Early morning wake-up calls are built into the job for Camille Schrier, Miss America 2020. In early March, Camille set her alarm for five in the morning to get ready for her keynote address during the Up & Atom Women’s…
By October of 2017, body image issues, dieting, and anxiety collided with the trauma of a sexual assault to create a perfect storm for Emma Manis. That’s when Emma, at age twenty-two, was diagnosed with anorexia, body dysmorphia (an obsessive…
VPM – the largest media organization in Central Virginia – is a lot like other media outlets. Its content is found on television, radio, and digital platforms. It has a trained news team that reports on state and local government,…
I have to admit, I’m one of those parents who hugs her child a little tighter before school every morning. My daughter is in second grade and the thought of the Newtown and Parkland shootings, among others, is always somewhere…
Welcome to March! The month when daffodils and tulips begin popping out of the ground and frigid mornings become the exception rather than the rule. Along with the month’s promise of warmer weather comes slight panic for many parents: In…
I keep my own neurosis close to heart (no exposure therapy for me, thanks), but cruising the Big Blue isn’t one of them. Sailing on a beautiful ship is such bliss for me that I envy the oldsters who spend…
It only took a moment for Anne Moss Rogers’ life to change direction; only seconds for her to move from years of fear and dread to a life committed to service and education. That moment, when she learned her younger…
Shortly after 15-year-old Anna Thompson was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as a newborn, she had to spend thirty minutes three times a day participating in what is known as chest physical therapy. For the first years, her parents had to…
Charlotte Cavanagh’s parents were thrilled when their daughter was born. She was the couple’s first child, and everything about the delivery and their new baby seemed typical. But just two days after her parents brought Charlotte home, she wouldn’t eat…
A week after my grandmother passed away, a friend asked if my children were doing okay. “I’m really not sure,” I told her. “I don’t even know how I’m doing.” When we first learned of my grandmother’s sudden but peaceful…
