Sarah Fader

Online friendships are real. Human beings seek connection in various forms, and having a connection with another like-minded human being through the Internet is completely and totally valid.

You might think you’re not working hard enough and that’s why you can’t find anything to talk about. That isn’t necessarily what is happening here.

From the day that I had my first panic attack at age 15, my life was never the same. I looked up at my mother, wanting her to save me.

My brief experience with online dating taught me that I hate it with a fiery passion. As a woman, I felt objectified and like a lot of the men on there wanted to see pictures of me so that they could judge if I was hot enough to go out for coffee with. I was already resentful and angry. And I know that I’m not alone. My female friends who have been involved in online dating have commiserated with me on this.

My life has been a long bumpy anxious ride. People often don’t understand my “quirky” behaviors due to anxiety. I’ve learned, over the years that it's not important what other people think. What matters is that I recognize when anxiety is coming out to play, and I punch that bitch in the face.

I decided to reach out to Phuc Dat to get his side of the story. I neglected to realize that the lived in Australia. Though it was 9am in NYC it was after 1am down under.

It got me thinking, why are there boys and girls sections in department stores like Target? What about the girl who doesn't want to wear a pink sparkly dress? She wants to wear a blue shirt with the truck on it. What about the boy who wants to wear a pink shirt with purple stripes? Is he not allowed to do that because it's in the "girls" section?

“We are all starting for a place of complete and utter crazy love for our kids. If we can start there, when differences come up, hopefully we can approach people that are doing things in a totally different way from us in a inclusive, loving and non-judgmental way,” Stewart-Douglas says.

I have two kids and I curse like a sailor. I do not curse at them, but I curse around them. And they know the difference. I tell them that "fuck" and "shit" are curse words, that they are for grownups to say. I don’t sugarcoat them. But I also do not intend to give up the words that offer me a level of catharsis I can’t seem to locate elsewhere in the English language.

If you haven’t been unfriended or blocked on Facebook, then you’re not doing social media right.