Fay

“But so often, joy and beauty were stuck in the same places as grief and shame, and one could not be accessed without the other.”
― Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, The Centre

“Life, with all its facets, terrified me. Happiness was scary because the loss of it was scary. Loneliness was scary also, but so was losing that familiarity it gave me, that awful sense of home I'd made in it. I'd always felt like a weed growing among flowers, competing for light and water: too neglected to be picked, but somehow too weak to be a threat to anything. But, in the end, these flowers had given me something, they'd arranged themselves around me, and made me feel as if I were one of their own.”
― Elvin James Mensah, Small Joys

“Beauty has always been one of the only ways women have been able to access power, and I can’t fault any of them for wanting more of it.”
― Ling Ling Huang, Natural Beauty

“Having OCD is so stupid. I wish I had something cool, like double joints or purple eyes. I feel as if the pathways in other people's brains are like well-maintained Department of Conservation hiking trails, while mine are modelled on the dodgiest slides at Waiwera Thermal Resort after it was shut down.”
― Rebecca K. Reilly, Greta & Valdin