There has been progress in the diversity of texts on offer in the GCSE English literature curriculum, but uptake in schools is still low with just 1.9% of GCSE pupils in England studying books by authors of colour, up from 0.7% five years ago, according to a report. Compiled by the campaign group Lit in Colour, the report says progress is too slow and that
One of the ongoing debates surrounding this year's awards season was whether Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another really deserved the prizes it was amassing in the run-up to the Oscars-awards it was tipped to also sweep on Hollywood's biggest night. And the internet's ire wasn't simply limited to the question of the film's sometimes controversial politics, which touch on hot-button issues of race and sex and armed resistance.
It was fajita night to celebrate Laila Edwards' hockey homecoming when an excited shriek pierced the casual gathering in the brightly lit early 20th-century colonial she grew up in on a quiet, tree-lined street. Four generations of the Edwards family turned to see a dumbstruck Laila and long-time friend and teammate Caroline Harvey huddled over a cell phone, breathlessly giggling, one Oh, my God after another.
To quote Teyana Taylor's own song "WTP": "I believe that there's a big future out there with a lot of beautiful things." Oh, like winning a nationally televised acting award? Taylor won Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture for her work in One Battle After Another at this year's Golden Globe awards, making her the presumptive front-runner at this year's Oscars.
In 2017, in the lead-up to the launch of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, developer Warhorse Studios was criticized by some online for not including people of color in the game. The studio defended this by claiming it was historically accurate that in early 15th-century Bohemia, especially in the countryside where the game was set, it was rare to see non-white people. Some scholars agreed, others weren't sure, and people online yelled about it, with some right-leaning gamers very invested in protecting the studio from the "woke agenda."
Music has long served as both a mirror and a refuge-reflecting private pain while offering language for experiences that feel unspeakable. Few songs have embodied this dual role as powerfully as Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful." Released in 2002, when mainstream pop rarely centered vulnerability or marginalized identities, the song and its music video offered something quietly radical: affirmation without conditions. Psychologically, representation matters because being seen supports emotional regulation and belonging.
Storylines about abortion and conversations about it showed up on television 65 times this year, on prestigious dramas like The Pitt and Call the Midwife, on reality shows such as W.A.G.s to Riches and Love is Blind and on lowbrow animated comedies like Family Guy and South Park. That's about the same as last year. In 2024, TV shows featured 66 such plotlines.
Muslims across the globe, including in Indonesia - home to the world's largest Muslim population, where I was born and raised - rejoice that he is Muslim. Indians take pride in Mamdani's Indian roots. Ugandans cheer his victory because Kampala is his birthplace. Representation does matter. It can be deeply affirming to see someone whose identity resonates with you succeed in a foreign political landscape.
However, Mamdani didn't win simply because of who he is. He won because of what he did, the politics that his campaigns were based on - a platform that focuses on the cost of living, from utility bills to grocery bills to bus fares to child care to rent - and, more importantly, the feelings, the trust and cohesion generated in the network of people who organized with and for him.
Wicked seems to have cast a spell of attraction on audiences, from the 1995 bestselling novel to the Tony-nominated Broadway musical to the wildly popular movie adaptation, which opened its first installment as one of last year's biggest blockbusters. The second part, Wicked: For Good is widely expected to work similar magic when it opens this weekend. But what do actual self-identified witches think of Wicked?
When Sesame Street first appeared on television in 1969, it rearranged the architecture of childhood. The show looked like pure joy, a neighborhood of color, rhythm, and creatures who seemed to belong to no one and everyone at once. But underneath the laughter and songs was something more radical. A handful of educators and psychologists came together with a quiet conviction that television could be a classroom for children who didn't have one. They weren't simply trying to teach the alphabet.
Big themes swirled in thoughtful, even intimate, conversations Saturday at the sold-out Portland Book Festival. Headliner Rebecca Yarros talked about how her work centers on themes of inclusion, representation, and authoritarianism, as well as about what it's been like to ride a huge wave of book sales that has altered the publishing industry in some ways. Nicholas Boggs and Mitchell S. Jackson mused about love and the creative process.
To be clear, you can easily buy a skeleton dressed like a schoolgirl, or a mermaid skeleton (-maid, that means girl, right?), but those, as far as I can tell, are just normal skeletons that have been dressed in schoolgirl drag or had a tail attached to them. And a normal skeleton-the thing most of us picture when we picture a skeleton-is, I'm increasingly convinced, more often than not going to be a male skeleton.
Cait Jacobs started talking about books on TikTok in 2019 and now has over 310,000 followers. In that time, they have seen the power of the BookTok movement and how it has grown, with a new brand of influencers proving that reading is cool. The impact has been undeniable, with people rediscovering, or discovering for the first time, their love of books, the rise of book subscriptions, and many BookTok authors being picked up by traditional publishers.
There's a particular ache familiar to many Black residents in San Jose and across Silicon Valley: the uneasy realization that when you enter a room, you will likely be the only one who looks like you, while your story fades into the background as others take center stage. For decades, as new communities have thrived in the world's tech capital, the deep roots, culture and resilience of Black life in the South Bay too often go unseen.
In 2002, Thelma Golden curated a show at the Studio Museum in Harlem titled "Black Romantic: The Figurative Impulse in Contemporary African-American Art." It was a survey of Black artists who were interested in representing the Black figure in a way that refuted narratives that made exotic caricatures of Black people. These were artists whose work was popular among Black audiences but largely shut out of white, mainstream art circles.
Folks, if I know one thing in this world, it's the lived experience of being a short king. My 5'3" ass has always seen the world from a lower standing than my peers, and it's rare for me to come across heroes in media who see the world from that same point of view. Wolverine, the X-Man who has pointy metal claws in his knuckles, is one of the few short kings I have to cling to in popular culture,
In primary school I wasn't very cool. I never got Hula Hoops in my packed lunches because my Polish mum would give me cucumbers and I hadn't seen High School Musical because we didn't have Sky. Without those two major assets, you had to find a thing and mine became trying to make people laugh. I made a YouTube channel when I was 14, then eventually worked at the Edinburgh fringe when I was 18, and saw some amazing standup.
The lyrical register of pop music demands imagery that's direct and broadly relatable, the kind of message that can be easily understood over a thudding bass line. So too does gospel, where the communion arrives not on Saturday night at the club but at a service the next morning. In either case, the roof might get blown off, and in a moment of mass worship, you're able to believe for a few minutes at a time in a collective euphoria.
"I love Pete," Harris writes in an excerpt obtained by The Atlantic. "I love working with Pete. He and his husband, Chasten, are friends. But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man. Part of me wanted to say, Screw it, let's just do it. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk. And I think Pete also knew that-to our mutual sadness."
It's this tonal tweak that gives us elements like the puppet sequences from Sam's point of view, or the interpersonal drama that feels straight out of Riverdale, and that's a refreshing change of pace from The Boys ' high octane action. A related and underrated strength is how Gen V handles real-world issues, often using its superpowers to provide a model for the problems of young adults. Marie uses her bloodbending powers by cutting herself, which reflects self-harm.
You remember what you want to remember. You make time for what you want to make time for. Do the work. Show up. And most importantly, for the love of God, don't embarrass me in public, Tillman said. My first acting coach was tough, ya'll, but all great mothers are. Mama, you were there for me when no one else was, Tillman continued. Your loving kindness stays with me, and this is for you.
I am so grateful that Disney continues to allow us to see ourselves through these Disney princesses," said Auli'i Cravalho, the voice of Moana. "And so, I hope you find the princess that resonates the most with you.
As a young Taiwanese girl living in the Inland Empire, former singer and import model-turned-writer Kaila Yu said she often felt uncomfortable in her skin, growing up around Eurocentric beauty standards. I felt like my features weren't desirable, Yu said of her childhood. I felt very insecure about all of that. The now 46-year-old L.A.-based author explores themes of sexuality and race in her debut memoir, Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty, out everywhere books are sold.
