Latest news with #BigSister
The Star
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
HK actor Damian Lau and Singaporean star Zoe Tay reunite after 10 years
Singaporean actress Zoe Tay made a special trip to Hong Kong during her recent visit to China so she could meet her former co-star Damian Lau Chung Yan. The two had kept in touch since acting together in the Mediacorp blockbuster drama The Dream Makers II (2015 to 2016), but had not seen each other in 10 years. On May 20, Tay shared three photos taken with the veteran Hong Kong actor on social media. 'Brother Chung is still as spirited after 10 years,' the 'Ah Jie' (Big Sister) of Singapore television wrote. 'I'm really happy to see you again and we have so much to chat about. Thank you for sharing your philosophy of life.' Lau, who played Emperor Kangxi in the Chinese palace drama Scarlet Heart (2011), was pictured smiling and looked energetic. The 75-year-old was rumoured to be in ill health in recent years. There were claims of a stroke, which he refuted, after the media spotted him using a walking aid in 2020. He announced his retirement after performing in a musical in 2024 and has since rarely appeared in public. Tay, 57, told Lianhe Zaobao on May 21 that she met Lau at a restaurant in Hong Kong and they chatted for more than two hours. 'He often asked me when I would go to Hong Kong,' Tay told the Chinese-language daily. 'I was travelling in Guangzhou, Foshan and Zhongshan recently, so I arranged a trip to Hong Kong.' Lau launched his first book – a not-for-sale photography series, Damian's Rendezvous – earlier in 2025. He sent a copy to Tay in Singapore, as he thought there was no chance of them meeting up in the near future. Tay, who played the matriarch Liu Xiuniang in Mediacorp's blockbuster drama Emerald Hill (2025), said Lau is preparing for his second book, and his life after retirement is very fulfilling. 'Brother Chung is in good shape and he is living very happily,' she told Zaobao. 'He told me that this period is the best time of his life.' With Lau having retired, the chances of Tay and Lau acting together again are slim. 'It was a great honour to work with him in The Dream Makers II,' Tay said. 'He is a very experienced actor and I really learnt a lot from him.' – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
Hamilton Spectator
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
Little Brothers experience Big League Fun Thanks to Winnipeg Sea Bears
For a group of children from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Plains, last Friday night was one they won't soon forget, thanks to an exciting evening court-side at the Winnipeg Sea Bears season opener. The outing was organized by the local agency's mentoring coordinator, Laura, who reached out to the Sea Bears basketball team to request tickets. The organization, a part of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) responded generously, offering free admission for several children and accompanying staff. 'It was mainly kids from our waiting list — kids who are still waiting to be matched with a Big Brother or Big Sister,' said Dawn Froese, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Plains. 'We want to give them opportunities to experience new things while they wait, and this was a perfect chance.' About six youth attended the game, most of whom had never been to a live sporting event. 'Just going to the city was exciting for some of them,' Froese said. 'Going and watching a game and everything that's happening, they were really excited and really enjoyed the game.' The Sea Bears, who were facing off against the Edmonton Stingers, clinched a narrow victory by just three points with a score of 92-89. 'We were all on the edge of our seats until the last moment,' Froese recalled. One of the youngest attendees, Little Brother Colton, gave the evening a perfect score. 'On a scale of 1 to 10, he said it was an 11,' said Froese. She notes it was the first time he'd been to a sporting event. Froese explained that being on the Big Brothers Big Sisters waiting list means children have already gone through the agency's intake process and are actively engaged with staff. While they await a match with a volunteer mentor, they're invited to take part in activities that encourage learning, personal growth, and simply having fun. Finding a suitable match, especially for boys, can sometimes take years, as the agency aims to pair children and volunteers based on shared interests and compatible personalities. Froese said the organization did take kids to a Sea Bears game previously about two years ago. For now, outings like the Sea Bears game help keep children engaged and feeling supported while they wait for that one-on-one mentorship to begin, Froese said. 'We try and find other activities that they could be involved with that would help their growth or that might just expand possibilities, something they've never seen or tried before.' To find out more, or how to become involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters, check out their website: — Renée Lilley is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Portage Graphic. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
Los Angeles Times
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Jason Kelce and wife Kylie welcome daughter No. 4, who surprises Uncle Travis Kelce during podcast
Jason Kelce and wife Kylie Kelce have welcomed their newest baby, making the retired Philadelpha Eagles center a girl-dad times four — and the infant has already been a surprise guest on the Kelce brothers' podcast. The birth announcement came Tuesday via social media where the parents posted photos and Kylie declared, 'Whoop, there she is! Finnley 'Finn' Anne Kelce.' 'Does that first photo have a filter on it?' daddy Jason, who retired from the NFL in 2024, asked in the comments. He still does the 'New Heights' podcast with brother Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end and boyfriend of Taylor Swift. Finn — who was reportedly born Monday — joins sisters Wyatt, 5, Elliote, 3, and Bennett, 2, in the Kelce clan and was celebrated in comments by her Uncle Trav. 'Finnley!!' he wrote, tagging on three heart-eyes emojis for good measure. Travis got to meet Finn virtually Wednesday when the brothers were a few minutes into their podcast. 'Hey, little muffin! Look at you,' he cooed as tiny Finn was toted into the picture, smoosh-face and all, carried by mama Kylie. 'You hanging out with Mom? Tell Ky I said hello. I'm glad everything's going great.' Moments later, things got a little odd as Jason put the headphones on his yawning daughter and asked Travis what he wanted to say to Finn. 'Finn, you just look adorable. I have nothing to say to you,' Travis said. 'You happy to be out?' 'How was Kylie's uterus?' Jason asked his new daughter, earning a laugh from his brother. 'Too comfy, that's why we had to evict her,' Kylie said. 'I'm sorry your father's a weirdo,' Travis said, directing his words toward the infant. Other famous congrats on the birth came in Instagram comments from the likes of Whitney Cummings, Kat Dennings, Erin Andrews and the Philadelphia Eagles. 'Congratulations on your little one ... Hope you and baby are doing well!,' the official Peppa Pig account commented. 'Congratulations! ... Baby Shark doo do do do,' said Barbara Corcoran, the veteran 'Shark Tank' investor. Retired NFL wide receiver Jerome Bettis offered his congrats as well. The Kelces announced a fourth child was on the way in November, when Kylie Kelce posted a picture of their first three daughters in pink 'Big Sister' sweaters, reacting to the news. Elliotte smiled, Wyatt looked shocked and Bennett — then only 21 months old — simply sobbed hysterically. 'I feel like we captured a very accurate representation of how each of the girls feel about getting another sister,' Kylie wrote. 'At least Ellie, mom and dad are on the same page!'
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Romanticising ‘sickness' dooms us to a national cycle of dysfunction
A young, attractive woman with tousled hair called Danielle – username Big Sister – is talking with fetching authenticity at the camera under a caption that reads: 'What it's like living with high-functioning ADHD.' Rubbing her eyes briefly and regularly, presumably to indicate the scatty but approachable nature of her disorder, this self-described life coach says: 'I got diagnosed with ADHD in my late 20s [so] I lived a huge amount of my life thinking that things were normal when they were in fact not.' She then goes on to describe the amazement of the realisation that not everyone has 'thoughts... all the time'. A 3-D 'orb' appears with different-sized globules lit up to show her best approximation of how her ADHD-diagnosed 'not normal' brain works. This is truly bizarre to watch. What this young woman with her perfect brows and confident gaze in front of the camera is describing is the utterly unremarkable fact of being a conscious human being – and one so privileged that she can devote herself to gushing about her orb-shaped brain to strangers on the internet. Yet this video has been viewed 2.2 million times and liked by 174,000 people. In a little over a decade, illness and suffering have gone from being a negative whose inconvenience the average person tried to manage and overcome as privately as possible, to the centrepiece of a person's identity. Sickness has become a power tool, a game piece to play, and a shield: once you declare your badge of honour in the form of a diagnosis of ADHD or PMT, it's open sesame. Nobody can counter you because of… neurodiversity or hormones or whatever it may be. No wonder the staggering rates of sickness benefits claimed by young people are breaking Britain's finances. Somehow, as woke ideology has marched across internet users' consciousness, phrases like 'my trauma' have become utterly commonplace, obscuring, as so many of these overused labels do, the serious traumas of people who have experienced genuinely terrible things, from wars and domestic abuse to the terror and despair of being stalked by a mental illness such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Because the seriousness of some mental states has been lost amid all this froth, emotional wellbeing is packaged up as information to share before communication is to take place. I was struck by an advert for the 'I'm OK' bee enamel brooch by the artist Gary Floyd, which encapsulates 'the often unexpressed sentiment that many individuals face when asked about their emotional wellbeing… It's OK not to be OK sometimes.' Really? Who knew? Experts now worry that amid all this reaching for the I'm Not OK button, TikTok's myriad of 'neurodiversity' influencers encourages people who might be looking for meaning, identity, a place to hang their anxiety and, of course, a bulletproof get-out-‑of-jail-free card to self-diagnose with a disorder. This is worrying for many reasons, including that in their pure form, such disorders need to be taken seriously with specialist treatment, not just deployed for sympathy points. The case of ADHD is one of the most prominently pushed online, romanticised and rendered 'cute'. Researchers carried out a study with 2,843 undergraduate psychology students on how they perceived the videos. This showed that 'people who watched a large number of ADHD-related TikToks also tended to overestimate ADHD's prevalence by as much as 10 times and think more negatively about their own symptoms'. Scientists expressed concern that the videos – which have had more than half a billion views combined – portray ADHD (and other disorders, such as mild autism) as 'lively, loveable and almost entertaining'. It's great that the shame, isolation and misery that so often accompanied both mental problems and sensitive (usually women's) physical issues in the past has been replaced by a culture of support and a standard of compassionate treatment. But it hasn't stopped there. Because of the way the umbrella ideology of 'diversity' has spread and embedded itself, there is a pervasive belief that pathology is power. Diversity, after all, is about making sure marginalised groups are not 'under-represented' (a spurious term if ever there was one). What this translates to is giving anyone who isn't 'privileged' – namely straight, white, non-trans people – priority in all things so as to stamp down any 'systemic' phobias and 'isms'. Translated into the domain of health, it's obvious where this is going. Just as prioritising tick-box criteria – skin colour, sexual orientation and so on – has been devastating for the quality of education, politics and cultural life, so the celebration of pathology and the zest for auto-diagnosis that it invites is decimating the ability to even interact with other people. When members of a society are incentivised to cry sickness – an unanswerable claim to being 'marginal' too – it becomes impossible to rely on anything operating properly, from the legal system and businesses to hospitals and family gatherings. Because if everyone and everything can be stopped in their tracks by someone's pain, trauma, disorder or negative feelings – lest the latter be railroaded and the person further traumatised and 'unheard' – then nothing can work, no matter how important. Friends can't speak freely with each other. Plans can be cancelled at short notice for any excuse because 'my pathology made me'. This is vexing enough on the personal level, but writ large over the country as a whole, it is devastating our economy and our spirit. But as Britain groans, the TikTokers are laughing all the way to the bank. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
22-03-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Romanticising ‘sickness' dooms us to a national cycle of dysfunction
A young, attractive woman with tousled hair called Danielle – username Big Sister – is talking with fetching authenticity at the camera under a caption that reads: 'What it's like living with high-functioning ADHD.' Rubbing her eyes briefly and regularly, presumably to indicate the scatty but approachable nature of her disorder, this self-described life coach says: 'I got diagnosed with ADHD in my late 20s [so] I lived a huge amount of my life thinking that things were normal when they were in fact not.' She then goes on to describe the amazement of the realisation that not everyone has 'thoughts... all the time'. A 3-D 'orb' appears with different-sized globules lit up to show her best approximation of how her ADHD-diagnosed 'not normal' brain works. This is truly bizarre to watch. What this young woman with her perfect brows and confident gaze in front of the camera is describing is the utterly unremarkable fact of being a conscious human being – and one so privileged that she can devote herself to gushing about her orb-shaped brain to strangers on the internet. Yet this video has been viewed 2.2 million times and liked by 174,000 people. In a little over a decade, illness and suffering have gone from being a negative whose inconvenience the average person tried to manage and overcome as privately as possible, to the centrepiece of a person's identity. Sickness has become a power tool, a game piece to play, and a shield: once you declare your badge of honour in the form of a diagnosis of ADHD or PMT, it's open sesame. Nobody can counter you because of… neurodiversity or hormones or whatever it may be. No wonder the staggering rates of sickness benefits claimed by young people are breaking Britain's finances. Somehow, as woke ideology has marched across internet users' consciousness, phrases like 'my trauma' have become utterly commonplace, obscuring, as so many of these overused labels do, the serious traumas of people who have experienced genuinely terrible things, from wars and domestic abuse to the terror and despair of being stalked by a mental illness such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Because the seriousness of some mental states has been lost amid all this froth, emotional wellbeing is packaged up as information to share before communication is to take place. I was struck by an advert for the 'I'm OK' bee enamel brooch by the artist Gary Floyd, which encapsulates 'the often unexpressed sentiment that many individuals face when asked about their emotional wellbeing… It's OK not to be OK sometimes.' Really? Who knew? Experts now worry that amid all this reaching for the I'm Not OK button, TikTok's myriad of 'neurodiversity' influencers encourages people who might be looking for meaning, identity, a place to hang their anxiety and, of course, a bulletproof get-out-‑of-jail-free card to self-diagnose with a disorder. This is worrying for many reasons, including that in their pure form, such disorders need to be taken seriously with specialist treatment, not just deployed for sympathy points. The case of ADHD is one of the most prominently pushed online, romanticised and rendered 'cute'. Researchers carried out a study with 2,843 undergraduate psychology students on how they perceived the videos. This showed that 'people who watched a large number of ADHD-related TikToks also tended to overestimate ADHD's prevalence by as much as 10 times and think more negatively about their own symptoms'. Scientists expressed concern that the videos – which have had more than half a billion views combined – portray ADHD (and other disorders, such as mild autism) as 'lively, loveable and almost entertaining'. It's great that the shame, isolation and misery that so often accompanied both mental problems and sensitive (usually women's) physical issues in the past has been replaced by a culture of support and a standard of compassionate treatment. But it hasn't stopped there. Because of the way the umbrella ideology of 'diversity' has spread and embedded itself, there is a pervasive belief that pathology is power. Diversity, after all, is about making sure marginalised groups are not 'under-represented' (a spurious term if ever there was one). What this translates to is giving anyone who isn't 'privileged' – namely straight, white, non-trans people – priority in all things so as to stamp down any 'systemic' phobias and 'isms'. Translated into the domain of health, it's obvious where this is going. Just as prioritising tick-box criteria – skin colour, sexual orientation and so on – has been devastating for the quality of education, politics and cultural life, so the celebration of pathology and the zest for auto-diagnosis that it invites is decimating the ability to even interact with other people. When members of a society are incentivised to cry sickness – an unanswerable claim to being 'marginal' too – it becomes impossible to rely on anything operating properly, from the legal system and businesses to hospitals and family gatherings. Because if everyone and everything can be stopped in their tracks by someone's pain, trauma, disorder or negative feelings – lest the latter be railroaded and the person further traumatised and 'unheard' – then nothing can work, no matter how important. Friends can't speak freely with each other. Plans can be cancelled at short notice for any excuse because 'my pathology made me'. This is vexing enough on the personal level, but writ large over the country as a whole, it is devastating our economy and our spirit. But as Britain groans, the TikTokers are laughing all the way to the bank.
