My friend of mine was murdered in Shanghai (where she was working as a model). After her murder, the agency she was working for quite literally vanished. Local news stations attempted to reach the agency for comment, and the lines were disconnected and the office front disappeared. Several people who had spoken with…

Jezebel! Thank you so much for posting this, your support means a lot. While my essay was bleak, I also want to mention that it wasn't all doom and gloom — my agency in particular (and also my scout) weren't the best, and while I had the support system of my family and a secondary income in place, what surrounded me…

Reminds me of that documentary "Model" where they cattle call these Russian and Slavic girls, send them to Japan with like Zero supervision and representation, NObody looks out for them and they end up in debt. It's a racket.

They face terrible working conditions in the US too. The Model Alliance and other groups have been working hard for a long time now to get the industry to agree to some basic protections for young girls who are working as models. In addition to the crappy pay and long hours, these girls, and a lot of them starting…

The fashion industry needs to be exploited for what it is. I work for a copmany that shows in NY Fall Fashion Week (which takes place in a month) and that means working 10-15 hour days Monday through Friday, 9-10 on Saturday, and 4-6 on Sunday until it's over. Those hours are long, hard, and painful; some of us go way…

I'll be married for 5 years in June and people never stop asking us when we are having children. Not if, when.

Ha! That's the answer I always give. "Children are boring." *escapes to buffet table*

Wow, that thing about everyone in your department being laid off just struck a chord with me. Just this week, my best friend at work (a single male) was transferred to a town 3 hours away because they had to make room for a returning maternity leave woman. Both are permanent employees, but she gets special…

You might try it, tho, at least until your friends have kids, if they do. Friendships are built on common interests and you need friends. I miss my friends with kids who can talk of little else, but I accept it and more or less understand it. Most people are overwhelmed by having kids. I have exactly one friend with…

"Aren't any fun anymore" is trivializing the issue. "Are completely unavailable to anyone else but still expect you to be there if they need you, because your problems are all utterly meaningless now" is more like it. Maybe I just had selfish friends, idk. I have one friend with kids who managed to remain my friend…

Those examples are obnoxious and horrible and it's not fair that you have to deal with that. But underneath it all....they agree with your choice to have a child! No one is questioning your whole PURPOSE IN LIFE, as in, why do you even exist if you're not going to have kids, and you're invisible without them. …

In fact by assuming that a child-free individual could not possibly have some valid advice or thoughts on children/child rearing, and are the ones who are exclusively side-eyeing you (got sick of the word "judging") is one of the way we are depreciated by society at large. Even if we do not have children ourselves we…

Seriously. When I was 13 I cried b/c I found out Leo DiCaprio was a smoker. At that age, your opinions about your favorite celebrities are pretty black and white and way out of proportion.

I am guessing that your comment was not addressed to me. And I get that you must be annoyed when people judge you, I mean who doesn't. I grew up with my single mother being constantly judged. However, more often than not I find that in a professional setting I see parents judging (and unwarranted advice giving) other…

Like most happiness studies, how pointless. Happiness changes, decisions change, regrets change. There are people who right now are very unhappy and don't have kids, who will eventually come to be very happy without kids. And likewise, there are lots of parents who are unhappy who will discover a new era of happiness…

I still don't get why the thoughts of pre-teens is news.

It must be so very hard to be so marginalized, as a parent, in a society that values parents, children, and breeding over all else. Will you please write a guidebook for how to navigate such a difficult, contentious, oppressive issue?

Hey - I did some work on this in my dissertation. In my findings, couples without kids were happier than people with kids, only while the kids were at home. However, once the kids left home, couples with children were happier than childless couples. Relief?

Sweet, another vague study and shitty headline to get women to start arguing with each other about what makes us happy.

Yeah, that's a pretty misleading title considering the content of the article.