Mackenzie Bender

“I can’t lose the thing I’ve held onto for so long, you know?” My face twists up from the pain of pushing it out. “I just really need it to be a love story, you know? I really, really need it to be that.”
“I know,” she says.
“Because if it isn’t a love story, then what is it”? I look to her glassy eyes, her face of wide open empathy. “It’s my life,” I say. “This has been my whole life.”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa

“Feminism is all about choice, I reminded the world, so stop trying to control me.”
― Emily Ratajkowski, My Body

“The excuses we make for them are outrageous, but they’re nothing compared with the ones we make for ourselves.”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa

“Beauty was a way for me to be special. When I was special, I felt my parents' love for me the most.”
― Emily Ratajkowski, My Body