Jess Lahitou

Jess Lahitou

Bio

Jess is a literature lover, former teacher, new(ish) mother, and politics junkie. Currently in Miami, this Colorado native is embracing the culture shock. Art Basel? Wynwood? Ropa Vieja? Yes, please.

Jess Lahitou Articles

For teens, there's never a real "off" time.

Is The Internet Ruining Teenagers' Lives? Um... It Might Be

As the headline article (“Anxiety, Depression and the American Adolescent”) points out, depression has been replaced with anxiety as the leading mental health struggle of today’s adolescent. The one possible cause that stood out to me most was the impact of social media. With smartphone in hand, teens can be reading harmless texts, or – as was the case for one young female interviewed – they could be viewing disturbing Instagram posts, or reading about distant tragedies, or scrolling through hateful Facebook comments. Maybe even comments about them.

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WAY better than true love.

Is Monogamy Over? What This Means For The 21st Century Woman

The most recent issue of Time features a cover with twenty-one shadowed question marks scattered under the headline: “Is Monogamy Over?”

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Economic woes plague the Rust Belt.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir Sheds Light On Donald Trump's Rise

Everyone but Michael Moore underestimated the level of economic angst and cultural upheaval occurring in the Rust Belt, that collection of states forming a sloped capital “E” along the Great Lakes: Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania.

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Given their unfair and potentially exploitative access to the personal life details of millions of voters, in an ideal world, social media tycoons wouldn’t run at all. (Image Credit: Instagram/@zuck)

Is The Next President Coming Out Of Silicon Valley?

Americans deserve to vote without being unwittingly “nudged,” “tweaked,” or otherwise manipulated by those with the most power and most incentive to do so. Ergo, any candidate from Silicon Valley needs to be treated with an excess of skepticism.

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Sinking to new lows as POTUS. (Image Credit: Flickr/Gage Skidmore)

Donald Trump's Speech To Joint Session Of Congress: A New Level Of Egomaniac Emerges, Hidden Under Rapturous Applause

This is the first time I’ve seen a sitting president “spin” a clear military defeat to save his own ego, and use a bereft and heartbroken wife in order to get away with it. Disgust is not the right word. Horror, maybe. Disbelief and revulsion crashing into each other.

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Duck Dynasty viewers were likely to vote for Trump. (Image Credit: Flickr/Mike Mozart)

The 'Duck Dynasty' Test: Are We This Politically Predictable?

Four years ago, my husband took a job transfer to Bogota, Colombia.

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(Image Credit: By Donald Trump August 19, 2015 (cropped).jpg: BU Rob13 Hillary Clinton by Gage Skidmore 2.jpg: Gage [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

My Very Gen-Y Take On The First Presidential Debate

So I don’t approve, in general, of how my generation tends to come at things, with the focus on: me, my experience, my

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Did Ted Cruz Or Did Teddy Croo-oo-oos Win The Republican Debate?

There were two stories that emerged from last night’s Republican debate: 1. The matchup between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, arguing over immigration policy and foreign policy (Cruz: no amnesty, build a wall, bomb ISIS while somehow not harming innocents. Rubio: eventual legalization of illegal immigrants, strengthen borders, work with Arab partners to defeat ISIS, more troops).

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Serve: baby does something. Return: you react in kind. (Image: Thinkstock)

The Most Important Thing Dads Can Do for Baby: Serve and Return

I’m not one for overstatement; the research here is rock solid. And while “serve and return” is borrowed lingo from tennis (hopeful we have some fellow Del Potro fans in the house), the practice has nothing at all to do with sports.

When it comes to babies, “serve and return” refers to meaningful, face-to-face interaction with the little one. The sort of conversation where you’re not just talking at baby, but watching his reactions, and responding in kind.

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