Jody Allard

Photo Credit: Elizabeth Boyce

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.

A man who stabbed three people in a London subway station Saturday tried to instill fear of ISIS by yelling "This is for Syria" as he was hauled away by police. Instead, it is the words of a bystander that captured the world's attention.

"It's simple, really. If you can muddy the waters enough, and espouse concern for the rights of those poor defenseless embryos enough, what should be a simple statement about the rights of women to make choices for their own bodies becomes, instead, a convoluted argument around viability and fetal stages that puts the presumed "rights" of fetuses on an equal footing with the actual rights of adult women."

There was another school shooting yesterday and 10 people are dead.

As you might imagine, assuming that men and women are exactly the same hasn't worked out too well.

Before I went to therapy, I married a lot of men, had a lot of children, and worked myself to the bone to achieve career success. If I wasn't happy, it was easy to blame that on my alcoholic, cheating husband or raising a tribe of kids or even working too damn much.

Singer Ariana Grande struck a high note for body positivity when she reminded her Instagram followers that all bodies are beautiful — and personal.

ICYMI, everyone's favorite drunk uncle Donald Trump announced that he's in favor of banning all Muslims from the United States –– including American citizens who leave the country for terrorist-loving activities like going on vacation.

The more I told him that something hurt me, the more that he did it.