Blog Posts by Jessica Ashley, Senior Editor

Technology is taking the decades-long tradition of 12-step programs and drug and alcohol treatment to new places. Social networks have enabled the once-anonymous to share their stories of recovery in 140-character updates. Bloggers have used posts to openly discuss being clean and sober and message boards have offered support outside of meeting rooms. Soon, smart phones could take Recovery 2.0 one step further.

Engineering researchers at the University of Wisconsin's have developed a smart phone app that will be tested by treatment centers to assist addicts who are currently in recovery or have just left a treatment facility. The app offers quick, simple connection to sponsors, a 24-hour counseling hotline, their treatment center of choice, and friends, peers, or family who are critical to the recovery process.

Dubbed ACHESS (for Addiction-Center for Health Enhancement System Studies), the app also has a panic button that can be custom programmed. Specialized GPS also helps the

Read More »from Can your phone help you kick drugs and drinking?

When it comes to Mother's Day, I've been one lucky mama. Even through a divorce, my mom and ex-husband have rallied to make sure that my little boy has a gift, usually wrapped up in pink paper and bows, that he feels excited to give me. He is opinionated -- usually choosing some kind of jewelry with a heart on it, almost always opting for girly colors he knows I will love -- and the support crew of adults pony up the cash and invest the time so his vision is realized in a bead bracelet or customized t-shirt or coffee mug plastered with pictures of my little boy's smiling face.

Still, I am well aware that the tween and teen years (and beyond) can be brutal for mothers, particularly on Mother's Day, especially for those of us who treasure the papier-mache and macaroni masterpieces and will wear a "best mom ever" necklace every day until our necks turn a disturbing shade of brownish-green.

You only have to look through Shine posts of the past on terrible Mother's Day gifts to find

Read More »from Tell us! What are the best and worst Mother's Day gifts you've ever gotten (or given)?

At the age of 19, Demi Lovato already has more than a decade of experience as a professional actor and singer in her repertoire. But her ambition and talent stretches back to a kindergarten talent show, where she says the spark was lit as she sang "My Heart Will Go On." By age eight, she was a part of the cast of the preschool sensation "Barney & Friends" with best friend Selena Gomez.

As a teen, her successes piled up -- a spot as the lead in the Disney Channel show "Sonny with a Chance", a starring role in the "Camp Rock" movies, a top spot in "The Princess Protection Program", and two solo albums. She made guest appearances on shows like "America's Next Top Model" and "Grey's Anatomy" and spoke out against bullying on CNN. She dated Joe Jonas, and teamed up with him, Gomez, and Miley Cyrus for an environmental charity campaign.

The Demi that looked shiny under the spotlight was really worn and broken underneath.

In this month's Seventeen, Lovato reveals that the pressure to be

Read More »from Demi Lovato talks candidly eating disorders, rehab, and fighting back against the pressure to be perfect

If you're only focusing on filing your taxes on time, considering the tremendous work of rebuilding post-disaster Japan, how to keep childhood obesity from invading your home and kids' schools, or whether or not we will ever be done with these wars, for crying out loud, STOP.

Something really pressing has happened, something dangerous and controversial has infested our Internet, seeped into our home computers, and possibly poisoned all we know and have built for our families!

It needs your attention now! This thing...this scary, scary thing...is a threat! A horror! Psychological warfare on the minds of consumers, parents, and possibly an entire generation!

What is this dire matter?

A boy wearing pink nail polish. Of course.

Perhaps you've seen the coverage spilling its way across reputable and questionable news sources. Or maybe you received the ad in the mail, an email blast sent out last week by J. Crew last week to customers who receive a feature called "Saturday with Jenna."

Read More »from Boys with nail polish: so not a big deal

PatieCakes toddler stud muffin tie, $3Oh, the joy of the weeks before a big holiday when you're busy planning a brunch buffet for seventeen, desperately trying to find non-toxic eggs to stuff full of candy, on a house-wide scavenger hunt for the left patent leather peep toe heel you will be wearing thankyouverymuch and are praying to the Saints of Small Children's Attire that your kids will not be seated in pews in Dora jammies or something sort of clean.

Worry not. There's no need to buy new outfits for rapidly growing children or to stress about how many stores you have to go to in order to ensure everyone's fully clothed. Here's exactly how to use a brand new accessory or two - either from a store or dug up from whatever pile you find your own shoe in - to make the clothes your kids already have, love, and probably over-wear so that they feel comfortable, appear happy, and even look portrait-worthy.

Share your child's spring photos and any other fun, embarrassing or incredible moments that you have captured on the

Read More »from Forget buying new Easter outfits! 21 accessories to fancy up your kid's everyday clothes

I could not take my eyes away from Bravo's new show based on the business of professional pregnancy concierge, Rosie Pope, and the crazy services she provides to wealthy moms-to-be in New York City. Her maternity boutique is high-end and so are the demands of her clientele, whose demands range from completely extravagant (naked portrait on a pony, anyone?) to basic (need to learn how to actually hold a baby?).

Rosie Pope herself is accommodating and still firm; she knows the parents she's dealing with and their hyper-specific issues but she doesn't stand for diva behavior or delegating the real work of becoming a mother or father to her or to her staff. Once I got over round-in-the-mouth accent, I liked watching Rosie navigate her way through the stroller store with parents who thought pushing a baby in a big, ugly plastic thing with too many knobs and levers was too much of a hassle. I even enjoyed the focus groups she set up for a couple intent on (get ready for this) "branding

Read More »from 'Pregnant in Heels': Do you need a pregnancy concierge? [video]

I am pretty sure that one day Bethenny Frankel and I are going to be friends. We will laugh hard and drink Skinnygirl Margaritas and she get on my last girlfriend nerve, but we are destined to know each other. And when we finally meet, I will thank her profusely for her crazy/wonderful tip on cutting calories from a food that cannot be completely cut from any sane woman's diet - ginormous bagels.


Here's Bethenny's advice from her book "The Skinnygirl Dish: Easy Recipes for Your Naturally Thin Life":


I'll be honest - no matter how much her crabby dog Cookie takes to me - there's just no way in hell I am going to scoop the good part out of a great food. But reading this did make me think that there's really no reason for me to eat the whole bagel those two times (ahem) a week (honest!) I crave one. I felt like this tip opened up my options for bagel-gobbling. Either I can scoop out the insides and add sandwich stuffs or I can just eat one half now, another in a couple of days.

Ta-da!

Read More »from What's one little change you've made in your diet?

Kimora Lee Simmons / Getty ImagesI thought I knew a lot about Kimora Lee Simmons from marathoning my way through her reality show, during which she swathed her daughters in custom clothes, negotiated how much time her kids should spend meditating with her ex-husband Russell Simmons, openly hated exercise, squeezed into red-carpet gowns, bounded through life brashly as a single mother, ran multiple companies, had a third child and got remarried to actor Djimon Hounsou. Perhaps I believed that was rounded out knowing that she'd begun her modeling career at 13, considers Tyra Banks a close enough friend to be her maid of honor, and by reading excerpts of her book.

But what I didn't know was how much Kimora and I would have in common.

I'm a sucker for a celebrity interview. I usually hang up the phone or click off the email exchange fully vested in this person I've known for 2 minutes and 37 seconds. But the (much longer) time I spent with Kimora was more like coffee with that crazy mom in the killer heels you always

Read More »from Kimora Lee Simmons: 11 pretty fabulous things she told me, mama to mama