Latest news with #HarriettheSpy
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
The book that changed me: Hannah Kent, Sarah Wilson, Hilde Hinton and more
Holly Wainwright 'I read Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh when I was eight years old. It changed my life. It's about a nosy little girl who lives in New York City – a place I had never been; I grew up in Manchester, England. She lived in an apartment with a doorman and had a nanny. Her parents went to glamorous events, but what I related to was that she was a writer and obsessed with nosing about in other people's lives. I read it 10 times. Harriet spies on her neighbours, writes about them in her notebook and observes her friends. They find out and are furious about it. It speaks about friend groups; one of the lessons it taught me was the difference between what you should say out loud and what you shouldn't. I was a magazine journalist for years and then an online one. In those early years of online writing, you were rewarded for being raw and brutal, but it also made me think about Harriet. The book made me realise I wasn't the only kid who kept notebooks; I remember writing in my own journal, and the way I pictured the world was the way I write about it. Harriet's nanny encouraged her to be adventurous, and I wanted that for myself, too.' Holly Wainwright is the author of He Would Never (Pan Macmillan Australia). Sarah Wilson 'Viktor Frankl had been a prisoner in Auschwitz and afterwards wrote Man's Search for Meaning in nine days. I found it at a bus station in Malaga, Spain, before I went on a hike in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I was hiking with a library bag, cucumber, orange, water and this book. I would sit under a tree each day in the 40-degree heat to read it. The book had a profound effect on me in my late 30s. It instilled in me a sense that life is meant to be hard, and that's when we rise to become our best selves. Frankl was a psychologist who spent four years in the camps, where he observed which characteristics enabled some men to survive while others died. He watched the big, tough men perish; those who survived had a deeper purpose, something bigger than themselves – it was generally God or family. I have been on a spiritual search for years and have endured tough times, and that notion of living for something bigger than yourself really struck me. The pendulum has swung to individualism and selfishness again; people are made to believe it's what we need to survive.' Sarah Wilson is the author of This One Wild and Precious Life (Harper Collins). Hilde Hinton 'The Deptford Trilogy by Canadian author Robertson Davies is a very obscure series I discovered as a 22-year-old with a new baby. I was a wayward youth, going from one dead-end job to another. I arrived in Perth from Melbourne with a suitcase, found a place to live and walked past a second-hand bookshop. The bookseller literally threw one of Davies' books at me. I threw it back. Then he threw it again. I thought bugger it, I'll keep it. The book shaped the rest of my life because after I read it, I told my dad we should start a second-hand bookshop. I did that for 20 years. I'd read six books a week then – that background inspired me to write. I was 50 when my first book came out; it was autobiographical. I am now on book four and still have imposter syndrome. There were periods when I felt isolated in Perth. I was regrouping, resetting and didn't have many friends there. Dad's way of bringing us up was very character building. It gave us the ability to think you can do anything. He told me to move away [from Melbourne] because my life wasn't going anywhere. It was a healing year for me, too. I never dealt with Mum's death [she died by suicide when Hinton was 12], and it was a good idea to reset. I came back to Melbourne with the love of the world and some direction again.' Hilde Hinton is the author of The Opposite of Lonely (Hachette Australia). Geraldine Brooks 'I discovered Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard when I was in my early 20s. It's a beautiful meditation by a woman who was in her early 20s and goes off to live in a rural place in the hills of Virginia, USA. She notices things for a year – the animals, the seasons, the way the light hits the mountains, and writes about it with grace and meaning. It's a book someone gave to my mother, and I was visiting her once and took it off the shelf. At the time I was working as a young journalist on The Sydney Morning Herald and had the chance to write about environmental issues. I would write about wilderness campaigners, go bushwalking, and do more demanding trips to write about proposed developments. I got to go camping in the snow and went rafting on Tasmania's Franklin River. The book gave me a sense of being out in nature and taught me what that means to humans. The book helped me to notice things on a deeper level. I am not a religious person, but there is something 'religious adjacent' that comes with being in nature.' Geraldine Brooks is the author of Memorial Days (Hachette Australia). Victoria Elizabeth Schwab ' Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein infected my mind with rhythm and cadence. I am someone who started writing poetry before I wrote my first novel many years later. I wanted to see if I could infect prose with poetic metre and use that as a way to make my voice stand out on the page. I am an only child and my parents read me poems every night before bed. Shel Silverstein was the first voice in my head. The combination of dark material conveyed with a childlike metre intrigued me. By the time I was nine, I would think in metre and rhyming couplets. I would have to smooth out my writing so it sounded normal to everyone else. To this day, when I am writing, I am very aware of the rise and fall of a sentence and syllabic rhythm of a sentence. Each one of my novels has a central sentence that exists for me, and me alone. For my upcoming work, there is a poem at the beginning. The sentence is, 'Bury my bones in the midnight soil.' Growing up with poetry, I always think about the musicality of a sentence, and I owe that to Shel. His work also had a profound depth; it wasn't just playful, it was also dark. The sinister appeal has shown up in all my books. I read all his poetry collections until they almost turned to dust.'
The Age
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
The book that changed me: Hannah Kent, Sarah Wilson, Hilde Hinton and more
Holly Wainwright 'I read Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh when I was eight years old. It changed my life. It's about a nosy little girl who lives in New York City – a place I had never been; I grew up in Manchester, England. She lived in an apartment with a doorman and had a nanny. Her parents went to glamorous events, but what I related to was that she was a writer and obsessed with nosing about in other people's lives. I read it 10 times. Harriet spies on her neighbours, writes about them in her notebook and observes her friends. They find out and are furious about it. It speaks about friend groups; one of the lessons it taught me was the difference between what you should say out loud and what you shouldn't. I was a magazine journalist for years and then an online one. In those early years of online writing, you were rewarded for being raw and brutal, but it also made me think about Harriet. The book made me realise I wasn't the only kid who kept notebooks; I remember writing in my own journal, and the way I pictured the world was the way I write about it. Harriet's nanny encouraged her to be adventurous, and I wanted that for myself, too.' Holly Wainwright is the author of He Would Never (Pan Macmillan Australia). Sarah Wilson 'Viktor Frankl had been a prisoner in Auschwitz and afterwards wrote Man's Search for Meaning in nine days. I found it at a bus station in Malaga, Spain, before I went on a hike in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I was hiking with a library bag, cucumber, orange, water and this book. I would sit under a tree each day in the 40-degree heat to read it. The book had a profound effect on me in my late 30s. It instilled in me a sense that life is meant to be hard, and that's when we rise to become our best selves. Frankl was a psychologist who spent four years in the camps, where he observed which characteristics enabled some men to survive while others died. He watched the big, tough men perish; those who survived had a deeper purpose, something bigger than themselves – it was generally God or family. I have been on a spiritual search for years and have endured tough times, and that notion of living for something bigger than yourself really struck me. The pendulum has swung to individualism and selfishness again; people are made to believe it's what we need to survive.' Sarah Wilson is the author of This One Wild and Precious Life (Harper Collins). Hilde Hinton 'The Deptford Trilogy by Canadian author Robertson Davies is a very obscure series I discovered as a 22-year-old with a new baby. I was a wayward youth, going from one dead-end job to another. I arrived in Perth from Melbourne with a suitcase, found a place to live and walked past a second-hand bookshop. The bookseller literally threw one of Davies' books at me. I threw it back. Then he threw it again. I thought bugger it, I'll keep it. The book shaped the rest of my life because after I read it, I told my dad we should start a second-hand bookshop. I did that for 20 years. I'd read six books a week then – that background inspired me to write. I was 50 when my first book came out; it was autobiographical. I am now on book four and still have imposter syndrome. There were periods when I felt isolated in Perth. I was regrouping, resetting and didn't have many friends there. Dad's way of bringing us up was very character building. It gave us the ability to think you can do anything. He told me to move away [from Melbourne] because my life wasn't going anywhere. It was a healing year for me, too. I never dealt with Mum's death [she died by suicide when Hinton was 12], and it was a good idea to reset. I came back to Melbourne with the love of the world and some direction again.' Hilde Hinton is the author of The Opposite of Lonely (Hachette Australia). Geraldine Brooks 'I discovered Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard when I was in my early 20s. It's a beautiful meditation by a woman who was in her early 20s and goes off to live in a rural place in the hills of Virginia, USA. She notices things for a year – the animals, the seasons, the way the light hits the mountains, and writes about it with grace and meaning. It's a book someone gave to my mother, and I was visiting her once and took it off the shelf. At the time I was working as a young journalist on The Sydney Morning Herald and had the chance to write about environmental issues. I would write about wilderness campaigners, go bushwalking, and do more demanding trips to write about proposed developments. I got to go camping in the snow and went rafting on Tasmania's Franklin River. The book gave me a sense of being out in nature and taught me what that means to humans. The book helped me to notice things on a deeper level. I am not a religious person, but there is something 'religious adjacent' that comes with being in nature.' Geraldine Brooks is the author of Memorial Days (Hachette Australia). Victoria Elizabeth Schwab ' Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein infected my mind with rhythm and cadence. I am someone who started writing poetry before I wrote my first novel many years later. I wanted to see if I could infect prose with poetic metre and use that as a way to make my voice stand out on the page. I am an only child and my parents read me poems every night before bed. Shel Silverstein was the first voice in my head. The combination of dark material conveyed with a childlike metre intrigued me. By the time I was nine, I would think in metre and rhyming couplets. I would have to smooth out my writing so it sounded normal to everyone else. To this day, when I am writing, I am very aware of the rise and fall of a sentence and syllabic rhythm of a sentence. Each one of my novels has a central sentence that exists for me, and me alone. For my upcoming work, there is a poem at the beginning. The sentence is, 'Bury my bones in the midnight soil.' Growing up with poetry, I always think about the musicality of a sentence, and I owe that to Shel. His work also had a profound depth; it wasn't just playful, it was also dark. The sinister appeal has shown up in all my books. I read all his poetry collections until they almost turned to dust.'
Buzz Feed
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Rosie O'Donnell On How Her Child Came Out As Nonbinary
Rosie O'Donnell opened up for the first time about her child coming out as nonbinary. In a conversation with Variety about her role as a Mary in the third season of And Just Like That..., Rosie discussed when her child, Clay, 12, disclosed their gender identity to her. Rosie described it as "the most interesting thing." "I have a little one who is nonbinary — 12 years old — and it was the most interesting thing," the actor and comedian said. "They said to me, 'Mommy, I'm nonbinary. I'm not a boy and I'm not a girl.' I said, 'Okay, fantastic.'" "They go, 'My pronouns are they/them, and I'd like them respected.' I will do my very best, right? Who are they, Harvey Milk reincarnated?" Rosie added. If you didn't know, Rosie is a parent to five children: Clay, Vivieene, 22, Blake, 25, Chelsea, 27, and Parker, 30. In a March 20 TikTok, Rosie confirmed that she's officially living in Ireland and is "proud and impressed" with her child Clay's adjustment to the big change. "It's not easy to move to another country, and we really felt as a family this was the safest and best thing for us to do." Talking with Variety, Rosie also said the conversation led to her child asking if she was nonbinary. "I said, 'Well, you know what, honey, I'm an O.G. lesbian. I'm a girl who knew I was a girl, who liked being a girl, but didn't feel like a real girl. But I never wanted to be a boy. I never thought about boys. I was only always thinking about girls.' And then they said, "What did your class say when you told them?" Rosie then explained that the expression of sexuality and gender was very different when she was a kid in the 70s. "Can you imagine? They have no understanding of what it was like when I was 10 in 1972 and nobody mentioned it. The word was not said — you would never admit it." "You'd go to church and hear horrible things about people like you, and Billie Jean [King] and Martina [Navratilova] had to disclaim their lesbianism and pretend they were not gay in order to continue working on the tennis circuit, and that was so painful for me when I was a 10-year-old. They didn't understand. I've been trying to explain to them what it was like when I was a kid, and they are stunned." As a millennial who is queer and nonbinary, it's important to note that the reason it's much different for younger generations like Clay and myself can be attributed to people like Rosie. I grew up watching Rosie in A League of Their Own, The Flintstones, Wide Awake, Harriet the Spy (my favorite), and her talk shows. When she publicly came out, it was the first time I saw someone accepting who they truly are despite opposition. It provided me with a blueprint to begin my journey of self-discovery years ago, and these journeys continue for the younger generations, thanks to folks like Rosie. "It was really a strange time to be out of the closet to everyone in show business who knew me personally — and in my life, everyone knew and I had children. Once you have children, you're out! Because you go with your partner to the school meetings," Rosie told the publication. "I was out to everyone except the public. And I often thought it was surprising that when I did come out, people were surprised. 'Well, you like Tom Cruise.' I didn't want him naked in my bed! I wanted him to mow my lawn and give me a lemonade. How many times do I have to say that?" Oh, Rosie. You did it for me again. Some of us really need to see and hear these conversations. 😂 Thank you.
Time of India
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Rosie O'Donnell reveals dramatic weight loss after using Mounjaro; How safe is it for women in 60s?
Rosie O'Donnell can't recognize herself anymore! The 63-year-old former star of 'The View' recently opened up about her weight loss journey and showcased her new, slimmer figure. O'Donnell credited Mounjaro for her dramatic transformation in a recent Instagram post. In her post, she shared a screenshot of a video taken of her onstage, where she wore dark pants and a light green sweater while holding a microphone and mic stand, appearing to engage with the audience. She captioned the photo, "I can't believe this is me now," and included the hashtags '#mounjaro,' '#weightloss,' and '#bodydismorphia.' O'Donnell moved to Ireland a few months ago with her 12-year-old child, Clay. Sharing updates and insights about her weight loss journey, O'Donnell said in a TikTok video in March. 'I've lost more weight. I am on Mounjaro for my diabetes, and one of the side effects is weight loss." She added, "But it's also because I had a chef for over two years in Los Angeles, and now I'm cooking for Clay and me.' The 'Harriet the Spy' actress admitted she's 'always had a weight issue' as she discussed shopping for new clothes at a boutique in Dublin. She shared that she had to shop in Dublin for new clothes that fit her better following her weight loss. Recounting her journey after years of battling weight issues, she said, "I'm one of those people who always had a weight issue, and now that I'm a size large—instead of an XL or a XXL—I find it shocking. I really do. I find it completely shocking." After suffering a heart attack in 2012, O'Donnell underwent vertical sleeve gastrectomy the following year. She told People in 2015, 'That surgery changed my life,' revealing she dropped from 240 pounds down to 176. In January 2023, O'Donnell revealed that her doctor had prescribed her Mounjaro and Repatha two months prior, with noticeable results already. She clarified, "One I take every other week and one I take once a week." At the she also shared, 'Christmas, I stopped drinking anything except water,' revealing she had already shed 10 pounds. She added, 'I really stopped drinking like five or six Diet Cokes a day. All I drink is water now. ' While she mostly credited Mounjaro for her physical transformation, O'Donnell also revealed some major lifestyle changes as well. Apart from the medication, she mentioned, 'My appetite has decreased significantly; it's probably the meds. And I'm trying to move more. So, all those things combined—that's what it is," she said at the time. What is Mounjaro? Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for type 2 diabetes and packaged as an injection, Mounjaro (tirzepatide) has already sparked discussions over its effectiveness in managing weight, with some claiming it is superior to Ozempic, the popular weight loss drug. Tirzepatide is an antidiabetic medication used to treat type 2 diabetes and for weight management and is administered via subcutaneous injections (under the skin). In the United States, it is sold under the brand name Mounjaro for diabetes treatment and Zepbound for weight loss and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. Mounjaro is administered via weekly injections in the thigh, stomach, or arm. Several prominent figures, including Elon Musk, Meghan Trainor, and Amy Schumer , have publicly shared their experiences with the drug in recent months. Is Mounjaro safe for women in their 60s? Mounjaro is FDA-approved for treating type 2 diabetes, and its use has been studied in various age groups, including older adults, and there are no specific age restrictions mentioned in the Mounjaro prescribing information. Mounjaro is generally considered safe for use in women in their 60s as well. However, it is crucial to discuss it with a healthcare professional who can assess individual health risks, including any pre-existing conditions, medications, and lifestyle factors, to determine if Mounjaro is appropriate for them. Amy Schumer's ROYAL Shade? Meghan Markle & Kate Middleton BOTH Get Mentioned | WATCH
Otago Daily Times
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Obituary: Michelle Trachtenberg, actress
Michelle Trachtenberg poses before the 2007 Filmmakers' Tribute Dinner on Saturday evening at the Longboat Key Club in Longboat Key, Florida on April 21, 2007. Former child star Michelle Trachtenberg graduated from child roles to star in several well-regarded TV shows. The New Yorker grew up on screen, she appeared in her first TV commercials aged 3 and by 10 had appeared not only in a Nickelodeon TV series but starred in hit movie Harriet the Spy. She mixed screen roles and education before landing the role of Dawn Summers, the younger sister of the title character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. More film and TV roles followed before Trachtenberg landed possibly her best-known role, of Georgina Sparks in hit show Gossip Girls — a role she reprised in 2021. In the mid 2010s Trachtenberg mostly retreated from screen roles saying she planned to work on her own projects. Trachtenberg was battling health issues and had a liver transplant in 2024. She was found dead on February 25, aged 39: her death was attributed to complications from diabetes. — APL/agencies
