Blog Posts by Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff

Alexa and her mom, Tori Hensley. Photo: Courtesy of Tori Hensley.Pop quiz: After admitting on national TV to plying her 2-year-old daughter with frequent cups of coffee, as well as a pre-pageant “tinker tea” concoction of Mountain Dew, sweet tea and Pixie Stix, “Toddlers & Tiaras” mom Tori Hensley has received:

A.)   Angry hate mail

B.)    An offer to develop her very own brand of energy drink for children

C.) All of the above

“We’re just in the negotiation stages,” Hensley confirmed to Yahoo! Shine, following a report about the impending product by Radar Online. She said she’s currently working with the unnamed, “big” company to create the drink, which would be marketed to children involved in pageants or dance, as well as—get this—to kids with hyperactivity disorders.

“Caffeine actually reverses it in some children, not all, and can calm them down, instead of putting them on all these pills,” explained Hensley, adding that “of course we’re going to have different doctors, lawyers, everything like that,” involved

Um, yeah, whatever. Don't worry about it. Photo: Getty Images/Ethan MillerNext time you wake up in a sea of sweat—either from a hot flash or a dream about the hot flash (and chin hairs and memory lapses and a particularly disturbing dryness) you’re sure to suffer through eventually—don’t curse your womanhood. Curse men. And not just for the fun of it.

You’d actually be justified in blaming them completely, according to a new scientific hypothesis that puts the onus of menopause squarely on men’s collective preference for younger ladies.

In the study, “Mate Choice and the Origin of Menopause,” published Thursday in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, researchers posit that, over many thousands of years, a lack of reproduction among older women has led to menopause, now an accidental result of evolution and natural selection.

“It’s a very simple theory. What it does is it demystifies menopause. ... It becomes a simple age-related disease, if you can call it that,” researcher Rama Singh told CTV News in Canada. “That’s just like all the mutations that affect

Murdoch and Deng, in happier times. Photo: Getty Images/David LivingstonMedia reports about Wendi Deng—Rupert Murdoch’s wife of 14 years, from whom he filed for divorce this week—have offered sparse details about the brilliant and glamorous 44-year-old’s life. But many have portrayed her as a gold digger and husband stealer who slept her way to the top, faulting her both for being an independent businesswoman and someone who has relied on her husband’s connections.

More on Shine: What We Can Learn From Celebrity Divorces

“It’s as if she’s in a no-win situation,” Gloria Allred, the high-profile civil-rights attorney and defender of women’s rights, told Yahoo! Shine. “The press wants to speculate, and they will speculate at the expense of the less powerful person in the relationship,” she said. “And that is almost always the woman.”

There have been both gender and ethnic stereotypes in Deng’s portrayals, damning her for everything from hobnobbing with Hollywood to being concerned with the financial interests of her children. Meanwhile, Allred said, “When you

Kate Middleton may have some groovy plans for childbirth. Photo: Getty Images EntertainmentKate Middleton may be royalty, but she’s not too posh to push.

More from Shine: Kate Middleton's Stylish Maternity Looks

The Duchess of Cambridge, whose first child is due in mid-July, is said to be leaning toward birthing her baby in as natural a way as possible. And to make that process easier, according to reports, she might be planning to use a calming technique known as HypnoBirthing.

The duchess was rumored to use hypnosis to overcome her acute morning sickness so this technique would be “second nature for her,” noted Alisha Tamburri, a Los Angeles HypnoBirthing practitioner whose clients have included Jessica Alba, Bridget Fonda, Melissa Joan Hart, Alanis Morisette, and Emily Deschanel.

More from Yahoo!: Kate Middleton Beats Kate Moss to Be Most Inspirational Beauty Icon

The method, popular both in Hollywood and outside of it, has “kind of replaced what Lamaze was years ago,” Tamburri said. It was founded in 1989 by New Hampshire hypnotherapist Marie Mongan, and essentially

"I'm not proud to admit it, but once I had a kid, I realized that I had been judging other moms," Michelle Noehren, founder of the online community CT Working Moms and mother to a 2-year-old daughter told Yahoo! Shine. It was this realization--which mirrored that of the many other mamas in the group--that led to their latest project, "End the Mommy Wars," a visual plea for loving sisterhood over judge-laden competition. After last year's effort, a post-baby-body photo shoot, went viral, the women decided they needed a powerful follow-up. "We wanted to move from embracing our bodies to embracing our parenting choices," Noehren said. Behold the empowering result.--Beth Greenfield, Yahoo! Shine Staff

photo via facebook

After a storm of controversy, Facebook officially changed its policy on the posting of mastectomy photos, making it clear on Wednesday that they are now permitted. And that’s been welcome news to the women behind the once-banned photos, who have called it a victory for their effort to make the truth about breast cancer visual.

More on Shine: Public Demand for Victoria's Secret Post-Mastectomy Bra

“We want the world to know that breast cancer is not a pink ribbon—it is traumatic, it is life-changing, and it urgently needs a cure,” wrote Scorchy Barrington in a special announcement on the Change.org petition she started and which was the force behind Facebook’s updated policy. Barrington (who uses a pseudonym) is a breast cancer survivor who has felt personally empowered by stark images of mastectomy scars. She felt compelled to start the petition after learning that Facebook had removed several of them and banned SCAR Project photographer David Jay for 30 days.

Another woman whose

Daugherty and Menakaya at their Fort Worth reunion. Photo: Courtesy Chidinma Menakaya.

More on Shine: Mother, Son Reunite Thanks to Facebook and the Kindness of Strangers

Enter Lolamay Daugherty, wife of the pastor where Menakaya attended church, who offered a generous solution. “We told her to just come and live with us,” she recalled, speaking with Yahoo! Shine this week. “We were happy to have her.”

It was a precious gift that Menakaya, now 53, said affected the entire course of her life. And last week, after three decades of ups and downs that included moving around the country, raising six children (all now college grads), splitting from her husband and eventually