With over six mil­lion Botox in­jec­tions ad­min­is­tered each year, it is in fact one of the most pop­u­lar cos­met­ic treat­ments be­cause the re­sults are ex­cel­lent, the down­time is min­i­mal and, when done cor­rect­ly, the side ef­fects are near­ly non-ex­is­tent. When you first hear the word Botox, you may think of it as an im­me­di­ate so­lu­tion to fine lines and wrin­kles. How­ev­er, due to its pop­u­lar­i­ty and ex­ces­sive use in Hol­ly­wood, many peo­ple al­so think of the neg­a­tive con­no­ta­tions that are as­so­ci­at­ed with Botox. In fact, many have tried the Botox treat­ment but to the naked eye it isn’t as ob­vi­ous that such per­sons have got­ten the in­jec­tions.

No­vem­ber has been de­clared as Di­a­bet­ic Eye Dis­ease Aware­ness Month and aims to bring aware­ness and to ed­u­cate the pub­lic on the ef­fects of di­a­betes on vi­sion, risk fac­tors and treat­ment op­tions. If you have di­a­betes, pre­ven­tion of eye dis­eases re­lat­ed to di­a­betes is a pri­or­i­ty as these can cause you to have trou­ble read­ing, see­ing faces across the room, see­ing at night, or even blind­ness.

Sweat is just fat cry­ing! Sounds great right? Gives the idea that the more you sweat, the more weight you can lose right? Well I re­al­ly don’t like to be the bear­er of not so good news but I have to be hon­est with you guys, this state­ment is not re­al­ly based on truth and serves as more of a men­tal / mo­ti­va­tion­al pitch, so let me try to break it down to you as best as I can.

Known as the silent cri­sis, de­pres­sion af­fects mil­lions of men world­wide. While re­search has shown that the num­ber of men with a men­tal health is­sue is grow­ing at an as­ton­ish­ing rate. When it comes to their health, most men think of their phys­i­cal health…like en­dur­ing a prostate ex­am. Men may be re­luc­tant to seek sup­port for their men­tal health or dis­close men­tal health prob­lems to loved ones. 

We know that all liv­ing things need wa­ter to sur­vive. Wa­ter makes up more than half of our body weight and with­out it our bod­ies would stop work­ing prop­er­ly. While many chil­dren do drink wa­ter, par­ents some­times al­so of­fer their chil­dren milk or fruit juices think­ing they need the cal­ci­um or ex­tra vi­t­a­mins. And many chil­dren al­so in­dulge in sug­ar-sweet­ened drinks such as juice drinks, soft drinks and flavoured milks. Here’s why wa­ter is still the best choice to sat­is­fy your child’s thirst.

“Women, you need to care for your­self to take care of oth­ers.” These words kicked me down a few days ago, while I re­viewed an ad­ver­tise­ment. As a young fem­i­nist in the Caribbean where there is a con­stant tug-of-war for gen­der equal­i­ty, I am flab­ber­gast­ed by the ad­ver­tis­ment. We know the pow­ers that dig­i­tal me­dia holds, why are we be­ing this reck­less? How is this com­mu­ni­cat­ing change for women who have been fight­ing for an equal place? Why ap­prove ad­ver­tise­ments that dis­sem­i­nate gen­der stereo­types?

Kam­ron Wait­he and D’An­dre Wil­son are two 22-year-old cre­ative minds on a mis­sion to fa­cil­i­tate pro­gres­sive con­ver­sa­tions through their work. D’An­dre re­cent­ly grad­u­at­ed from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the South­ern Caribbean where she stud­ied Psy­chol­o­gy. Her pas­sion for men­tal health, women’s is­sues and the arts is her dri­ving force. She start­ed her own YouTube chan­nel in 2013 and has man­aged to amass a fol­low­ing of over 27,000 peo­ple. In do­ing so, she has strived to cul­ti­vate a space to both share her pas­sions and ed­u­cate her fol­low­ers.

Ane­cia Mar­itza Whar­wood is a mul­ti-tal­ent­ed woman orig­i­nal­ly from south Trinidad. She is now a res­i­dent of Mar­aval. Ane­cia took the con­ven­tion­al route of ob­tain­ing a BSc in Ge­ol­o­gy and Ge­og­ra­phy as a mi­nor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) Mona Cam­pus. Even­tu­al­ly, she pur­sued a post­grad­u­ate diplo­ma in En­vi­ron­men­tal En­gi­neer­ing at the UWI St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus.

When pho­tog­ra­ph­er Hen­der­son Noel asked me to art di­rect a pho­to­shoot for him us­ing neo­phyte mod­els, I had to wrap my head around a rea­son­able sto­ry­board. I thought it a great propo­si­tion to craft a provin­cial nar­ra­tive em­ploy­ing en­thu­si­as­tic play­ers, all gung-ho, to par­take in a pro­fes­sion­al yet pro­sa­ic pic­to­r­i­al.

Fash­ion month around the world re­cent­ly came to an end, and every­one is on the look­out for what’s trend­ing. Just like the sea­sons change, so do trends, and that’s the fun part. Sure, chang­ing your wardrobe ever so of­ten is quite un­nec­es­sary, but every sea­son a few key styles emerge. We all want to add to those style to make them dar­ing, if not, just a bit more ex­cit­ing.

Naila King-Tay­lor is a self-pro­claimed make­up junkie who holds a Bach­e­lor’s de­gree in Man­age­ment Stud­ies from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies St Au­gus­tine and an In­ter­na­tion­al Mas­ter’s de­gree in Strate­gic Mar­ket­ing from Arthur Lok Jack GSB. Naila has man­aged to bal­ance her ca­reer as a brand man­ag­er in the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals di­vi­sion while still be­ing a pro­fes­sion­al make­up artist.

I know heart­break sucks but guess what, it al­so helps you to grow. Take a glimpse in­to my thoughts on why that big breakup was ac­tu­al­ly a bless­ing in dis­guise.