It’s Official, I’m a Social Media Nerd

I’m sure it started as something no one else really wanted to do. Social media became one of the day-to-day responsibilities of the assistant editor I eventually replaced. I took over half-heartedly, following her instructions by the book.

Using Facebook and Twitter for a corporate brand is nothing like using them personally, I quickly discovered. Sure, the mechanics are the same, but the voice, the tone, the personality, and the matter of authenticity are entirely different.

As I became accustomed to posting in my Health.com voice, responding to curious users, and monitoring the requests and complaints of devoted customers, I began to take ownership for Health.com in the social space. Social media is no longer something I have to do, it’s something I like to do, and in an office where using social media beyond the bare minimum is still relatively new, I’ve become somewhat of a makeshift guru.

Mind Over Matter

I went for a long run with C this week. (When I say long, I mean seven miles. Long for me, but for C., now training for her third–or is it fourth?–marathon, I’m sure it felt like a quick jog.)

Since my first “long” runs with my high school track team, I’ve never quite decided if I think we get personal on long runs because the sheer physical endeavor requires instant and profound bonding with the people around us, or because we’re simply bored and in need of some serious distractions.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I Was (Almost) A Spin Class Drop Out

My relationship with exercise has always been fueled by ulterior motives.

A competitive soccer player at heart, I started running to get in shape for what I thought would be the hardest team tryout in the history of soccer—my high school’s freshman girls’ team.

While it turned out I wasn’t required to run a sub-21-minute 3-miler, that became my goal the summer before high school, and somehow, even as soccer seasons came and went, running stuck.

Sportsmanship vs. Competition

Now I can’t even remember how I stumbled across it, but this article has really stayed with me.

“Sportsmanship at its best: Rustay helps Shine finish” is an account of a high school girls’ cross country race. There’s little about it that’s monumental, other than the fact that one runner helped another after the latter had fallen near the finish line.

The comments,  tweets, and news coverage itself is a glowing love-fest for the sportsmanship of the girl who stopped running to help her competitor.

“Expert to discuss dos and don’ts in fashion for attending sports games”

That’s the subject line of an  email sent to me Friday.

The PR pitch person went on to write:

“The NFL has just launched a women’s line in the same vein as the NBA’s NBA4HER line to target women who may be more fashion-conscious but still want to represent their team’s logos.”

Chivalry Isn’t Dead, But I Wish It Were

I wish chivalry would just kick the bucket already.

Not just any chivalry. In particular, the unsolicited acts of male strangers that they seem to think are expected of them that I have no use for. Somewhere down the line someone must have told them that’s how to impress, woo, or generally act around members of the female persuasion. But I’m so over it.

“The 50 Fattiest Foods in the States” Goes Viral

Almost an entire year ago, sitting around the table in the conference room that overlooks Radio City Music Hall, the Health.com editors came up with a brilliant idea. What if we called out different states for their particularly unhealthy regional fare?

We tossed out suggestions, shared our own gross-out moments, and even reveled in some of the hometown delicacies that we dared to–gasp!–enjoy.

When the project was handed over to me, I had so much fun reading the Twitter replies to @goodhealth and browsing through food blogs that the regional foods idea quickly evolved into finding the fattiest foods native to each state. I found myself simultaneously disgusted at some of the combinations I came across–notably the fried-brain sandwich and the bacon-wrapped meatloaf–and yet strangely hungry at the same time.

Notes from the Brooklyn Blogfest

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the 5th annual Brooklyn Blogfest at the Brooklyn Lyceum in Park Slope.

It’s always an interesting experience to attend an event as a professional (I was on assignment for the Brooklyn Downtown Star) that has some personal meaning to me (being a blogger). I tried to capture this duality in the piece published in this week’s Star.

It’s also available online, here.

Girl Hate

Think about “how much more kick-ass we could all be if we just stopped tearing each other down.”  – GirlHate.com

There may not be any proof of an uptick in actual girl-on-girl violent crime. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t committing awful, hurtful, and disrespectful acts against each other all the time.

A spate of books released in the early 2000s examined aggression in girls and inhumanity between women, but the idea really took pop culture by storm with 2004′s Mean Girls. Ever since then it has seemed like cattiness is the fashionable accessory of the decade.

But we could all get a lot more accomplished—kick-ass or not—if we’d start lifting each other up instead of tearing each other down. Because we’re doing a very good job of tearing each other down.

Does Discussing Hijab Prevent or Perpetuate Islamophobia?

The traditional head-covering worn by some Muslim women is heatedly debated. Is it oppressive and isolating for women, or freeing and liberating? In Europe, countries including France have banned women from wearing the veil in schools, courts, and other public buildings. Personally, I think religion is a deeply spiritual and personal experience that no other person is able to understand or dictate. If wearing a head-covering makes a women feel closer to or more a part of her particular strain of Islam she should feel free, safe, and supported in that decision.