Hey APW!
I’m back! I’m back from what ended up being four months of maternity leave. To catch you up in one breathless paragraph: I seem to have my babies way late, so when I left at thirty-six weeks pregnant, I proceeded to lie on my couch having no energy while I watched all of Friday Night Lights… till forty-one weeks three days when I had an amazing baby girl on the morning of the Fourth of July. Turns out I wasn’t just lazing about for no reason, but I had an extreme iron deficiency. Add a postpartum hemorrhage (that’s another story for another time), and like it or not, I really had to take time off. Of course in late August and September, I moved us into the #APWoffice, and spent my afternoons doing work. But still, I was away from work for longer than I’ve ever been in my adult life. And mostly, it was pretty good. Now I have an adorable and chill baby girl, and adorable and insane nearly three-year-old, and I’m ready (ready, ready, ready) ready to run.
So now I’m here! And while I’ve enjoyed hanging out with some of you on my personal Instagram over the summer, I’m excited to get to catch up with all of you (for realz) here.
Because I can’t stop/won’t stop, we’re launching an APW newsletter early next week. (You can sign up for it here. It’s going to be awesome, and our secret space for our best stuff. We’re not even sure what magic stuff we’re going to do with it yet, but it’s going to be GOOD and you should sign up.) And I have a million other projects in the works. Get ready APW. The best is yet to come.
xo
Meg
HIGHLIGHTS OF APW THIS WEEK
What’s the big deal about picking out your own engagement ring?
Read this for the $30,000, hundred-person Malibu wedding low-down, stay for the drool-worthy protea bouquet.
That thing when your ex-husband is also your best friend.
What’s the difference between a job and a career, and how do you know which one you have?
Fifty modern (and… just awesome) anniversary gifts that follow the traditional themes of the first ten years.
What do you do when you’re worried your MIL will become the focus of your wedding?
This Indian/American fusion wedding features a little wedding dress made from a sari, Stevie Wonder, and lobster rolls.
LINK ROUNDUP
Book recommendations based on your Hogwarts House!
We dare you to get through this entire article without losing your shit.
Why paid maternity leave has become a major campaign issue.
Meet the Thai women behind this bar run entirely by a sex workers collective.
Why Ava Duvernay hates the word “diversity” and thinks it feels “like medicine.”
In the event of my untimely demise…
Two thousand years of makeup, recreated.
Bradley Cooper steps up to end the wage gap through salary transparency with his female co-stars.
“Ted Bundy’s success is a feminist issue.“
When you need a pick-me-up, these lesbian proposal stories should do the trick.
Take those fugly bridesmaid dresses, and make Halloween costumes out of them.
It’s nice to think that only evil men are rapists. But that’s not the case.
Lily-Rose Depp is not a hundred percent straight.
The end of abortion access in red America.
“Nurses, fathers, teachers: why do we devalue someone the minute they care for others?”
Why consensual sex can still be bad (and we’re not talking about it).
We don’t even know what to say about this bride’s certificate of purity.
Here’s a viral video of a boy who knocks a girl off her bike because she isn’t into his greeting… and someone explains why videos of women being shamed and harassed always seem to go viral.
Seven Disney princess transformations, ninety seconds.
Here’s a “feministy” sweater. The makers figured that “by turning the word ‘feminist’ into an adjective, we’re softening its harsh connotations that you ‘hate men’ and ‘are a lesbian.’”
Holy shit, these ten kid’s Halloween costumes of rad women is all we ever wanted.
