Kate Fridkis

My husband Bear and I decided to get our hair buzzed together. It was his idea. He went first and came out looking like summer.

Then I sat down in the chair.

"Buzz it," I told the elegant French stylist.

She had a good laugh. Then she looked at me...

I used to wonder what women meant when they talked about needing beauty sleep and described looking worn and tired in the morning and the evening and while traveling and before putting on makeup and after having children and just in general. I used to look the same when I...

Guys! Tired of ending up on tedious dates with women who wear a size 8 or up? Want to meet the skinny woman of your dreams? If you're willing to spend $40, I know just the place! 21 Waverly Place, actually, at Murphy and Gonzales. Tonight, at 7:30, at an...

I took my body for a walk.

It was wearing a long white dress that clung up top and on the butt and then stretched for the ground, slinging itself over the occasional active knee.

The breasts of my body don't do real cleavage unless I hoist my bra up....

A therapist once said a really helpful thing to me.

She said, "Even if you stop thinking negatively, you'll still succeed."

She was talking about my grades in college.

It was the end of junior year. I was incredibly stressed out. My dad has just been diagnosed with gastroparesis --...

I want to be a woman who doesn't care. One of those women who doesn't notice. A woman who doesn't pay attention to girly stuff. To the stuff that women are supposed to care about.

I saw Marissa Mayer, one of the original Google employees (so now she's insanely rich),...

I was sitting in the waiting room at the vet, waiting for my cat to be returned to me, and I overheard a conversation. The receptionist was talking to another woman, who had just explained that she was a first grade teacher from West Virginia, who was visiting her daughter,...

This is so incredibly awkward.

I want to have a baby.

Is there a way to make that sound less... like I want to have a baby?

I am thinking about wanting to have a baby.

There. Better.

I had a terrible scare recently. I thought for...

I've spent a lot of time thinking about beauty. As a little girl, I thought I was gorgeous, because I was me. As a teenager, I was less sure, but I still rocked my own style. In college, I gained weight and wished I could change the way my face...

Sometimes I think we get too specific about beauty. We think we know exactly what it's made of.

I can look at my face in the mirror and describe to you at great length exactly what would have to change in order for me to be gorgeous. I am mathematical...

I write about body image because I love eating cake, but women around me are always dieting.

I write about body image because I have been told it doesn't matter, but every year, more girls have eating disorders.

I write about body image because everyone cares about beauty, no matter...

I saw this commercial last night. The same one kept playing on the TV show I was watching: An extremely thin blond model in underwear and a bra, dancing awkwardly. The camera zooms in on her breasts. Lingers. Zooms out. She places her hands over her face and appears to...

I was homeschooled. I'm 25 now. People often assume that I must be really different from everyone else because of this. Sometimes, I assume that, too. Sometimes I really can't tell what makes me different and what makes me similar. I can't tell what part is the homeschooling and what...

I saw Amy Chua, the Tiger Mom, last night at the 92nd Street Y.

Actually, I ran into her on my way to the bathroom, before her talk started. I wasn't positive it was her, but I had a feeling. She was wearing a hot pink dress under a...

Dear Marius,

First of all, welcome. Hey. You don't know me yet, but I'm a friend of your mom and dad.

I am a little in shock, about you being here. I mean, it's like the best magic trick ever. Something out of nothing. Not just something -- you. I...

We act like we have a couple of different bodies. There's the one we're in now, and then there's the one that's our real body.

It might be from the past or the future. It's mysterious, but thoroughly detailed. The real body gets obscured by the obnoxious, floppy, hungry, unflattering...

Every night, I lie in bed and read the New York Times on my phone.

First I read some of the big headline pieces. Then I skip over to the real estate section and read about a girl and a guy who really need a quieter apartment, since their last...

This will be my first Christmas with my new family. My husband and I have been married for a year, but up until now, we've always visited his family for Thanksgiving. This year, we're going to be with them for about a week surrounding Christmas, which also happens to be...

You know that moment in the movie where the nerd girl takes off her glasses and pulls down her ponytail and steps into a fitted, sparkly dress? She is transformed. She timidly makes her way down the stairs, and the guy at the bottom stares up, open-mouthed, seeing her as...

This is to families everywhere:

I want to ask a favor of you. All of you.

Please stop deciding which girl in the family is the prettiest. Stop deciding when she's two, or four. Stop talking about her appearance when the family gets together. Stop trying to predict what she'll...