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Spring 2025

To all the books I’ve loved before

Millenials and Gen Zers hone the art of annotating

Rita Simonetta

Jordan Murray’s perfectly manicured hand displays an annotated title page of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. “From the library of Jordan Murray” is stamped in the centre; just below she’s written, “the cost of pride, love & marriage, social status.” And all around are illustrations of tiny flowers, hearts and envelopes along with a drawing […] More »
Spring 2025

White lies

Looking back at her family's traditions, one writer realizes brown women are often eclipsed in Bollywood

Naima Karp

As a half-Pakistani person, I often cozied up on the couch for Bollywood movie nights with my family growing up. These nights were more than a tradition—they were a rite of passage. I’m a fair-skinned South Asian, and this was a way for me to connect to my culture when I didn’t necessarily present as […] More »
Winter 2024

Star power

A case study on the paradox of privilege in pop

Sanna Wani

My friend Lou is visiting from Australia. We do silly things together, like watch Love Island and listen to music. Lou shows me the video for Chappell Roan’s “Casual,” which follows a girl and a mermaid in a situationship. I’m fascinated. The song is good, too: the slow pumping synth and zesty lyrics contrast with […] More »
November - December 2023

How TV podcasts helped me regain my memory after Long COVID

Nisa Malli

When my girlfriend of six years broke up with me by text, followed by a short call, I couldn’t comprehend it. It wasn’t grief, shock, or denial. My brain, damaged from 16 months of Long COVID, couldn’t read or write, splice voices from background noise, or parse words said fast enough to react. When our friends […] More »
May-June 2023

Stars and the City

How to identify your Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte placements

Yasmine Dalloul

 Let’s talk about the four main characters of Sex and the City. We love them despite the out-datedness of the show’s plotlines, the lack of diversity in its original cast (followed by the cringe attempts of wokeism that we had to sit through in the first season of And Just Like That…), and of course, […] More »
November-December 2002

Seoul mates

A dearth of good rom-coms coming out of Hollywood is fuelling an appetite for K-drama

Zeahaa Rehman

Illustration by Koko Lee A diehard romantic, I routinely scroll through Netflix’s “New & Popular” tab looking for the next rom-com to swoon over—and often keep scrolling. This year alone, I’ve scrolled past The Royal Treatment; Love in the Villa; A Perfect Pairing; Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between; and Persuasion. The only films I […] More »
November-December 2022

Child detectives have feelings too

The Bob’s Burgers Movie takes the baton from Nancy Drew—and it gets emotional

Jennifer Whiteford

Illustration by Paterson Hodgson At nine years old I was an under-the-covers reader. Even on nights when my parents were distracted by their cassette tapes and homemade wine, I wouldn’t risk turning on my bedside lamp after 8:30 p.m. Maybe my parents knew I was deep into the world of Nancy Drew or Encyclopedia Brown […] More »
September-October 2022

Teachable TV moments

Abbott Elementary shows us what solidarity looks like

Makda Mulatu

I have always found myself in close proximity to teachers, first as a student then later in my personal and professional circles. As a figure skating coach, I felt a kinship with teachers, even if I didn’t always understand the weight of what was being asked of them. This past year, I began watching Abbott […] More »
July-August 2022

Sex, lies, and the city

What And Just Like That… gets wrong about women’s friendships

Danita Steinberg

Photo by INSTAR Images / Alamy Stock Photo When it first aired over two decades ago, Sex and the City’s fantasy lay in an idyllic New York City lifestyle of affordable rent, flowing cosmopolitans, closets full of expensive designer fashion, a revolving door of attractive men for one and all, and an endless string of […] More »
May-June 2022

2000s music video looks are back…

But we’re not dangerously in love with it all

Jody Anderson

In Scarborough, Ontario, in Cedarbrae Mall, down the escalator and across from the Dollarama, there’s Frugo, a store that feels very much like a flea market. There you’ll find an assortment of items that range from vintage to essential. A few years ago, I found a small orange faux leather handbag and modelled it in […] More »
November-December 2021

High School Musical lied to me

A youthful obsession with High School Musical leads to not knowing the truth about North American schools

Zeahaa Rehman

In the summer of 2008, I became obsessed with High School Musical. My family and I were “visiting” my paternal uncle in Canada at the time. I say “visit,” because it was more of a two-month trial for my parents to gauge whether or not they wanted to immigrate here from Lahore, Pakistan. During the […] More »