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

Alana Thompson and her family, from TLC's Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.The first time I watched "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" on TLC, I was appalled. It wasn't the mud bogging or the Redneck games that got me, though I'll admit that watching people bob for raw pigs feet was kind of gross. It wasn't the way the mom washed her hair in the sink, the constant fart jokes, or even the stark contrast between the picture-perfect beauty pageant world and their ramshackle house down by the railroad tracks that made me uncomfortable.

What got me was the way the show seemed to glorify all of the things that make so many people cringe about our country -- and how fans are flocking to it.

Critics were horrified when "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" debuted earlier this year. The 7-year-old star, Alana Thompson, chugs Mountain Dew mixed with Red Bull before beauty pageants and struts around saying things like "A dollah makes me hollah!" (her over-the-top antics on "Toddlers and Tiaras" helped her land her own show). The entire family looks like a train wreck, from morbidly

Read More »from Why Do People Love Honey Boo Boo?

First lady Michelle Obama stands during a soundcheck on Monday, Sept. 3, in preparation for the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) As she prepares to speak tonight at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, First Lady Michelle Obama says that her goals for the 2012 election campaign are much the same as they were in 2008.

"Four years ago, millions of people across this country came together and elected the leader they knew would stand up for them in office," she told Yahoo! Shine in an interview hours before her speech. "I want people to know that Barack is still that leader. He is still driven by the core values and principles that made him want to do the incredibly tough job in the first place."

WATCH: First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden talk to Yahoo! Shine about military families

Since becoming the first lady, Mrs. Obama has honed her speaking skills and sharpened her focus. Though people still criticize her for comments made in the last election cycle (particularly the one about finally feeling proud of her country), she has largely avoided controversy, focused on family

Read More »from Michelle Obama: "We Have so Much More in Common in This Country"

The dads try to deal while the moms are away in Lifetime TV's reality show, The Week the Women Went.Last summer, BBC television producers sent all of the women in Yemassee, South Carolina, away for a vacation along the Florida Coast. While the 100 or so wives and mothers relaxed at a resort, completely cut off from their families, the men and children stayed home to fend for themselves -- with a film crew capturing their efforts for a reality TV show, "The Week the Women Went."

"I knew it was going to be a nightmare," Darnell Wilson, 35, told the Los Angeles Times. "I didn't fool myself for one minute."

Why a small town in the American south? The producers were looking for a place where traditional gender roles are the norm, executive producer Jon Kroll explained.

"It's fish out of water, it's gender politics, it's seeing how the other half lives," Kroll told the Los Angeles Times. "It's a conceit with so much potential."

The show, which airs on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on the Lifetime channel, is based on a BBC program that ran in Canada in 2007 and 2008. It bills itself as part

Read More »from "The Week the Women Went": Who is to Blame If the Men Can't Cope?

Little kids love music, but these identical twin sisters really know how to rock out to a good song.

"Daddy's going to play them a little song while they're eating their peas," their mom says in the video, which was posted earlier this month. As the first notes fill the room, the 11-month-olds give each other a delighted grin and then start rocking and bopping in their high chairs, babbling along with the music and smiling at each other from time to time.

Daddy sure has one appreciative -- and adorable -- audience!

Copyright © 2012 Yahoo Inc.

Also on Shine:

WATCH: 8-year-old rocker gets her two step on
Back-to-school playlist: The 9 best pop songs for soothing first-day jitters
WATCH: Amazing musical kids who can really play

Read More »from WATCH: Adorable Baby Girls Rock Out when Their Dad Plays Guitar

Angela Rockwood on the set of a photo shoot for Nordstrom. (Photo courtesy of the Sundance Channel)Angela Rockwood is posing for the camera, wearing a bright red blouse and black-and-white patterned capri pants. She smiles and laughs, tossing her brown hair in the wind-machine generated breeze. As one of the stars of "Push Girls," the Sundance Channel reality show, she's at ease in front of the camera. She's also in a wheelchair, unable to move most of her body.

"In reality, I shouldn't even be here," she told The Huffington Post in June. "So the fact that I still have my body… I may not be able to move it in the way that I want to, but the fact that I'm still in this vessel, still living and still here, talking to you, communicating and sharing all of my experiences and living this moment… I'm just very grateful for that."

PHOTOS: Iraq war veteran Kortney Clemons takes on the Paralympics

Born in Clovis, New Mexico, Rockwood grew up in the Philippines, Spain, and Guam, thanks to her military family. Her exotic looks -- she's of Thai and German descent -- helped her launch her Read More »from Quadriplegic "Push Girls" Star Angela Rockwood Makes Her Modeling Comeback

Sandra Fluke testifies before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee in February. She talked to Yahoo! Shine about why women's issues are everyone's issues. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images) Both major political parties are determined to win over women voters, but as the Republican National Convention participants deal with hurricane conditions in Tampa this week, the Democrats are starting a storm of their own, launching a new program highlighting the ways they say the GOP has fallen short with women.

Dubbed "Romney/Ryan: Wrong for Women," the week-long series of events sports a roster of high-profile female politicians, a former Bain Capital employee, White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, and women's health activist Sandra Fluke, who was branded a "slut" by Rush Limbaugh after she was barred from testifying before a congressional committee about birth control access earlier this year.

The Democratic push is about more than just reproductive health issues, Fluke told Yahoo! Shine in an exclusive interview on Monday.

"I think it's much more than reproductive health issues," Fluke says. "That is very critical for women, and we've heard a lot about that.

Read More »from Sandra Fluke: "Women's Issues" Not Just About Reproductive Rights

A Grand Prairie, Texas, Burger King is being sued for religious discrimination after a Christian teen wasn't allowed to wear a skirt instead of pants to work. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)A Texas teenager is suing Burger King for religious discrimination, saying that the fast food giant fired her, a conservative Christian, for wearing a long skirt, rather than uniform pants, to work.

Related: Fast food employees dish about items you should never order

Ashanti McShan was a 17-year-old high school senior when she applied for a job as a cashier at the Grand Prairie Burger King in August 2010, according to the lawsuit filed on her behalf this week by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. During her interview McShan, who is a Pentacostal Christian, said that her religious beliefs forbid women to wear men's clothing, so she would need to be able to wear a long back skirt rather than the standard-issue uniform pants. The Burger King employee interviewing her "assured her that she could wear a skirt to work," the lawsuit says.

But when she arrived for orientation, another store management told her that she could not wear a skirt "and that she had to leave the store,"

Read More »from Christian Woman Fired from Burger King for Wearing Skirt Instead of Pants

A new 9/11 coloring book features terrorist trading cards.A year after the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a coloring book company has published a new book for kids about terrorism. It's called "We Shall never Forget 9/11, Volume II: The True Faces of Evil-Terror" and, among the black-and-white outlines of memorials and military men, it features collectible trading cards with photos and information about terrorists around the world.

Related: Discussing 9/11 with your kids

"This is not the type of book that you would give to a pre-Kindergarten child, to put in his backpack and send him off to school," Wayne Bell, the publisher of St. Louis-based Big Coloring Books Inc., told Yahoo! Shine in an interview. (He is quick to point out that it's more of a "graphic coloring novel.") "This is a teaching and learning tool that's rated PG-13."

"A lot of people seem to think that there's a disconnect with the public in general when it comes to teaching children about terrorism and terrorist activity," Bells adds. "A lot of people want to

Read More »from New 9/11 Coloring Book Features Terrorist Trading Cards