Fernanda Winthrop

“So now I have to ask myself: What other stories from my life do I need to see in this new light? How many other stories from my life have I told—ignoring race, ignoring my whiteness—that now need to be retold to include how my being white affects them?”
― Brendan Kiely, The Other Talk: Reckoning with Our White Privilege

“No smartphones before high school. Parents should delay children’s entry into round-the-clock internet access by giving only basic phones (phones with limited apps and no internet browser) before ninth grade (roughly age 14). No social media before 16. Let kids get through the most vulnerable period of brain development before connecting them to a firehose of social comparison and algorithmically chosen influencers. Phone-free schools. In all schools from elementary through high school, students should store their phones, smartwatches, and any other personal devices that can send or receive texts in phone lockers or locked pouches during the school day. That is the only way to free up their attention for each other and for their teachers. Far more unsupervised play and childhood independence. That’s the way children naturally develop social skills, overcome anxiety, and become self-governing young adults.”
― Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness

“the symbol for transgender in ASL is a hand held over the heart, fingers pointing down as if depicting a flower—a lily, say—with its petals closed tight. Then, to make the sign, you move your arm forward, and point the “petals” at the sky, so that they can open. You end by putting your hand back over your heart with the petals now facing upward.”
― Jodi Picoult, Mad Honey

“As during his reality television days, Trump shakes up the status of players, and positions are cast more than filled. Firings create court intrigue that reporters will pounce on while ignoring the steady spread of rot. But there is consistency within the contrived chaos. As in foreign kleptocracies, the glue that holds the Trump administration together is nepotism.”
― Sarah Kendzior, Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America