Blog Posts by Elise Solé, Shine Staff

Getty ImagesIt's the apology heard 'round the world: Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries recently issued a global mea culpa addressing controversial statements he made in 2006 regarding his company's policy toward plus-size shoppers.

More on Yahoo! Shine: Abercrombie & Fitch Attack Video Aims to Dress Homeless Everywhere in "Cool Kid" Brand

Jeffries posted on A&F's Facebook page: "I want to address some of my comments that have been circulating from a 2006 interview. While I believe this 7-year-old, resurrected quote has been taken out of context, I sincerely regret that my choice of words was interpreted in a manner that has caused offense. A&F is an aspirational brand that, like most specialty apparel brands, targets its marketing at a particular segment of customers. However, we care about the broader communities in which we operate and are strongly committed to diversity and inclusion. We hire good people who share these values. We are completely opposed to any discrimination, bullying,

Read More »from In Defense of Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries

Withlovefromgraz.comImagine being able to glimpse your parents' relationship before you were born.

More on Yahoo! Shine: 9 Secrets from a 73-Year Marriage

Author Loraine Fergusson, 61, of Didcot, Oxfordshire has unearthed 300 love letters between her late parents during the throes of their courtship at the end of World War II, many of which she's published on her blog With Love from Graz.

More on Yahoo! High school sweethearts reunite, marry after 58 years

Fergusson had been recording her mother’s recollections of the war for about a decade as research for a historical novel she planned to write, when she finally asked to read the letters her mother had long kept private. “She said they were soppy and might embarrass me, but finally decided I could have them with the promise that I wouldn't read them or publish them until after she was gone," Fergusson told Yahoo! Shine.

In April, four years after her mother died, Fergusson decided to open the letters. “I was at the point where I could read them without

Read More »from Wartime Love Letters Reveal Passionate Affair Between Soulmates (Get your hankies out)

Mansoor Candy Cab/FacebookHailing a taxi in New York City is practically a competitive sport but one cabbie is making the grind a little bit sweeter.

More on Yahoo! Shine: Homemade Almond Joy Candy Bars

Mansoor Khalid, 37, an electrical engineer graduate from Pakistan who's driven a cab since 1996, has turned his taxi into a Willy Wonka factory on wheels by filling his car with boatloads of candy.

The sign in his cab reads, “No eating or drinking inside this car. Except candies.” And the back dashboard of his car is brimming with candy and chocolate. "Snickers, Milky Way, Starburst, Skittles, you name it, I have it," Khalid told Yahoo! Shine. To get the party started, passengers can plug their music devices into his $400 subwoofer and blast their tunes while enjoying the cab's elaborate lighting system which flashes blue, purple, and pink rays. To further sweeten the experience, Khalid strikes a deal with his passengers: If they can finish all the candy in the car by the time they arrive at their destination,

Read More »from The Candy Cab Gives New York City Passengers a Sweet Ride

Move over, Dr. Phil (Photo by Getty Images)So, your husband cheated on you? Eh, just get over it.

That’s the advice that former Southern Baptist minister and televangelist Pat Robertson offered during Wednesday’s episode of “The 700 Club” when a female viewer wrote in to ask how she could regain trust for her philandering husband.  

"Here's the secret. Stop talking about the cheating. He cheated on you, well, he's a man….Does he provide a home for you to live in? Does he provide food for you to eat? Does he provide clothes for you to wear? Is he nice to the children... Is he handsome?

“You’re praying, 'Oh God, keep me from hating for what he did when he was with that stripper in that hotel room ten years ago and I’ll never forgive him’ kind of thing, please help me…start focusing on the good stuff. 

“Give him honor instead of trying to worry about it. But recognize also, like it or not, males have a tendency to wander a little bit and what you want to do is make a home so wonderful that he doesn’t want to wander.”

He goes on to

Read More »from Relationship Advice From Pat Robertson

H&M

Plus-size fashion model Jennie Runk isn't just sitting pretty—she's using her fame to promote positive body image in an essay she penned Wednesday for the BBC News. In the editorial, she urges women to stop worrying about their thighs and feel comfortable in their skin no matter what type of body they have, touching on her own awkward teenage years.

More on Yahoo! Shine: Abercrombie & Fitch Attack Video Aims to Dress Homeless Everywhere In "Cool Kid" Brand

Runk rose to prominence in early May when she was selected by clothing retailer H&M to model their new swimsuit line on the company homepage. For the campaign, the 24-year-old 5'10 beauty, who wears a dress size 14-16, traipsed on a beach wearing bikinis and one-piece swimsuits. The seemingly innocent photo series sent shockwaves around the Internet. First, H&M has a history of featuring toned models (Gisele is the company’s latest cover girl, replacing a bikini-clad Beyonce) so selecting Runk, of normal, healthy proportions, to Read More »from H&M Plus Size Model Jennie Runk Puts Unexpected Fame to Good Use

Fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch is getting a new image, whether they like it or not. 

Los Angeles-based filmmaker Greg Karber has launched a viral video campaign in an attempt to crack open the company's exclusivity mission.

More on Yahoo! Shine: New Petition Urges Abercrombie & Fitch to Change Its Anti-Plus-Size Stance

The film follows a Change.org petition calling for a boycott of the clothing company over the the lack of plus size offerings. It also comes on the heels of a recently resurfaced quote from CEO Mike Jeffries. "Candidly, we go after the cool kids," Jeffries said in an interview with Salon in 2006. "A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”

More on Yahoo! Kirstie Alley Slams Abercrombie and Fitch

That message didn't sit well with Karber, who took a camera to the streets of Los Angeles in an attempt to “change their brand." He films himself scouring the racks of a local GoodWill for armfuls of used A&F Read More »from Abercrombie & Fitch Attack Video Aims to Dress Homeless Everywhere In "Cool Kid" Brand

Derya Sert and her husband husband Mustafa Sert (Photo by Getty Images)Derya Sert, 22, the first woman in the world to have a successful womb transplant from a deceased donor and then become pregnant from the process, has lost her baby at eight weeks, according to a report from The Associated Press on Tuesday afternoon.

In an email to Yahoo! Shine, Mustafa Unal, the Turkish woman's doctor wrote: "Unfortunately her pregnancy was terminated because the baby's heartbeat had stopped."

In April he confirmed her pregnancy to Yahoo! Shine, writing in an email: "We are glad to inform that she is indeed pregnant. But she is now just at the beginning of the pregnancy period. We hope everything goes well until the end of the pregnancy."

Sert was born without a uterus, a condition that occurs in 1 in every 5,000 women, according to the American Free Press. In August 2011, Sert was called a "medical miracle" after her womb transplant was successful. She was impregnated when doctors implanted an embryo into her uterus using one of her own eggs at Akdeniz University

Read More »from Womb Transplant Patient Derya Sert Loses Baby

Getty ImagesBinge drinking and bulimia may not be topics that come to mind upon hearing the name Christine C. Quinn but the speaker of the New York City Council and Democratic candidate for mayor revealed her surprising life-long struggle with both diseases on Tuesday in The New York Times. 

More on Yahoo! Shine: Why Are Eating Disorders on the Rise in Older Women?

Quinn touches on these experiences in her upcoming memoir “With Patience and Fortitude” and says she contacted the newspaper because she believes that hiding her past isn’t healthy. “I just want people to know you can get through stuff,” she said. “I hope people can see that in what my life has been and where it is going.”

More on Yahoo! Warning Signs and Approaching Loved Ones With Eating Disorders

The 46-year-old described how coping with her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis contributed to her bulimia as a child. Her family kept her mother’s breast cancer and subsequent mastectomy a secret for almost six years, until Quinn discovered

Read More »from Politician Christine Quinn Reveals Past Struggles With Bulimia and Alcoholism