Dear God, it’s August. Let’s not talk about it. I’m desperately clinging to the last few days of summer, despite the persistent thunderstorms circling NYC for the next week!

Here are some of the craziest, weirdest, most interesting, and thought-provoking pieces I’ve found over the last month or so. Enjoy!

Daddies, “Dates,” and the Girlfriend Experience: Welcome to the New Prostitution Economy. A growing number of young people are selling their bodies online to pay student loans, make the rent, or afford designer labels. Is it just an unorthodox way to make ends meet or a new kind of exploitation? Nancy Jo Sales investigates.

Ask Polly: When Will My Boyfriend Realize I’m Too Needy to Love?

Decide for yourself instead. Pay attention to how it feels the moment you resolve to address and soothe these feelings of self-doubt and distress on your own. Learn how to tell yourself that you are good and worthy. You are worthy even on your worst days. Learn to believe in the value of caring a whole hell of a lot. Learn to enjoy being your own savior. Learn to ask yourself tough questions, and learn to answer them in reassuring ways.

Justin Bieber’s Marilyn Manson Concert Tee Is His Best-Selling Item at Barneys. I love this line: “If you were to draw a Venn diagram of Manson fans and Bieber fans, there would be roughly one person, maybe two in the center.” I am that person!

Useful Tool Will Help You Determine If Men Are Talking Too Much. Hahaha.

Sleeping cleans your brain! This is pretty amazing, so you should definitely read it… And then get an early night.

Here are the dangers of dating faux-feminist men.

A feminist man makes space for women to speak and to hold positions of power, even when that means stepping back from his own power. He defends and supports women when they need it, especially in spaces where a man’s voice holds more weight than a woman’s (which, let’s face it, is most spaces). He listens to and believes women, instead of interrupting or interrogating us, when we tell him our experiences and our concerns. He advocates feminism not just to women, but to men too, because he recognizes it’s not about winning points, it’s about making change. He unlearns the defensiveness that naturally comes up when we confront our own privilege, and then uses that privilege to do good in the world.

A brief history of the Tumblr witch.

Emoji spells! Yessssssssss.

Using Body Language. Yes, I’ve been researching!

The Emotional Intelligence Toolkit: This (free!) program is rooted in social and emotional brain science that engages the emotional brain and heart, as well as the reasoning mind. Its purpose is to teach you how to control troublesome thoughts, manage difficult emotions, have better relationships, and follow through on positive intentions.

Want a Better Marriage? Add Some Emotional Intelligence.

The emotional landscape that occurs when you are with your partner, is a process called emotional contagion. The term refers to the well documented fact that emotions can be likened to a social virus in that they spread from one person to another. Put another way, you can literally catch your partner’s anger, anxiety and depression, or similarly, you can mood infect your partner with confidence and enthusiasm.

Five Keys to Enhancing Your Emotional Intelligence. Apparently 90% of high performers have high emotional intelligence.

Makeup Magic: Beauty as Ritual, Empowerment, and Reclamation. This patriarchal standard for how people should present themselves creates the opportunity to use beauty as a tool to empower yourself and others, reclaiming something that has long been a method of oppression. This can go beyond the physical act of applying makeup, nail polish, or perfumes, and become a ritualistic practice, weaving magic into maquillage.

Interracial Dating Is Fundamentally Changing America. See also 7 tips for white women in interracial relationships.

Shirley Manson Is Turning 50 and DGAF About What You Think. And her hair is pink.

“Sometimes I look in the mirror, feel my shoulders slump, and am disappointed with what I see,” Manson says. “And I have imaginary voices about what people might say about me having pink hair at 50. But I’m at that point where I don’t give a fuck if you think it’s appropriate or not. Go fuck yourself and be boring! I want to be free to explore the person I want to be. … Sure, I’ll be compared to Taylor Swift or Sky Ferreira. I get that. But age is information. Age is empowerment. I’m tired of being told I must infantilize myself and pretend I’m younger than I am. I’m 50, and I have lived an incredible life.”

Astrological dating is a thing, and there’s an app for it.

What’s it like to be goth at 40 years old?

The Real Reason You’re So Tired All the Time. Worn down? Burned out? It’s probably time to let a few beastly burdens go.

Let the wild accusations fly as we look at the Salem witch trials.

Now That Taylor Swift Is Definitely Less Innocent Than She Pretends to Be, What’s Next?

Success is not a matter of luck — it’s an algorithm.

According to Branson, people who play it safe seldom get lucky. On the other hand, people who see themselves as lucky are also usually the ones who are prepared to take the greatest risks.

5 witchy travel destinations for any intrepid enchantress!

Donald Trump’s ghostwriter tells all… And it sure is ugly.

Get the epidural. It’s interesting that no one cares very much about women doing anything “naturally” until it involves their being in excruciating pain. No one ever asks a man if he’s having a “natural root canal.” No one ever asks if a man is having a “natural vasectomy.”

Why 30 is the decade friends disappear — and what to do about it.

The Kimye and Taylor Swift Feud Has Always Been About White Femininity and Blackness.

I tested the $50 light treatment that makes you trip balls. They have these in NYC too, I’m pretty keen to try!

A Meditation for Leo Season to Unleash Your Highest Self. So good!

Here are 5 signs you need a spirituality detox.

Do you ever feel like your intimate relationships are basically like being in emotional bootcamp? If so, you’re not the only one. Check out Alexandra’s piece on relationships as a path to enlightenment.

Period pride and loving your lady landscape.

Can you really power an organisation with love? (Yes!)

What should you do when you’re extremely unmotivated?

If You Loved Me, You Wouldn’t Want to Change Me. Is it true that we should simply accept our lovers as they are?

The desire to put one’s lover right is, in fact, utterly loyal to the essential task of love – to help another person to become the best version of themselves.

Charge It Up: A Clothing and Sigil Protection Spell.

The New Moon has since passed, but these tips still apply… 8 Ways to Hone Your Creative Genius at the Leo New Moon.

Anna Wintour has a beautiful wild garden on Long Island.

These Polish headdresses and wreaths are absolutely gorgeous.

I loved this interview between Marie Forleo and Tony Robbins.

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Love and everything else,