Anchor Baby – the audio

I saw the news on Instagram this morning, and immediately felt an acrid combination of disappointment, anger and, yes, shame. Disappointment because, how could this happen? Anger because, how could I just be reading about this on Instagram , of all places? (As if the proprietors should have contacted me directly: hey, Rosemary, you’ve been here maybe a dozen times, so we thought we’d give you a he...

In August of 2018, Bloggers Unveiled, the controversial Instagram account which had been set up with the stated goal of acting as the “unofficial watchdog” of the Irish influencer and content creator scene, posted its last update – and then disappeared entirely . Depending on whether you counted yourself among the influencers or the influenced, the end of BU was a relief, or a shame; while there w...

This essay deals with topics some readers may find uncomfortable, including pregnancy, birth trauma and surgery. Please put your own oxygen mask on first xo I’m not the type of person who avoids revisiting the past. I like to mull over moments of conflict, instances of high emotion, flashes of anger that punctuate my days. What was it about that moment, that response, that look that really – for w...

Sometimes I feel as though my house is just an endless list of things we have to do: wardrobes I need to clear out, paintings I need to hang, doors I’d love to paint (but am nervous to even start), countertop epoxy I bought and own, now need to carve out some time to get done… Today we did get one thing ticked off that list, and hung up two pieces of art I bought at Target a few weeks back, and af...

I’m crying too much at the moment. I’m not sure what the appropriate amount of crying even is, but I definitely reached it and roared right on past to where I am now, fresh off a bout of several hours of absolutely-no-reason-for-it crying.  The truly galling thing about all of this crying is that there’s even less reason for it than usual. I’m pregnant with the baby I’ve wanted for what feels like...

When it rains in Indiana, I could almost imagine we were in Ireland. I look out my window and I see green fields of crops I know to be corn but could imagine were wheat, or barley, before it turns the colour of glazed corn and creates the summer patchwork that is so characteristic a view from any Irish window. Today, I busy myself making endless cups of tea and for lunch I try to emulate the avoca...

Do you remember when George Clooney first met human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin (now Clooney)? The feminist internet was up in arms at the Daily Mail (et al) referring to her as “Clooney’s girlfriend” and, later, “Clooney’s wife”, and myriad pithy thinkpieces emerged pointing out that, actually, the power disparity should have tilted in her favour, rather than his. “Amal Alamuddin, a 36 year old...

Warning: This post contains references to intentional weightloss and pregnancy. If you’re not in the right head space to read about either (or both!) of those, please skip this one. There’s a really irritating saying people tend to trot out when you’re struggling to accept the lack of something in your life: maybe you’re single and you’re finding it hard to meet someone you’d consider sitting next...

I received an email the other day which, at first – like so many emails I suppose – seemed promising. I would put this in the same category as the dozens of emails I receive each week asking if I’d like to collaborate with x or y brand on Instagram. “We’re offering $50 for a grid post with 3 dedicated stories – let us know if you’re interested!” I say no to each and every one, insulted by the palt...

I’ve been reading a lot lately. I was going to write, “I’ve been reading a lot lately about…” and lead into the real meat of this piece, but I have a word count to fill, so I may as well give you the full back story. Around October of last year, I decided that I really, really wanted to hit my Goodreads target , the one I set for myself way back in January of 2023. I was aiming to read 100 books,...

I’d love to say this was my idea, but if you listen to Not Without My Sister you’ll note that, in a recent episode, Beatrice raised the idea of “required reading”, as she waxed lyrical about Women, Language & Power: Giving Voice to Our Ambition by Susannah Baldwin . She then – off-mic – suggested that I do a series on “required reading”, recommending different books for different times, situations...

I’ve been waiting for the right time to write about the experience of becoming a stepmom (is it a coincidence that my phone automated that to “becoming a demon”?!) and my experience, thus far, of step parenting two gorgeous, challenging, adorable, frustrating children. I had somehow thought I’d just wake up one day and feel as though I’d finally cracked it, like I’d figured it all out. I’d suddenl...

I’ve been seeing a lot about love, this week – of course, as Valentine’s Day is smack-bang in the middle of it. I’ve seen banners declaring these Valentine’s Day gifts the perfect Valentine’s Day gifts. I’ve seen thinkpieces about the very idea of love itself. I particularly liked this one , by Maria Del Russo, and especially this line: I realize now that, when people talk about “just knowing” whe...

It’s so cold this week that even the Hoosiers* are complaining. Schools have been closed due to “wind chill”, a phrase I swear I never heard before I moved here, to the flattest place on earth, where there is nowhere, ever , to shelter from the wind. Right now, it’s a balmy -13C, with a RealFeel of -17C. Mild, compared to yesterday’s -16C (RealFeel -27C). You feel the cold right down to your bones...

I asked my Instagram followers to send me any problems or issues they needed help with or just advice for, and I received way more questions than I’d expected! So I’m starting a regular advice column where I’ll give my best advice to questions I’ve been sent via DM, or here (just reply to this email if you have anything you need help with!) – but I would also love it (and think it would be really...

The end of any year brings with it – along with an incredibly strong impulse to declutter – an urge to reflect on what’s happened that year, and with that, to sit in judgment of anything I’ve done (and, more often, failed to do). There’s a lot of popular rhetoric about the concept of looking back, arguing both for and against it. On the one hand, we get to learn from our past missteps; on the othe...

As I wrote these pieces – vignettes, I suppose, from a life thus far – down, I felt embarrassed by how much power I have allowed men (so many men) to hold over me. I envy Jennifer Connelly’s Sarah her moment of rebellion. I long to echo her words: “You have no power over me.” I might add this to my (growing) list of things to discuss with a future therapist, but for now I thought I’d share them wi...

It’s been pretty hard to miss the news that Taylor Swift has been designated Time ’s 2023 Person of the Year (and, arguably, harder to ignore the discourse that this is an egregiously cowardly and apolitical stance, in a year where we’ve seen the courage, strength and tenacity of the Palestinian journalists who are reporting from the front lines of their own genocide by Israeli forces, in a confli...

I listened to an episode of the Give Them Lala podcast today in which Vanderpump Rules Lauren “Lala” Kent interviewed Real Housewives of New York’s Brynn Whitfield, which proved to be the perfect confluence of my two guiltiest pleasures. The two gals – with sporadic, kind of weird interjections from Jessica and Easton, Kent’s regular co-hosts – covered a wide array of topics, from how to give a gr...

I bought Marisa Meltzer’s Glossy the week it came out, slightly against my better judgment. Having read interviews with Meltzer on both Amy Odell’s Back Row and Jessica DeFino’s The Unpublishable , I suspected that I may already have read the most salacious and fascinating parts of the book, a sort of business book-slash-biography with a hint of fan fiction about it (at least, according to Nick Ax...

flat·ter·ing /ˈfladəriNG/ adjective * (of a person or their remarks) full of praise and compliments. "the article began with some flattering words about us" * pleasing or gratifying. "it was flattering to have a pretty girl like Frances so obviously fond of him" * enhancing someone's appearance. "I don't think anything sleeveless is very flattering" Anchor Baby is a reader-supported publication. T...

I’ve been holding on to almost all of Atlas’ baby things, for the next baby I’m beginning to think we’re not having. It’s been both an ongoing topic of discussion and the elephant in the room during many other discussions. I want another baby, for some reasons I’ll outline and other reasons I suppose are more abstract, more feelings than they are thoughts. Brandin does not want another baby, for r...

“Representing motherhood puts you in a double-bind because audiences expect you to be ‘authentic’ because you’re representing this foundational — even sacred — social relationship between mothers and children, but at the same time, you’re under enormous pressure both from brand partners and the audience to look a certain way.” Kathryn Jezer-Morton, in conversation with Anne Helen Petersen I starte...

Do you remember MTV’s ' I Want a Famous Face’? It ran for four seasons from 2004, just one of the many shows on the station’s reality TV roster, which included Rich Girls , Made and My Super Sweet 16. RTÉ even tried to cash in on the craze with Diary of a Debutante – a fun aside is that I interviewed Mica from Diary… for a college journalism assignment. The premise of I Want a Famous Face is prett...

I was asked, in an interview last week, what my favourite books were – and shortly thereafter, what book I’d choose to gift to others. While, ordinarily, I would try not to overlap my answers, in this instance I couldn’t bring myself to come up with something for the sake of it, when the answer was staring me right in the face: Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow , a book I never would have read if a...