Blog Posts by Jennifer Romolini, Shine editor in chief

Yesterday, at 2:00pm eastern standard time, the ever-snarky gotcha! website Gawker published a story titled: "I Had a One-Night Stand With Christine O'Donnell."

The post, written by an anonymous man (who's since been outed as 28-year-old Philadelphian Dustin Dominiak), revealed the intimate details from a romantic night Dominiak says the two shared three years ago. It included a raunchy play-by-play of the evening (including what happened once the duo entered his bedroom) and it ran alongside photos of O'Donnell vamping in a ladybug costume (it was Halloween) while appearing rather tipsy in a bar. Despite the provocative headline, what it did not include was any account of actual sex. Still, it was shocking, disturbing, a wee humorous (a slutty ladybug costume? Forgive me, but that's kind of funny), and nearly impossible not to read.

Not surprisingly, the story sparked controversy nearly immediately. The National Organization for Women released a statement explaining, "Sexist,

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Getty ImagesLast week, while watching the season finales of two popular shows- 'Mad Men' and 'Jersey Shore'- we were struck by a significant and salient point: Women in the past looked better than we do today, like a WHOLE LOT BETTER. Sure, 'Mad Men' is a highly-stylized, fictional depiction of a bygone era, and the 'Jersey Shore' reflects the "reality" of a small and specific cultural subset (namely East Coast guidos). We also know not every woman in the '60s was perfectly coiffed and manicured and wearing the ideal shade of red lipstick and, to be fair, not all modern ladies walk around looking like Snooki, BUT-from Oompa Loompa skin to obnoxious breast augmentation to ratty extensions- the women of the 'Jersey Shore' represent quite a few of the ugliest beauty trends of the past decade.

It got us thinking of a sort of larger beauty timeline, about how a population of females can travel from that '60s-pulled-together-and-pretty appearance to, well, JWOWW. It made us ruminate on how the

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Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns stood up to bullies and homophobes everywhere last night during a public meeting in his hometown. Sharing, for the first time ever, the story of severe taunting and abuse he endured as a homosexual youth, Burns shed light on the spate of recent gay teen suicides around the country, a problem he called an "epidemic." His speech was warm, composed, and tempered, and, in an age of shocking and continuous ignorance, hate, fear, and discrimination toward the gay community, his bravery and eloquence are sort of beyond words. Joel Burns is currently my hero.

Getty ImagesIn the world of American fashion magazines, women of color have notoriously been underrepresented, pretty much since the birth of print. Ditto the plus-size population, who go almost entirely absent from the pages of big-name publications, as if they don't exist. So it was a boon for both groups this summer when ELLE magazine announced that full-figured African-American actress Gabourey Sidibe would grace the cover of its 25th anniversary issue.

For its special October edition, ELLE produced four separate covers, each one meant to celebrate a different mid-20's female star--in addition to Sidibe, 27, it included actresses Amanda Seyfried and Megan Fox and reality star/fashion entrepreneur Lauren Conrad. But here's where things got tricky:

While each of the other three (all oft-used, not to mention skinny and Caucasian) cover girls are shown off in full-body glamour shots wearing stylish clothes, Sidibe is cropped at the mid-chest, with a swath of ruched green fabric hiding her curvy

Read More »from Was Gabourey Sidibe's skin lightened for the cover of ELLE?

Erin and Brian Woods Photo: CBS NewsThis is one of those stories that's so sad, it's almost hard to read.

Last Friday night, Vancouver couple Erin and Brian Wood were on their way to visit family in Washington state when an oncoming Chevy Blazer swerved directly in front of their car. Brian Wood slammed the brakes and turned the vehicle sharply to the right. Seconds later, when the Blazer crashed into the Wood's car, Brian, 33, was killed instantly. His wife, who is seven months pregnant, survived.

"It's pretty obvious if you look at the car that if it would have been a head-on crash, we both would have been killed, right along with our baby," Erin told the TODAY show yesterday. "He definitely saved us. He made that choice, and I'm thankful for that."

According to several reports, the driver of the Blazer, Jordyn Weichert, was trying to remove her sweater when the crash occurred. Police found heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and syringes in her car, along with a gun and two men in the Blazer's the backseat were

Read More »from Husband sacrifices life for his pregnant wife (saddest story of the day)

Getty ImagesFile this one under: It is seriously about time. Next week in Manhattan, a group of American designers will buck the tradition that associates fashion solely with the alarmingly thin and participate in the first ever New York Fashion Week show dedicated to full-figured gals. "Sixty-two percent of women in this country are overweight," says Stephanie Sobel, president of OneStopPlus, the U.S. retail company behind the event. "These are customers who want to be a part of fashion, who want to see women of diverse sizes respected, celebrated, and embraced." Plus-size clothing is generally defined as size 14 or 16 and over.

Though the event is not officially part of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, it will take place September 16th amid major shows by some of the industry's biggest names. Model Emme will host and more than a dozen plus-size labels will showcase their designs.

[How to rock a plus-size bikini]

The efforts of OneStopPlus are part of a growing trend in the fashion industry to

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Getty ImagesOver the summer, about two months into my maternity leave, I ran into a co-worker from my fashion magazine days, a woman I hadn't seen in years. I was feeling especially proud that afternoon-my new daughter and I were both out, dressed, and not crying-and for the first time in weeks, I felt up to adult conversation. I started giving her the thumbnail update of my life, about how I'd changed jobs, gotten married, birthed the pretty little creature dangling from my chest. In the midst of this, I noticed my former colleague distracted, fixating on something that was decidedly not the words coming out of my mouth. I followed her gaze and...there on my forearm was a streak of mustard-y brown: I was delivering a You-Really-Can-Have-It-All monologue while smeared in baby poop.

Since the birth of my kid last May, I've had dozens of humbling moments like this one, times when I felt completely unmoored and more than a little out of control. When I was pregnant, I read tons of stories about

Read More »from 15 things that change (immediately) when you have a baby

If you follow fashion even a little bit, you know that bangs never actually go out of style. And yet, somehow, forehead-fringe comes "back" every other season or so, usually when a certain number of celebrities suddenly sport the style in a short period of time. This week, bangs hit their Spring 2010 tipping point when a majorly hot star - "Glee" actress Lea Michelle - showed up to the hit show's premiere party with freshly-cut sideswept bangs in honor of the occasion. Michelle told AccessHollywood.com at the event that she didn't plan the cut, which is reminiscent of Penelope Cruz's classic style: "I was just at home getting ready tonight and I was like, 'I think I would like some bangs.' So we cut them." In fact, she says she didn't even check with the show before cutting her hair: "This is real and they don't know it at work right now," she said. "We'll be using some headbands for a couple of weeks I think."

Michelle might have been subconsciously inspired by Angelina Jolie's new

Read More »from Stars prove bangs are back (again)