Blog Posts by Elise Solé, Shine Staff

On Monday, "Voice of a generation" icon Lena Dunham turns 27! In honor of her big day, here are 27 reasons we're happy she's a famous person.

1) Because on Friday, she tweeted: “Rule: if you call me fat I block you. There just aren't enough days on this earth. Let us do on twitter what we couldn't do in high school!”

2) Because even though she’s wildly famous, she still acts like a dorky fan at fancy celebrity soirees.

3) Because she convinced Judd Apatow, king of lad mag comedy, to pay attention to women and invest in her HBO hit, “Girls.”

4) Because she’s not afraid to play ping-ping topless on television (as you do). 

5) Because she's been nominated for four Emmy Awards and won two Golden Globes for “Girls.”

6) Because she’s a native New Yorker.

7) Because she didn’t have a fighting chance of being boring: Her mother is a photographer who arranges dolls and doll house furniture to create “disquieting domestic tableaux” and her father is a painter of “overtly sexualized pop art.”

8)

Read More »from Happy 27th Birthday, Lena Dunham! 27 Reasons We Love Her

VogueWe're used to seeing Kate Upton on magazine covers—magazines for men. That's about to change now that she's landed her first  Vogue cover. 

Putting Upton on the style bible's June cover is a two-pronged victory: It's symbolic of the high fashion world adopting more of a men's magazine mentality (which, for better or worse is geared toward fleshier, more realistic-looking models), and a step toward fulfilling a promise the magazine made in 2012 to promote images of healthier looking models.

As part of their commitment to the "well-being of their readers" Vogue vowed to not work with models under 16 "who appear to have an eating disorder" and encouraged designers to consider the consequences of making too-small sample sizes that drive models to stay super skinny to fit into them.

Fashion wields a powerful influence over pop culture, and Upton herself has seen the trickle down effects earlier in her career, when she was absurdly labeled overweight by some ignorant critics.
  
"It was hard at Read More »from Kate Upton On The Cover of Vogue: Why It Matters

Come on, admit it. Buried deep in your past, photo album, or childhood frame lies a photo of you and your mom that you would sooner die than post on Facebook. You know the one-maybe you're wearing a scrunchie, a J-Crew anorak, or proudly holding a violin and your mom is sporting pleated denim or oversize eyeglasses. In honor of Mother's Day, we've rounded up the most painfully awkward "mom and me" photos from the days of yore (celebrities included!), moments as timeless as your relationship with your mom. Enjoy!

Read More »from The Most Awkward Mother's Day Photos You've Ever Seen

ThinkStock"Stop telling teens they aren’t beautiful and start making clothes for people of all shapes and sizes!"

That’s the message of a new Change.org petition calling for people to boycott fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch until CEO Mike Jeffries offers plus-sizes to consumers. Florida native Benjamin O’Keefe, 18, who described struggling with an eating disorder and feeling “worthless” because he couldn’t fit into popular clothing styles, created the petition on Tuesday.

More on Yahoo! Shine: Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Sparks Controversy. Offensive or Overreaction?

As of Thursday afternoon, the petition, which increased momentum with the support of the National Eating Disorders Association, garnered over 1,600 signatures, needing only 372 more to reach its goal. A spokesperson for Abercrombie & Fitch declined to comment when contacted by Yahoo! Shine.

More on Yahoo! Jessica Simpson on pregnancy weight gain: ‘I let myself indulge in everything I wanted’

Anyone who has stepped foot Read More »from New Petition Urges Abercrombie & Fitch to Change Its Anti-Plus-Size Stance

She looks happy, right? (Photo by Redbook)Although the world has been busy obsessing over Kim Kardashian's pregnancy (see recent bikini baby bump photos), that doesn't mean younger sister Khloe is off the hook—at least when it comes to her ovaries.

In the June issue of Redbook, the 28-year-old reality star talks about the downsides of publicly sharing her struggle to get pregnant, saying that she wishes people would stop pestering her about her fertility. "People assume I'm desperate for a baby," she tells Redbook. "And yes, I would love to have a baby. But I'm 28, and I've been married three and a half years. I love my life, but it doesn't feel incomplete right now."

So she's happy. Check. Now, can we all move on?

It seems like every day there's another celebrity whose loins are screaming to be fertilized. When Kate Middleton married Prince William, the media could no longer call her "Waity Katie" (a nickname referring to Middleton having to wait eight years to get engaged) and there were dozens of reports of a royal

Read More »from Khloe Kardashian and Phenomenon of Baby Shaming

screenshot: Fox43

A 7-year-old boy, who was suspended for two days after playing a game of make-believe with his friend, returned to school on Wednesday. 

More on Yahoo! Shine: Kindergarten Boy Suspended for His 'Distracting' Mohawk

On Friday, Christopher Marshall, a second grader at Driver Elementary School in Suffolk, Virginia and his  classmate were playing with their pencils, pointing them at each other and making machine gun noises when a concerned teacher pulled them into the principals' office.

More on Yahoo! 1 in 9 middle and high schoolers suspended during school year

"I got a call from Christopher's school at 12:30 on Friday," the boy's mother, Wendy Marshall, 34, a stay-at-home mother of five, told Yahoo! Shine. "His teacher told me that Christopher and his friend were playing with pencils, making machine gun and 'bang bang' noises. I asked if they were pointing the pencils at anyone else, if they were angry or hostile, disrupting class, or refused to stop when asked and the teacher said no.

Read More »from Two Boys Suspended For Pointing Pencils Like Guns

ThinkStockMost teens roll their eyes at the idea that any drug can be a "gateway" to more serious stimulants, but new data presented Sunday at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting found that teens who smoke cigarettes are 23 times more likely to smoke marijuana compared to those who don't use tobacco.

More on Yahoo! Shine: How to Prevent Teen Smoking

Researchers from Seattle Children's Research Institute and the University of Washington randomly chose 315 incoming college freshmen from two universities (one in the Midwest and another in the Northwest) and asked if they smoked cigarettes or marijuana, then asked them the same question after the school year ended.

More on Yahoo! Court says pot smokers can be fired even in Colo.

"We were surprised by the two outcomes," says study author Megan Moreno, MD,  associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington. "First, teens who smoked cigarettes coming into their freshman year were 23 times more likely to smoke marijuana

Read More »from Cigarettes Are a Gateway Drug, Say Scientists

Kate Middleton has access to all the fashion accessories in the world but her style mainstay is undoubtedly her vast clutch collection. And much like anything Middleton wears, she's pushing tiny purses into the spotlight. According to a story in The Guardian, handbag designer Lulu Guinness credits the Duchess with sparking a new handbag trend. "If she's done anything for the handbag, it's the fact that she wears small clutch bags," Guinness recently said at the Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design opening party in New York. "Personally, I am making my clutch bags smaller next season, so they're more delicate and ladylike, and that's to do with her, I think." Here are Kate's favorite clutches throughout the years.

Read More »from Kate Middleton's Tiny Purse Collection