My daughter wrote a book. Own it. Here you go.

“Be different” is not anything my mother ever said to me. She encouraged what she knew: traditionalism. She wanted me to grow up, find a husband, pro-create. That was reinforced, by sending me to Yeshiva, by reminding me over and over again, to seek stability. There is everything great about stability; I chose risk. I don’t know that my mother ever imagined I’d backpack across Europe at the age of 19 or that I’d start a feminist zine (twice!) or that I’d raise a daughter on my own. But I did all of that, and so much more.  I yearned for my own path, and I forged it. It’s really scary, especially now at 53, the hustle. (There is no side hustle, by the way, there is only the hustle.) But. But. But. I do what I’ve always done: keep moving. Keep forging my path. Keep making sense.  This photo of me is from 2011; I wanted purple and pink hair. And so, I went to Cutler Salon and I got the hair color I wanted. I kept my hair in various shades of pink and purple for years, because I liked it. And the more I stare at the textures, the more I yearn for that color again. It’s a woman forging her path. It’s…different.

Tracee Ellis Ross: “A black woman who is not only surviving but thriving. A black woman who is actually in love with her husband — not an image we usually see in American pop culture. A black woman who can be goofy and sexy, who can be smart and empowered and soft and lovable and vulnerable. Eight years of watching Michelle Obama as a person, not just relegated to doing “woman things,” provided an antidote to all the false representations of black women that have inundated us for centuries — images that don’t represent the reality, or the humanity, of who we are as black people. Of who we are as people. And then to have her name prefaced by two things that are rarely associated with black women — “First” and “Lady” — well, it shattered everything.”

Gabrielle Union: “I felt like if I can talk about my pussy with you, I can talk about race.”

Nikki Giovani: “As you get older, you begin to have more time. When you’re a young woman — maybe 25 — and you’re taking care of people, you don’t have time and so you keep doing what you have to do.”

Dating long distance. Oh, the fun of it.

And now have a laugh with Sarah Silverman.