Jody Allard

Jody Allard

Bio

Jody Allard is a former techie turned freelance writer living in Seattle. Her online work has appeared on Time, xoJane, and Offbeat Home, among others. She writes primarily about food, family, mothering, and life with a chronic illness. 

Jody Allard Articles

credit: Ashley Anderson

Please Do Not Dub Sandra Bland A Crazy Black Woman

"Ultimately, it doesn't matter much whether Bland killed herself or was murdered. In both cases, she died because she was hauled into custody for a minor offense that didn't really even merit being pulled over to begin with. Maybe her head injury led to uncharacteristic behavior, or maybe the traumatic arrest triggered a severe PTSD episode, or maybe someone flat out killed her. But, in every case, she died because she was in that police cell."

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Rachel and her family

What Rachel Dolezal Teaches Us About Mental Illness

What initially broke as a story of possibly fraudulent misrepresentation by a public figure quickly morphed into the downfall of a highly disturbed and probably mentally ill woman.

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Paul Ryan Earns "Lean In" Award, Still Doesn't Care About Your Family Time

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, author of The Rich White Woman's Guide To Succeeding Within The Patriarchy Lean In,

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Don't be afraid.

It Doesn’t Matter What Causes Autism (But It Does Matter How We Treat It)

I know what autism looks like, and I understand why people are afraid of it because, at its worst moments, it is desperately, terribly ugly — it is children who can’t communicate, who become adults who are unable to live independently, and who simply cannot cope with the onslaught of sensory input that we barely notice. It is meltdowns that are triggered by nothing and everything, learning difficulties, and services that cost our healthcare system billions of dollars every year.

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News Flash: The Catholic Church Says Domestic Violence Is Your Fault

He characterized the "serious problem" with domestic violence as a failure by the couples to have "a true marriage" and attacked the politicians who support what he termed "quickie divorces" (you know, the ones that save battered women's lives).

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Image via Sesame Street

Why It Matters That Sesame Street's First Muppet With Autism Is A Girl

It took five years for my daughter to be diagnosed with autism. There were dozens of red flags, beginning from the time she was about 10 months old, but her pediatrician always told me that she was fine. "She made eye contact with me," she reassured me. "She can't be on the spectrum." Besides, most children with autism, she reminded me, are boys.

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Can we all just agree that tiaras are great, no matter who's wearing them?

Boys Don't Dress Up As Women On Halloween — And What That Means For Equality

And that's when it hit me: It's okay for girls to aspire to be like boys, but it's categorically not okay for boys to aspire to be like girls.

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Brace Yourselves, Kids of the '90s, Nickelodeon May Bring Back Your Favorite Shows

If you lay awake at night praying for new episodes of your favorite childhood TV shows, your prayers may soon be answered. Nickelodeon confirmed that it is considering re-boots of its most beloved shows from the 80s and 90s.

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Alanis Morissette Gives "Ironic" A Modern Twist

If you were a teenager in the 90s, odds are that you screamed your heart out along to Alanis Morissette's music at least a few times.

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Feminist Icon Camille Paglia Calls Taylor Swift A "Nazi Barbie"

Paglia...suggested that the problem with women’s lives is that career women now lack the multigenerational shared approach to domestic bliss. Apparently, women wouldn’t need friends and silly socializing if they all just went back to the kitchen and did more women’s work.

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