Why are we so ashamed of Twilight?

Earlier in the year I read The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness and really enjoyed it. I loved that it gently poked fun of the YA fantasy genre. This, coupled with the fact that the films were recently added to Netflix (but not Breaking Dawn Part 2, why?), made me want to rewatch the Twilight films. Because Twilight was such a huge deal for a few years, then faded into obscurity a little bit. It's not forgotten, but it's not like you really bump into Twi-hards any more. Once upon a time I really loved Twilight. But I grew out of it just as quickly as I got into it. And for a while I was kind of ashamed that I ever liked it. I don't think I'm the only one...

A purple haul? A few pre-Christmas treats

I try to resist buying myself things near to Christmas, out of fear that I'll accidentally buy something that someone was planning to get me. However, a few things seem to end up in my basket throughout December...

Aging Pop Culture: Does popular culture have a sell-by date?

Recently I feel like I've travelled back in a time machine. The Harry Potter craze has taken hold (did it ever really go away?), Pokemon is popular again, and I've been reading The Princess Diaries books. Looking at clothes in shops currently, I could quite easily put together an outfit that my mum would have worn when I was a kid. This whole 90/00s feel has been around for a while - I remember a few years ago actually debating whether to buy a pair of jelly shoes (I thankfully didn't waste my money).

Popular culture seems to be so fond of nostalgia. Already the "millennial" generation (urgh, still kind of hate that phrase) seems to spend a lot of time looking back at memories from their past, in a way that makes us seem like old grandparents in their armchairs talking about the Blitz. But I wonder, does pop culture have a sell by date? At what point does it stop being trendy and start becoming dated?

Fanfiction: cool, or still uncool?

I have a confession: I used to read a lot of fanfiction. I used to write a lot of fanfiction.
It's sort of a secret shame that I don't talk about to people, even though I was still actively part of the community right up until the end of my first year of university. By then I wasn't reading new stories, but I definitely had a commitment to finishing my own. My most popular work was a 89,000 word Harry Potter story. To date it has had over 186,000 page views and 382 reviews. That's a pretty big achievement. But why do I hide all association from it?

Ghosts of Makeup Past

I'm very bad with use by dates on makeup. I'm also bad at throwing things out if I don't use them any more. Lurking in my bedroom are my ghosts of makeup past...