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

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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In Honor Of Election Day, Get Your Vote AND Your Sandwich On

It's Election Day AND National Sandwich Day today and, somehow, I feel like these important two events must be related.

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Why I'm Giving Your Teenagers Condoms

"However, if you've ever met a teenager, you know that roughly 75% of them will never willingly walk into the school nurse's office and ask about birth control. But, even if they do, they still won't necessarily know which form is best for them, and they certainly won't be given the advice they need to dump that player and move on already. That's where us parents come in. Except, of course, that half of our kids won't talk to us about the ins and outs of sex and relationships."

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Pope Francis' New Policy on Abortion "Forgiveness" Misses The Mark

While this is, of course, better than excommunicating women for their reproductive choices, it is still founded on the premise that abortion is a sin and that men in power must absolve women of their mistakes. It also continues to paint women as incapable of understanding their options and making autonomous choices for their bodies and their lives.

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Mom Whose Infant Died On His First Day Of Daycare Asks "Why?"

Amber Scorah's son Karl was three months old when she dropped him off at his first day of daycare. When she returned two and a half hours later to breastfeed him on her lunch break, he was dead.

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This Week's Edition Of Why We Still Need Feminism

Instead of delving into the psychological and scientific impacts of their work, reporters asked the astronauts how they would survive without makeup and men in space.

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In The Wake Of San Bernardino, Let's Stop Pretending Anything Will Change

When I first heard about the mass shooting in San Bernadino, I wanted to write something meaningful and thought-provoking.

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Ben Carson Declares Muslims Unfit For Presidency, Apparently Can't Comprehend The Constitution

Carson's comments came in response to the shitshow that was Trump's campaign rally last week, where an attendee asked a question about how Trump would handle the "problem" that is Muslims in America, and incorrectly stated that President Obama is Muslim. Frankly, it doesn't matter what religion the president adopts, if any, but it's long since been settled that Obama is, in fact, Christian.

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Your Slut-Shaming Dress Code Is Distracting My Daughter From Learning 

After sorting through all of the reasons why people claim that dress codes are needed, I can't find a single one that holds any weight or that isn't founded in strangely Victorian ideals about girl's bodies.

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LA Protects Children From Terror While We Do Nothing About Guns

There is a bitter irony to this morning's news that the entire Los Angeles Unified School District shut down after receiving an emailed threat of violence against its schools. Yesterday was the third anniversary of the Sandy Hook tragedy, and it is a stark reminder that although tragedy has become commonplace, we still do little to prevent it unless it is labeled as terrorism.

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