Entertainment

Bake A Giant Cookie of Love

This is the first in a RED Hearts series of spring-into-summer recipes—things you can cook or bake, usually healthy things, always easy things—for the people you heart. Served up by Erika Kwee, 23, “the baker, photographer and typo-maker” behind vegetarian food blog The Pancake Princess

Little brothers can often be annoying little buggers. But chalk this one up as a win for the buggers because I’m totally stealing this idea from my brother!

After becoming fascinated by the gooey deep-dish pizza-cookies, or “pizookies” from a certain chain restaurant, my brother started baking up overgrown cookie cakes of his own and hauling them to school in pizza boxes to honor his friends’ birthdays. (Nice kid, right?) He got so into it, and they were so well received, he’s set up a little online bakery business.

The best part of this pizookie business—aside from the fact that you, you know, get to share a giant cookie with people you like—is the personalization factor. My brother has spent many an hour decorating pizookies with everything from volleyballs and tennis balls to a Hunger Games mockingjay in chocolate and the deathly hallows logo from Harry Potter.

You can order these from him, but as with most things in life, they’re so much better if you make them yourself. All sorts of cool stencils can be found on Pinterest, but you can definitely just let your imagination run wild.

Here’s how you do it:

Bake up your favorite chocolate chip cookies in an 8- or 9-inch cake pan (a recipe that usually yields 12-15 cookies works great for this! I love halving this one. Let the pizookie cool completely.

Cut your desired stencil out of paper, place it over your pizookie and sprinkle on powdered sugar! Make sure to smear the powdered sugar around the edges of the stencil a bit so that the lines come out looking crisp.

I filled in the “cut outs” on this Sweet 16 pizookie with an easy glaze of powdered sugar and milk topped with rainbow sprinkles, but you can leave them blank. For those with advanced decorating skills, the possibilities are endless. Among them is the deliciousness of melting down chocolate chips and drizzling designs onto wax paper (place a picture underneath the wax paper if you want a guide to follow—hello Divergent logos!). Let the chocolate cool completely before peeling it off and placing it on the pizookie.

Have fun. Experiment. Maybe even show my little bugger of a brother how it’s done…

By Erika Kwee, 23, reporting from Houston, TX, on adorable animal kits that extend knitting season to spring.

It seems The Longest Winter in History, or at least in my memory, is finally showing signs of ending. I say this, enough already, and I live in Texas, where the season is relatively gentle (read: I just turned on the A/C in my car for the first time in months). The only—I repeat, only—downside to the appearance of spring at last is that it usually comes with the packing away of my knitting needles. Who can bear the thought of wrestling wool scarves or trying on even a sleeve of a double-ply creation knowing 90-degree humidity will likely be here before that project is done?

Lucky for all of us who knit, we don’t have to package up that crafty side of our brain quite yet! British-based knitwear magicians Muir & Osborne have the answer to year-round yarnwork. Their wondrous knitted creature kits are just the ticket for spring, summer—heck, anytime is a good time to make your own utterly adorable, utterly handmade little animal.

Although I’ve been knitting for years, I’ve never gotten more adventurous than patterned hand warmers or a felted yoga bag. But the Muir & Osborne kits inspire me to go wilder. For about $50, they provide all you need to easily bring to life the knitted pet of your dreams—yarn, a pattern, needles, extras for experimenting, even wee collars for the cats and dogs.

I adore the detail in the mane of this lion and the bamboo with this irresistible panda. Even my sister—the ultimate tomboy who normally shuns cutesy things—could never turn down this Timon lookalike! (If only there was a Pumba to go with him.) And this proud little pug would make an excellent gift for my coworker who loves the pushed-in-nose pups.

For an even larger universe populated by incredible knits, check out Muir & Osborne’s Museum of Wool, where the masterpieces that can be made with yarn are endless: lobster sweaters to pastas to yes, reindeer hats for greyhounds. No spoilers here, but there are also some surprising celebrity knitters. Go check it out, see how rhymes-with-Crussell Rowe works out his action-hero anger issues. I’ll just be here, patiently twiddling my knitting needles until my armadillo kit arrives.

By RED editor Amy Goldwasser, reporting from NYC on a new documentary that's actually true to teens.

Is it ever refreshing to see a documentary called Teenage—and to see that it doesn’t include a single cliché or overgeneralization about, after all, millions and millions of people. Not a locker or a pep rally or an easy-label Breakfast Club character in sight. The totally stylish but substantive, simple but fascinating new film recognizes how utterly complicated it is, has always been, to live in this world as an in-betweener.

Teenage is also thankfully a documentation of a time before the common Snapchat era (all phones look near-unliftable, the kind that must be always be referred to as telephones) and a recognition that America doesn’t own the teenager. Based on the book Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture 1875-1945 by Jon Savage, a Brit who also wrote the script, this is a film about a highly politicized and powerful cultural movement—not about kids who are boy-crazed or buy a lot of records.

From a truly global perspective, with found footage so captivating you can’t believe they found it, Teenage tells the story of young people as both a rising force for change and, in many ways, enactors and heirs to the mess made by adults.

A fairly sinister history lies behind the power of this part of the population. Basically the grownups realized they needed their kids—first, in the early 1900s, as their labor force, working 14-hour days in factories, then to fight their wars with the world.

The teenager’s built-in tendency to rebel could be played to, exploited. All of the stories here are smartly humanized and individualized, told from a first-person and unidentified point of view. One of these “I” narrators is a young girl in Germany during the rise of the Nazi party. It’s absolutely chilling to watch her seduced by the Hitler Youth—a group that was designed in every way to appeal to the desire to rebel, a chance to be different from your parents, a chance to be yourself and free and healthy and playing with friends in the great outdoors. Teenage shows it as it must have appealed from her perspective, the perfect summer camp. Shudder. Then, slightly later, there were the Edelweiss Pirates, a group of young Germans who were a reaction against the Hitler Youth. When they’re caught and sent to the frontlines of battle, you can’t help but gasp at the image of boys as young as maybe nine or ten years old, teary under helmets.

Teenage strikes just the right balance between the tragedy and, at times, the sheer joy and exhilaration of being a teenager. I could probably have watched the birth of swing and the jitterbugs (noun, as in people who jitterbug) with a grin for the full hour and 20 minutes of the film. And the spot-on soundtrack, by Bradford Cox (of Deerhunter) is sparkling and sharp and World of Tomorrow, underlined by a simultaneous concern about the future and the terror of that place between childhood and adulthood, the dream—and nightmare—of growing up.

By Carey Dunne, 24, reporting from Brooklyn, NY, on a publishing project that transforms pages—and lives.

In high school, it can be all too easy to feel like you don’t have a voice. You’re often at the mercy of grownups who seem to think they know better than you. Outlets for sharing opinions that are truly your own and stories with a community wider than your closest friends (and more thoughtful than Internet trolls) can be hard to come by.

That’s why Alliance Magazine is so important: It's a magazine, as in a print magazine you can hold in your hands, that's written, edited, designed, and marketed by high school-age students in Fresno, California. They’re members of the Men and Women’s Alliance Program, which aims to identify the most at-risk kids in the city's public high schools and, through workshops and team-building exercises, helps them develop the skills they need for success in the classroom, their careers, and their personal lives.

Vince Bailey, who teaches in the summer-intensive Columbia Publishing Course (east coast) and is a partner at Impact Publishing (west coast), has been working for years to develop the magazine workshop in the economically hardest-hit areas of Fresno, the second-largest school district in California. The impressive result of their efforts is Alliance Magazine, which lets students shed the pigeon-holing "at-risk youth" label and instead identify as publishing pros. Putting together a magazine to be proud of has led to a serious boost in the kids' belief in themselves and what they can accomplish. Graduates from last year's pilot program are now enrolled in college, some majoring in journalism and graphic design. “The transformation that has taken place in these kids, in the short time I've worked with them, has been remarkable,” Bailey says. “We've taken kids that the school system had given up on and are watching them become confident, assertive, career-driven young men and women.”

To keep their mission strong and keep publishing, Alliance Magazine is currently raising funds through a Kickstarter campaign. Donate here, watch the video, and just try not to be charmed by—subscribe to—the talented team of next-generation magazine-makers.

By Zoe Mendelson, 24, reporting from Brooklyn, NY, on a band she loves so much it sounds like she's lying

The Tuaregs, an ancient nomadic tribe that inhabits the Sahara and North Africa, are known as the fiercest of fighters. You may have seen them in movies—usually as bands of men with scarves around their heads who rob the good guys in the desert.

They also happen to make the most radically peaceful and elegant music I have ever heard.

Tinariwen is a Tuareg band that formed in 1979 around campfires in tents at refugee settlements and has recently gained recognition on the world stage. (Their latest album, Emaar, came out last week.) The most accurate description of their sound I’ve found is “a cross between Fela Kuti and the Velvet Underground.” Quite the appealing hybrid, right?

Scripted into Gadaffi’s mercenary army in 1980, the musicians went on to become leaders of the Tuareg rebel movement in Libya in 1985, and then another rebel movement in Mali in 1990. They would record their “rebel music” for anyone who brought a blank cassette tape to their makeshift studio. Through these homemade tapes, they spread their politically subversive messages about the plight of the Tuareg all over North Africa—eventually attracting international attention.

As much as their music is important, it’s incredibly calming, too. It lowers my blood pressure but it’s definitely not boring. The only way I can describe it is that it’s shockingly beautiful. Every single person I’ve introduced to them slips into a Tinariwen trance for a while. My first lasted more than a month. And now that there’s a new album, I’m right back there and never want to leave.

The first album of theirs I heard was Tassili, which they recorded with Tunde Adebimpe, the lead singer of TV on the Radio. It’s a great introduction to their music and their message. These guys are not rock stars—they are rebel fighters and they are musicians. I can’t say too much because it will start to sound like I’m lying. But truly, I’ve never encountered music with such a universal appeal, such a visceral effect on everyone who listens to it. Watching them gives me chills.

By Jordyn Turney, 24, reporting from Nampa, Idaho, on a standout of a sci-fi show.

Talk about wishes for the New Year: Kiera Cameron is a cop from the year 2077 stuck in the present, our present, after getting sent back in time when a terrorist gang sentenced to death escaped by traveling to the past.

Now the only thing she wants is to get back home to her husband and kid. But if the villains who’re to blame for her wacky time-spanning adventures aren’t stopped now—you knew there would be this kind of catch—she has no idea what she’ll be going back to.

That’s the Canadian show Continuum in a nutshell. (And here’s a three-minute preview that might or might not make my synopsis make more sense.) Throw in a teenage computer whiz as Kiera’s present-day ally, criminals who aren’t as bad as we’d like to believe and judicious use of some very awesome future-tech elements, and you’ve got one of the best sci-fi shows I’ve seen.

There’s even an actual super suit.

Continuum exceeds expectations first and foremost with the fact that it’s a character-driven science fiction world. Kiera is a smart, fierce cop whose number-one priority is getting back to her home. But in spite of her single-mindedness she finds herself caught up in our time, and in the fact that a change in the present could alter—or destroy—the world she’s so set on returning to. With its intelligent plotting of a story that’s so much bigger than you imagine at first and a cast of characters who are all fighting hard for what they believe in, Continuum is a standout of a show, sci-fi or otherwise.

It’s currently between seasons, which means this is the best time to catch up with the first two seasons on Netflix before the third premieres in March (SyFy in the US, Showcase in Canada) this year. This year, as in 2014 that is.

By Zoe Mendelson, 23, reporting from Brooklyn, NY, on Chance the Rapper....who she tutored in high school.

I have to say, I’m definitely a little biased about Chance the Rapper. Because if I can brag for a sec, I did introduce him to Wu-Tang Clan back when Chance the Rapper was a chubby little prepubescent rabble rouser. I was his tutor in high school, which was an exhausting job because Chance would always just say, “I don’t need to do this shit. I’m gonna be a famous rapper.” Turns out he was right.

But along with my bias, I also happen to know that Chance the Rapper is changing the face of rap right now, and that his mixtape Acid Rap is one of the top five best hip hop albums of the last decade. I know this for a fact. Because it’s objectively true. If you have any doubts, listen to it. It’s free.

Okay so why is Chance so good? Well first of all, two words: JUKE. BEATS. You probably don’t know what juke is, but I didn’t know any single other kind of dance music existed until I was 18. (I’m proud about this, not embarrassed.) Juke is a subset of Chicago house music, with the best dance beats that exist. It's the original twerking, but way way, way cooler. Check it out if you’re interested, “go ahead lil mamma”.

Anyway, Chance brings juke beats in, and soul samples back, with a little bit of funk and a little bit of jazz and a lot of acid and the result... Well, just go listen to it.

His lyrics are funny and startlingly honest. Pusha Man is, in both my biased and unbiased opinion, a moment in hip hop. The first part is the classic brag rap, glorifying the life of a drug dealer. The second part is a realistic picture of drug-dealing kids whose moms still do their laundry and whose own guns terrify them. In the third part, Chance hauntingly sings, “I know you scared, you should ask us if we scared too. I know you scared. Me too.”

It’s a multidimensional exploration of a marginalized existence that’s almost always flattened in the media. Chance isn’t afraid to get complicated, and he isn’t afraid to get dark.

Also, Chance isn’t signed, and that is seriously exciting. Talk about #NewRules. Chance is an original, creating a culture of rebellious drunken-monkey style brilliance exactly as he sees fit. It's raw and real and untainted. He’s on tracks with Lil Wayne and Bieber and James Blake and whoever the hell else he wants to be on tracks with. Watch Chance and you’re watching the future of the music industry. Oh, and his music videos are pretty incredible, too.

By Maria Camila Henao, 19, reporting on the hidden-gem concealers that brighten eyes and cover spots

Until recently, I wasn’t very captivated by the idea of makeup. Sure, I watched a few YouTube videos, bought my basics, and even wrote about a couple of cool products, standouts in the fight against summer-in-Chicago humidity and chipped nail polish. But back in the days when I was getting my beauty sleep, it never went any further than that. However, as I started my freshman year of college, my sleeping schedule became increasingly hectic. As in four hours-of-sleep hectic.

Now I’m a sophomore, and especially while I’m working a part-time job, too, the sleepless trend seems to be here to stay. Plus, prominent under-eye circles are in my family. My mom has them, my cousins have them, and my grandmother has them. I realized I was reaching for my concealer more and more throughout the day, and that it just wasn’t doing the job anymore.

So I began expanding my collection and found a few favorites that do the job for me (when I’m doing too many jobs). Here are some accomplices in a successful coverup, whether it’s under-eye circles or the occasional blemish:

“Stay All Day Concealer” by Stila ($23). On the higher end, this is my bright-eyed pick. Most of the shades have a peachy undertone, which is what makeup artists suggest you use around eyes. It does stay all day, as long as you set it with a powder. It’s creamy, not too thick, and it doesn’t settle into the lines under my eyes.

“Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circle Treatment Concealer” by Maybelline ($9). You can ignore the age-rewind part. I’m 19, I do. But this is my drugstore favorite for really brightening under the eyes. The applicator is convenient, and the formula is great. I also tend to use this to highlight my cupid’s bow, my cheekbones, and my eyebrow arch.

“Even Better Concealer” by Clinique ($19.50). The rich and creamy potion is definitely great for winter, when my skin gets more sensitive and dry. I love this concealer because it gives really high coverage, and you barely have to use any product at all. Although it can go on thick, it’s fairly easy to blend out. This is the concealer I find myself repurchasing the most, because I can also use it all over my face for spot correction.

By Cindy Morand, 24, reporting from NYC, on school supplies that are as important as they are beautiful

Sometimes even a blank notebook tells a story. These notebooks from Brooklyn-based Public Supply are not only beautiful, but they support underfunded, much-endangered arts programs in public schools: The company donates 25 percent of their profits to teachers in a high-need classrooms, to put toward a project that inspires creativity.

As political and fiscal challenges mount, American public schools and education continues to lose funding, especially for the arts. The effect of this is everyone suffers—from the amazing teachers who have had to spend their own money on basic supplies for their classrooms to, well, the country’s future.

Whether it’s painting, writing, dancing, composing music or creating a sculpture, arts are essential for students’ self-discovery (when it’s all happening) and help develop creative skills that are important to all aspects of life. Revolutionaries such as Steve Jobs—who frequently credited courses he took, including calligraphy and typography, for inspiring innovative thinking—combined art with technology to create products that changed our lives.

As for my own life, I used art to express myself when I moved to New York City from Mexico. I was 13 years old, in a public high school, and I spoke only Spanish and French. Though ever since I was a young girl, my father taught me the importance of art and enrolled me in painting classes, the new school and new country made me appreciate it in even more essential ways. It was never so clear to me that art is a universal language; its symbolism allows others to understand messages. With it, I could beautify a space or paint my emotions. I could feel less alone.

This is a lot for a notebook to do. It’s complicated, but at the same time, as the company’s website says, “The Public Supply mission is simple: to support creative work in our country’s public schools.” Each gorgeous, minimal notebook ($12, or $32 for a pack of three) has a tracking number so you can view the school project that benefits from your purchase.

And, just this week, the company takes its mission to Brazil: 100 percent of sales from a limited-edition notebook ($18), with a cover by Dutch artists Haas and Hahn, will go to a program that supports painting and career workshops for kids living in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

Art can benefit society, help achieve goals, beautify landscapes and bring joy in the midst of chaos. You also get a notebook that’s too cool for schools.

By Carey Dunne, 24, reporting from Brooklyn, NY, who just found out that her mother is one of her favorite authors.

For the past six years, my mother has been locked in a closet, typing. Evidence of her secret project was always scattered around her desk: an old sepia print of a crabby little girl on a stoop; a portrait of a stout, evil-looking man with a white handlebar mustache and the name ANTHONY COMSTOCK printed beneath; stacks and stacks of books (How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle, Down By The River by Edna O’Brien). I would see piles of paper with NOTORIOUS X written on the front and have to restrain myself from snooping.

Whenever I asked what she was working on, she gave short, mysterious answers. Finally, about a year ago, she gave me her manuscript, all 800 loose pages of it, in a green plastic binder. My Notorious Life, the novel was called. I was nervous. What if all it said inside was “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” over and over? Despite being bogged down with schoolwork, I started to read — and finished the entire thing in two days.

The heroine, Axie Muldoon, made me actually laugh out loud with her furious wit (this is a 19th-century lady who describes one man’s neck fat rolls as “a meat scarf”). And, more than any book I’ve read this year, it’s got a page-turning plot: Axie goes from being orphaned on the mean streets of Manhattan to becoming an apprentice to a midwife, where she learns her trade. As her alter ego, Madame DeBeausacq, she peddles illegal “lunar tablets for female complaint” and comes up against the Society for the Suppression of Vice, headed by her Mortal Enemy, the priggish Anthony Comstock.

I more than “heart” this book. I want to recommend it to everyone I know. As my mother is now — honestly — one of my favorite authors, I asked Kate Manning a couple of questions for I Heart Daily about her new novel and about the battle for reproductive rights that shaped Axie’s life. Though she’s fictional and from the 1800s, Axie’s story is deeply relevant to every teenage girl in America in its portrayal of a time before abortion was legal and the terrible toll this ban took on women’s lives. Stay tuned for that interview soon!

~~Interview~~

I asked Kate Manning a couple of questions for I Heart Daily about her new novel and about the battle for reproductive rights that shaped Axie’s life. Though she’s fictional and from the 1800s, Axie’s story is deeply relevant to every teenage girl in America in its portrayal of a time before abortion was legal and the terrible toll this ban took on women’s lives. Carey Dunne: How did this book come to be?

Kate Manning: The seed of this book was planted about six years ago, when I saw an sepia-tinted picture of a little girl, about eight years old, holding a baby on a New York street in the 1870s. It absolutely shocked me to learn that 30,000 children were homeless in New York during the 1800s. I started to write a story about one of them, with the little girl as my muse. I named her Axie Muldoon. She gets swept up in the Orphan Train Movement — which was a real project that shipped 300,000 orphaned children out west, to find nice adoptive families. Many of the kids, unfortunately, did not meet such happy fates. As I was writing Axie’s adventures and struggles, I stumbled upon a scandalous woman, Madame Restell, a midwife who was always in the headlines back in those days. I decided to borrow aspects of her story — including a faked suicide and the profession of midwifery — for My Notorious Life.

CD: What was the reproductive rights situation in America like when Axie was a teenager?
KM: In the 1800s, you might be a mother already! Women married as young as 14, and had a whole bunch of kids. They frequently died in childbirth, and infant deaths were common. There was no anesthesia stronger than a shot of whisky to help ease the pain of labor, and it wasn’t till 1870 or so that doctors discovered that germy, unwashed hands were contributing to the high maternal death rate. There was precious little information about sex, which was only supposed to occur in the confines of marriage.

CD: How did reproductive rights change?
KM: Birth control was primitive. But between 1800 and 1900, the birth rate dropped from seven kids per woman to fewer than four. And that’s because this was the dawn of a new age of reproductive rights. Advertisements for medicines with names like “Lunar Tablets,” or “Portuguese Female Pills” began to appear in the backs of penny-papers. These pills were known to cause a miscarriage, and they were so popular, that “female physicians” like Madame Restell got very rich selling them. Like her, Axie also sells these tablets and delivers babies and helps single mothers find adoptive families for their infants. Unwed motherhood almost always was a cause for women to be cast out of their families. They were shamed and disgraced if they had sex out of wedlock (men were not).

CD: How can teenage girls now continue to fight for the right to control their own bodies?
KM: Teenagers — girls and boys — can start by learning the history of the reproductive rights movement, which is the simple idea that women can be trusted to make their own decisions about pregnancy and motherhood. These rights are under threat right now. Reproductive rights activists are fighting some of the same battles now, in 2013, that early pioneers like Madame Restell — and her fictional alter ego, Axie Muldoon — fought back in the 1800s.

By Alison Smith, 23, reporting from Brooklyn, NY, on a heartfelt book of honest, first-hand images and insights from teenhood.

Even though I'm no longer a student, I still keep my back-to-school book shopping tradition alive. But instead of looking for the cheapest used textbooks in my college bookstore, this year I spent an afternoon in the basement of The Strand, downtown New York's used and discounted book heaven. In the feminist theory section, I found 2011's Please Read (if at all possible): The Girl Project by Kate Engelbrecht.

Now I'm not sure how it possibly took me two years to discover this book, though I can tell you why I was immediately drawn in. I'm 23 going on 19. Or at least that's how it feels if I'd answer without thinking when someone asks my age. Like this book in the basement of The Strand, I'm all too in tune with the optimistic, at times angsty, feelings of teenhood.

Please Read offers a literal look into the lives of teenage girls--something I see as equally valuable to examinations of gender. The project began in 2007, when Engelbrecht, a photographer, sent disposable cameras and questionnaires to more than 5,000 girls. The amazing results are in the book, where each contributor sincerely describes her aspirations while summarizing her current state of mind through images. Themes, of course, emerge, allowing Engelbrecht to both group and contrast the contributions. While six pages show girls pinching their stomachs and wrapping tape measures around their waists, the opening spread of the section shows “I LOVE MY BODY!” scrawled across one midsection.

It's this kind of positivity that colors the book. While there are instances of apparent self-doubt and fear, they're matched with images and text filled with confidence and hope. I loved reading the pages where Engelbrecht posed questions like, “What do you think about the ways girls are portrayed?” and “What are you afraid of?” The answers are heartfelt and, more importantly, brave. It’s hard not to imagine your own answers and how vulnerable yet empowering it would be to offer them. But even if these insights don’t pique your interest, it’s worth snagging a copy just for the beautiful photographs of intertwined best friends, mirror selfies, and beauty routines.

Check it out and then spend about three hours on teenagebedroom wishing Engelbrecht had sent you a camera and asked, "What is the one thing about you that no one seems to get?”

By Emily-Nicole Johns, reporting from Brooklyn, NY, on how adulthood improves on the recipe for her favorite summer treat

Growing up in the south, popsicles were a serious summer staple. The sound of the ice cream truck would have my neighborhood crew running from all corners to get our hands on crazy delicious, sticky treats.

Now as an adult, when the summer temperature really starts cranking up and my New York apartment is boiling, all I can think about making is my favorite bit of nostalgia on a stick. Popsicles are super simple to concoct, and you don’t even have to think about turning on the oven. Plus, you can make them as healthy and full of fresh fruit and low-calorie as you like (if you’re into that sort of thing).

Frozen treat technology has advanced since the 80s, with products like the Zoku Quick Pop Maker. But I still like to keep it simple with a classic popsicle mold, like this one I got at Whisk.

So as the summer months start coming to an end, try out one of these popsicle recipes. It's important. Grab the sunscreen, bring out your inner child and get going!

Orange Creamsicles
Ingredients:
8 oz. orange juice
2 1/2 cups vanilla ice cream
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Blend together the orange juice, ice cream and zest until smooth. Pour into popsicle molds, but leave the top 1/4 empty. Using a whisk, whip the heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form. You want it just firm enough that it won't too quickly seep into the other liquid. Spoon the whipped cream on top of the creamsicles, add popsicle sticks and freeze overnight.

Minty Watermelon Fizz Pops
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups pureed watermelon (3 cups watermelon, diced)
1 tablespoon of fresh mint, thinly sliced
2 cups coconut water
1 cup sparkling white grape juice

Pour the sparkling grape juice into a measuring cup and allow to settle for at least 5 minutes (to reduce the bubbles). In a blender, puree sliced watermelon pieces. Stir together the watermelon and the coconut water. Add the sliced mint and sparkling grape juice, and stir into the watermelon mixture. Fill each popsicle mold, leaving about 1/4 inch of space from the top (the liquid will expand slightly as it freezes).

By Olive Panter, 23, reporting from Brooklyn, NY, on a book that she finds perfect—and perfectly revolutionary

I read Girls To The Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus over the course of four days. Every day since I have been forced to proclaim it perfect to anyone who stumbled into my path. I found myself gesturing to the book as it sat next to me--this worn-out stained library copy, published in 2010—amazed at how it was exactly the right punctuation to the point I was currently making.

Here’s the point: Most girls and women have had something bad happen to them because they are female, whether that was something life-altering or something that just felt kind of wrong. It's acknowledged but rarely confronted.

This is why I think Girls To The Front should be mandatory reading for everyone, male or female. Sara Marcus does an incredibly good job of laying out the movement from its start 20-some years ago to its supposed finish.

Riot Grrrl has been mostly labeled as a musical genre, rather than a political revolution. But as third-wave feminism, it encapsulated something singular and deeply important. These were alienated and confused girls—mostly teenagers, whose sadness masked their anger (and vice versa)—who were taking control of their bodies and gender relationships, in a world that didn't particularly respect either. Girls shouted their views from their beautiful, caustically intelligent collaged pamphlets. They cobbled together (great) bands, using immersive media that could explain what was wrong, with language and noise and cut-and-paste pieces. And all of this sprang from regular all-girl meetings that were part-counseling, part-activism.

The problems and feelings Riot Grrrls dealt with have never gone away. There is inequality, there is fear. There is hate, there is love. That's why Riot Grrrl stuck and has amassed new generations of fans. It's why so many people turn to those resonant Bikini Kill and Bratmobile songs again and again.

But what's gotten lost is the foundation of Riot Grrrl: ten girls sitting in a room, telling the stories that keep them up at night. As a result, they wind up feeling less alone and more powerful. So much of the movement’s essentials just haven’t been handed down to girls who weren't the right age, in the right time, in the right city.

We should all read this book and confess what we think is just ours. Start new zines or start new bands or something. Leave tangible things for someone who feels alone to stumble onto. P.O. boxes are due for a comeback. At the very least, read it and know it actually happened. We gotta do this again, keep doing it. Double dare ya. Triple dare myself. Maybe it can save some of us.

By Zulay Regalado, 24, reporting from Miami, FL, on why finally being won over to yoga is a happy stretch

Sometimes summer vacation just doesn’t feel like summer vacation. In fact, the older I get, the more it’s turned into the busiest, most stressful time of the year, balancing a loaded work (and in my case, school) schedule, with the added irritant of heat and the call of book or beach that must be ignored.

I realized this when I found myself staring at my bedroom ceiling after finals, only days into summer and already fried with a thinning patience and little-to-no time for extracurricular cool-downs, debating what to do with my small slice of freedom. A friend suggested I attend a yoga class to release my “stress monsters,” an idea (and term) that made me chuckle. For starters, I refused to be That Girl—you know the one, who struts along the streets of Miami, all yoga mat and matching spandex and smugness.

However, my monsters were itching to get out, so I was willing to try anything.

I went into my first class with few expectations, but was immediately greeted warmly by other yogis (OK, there, I said it). We practiced various stretching and stamina-building techniques in a Warrior Pose (pictured). Some positions felt a little funny at first, but my body was actually enjoying the movement. Who knew I was flexible enough to touch my toes? Ninety minutes later, I had volunteered to try my first handstand. My equilibrium was gasping in shock at that one, but there’s nothing like turning upside-down—inversions, as the yogis say—to gain a fresh perspective on the world. We cooled down to the sounds of my favorite Coldplay and Bon Iver songs, setting a very calming mood. Best of all, the instructor was accommodating to us newbies, and one fellow beginner even introduced me to a free (!!!) Saturday class in downtown Miami, overlooking the bay.

So, yeah, that sold me.

Even through my crazy schedule, I’ve made it a point to attend class at least twice a week. To date, I have not had a moment of contact with spandex, and my monsters now enjoy a happy summer sleep in Shavasana. Namaste!

Interested in trying yoga but don’t know where to start? Check out this site to find a class near you.

By Jessica Goodman, 23, reporting from Los Angeles on why Mahone may be the next Bieber

When it comes to the next big thing, I tend to be more than a little behind on the trends. I didn’t start watching Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives until they were off the air. Music is a similar story. I didn’t start listening to some artists until they already had a huge following a big a hit, like Asher Roth’s “I Love College” or Kesha’s “Tik Tok.”

Same with Justin Bieber. The first song of his I really paid attention to was “Boyfriend,” and that wasn’t so long ago, years after he released “Baby.” I mean, the guy practically already had a pet monkey by then.

However, regarding one particular emerging 17-year-old artist—perhaps a Bieber-to-be—I like to think I found gold a little ahead of the game.

OK, I admit Austin Mahone isn’t exactly an unknown. A couple of his performance videos went viral, and he has 2.8 million Twitter followers. But if you’re not already a Mahomie, now’s the time: His “What About Love” video, the first single off his forthcoming album, came out this week and showed off his most impressive dance moves yet, with a sound that conjures the best of both Bieber and N’ Sync.

The boy in the beanie is destined to be an international star, here to stay. Yes, you heard it here (even if perhaps you didn’t hear it here first).

Just like Justin, Austin was discovered through YouTube and has a fanbase of tween girls who have fallen hard for his pop idol charms. He even comes with memorable hair and rumored ties to Bieber’s ex, Selena Gomez, who he looked pretty friendly with at the 2013 Billboard Awards a few weeks ago.

Austin Mahone is currently on tour, opening for Taylor Swift and performing some of his irresistibly catchy early songs, like “Say Somethin.” MTV has named him one of their 13 Artists to Watch in 2013. I sure will, while I’m catching up on Carrie and Big. Don’t tell me how it ends.