Loving our idols from afar can be a very intense relationship — Last year I woke one morning to a solemn message from my best friend: Sorry for your loss, my dear. My eyes blinked in bleary confusion. Loss? Not again. My sibling had died from cancer years earlier and, while I understood they had left the world much sooner than most…

Not everyone wants a life that resembles an upbeat pop song — Don’t ask me to count how many times I’ve walked home, alone, the sound of The Smiths pulsing through my earphones as frontman, Morrissey, laments: “You know I’m unlovable …” Sometimes, if it’s late evening or no one else is walking behind me, I close my eyes and imagine a…

Sentimentality can become a curse if you let it. We live in an age where social media encourages us to re-share photos from just one or more years ago, baking in our excessive nostalgia for times that may not have been half as great as the picture wants us to…

During her recent Australian tour, I watched social media go wild as a number of gay men — some of whom I knew, many of whom I did not — posted their videos, memes and general adoration for Lizzo. The US rapper once known as Melissa Viviane Jefferson has, not surprisingly, become both an ally and icon for the gay community. “My shows are very inclusive safe spaces for everyone, especially marginalized people, more specifically the LGBTQIA+ community,” she told Variety.

When William was on his way to work, he received an unexpected message from the doctor: could he come to the surgery in one hour’s time? As a million dire thoughts raced through his mind, William, a 34-year-old teacher from Sydney, Australia, began to experience an anxiety attack. …

There is a difference between dogged perseverance and knowing that it’s time to give up. All my life I’ve only ever wanted one thing: to be a writer. Lots of people have the exact same desire, I know. The amount of hopeful authors out there seems to exceed aspiring actors…

Before our first — and final — date, the French man whom I’d been chatting to for the past 48 hours offered some comforting words to help calm my nerves. “At the very least,” he assured, “we can still be friends.” Possibly he meant well, but this flimsy promise made…