Blog Posts by Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine

Unnatural? Rylee MacKay was kept out of class because of her hair color. (Photo: MacKay family via Facebook)In the past few months, schools have banned everything from yoga pants and Ugg boots to birthday candles and peanut butter sandwiches. But one Utah middle school is cracking down on hair color—even if the color in question isn't a garish blue or green but just a dark shade of red.

Related: What Else Has Been Banned From Schools?

After being kicked out of class last week for dyeing her brown hair auburn, an honors student at a Utah middle school has been allowed to return to school—but only after she toned down her hair color.

Though Rylee MacKay, 15, had been dyeing her hair the same shade every six weeks since September, it wasn't until earlier this month that the school took issue with the color. On Feb. 4, Hurricane Middle School vice principal Jan Goodwin spotted Rylee in the halls and ordered her into the office. She had just had her hair touched up two days earlier.

The Washington County School District dress code states that "Hair, including beards, mustaches and sideburns,

Just because it's fresh doesn't mean it's better for you. (Photo: Getty Images)Just a few years ago, seeing the word "fresh" on a restaurant menu was a clue about the quality of ingredients. But now? Thanks to the fast-food industry, the word is mostly just a marketing term, and "fresh" doesn't mean much any more.

Related: The 5 Worst 'Healthy' Fast-Food Meals for Kids

"I think it's meaningless, almost, now," Mark Crumpacker, the chief marketing officer of Chipotle, told Slate. "I don't think there are any rules around 'fresh.' You can just say it with impunity. And I think lots of people do."

Consumers tend to assume that "fresh" also means "unprocessed" and "healthy," and restaurants are happy to play to that perception. McDonald's, for example, markets its salads as "Yummy, fresh, freedom in a bowl," but add a little protein and dressing and suddenly one crispy chicken salad (450 calories, 21 grams of fat) is about the same as a double cheeseburger (440 calories, 23 grams of fat). National chains tout their freshly made pizzas without focusing on how the

22-year-old Rebecca Gallanagh decorated her ankle monitor while on house arrest -- and got fined. (Photo: Mikey Jones/Caters News)There are some things in life that aren't improved by glue and glitter. Certain sensitive body parts, for example. And the electronic monitoring device you've been ordered to wear on your ankle after being involved in a bar brawl.

Related: Dumbest Facebook Post Ever?

In November, Rebecca Gallanagh of Tamworth, Staffordshire, England was convicted of a public order offense when she got caught up in a fight outside a nightclub near home. Her sentence: To stay home from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. for three months, which meant that she was off the party circuit and couldn't keep her night job at a local bar. The ugly police-issued anklet -- also called an ankle monitor, or a tether -- was there to make sure she didn't break curfew.

Rebecca Gallanagh's blinged-out anklet. We're not sure it's an improvement. (Photo: Caters News Service)Irritated by the plain gray plastic, she decided to decorate it by covering it in rows of tiny fake diamonds (she even carefully spelled out her initials on one side). The 22-year-old told The Daily Mail that she was inspired by an episode of "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding."

Why do we keep drinking diet soda? (Photo: Getty Images)

Yet another study confirms what people have been saying for ages: Stop drinking diet soda. Like, right now. Drinking just one 12-ounce can of an artificially sweetened fizzy drink per week can increase your risk of Type 2 diabetes by 33 percent, French researchers found. And given that most people don't stop at a single weekly serving, your real risk for diabetes could actually be much higher.

Diet Soda May Increase Risk of Depression

The study, which was announced Thursday and will be published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, was conducted by France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research and covered 66,118 middle-aged women whose dietary habits and health were tracked from 1993 to 2007.

Diet Soda May Be Making You Fat

The results were unexpected. Though it's well-known that people who consume a lot of sugar are more likely to develop diabetes, the researchers found that participants who drank "light" or "diet" soft drinks had a higher risk of

MIT's charm school is celebrating 20 years of teaching techies good manners. (Photo: Getty Images)Tech-savvy students, faculty, and staff members at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology may be super-advanced when it comes to science, but a campus-only charm school -- where mega minds get to hone their social skills -- is one of the most-popular things on campus right now.

Forget high-end etiquette like whether Americans need to curtsey to queens (they don't). In the MIT program, students who usually spend their lives in the labs learn about social niceties like how to shake hands properly, how to make small talk, and the basic dos and don'ts of table manners.

Related: 25 Manner Every Kid Should Know by Age 9

"The classes we teach are designed for everyone, and we feel that we all have something to learn about etiquette, manners, communication, and personal skills," the school explains on their website. "The nerd stereotype is not only misleading, it does not begin to capture the diverse, dynamic community that we have here at MIT. The bottom line is that not everyone

The King family was surprised to see the At a time where airlines are charging more for child-free seats and people are routinely enraged about out-of-control kids in public, one restaurant is rewarding parents when their pint-size diners show good manners.

When Laura King and her family got their bill at Sogno di Vino, a small Italian restaurant in Poulsbo, Washington, listed under the subtotal was something they had never seen before: A discount for "Well Behaved Kids."

Related: The No-Kids-Allowed Movement Is Spreading

King was so touched by the restaurant's gesture that she posted a picture of the receipt on her private Facebook page; a friend shared the photo on Reddit with the comment.

"We have not received a discount for our children's behavior prior to this, but we have been complimented on numerous occasions regarding our kids demeanor and behavior," King told Yahoo! Shine on Thursday. The restaurant had also given her children complimentary ice cream.

Related: 8 Real Kid Behavior Problems and How to Fix Them

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Will this birthday tradition be banned? (Photo: Getty Images)Celebrating birthdays at school just got a little less fun for kids in Australia. New guidelines issued Tuesday by the country's National Health and Medical Research Council say that children can no longer blow out the candles on cakes at school because doing so spreads too many germs.

Related: The Most Germy Place in Schools? It's Not What You Think

"We introduced new national standards to lift the quality of child care across Australia because we believe parents deserve peace of mind when they drop their child off they are receiving quality care to a high standard," Australia's Minister for Early Childhood and Child Care, Kate Elliss, explained in a statement. "All services across the country will be assessed and rated against new National Quality Standard which will ensure that services are meeting basic requirements including children's health, safety and wellbeing."

Related: 5 Ways to De-Germ Your Child After School

But parents aren't feeling much peace of mind. Instead, they're

Taken by professionals and amateurs, adults and kids, the photographers who have been shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards have created some amazing images. We couldn't stop staring at these photos in particular; they're focused on children from different countries, capturing what life is like for modern-day kids in an ever-changing world. -- By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine