re halfway through preparing a beef stew, the kitchen smells amazing, and you reach into the cupboard for suet and discover nothing, a certain kind of panic sets in. You wouldn’t believe how frequently it occurs. One of those ingredients that people purchase once for a particular recipe, use half of, and then completely forget about is suet. Nevertheless, the dumplings that are meant to float on top of that stew like tiny clouds of comfort are nonexistent without it. The good news is that suet is much more replaceable than its reputation suggests, though it took some trial…

Any typical British baker will recognize a certain type of Sunday morning panic. The baking powder tin rattles after the butter has softened, the eggs have come to room temperature, and the tin has been greased. empty. Or almost. People reach into the back of cabinets, squint at labels, and wonder if cream of tartar and bicarb will work because of that brief moment of dread when they are standing in a kitchen that suddenly smells like anticipation. The good news is that they will, and most people are unaware of how simple the chemistry is. There isn’t just one…

There is a certain type of kitchen dispute that is never truly settled; it’s the kind in which both parties are technically correct but ultimately become more adamant about their initial positions. That’s precisely what the Stork vs. Butter controversy in British baking is about. It has been operating in kitchens across the nation for decades, both silently and occasionally noisily. And when someone brings up a Victoria sponge, it flares up more frequently than anywhere else. In a nutshell, you can definitely use stork in place of butter in a Victoria sponge. However, the longer response is more intriguing,…

When you wake up in the morning after a long decorating session, walk into the kitchen with a cup of tea in hand, and gently press your finger against a cookie, you can’t help but feel defeated. The frosting is still delicate. Tacky as ever. Covered in tiny craters that weren’t there the previous night, it can occasionally even be bubbly. Bakers with experience understand this emotion. It has concluded several lovely batches. Because royal icing is known for being dependable, its misbehavior is all the more perplexing. In actuality, it’s one of the more delicate baking mediums, and even…

Lisa Snowdon has mentioned a picture several times, and it’s the kind of detail that sticks with you. April of 2017. Japan. Steam rising around natural springs in a gorgeous outdoor onsen, with her partner George holding the camera. She threw her arms wide, arched her back, and sucked in her stomach, believing they were creating something lovely. She didn’t recognize herself when she saw the results. Less water nymph, more England Rugby Union player, in her words, not mine. The way she says it is hilarious. Beneath the humor, though, there’s something genuinely unvarnished about that scene: a woman…