Illustration: Corbis“My reason for changing my name is not terribly romantic. I did it for simplicity,” Tracy Robert, née Stientjes, a 28-year-old newlywed told Yahoo! Shine. “My maiden name is super hard for others to say and spell, and my married name is not.” And, though the process of changing it came with lots of annoying paperwork, she added, “I do feel like we are our own little team now!”
More on Shine: 7 Wedding Traditions that Need to Die
Robert is not alone. She is, in fact, in a growing majority, according to the most recent available data on the topic.
“For the married female population, keeping your maiden name is so last decade,” wrote Abby Haglage Thursday in her Daily Beast story “Retro Wedding Craze: Taking the Husband’s Name.” She reveals that, according to Facebook data on 14 million married women recently collected jointly by the social media company and the Daily Beast, 65 percent of women in their 20s and 30s changed their name when they married.
Those percentages rose,
Blog Posts by Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff
Retro Marriage Trend Makes a Comeback, for Better or Worse
By Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff | Love + Sex – Thu, May 16, 2013 4:26 PM EDTUpdate: Disney's Response To Princess Merida Controversy At Odds With Petitioners
By Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff | Parenting – Thu, May 16, 2013 11:50 AM EDT
Uh, here we go: Merida was coronated as the official 11th Disney princess Saturday. Photo: YouTube/DisneyMoms who are celebrating Disney for pulling from its website a controversially redesigned, sexier version of “Brave” princess Merida should hold their horses.
More on Shine: Disney Princess Makeover Sparks Outrage: Merida Petition Goes Viral
On Tuesday, Carolyn Danckaert, the activist behind last week’s wildly popular online petition to “Keep Merida Brave,” announced via Facebook news from supporters that "the new makeover version of Merida is no longer appearing on Disney.com." But the controversially modified version of the princess still appeared on Target's Disney princess website, where new product tie-ins are sold.“From our standpoint, it’s not a victory,” Danckaert, who has garnered more than 200,000 signatures on her Change.org petition, told Yahoo! Shine Thursday morning.
It may not have been a victory from any standpoint.According to a Disney spokesperson who contacted Yahoo! Shine late Thursday, the controversial image never appeared on the company's official website to
Read More »from Update: Disney's Response To Princess Merida Controversy At Odds With PetitionersHow Will the New Definition of Autism in DSM-5 Affect Children? Parents, Advocates Anxious Over Changes.
By Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff | Team Mom – Thu, May 16, 2013 8:42 AM EDT
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Photo: Marta Nardini/Getty ImagesWhen Kim Covell’s son Dylan was 6 years old, the Long Island mother of three witnessed a major change in him.
More on Shine: More than My Label: 7 Things I Wish Your Kids Knew About Autism
“Seemingly overnight, my joyful son with the infectious belly laugh was afraid. He was afraid of everything, anxious, nervous and sometimes, I am convinced, did not even recognize me as his mother,” wrote Covell in a 2012 piece for the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
“For months he would cry, alternating between the phrases ‘I am nervous’ and ‘I am sad.’ In desperation, we tried medication, which only intensified his distress,” she wrote. “And then he was quiet. The fear was replaced with emptiness.”
More on Yahoo!: Could a Blood Test Detect Autism? Study Aims to Answer
It was the start of a long road that would lead Dylan, now 14, to be first diagnosed with autism, and, later, with childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD), a much more rare form of autism, marked by a severe loss of socialBreast-Milk Baby Booties: The Latest Thing Brought to You by Lactation
By Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff | Parenting – Wed, May 15, 2013 5:49 PM EDT
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The booties. Photo: PA via Daily MailAre these folks milking their talents or what? British sustainable designers Nick Gant and Tanya Dean, of BoBo Design Ltd, unveiled the latest in a growing line of innovative creations today: tiny baby booties made of hardened breast milk, made to promote World Breast Milk Donation Day, which will be celebrated by 24 countries around the world (not including the US) on Sunday.
“Turning waste material like breast milk, which couldn’t otherwise be used, but which is embedded with meaning and personal history, into something new, gives the products created greater meaning and value,” Gant told the UK’s Daily Mail. “We want to show that they can be used to raise awareness and communicate issues about material culture, ethics and sustainability.”
The one-inch booties, which are not for actual wearing, were made through a process that involves gently heating the donated milk, adding vinegar to form curds, and then pressing those curds into silicon molds and leaving to dry over a four-dayTeen Labeled 'Freak' in Yearbook Amounts to Bullying, Says Mom
By Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff | Parenting – Wed, May 15, 2013 3:13 PM EDT
Dylan Worthen's yearbook was forever marred. Photo: Fox 5 AtlantaAfter mysteriously being labeled “freak” in a high-school yearbook photo caption, a Georgia teen’s mom wants the school held accountable for bullying—and the yearbooks destroyed and reprinted.More on Shine: Student's Yearbook Photo Banned by her Peers for Being 'Too Sexy'
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“There’s no way to fix this issue. It’s in the book, printed in ink,” a visibly upset Susan Powell told Fox 5 Atlanta regarding what appears to be a cruel joke on her son, Dylan Worthen, a freshman trumpet player at South Paulding High School. In the offending caption, under a school band photo, her son’s name appears as “Dylan Worthen-Freak.”
More on Yahoo!: Bullying Study: It Does Get Better for Gay Teens
More than 900 copies of the yearbook, called "Bold," have just been printed.
“We have not yet determined the person responsible,” Brian Otott, associate superintendent for the Paulding County School District, told Yahoo! Shine. But, he said, “This is a very serious matter, because we’re talking about kids here. WeDisney World Scheme: Entitled Families Hire Disabled Guide to Bypass Lines, Says Report
By Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff | Parenting – Wed, May 15, 2013 11:23 AM EDT
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Disney World. Photo: Getty Images.Now this is rich: Disney World is investigating news that a handful of upper-crust Manhattan moms have a pricey, secret way to get their kids to the front of the lines—and it’s not by bribing Mickey Mouse.
More on Shine: Disney Princess Makeover Sparks Outrage: Merida Petition Goes Viral
Instead, according to the New York Post, the moms pay $130 an hour to hire a disabled, “black-market” guide, who uses her position—sitting in a motorized scooter—to help entitled families gain special access to rides.
“On one hand, you can say she’s a great entrepreneur,” disability activist Kleo King, of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, told Yahoo! Shine. “On the other hand, she’s kind of pimping herself out. And it’s outrageous she would help people commit fraud.”
Though the New York Post has no on-the-record sources in its shocking report, Disney is taking the matter seriously, according to spokesperson Bryan Malenius, who told Yahoo! Shine, “We are thoroughly reviewing the situation and5-Year-Old NJ Boy Uses ABCs to Save Dad's Life
By Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff | Parenting – Tue, May 14, 2013 11:25 AM EDTA 5-year-old Newark, NJ boy became a hero after he used quick thinking and A-B-C skills to save his father’s life last week.
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More on Shine: 9-Year-Old Hero Saves Diabetic Mother
The two were driving home from buying Nathaniel Dancy Jr. school shoes when Nathaniel Sr. suffered an aneurysm and stroke, making him violently ill, according to a report by New York’s NBC Channel 4 News. (NBC reported his name as Nathaniel Darcy, but Nathaniel Jr.'s school, the public North Star Academy Charter School, confirmed for Yahoo! Shine it was Dancy). He was able to pull the car over, but then got out of the car, vomited, and became paralyzed by a seizure. That’s when Nathaniel Jr., who is in kindergarten, sprang into action, grabbing his dad’s phone and calling his grandmother.
More on Yahoo!: Noblesville Boy, 12, Honored with 911 Hero Award for Helping Save His Dad's Life (Video)
“He said, ‘Come and help me and my daddy. We’re in trouble,’” Susan Hardy-Blackman told NBC New York. She asked him whereAhmed Angel: Everything We Know About The Internet's Favorite Male Model (Except if He's Real)
By Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff | Love + Sex – Mon, May 13, 2013 5:09 PM EDT
You Angel has arrived. Photo: FacebookJust who is Ahmed Angel, the mysteriously bright-eyed, shiny-haired, self-loving poser trending online everywhere from Reddit to Kotaku to BuzzFeed? We're not certain, honestly. But here's what we've gathered so far:
1. He is planet. And in a loving tribute to himself, he shows us all what that means.2. He rocks acid-washed jeans. And not only that—he can look equally divine in shades of mustard, turquoise, taupe, cherry-red, yellow, chartreuse, pink, and white.
Read More »from Ahmed Angel: Everything We Know About The Internet's Favorite Male Model (Except if He's Real)
3. He’s accomplished, yet still learning. Angel is both a doctor and a student. (It all depends which Facebook account you’re referring to—the regular page, on which he’s a student, or the “official” page, on which he’s a doctor, and which is the only page “liked” by the regular one.)
Photo: Facebook
4. His FB fans are gushers. They tell him, “You make my life complete,” and, “You are a wonderful creature,” and call him “mega-inspirational,” “amazing,” “the best forever,” “more beautiful than the sun and the moon combined,” and, simply,Boston Bombing Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Disturbing Female Fan Club
By Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff | Healthy Living – Mon, May 13, 2013 3:16 PM EDT
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Dzhokhar Tsarvaev. Photo: AFP/Getty ImagesThe face of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, to the majority of Americans, churns up feelings of hatred, anger, and unspeakable grief. But it’s fueling something else for a surprising number of young women: puppy love.
More on Shine: Boston Bombers' Parents Defend Their Kids: Can We Blame Them?
Since his arrest in April, 19-year-old Tsarnaev has grown into a bit of an online heartthrob, with supporters setting up special Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr pages in his honor, using the hashtag #freejahar. The fans declare his innocence, refer to him by his nickname of Jahar, write about how they wish they could get in touch with him (and, in one case, “curl up and take a nap” in his soft hair), publicize items like hand beaded “Free Jahar” bracelets, and note that he’s “beautiful,” “hot” and “too pretty to be guilty.” One Kansas teen even told the New York Post that she was going to get a Tsarnaev quote tattooed onto her arm, though she soon after changed her mind.
More onDiagnosing Bipolar Disorder in Kids: Here's the DSM-5's Controversial New Update
By Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff | Team Mom – Mon, May 13, 2013 12:09 PM EDT
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Photo: Todor Tsvetkov/Getty ImagesWhen it comes to bouts of teenage rage, there are tantrums—and then there are tantrums. Diagnosable ones.
More on Shine: How Will the New Definition of Autism in DSM-5 Affect Children? Parents, Advocates Anxious Over Changes.
Many kids prone to explosive anger, in fact, are labeled bipolar. It’s part of the reason that, in the past decade alone, diagnoses of the disorder in children have soared by a staggering 40 percent, with some estimates putting the prevalence rate as high as 3 percent in adolescents. And that’s particularly noteworthy considering that, before the mid-1990s, almost no one diagnosed bipolar disorder in kids.
What’s happened between then and now has been the fascinating evolution of a pediatric disorder, driven by major psychiatric studies changing the way symptoms of the condition are seen in kids, and culminating, for now at least, with this month’s controversial release of the DSM-5, the official bible of American mental illness.
More on Yahoo!: Catherine Zeta-Jones
