Pop Culture Media’s Role in Helping Fans Cope

I’ve been thinking about the many ways that people cope with their life circumstances, and how infrequently we talk about our coping mechanisms with others. When my husband’s mother first passed away, sleep was a difficult time for him. He frequently woke up in the middle of the night in a panic, or in tears following nightmares related to his mother’s death. He’d have vivid nightmares...

Losing Control of Your Strengths [OWLS September Blog Tour: Self-Care]

Being highly skilled at something makes us feel good. It's a confident boost. It's a skill that we can consistently do and know that the outcome will be positive more often than not. Recognizing our strengths, and also recognizing the limits of our strengths, is an important part of self-care that sometimes gets left out, overpowered by the images of hot springs, amazing scented oils, and snuggly blankets to hide in that the term self-care often evokes. The anime This Boy is a Professional Wizard (Kono Danshi, Mahou ga Oshigoto Desu) does a beautiful job of addressing this element of self-care...

New Years Special: Reflecting on a Year of Your Blogs Part 5

In celebration of the New Year, I'm sharing out my favorite posts from 2017. These posts are all written by talented bloggers around WordPress, and I hope that you enjoy them as much as I did. Today, we're taking a look at blogs from August and September...

New Years Special: Reflecting on a Year of Your Blogs Part 4

In celebration of the New Year, I'm sharing out my favorite posts from 2017. These posts are all written by talented bloggers around WordPress, and I hope that you enjoy them as much as I did. Today, we're taking a look at blogs from June and July...

New Years Special: Reflecting on a Year of Your Blogs Part 2

In celebration of the New Year, I'm sharing out my favorite posts from 2017. These posts are all written by talented bloggers around WordPress, and I hope that you enjoy them as much as I did. Today, we're taking a look at blogs from February and March...

Dramatical Murder and Rap Music: How Pop Culture Raises Awareness for Mental Health [OWLS September Blog Tour: Treasure]

What if I told you that the Dramatical Murder anime and music artist Logic have something in common? On the surface, the two seem entirely different, one being an animated narrative based on a visual novel and the other, a rap artist. Although dissimilar in many ways, these two pop culture artifacts help to bring awareness to mental health concerns such as depression and suicide...