Maybe Being Chubby Is Chic: The Politics of a Soft Stomach

A manifesto for muffin tops, mountain tops, and taking up space

In this age of Ozempic and heroin chic that has unfortunately come back around, I have found a renewed sense of empowerment in my body. The one that hauls me over 5000ft of incline, the one that pushes me against a current thirty meters under the ocean, the one that keeps me afloat on my surfboard paddling against the white wash. My curves that remind me of Greek statues, Rubenesque angels and the women that came before me that pushed out babies in shtetl’s, that survived famine and oppression.

https://mayafmandell.substack.com/p/maybe-being-chubby-is-chic-the-politics

Travel Boyfriends and the Art of Low-Stakes Dating

The unexpected benefits of dating people you'll probably never see again

In the last six months I’ve had two boyfriends.

One was a French Bad Bunny lookalike I met in a hostel in Berlin. The other was an American rock climber with a septum piercing and alarmingly sensitive nipples in Montenegro.

Neither relationship lasted longer than four days.

Oddly enough, they taught me more about dating than the previous decade combined.

https://mayafmandell.substack.com/p/travel-boyfriends-and-the-art-of