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It’s officially October, which means it’s Halloween season and we are ready to get spooky. Whether you’re planning to celebrate by eating excessive amounts of fun-size candy or hunting for the perfect costume for you pup, you’ll want to make sure you book at least ten hours this month to watch (and rewatch) the greatest Halloween movie of all time — Hocus Pocus (runner up goes to Halloweentown, obviously).

The classic 1993 witchy wonder starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica-Parker, and Kathy Najimy is the perfect way to ease (or dive headfirst) into October. Hocus Pocus has everything you need for Halloween season — black cats (Binx!), ex-boyfriend zombies, black flame candles, sexy witches on broomsticks (and vacuum cleaners), and, of course, the token virgin. Luckily for us spooky superfans, Freeform is doing us a solid and playing Hocus Pocus upwards of 30 times in the month of October — including a back-to-back marathon on Halloween day.

If you don’t have cable, and therefore no direct access to Freeform, you can get a Live TV free trial on Hulu, YouTubeTV, Sling, AT&T TV, or Vue, which will give you access to up to seven days of Hocus Pocus. If live TV isn’t your thing, you can always rent or buy (let’s be honest you might as well buy it at this point) the movie on various platforms, such as YouTube, Amazon, iTunes, GooglePlay, and Vudu.

Unfortunately, Hocus Pocus isn’t on any streaming platforms at the moment, so if you’re a Netflix/Hulu purist, this may have to be the one time you have to branch out. We’re hoping the Kenny Ortega classic (yes Hocus Pocus and High School Musical were directed by the same person) will become a mainstay on Disney’s new streaming platform, Disney+, but that release isn’t until November 12, so it’s a bit of a moot point until Halloween 2020.

Whether you buy, rent, stream, or catch it live, you won’t want to miss your chance to get in the spooky spirit with the Sanderson sisters this month. And when you’re all Hocus Pocus‘d out, you’ll definitely want to deep dive into the actual history of the Salem Witch Trials because it’s faaaaascinating (and terrifying and definitely sexist). Happy Halloween, sisters!

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In Refinery29’s Unpopular Opinion, we go outside the Twitter bubble to hear from our readers what they really think about the 2020 election, what issues they care about, and more. Share your own unpopular opinion here.

Age: 29

Lives in: Arlington, VA

Job: Program officer for an international development nonprofit

Party affiliation: Democrat

You told us in your questionnaire that your most “unpopular opinion” is that “The progressive lurch of the Democratic Party could be its Achilles heel in 2020.” What exactly did you mean by that?

“What I’m getting at is this tension I feel. I identify as pretty progressive, but I’m concerned about the candidate, whoever we nominate, who’s going to attract the largest amount of votes in the states that are needed to win this election. Elizabeth Warren is, in my opinion, the most qualified, the best candidate. But Joe Biden polls well. I was at a work event talking to somebody who said, ‘I’m a conservative, but I’ve always loved Joe Biden.’ And this was somebody who lives in the state of Wisconsin. 

“States like Wisconsin, states like Pennsylvania, places where maybe in 2016 Hillary didn’t do so well, these are states that you may have a large base of voters who don’t necessarily like Trump, but don’t necessarily want a progressive candidate in 2020. So I’m torn because I am somebody who wants a very progressive agenda, but I also want whatever’s going to win, whether it’s the presidential election, or the Senate and House elections.”

You also said that since Trump has taken office, you avoid engaging with people who outwardly support him. Could you say a little bit more about that?

“Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area is largely pretty liberal, but obviously we’re the capital, so you will have people that are Republicans. There are people here that work for the administration. There are jokes in the media about people that support Trump having a hard time with online dating and all that. I have a few acquaintances and people in my social circles, a friend, for example, who is a bit of a professional mentor who came up and was in a pretty high-ranking position within the Department of Defense during the Bush years. He’s a Republican and is always sympathizing with Mitch McConnell, and I still engage with him. We’ll have debates, but he’s not so outrageous that he won’t listen to what I have to say, and he does not like Trump either. Whereas I went to school with an individual who voted for Trump and we would have debates as well, and they were respectful. 

“I was looking for a roommate for an apartment. This was about a year ago and we had signed the deal. We had agreed I would be her new roommate and then she saw that I posted a meme that was poking fun of Trump. The night before I moved in, she was like, ‘I can’t live with someone who disrespects our president.’ And my thought was, ‘Well, I’m glad it didn’t work out.’ I’ve become a little more savvy. There was definitely a part of me that’s like, yes, I don’t want to associate with people that flat-out support Trump, but I live in a town where you have to be savvy about speaking out about your opinions on some of these things.

“If at this point I were to come across somebody who supported Trump, I would be careful. I would kind of tread softly, just because, again, I live in a small town, so to speak. In D.C. everybody knows everybody, and you don’t want to risk burning bridges just because you have a different point of view on politics than somebody. I guess what I’m trying to say is on a professional-network level, yes, but on a personal, more close-friends level, no, not so much.”

Why do you think that is for the personal-friend level? Is it a moral issue for you? 

“Yeah, for me it’s a moral and values issue. I can’t associate with somebody who supports his position on immigration, his position on the role of the U.S. in the world, somebody who is backed by the Evangelicals and people who have these very problematic and frankly, in my opinion, backwards views on LGBTQ people, people who are gender-fluid, immigrants.”

As far as the Democratic Party, which parts of the platform do you agree and disagree with?

“As a whole, I’m pretty progressive. I would say I feel pretty strongly about reproductive rights and abortion access, about LGBTQI rights. I’m for, broadly speaking, increased taxes particularly on the wealthier top 1 or 0.1%. When looking at the presidential candidates, I’m strongly in favor of Warren’s student loan cancellation plan. I even endorse Bernie Sanders’ plan for student loans. When it comes to issues on foreign policy and national security, I would say I’m part of the bipartisan consensus that foreign aid is good. I oppose the kind of neo-cons that we saw through the Bush years and I’m against an isolationist policy that Trump is in favor of. I think the United States’ presence overseas is good.” 

Do you think there are issues that have moved too far to the right or left? If so, which ones?

“Both gun control and abortion have become extremely partisan and moved too far to the right. We’re not doing enough for gun control. We should push for more broad, sweeping reform. I think members of the Democratic Party are increasingly supporting a more gun-restrictive agenda, which is good, because I think for a long time we’ve had a lot of current members of Congress who support friendlier gun policies. I think we can do more to limit access to guns and how we conduct background checks. 

“On the issue of abortion, I think the right is becoming more and more extreme. I think we are seeing members of the Democratic Party, particularly more progressive ones, speaking out more on how we need to protect a woman’s right to choose.” 

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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There’s just something about a trim, chop, or dye job that goes along with a big life transition. Got a new job? Invest in a new boss haircut. Celebrating a major birthday? Why not book a balayage appointment. Got brand-new music dropping that’s bound to go platinum? Bring out the hot-pink hair color. OK, maybe you’re not a world-renowned recording artist who can relate to that last one, but Demi Lovato is. Amid hints of an upcoming album and rumors of a budding romance with former Bachelorette contestant Mike Johnson, the star is testing out a new hair color.

The singer took to Instagram to show off pink dip-dyed ends, which she credited to celebrity hairstylist Paul Norton, and matching magenta eyeshadow done by Etienne Ortega.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) on Sep 30, 2019 at 7:44pm PDT

This isn’t the first time Lovato has dabbled with colorful ends. Just a few weeks ago, she appeared on Instagram with neon-green tips, and the singer has often experimented with hair color, trying everything from red to blue in the past.

Unsurprisingly, Lovato isn’t the only celeb dabbling in pink hair color. Taylor Swift was also spotted with rosy ends as she promoted her Lover album. With both Swift and Lovato onboard, it seems dip-dyed hair is doing a boomerang from the early aughts.

Luckily, a touch of pink is easy to pull off for fall with the right temporary hair dye. But don’t commit to your color just yet. Chances are, Lovato will be wearing a brand-new shade in a matter of weeks. Maybe, orange — à la Margot Robbie — is next?

We’ve reached out to Paul Norton’s rep for more information and will update this piece if we hear back.

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If you’re sick of being told that vegetarianism is the healthiest way to eat, here’s a new study for you. New nutrition recommendations published in the Annals of Internal Medicine say that red and processed meat is not bad for us, contradicting current guidelines.

The new recommendations were put together by a panel of 14 people working in various fields related to nutrition. The panelists evaluated five different reviews of previous studies, using a research approach that rates the certainty of the evidence, and focused on the “absolute risk” rather than the “relative risk” of eating meat. 

“For the majority of people, but not everyone, continuing their red and processed meat consumption is the right approach,” study author Bradley Johnston told Time.

The panelists found “only low-certainty evidence of a very small reduction in cancer or other adverse health consequences from reducing meat consumption [by three servings per week,]”  Johnston told Time. “For most people who enjoy eating meat, the uncertain health benefits of cutting down are unlikely to be worth it.” 

However, the guidelines are facing pushback from others in the nutrition community, and three of the 14 panelists disagreed with the conclusion. Critics say that the method that the panelists used is typically applied to drug research, which should be treated differently than nutrition studies. 

“Regularly eating processed meat, and higher consumption of red meat, increases your risk of colorectal cancer; suggesting that there is no need to limit these foods would put people at risk of colorectal cancer and further undermine public confidence in dietary advice,”  Dr. Nigel Brockton, The American Institute for Cancer Research’s vice president of research, said in a statement.

Current guidelines from the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion recommend limiting consumption of meat, poultry, and eggs to 26 ounces a week, the equivalent of about four burgers. But, if this new advice holds true, you can start rethinking your lunch plans.

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Nick Jonas isn’t afraid to get real about his battle with type 1 diabetes. In an interview with Cigar Aficionado, he opened up about a close call he had when he was first diagnosed with the disease. 

When the “Cool” singer was just 13 years old, he lost a lot of weight, and couldn’t quench his thirst for sugary soda, People Magazine reports. One of his brothers noticed his symptoms, and he went to the doctor. There, they discovered his blood sugar levels were 917, nine times the normal level. Increased thirst, unintended weight loss, and high blood pressure are all indicative of diabetes, according to Mayo Clinic. 

“I was very close to a coma,” he told Cigar Aficionado. “Like a day away, if I hadn’t gone to the hospital.” Jonas, who is now 27, was then officially diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

More than 100 million Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes, according to a 2017 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. A diagnosis means the pancreas has a hard time creating insulin, creating little to none on its own. Insulin is a hormone, which lowers the amount of sugar in your bloodstream, among other things.

The disease requires lifelong insulin therapy, Mayo Clinic notes, which can be administered through injections or a pump you wear. At first, the idea of relying on this medication worried Jonas, he said. 

“I kept asking my parents — am I going to be okay?” he revealed. “I was just so concerned that it was going to limit my ability to do all the things I wanted to do. I was very scared — it’s a big life change.”

But after 14 years of managing his disease, he’s learned that changing his life to accommodate his diagnosis wasn’t as difficult as he worried it would be. Today, he uses an insulin pump, and works hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle, 

“I found out very quickly it’s a very manageable disease,” he said. “As long as you’re really diligent.”

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A heart-shaped box of Russell Stover’s chocolates is a dangerous thing. Some items lurking in the packaging are delicious. Some are fine. Some are so appalling you consider spitting them out in public. You’ll experience a similar assortment of emotions when you binge through Amazon Prime’s upcoming Modern Love, a series bursting with love and celebrities. Anne Hathaway, Tina Fey, Ed Sheeran (yes, that Ed Sherran), and Fleabag’’s Hot Priest (Andrew Scott) all appear, along with a dozen other famous faces. 

Mercifully, no episode of the romance anthology, premiering Friday, October 18, is as terrible as any strawberry cream candy. Instead, Modern Love is, on average, as good as caramel crunch — if not better.

The eight-episode streaming show is an adaptation of the New York Times’ iconic “Modern Love” column, which has run since 2004. That explains why Amazon’s Modern Love takes place in a hazy mid-aughts milieu where cell phones exist but don’t rule people’s lives, no one brings up swipe-right dating apps, and Facebook notifications are a desire instead of a punchline. Rather than grapple with the difficulties of modern, modern dating, the anthology is a warm blanket of Obama-era optimism.

Since Modern Love is so focused on some form of comfort, whether that be in the arms of another or through a brisk downtown bike ride, that you may follow your heart when choosing an episode. This is a true anthology series, so each half-hour-ish episode is a contained little story. Personally, I first threw myself into the Andrew Scott-led “Hers Was A World Of One,” which co-stars Brandon Kyle Goodman and Thoroughbreds’ Olivia Cooke. It’s an installment involving queer love, a nearly infuriating woman, and very cute dogs — aka a complete delight. 

However, “World of One” will also leave you reaching for the tissues during its momentous final act. Anne Hathaway’s “Take Me As I Am, Whoever I Am,” which gives viewers a fearless look at dating with bipolar disorder, will likely shatter you multiple times. Dev Patel as the most perfect New York boyfriend in “When Cupid Is A Prying Journalist” is so good, his character will warm even the iciest heart. Most episodes are built for tears (the happy kind, the sad kind, or both), which is why Modern Love will be unable to outrun comparisons to television’s greatest highwire tear-jerker, This Is Us. Both series are fixated on the tiny ways human connection, above all else, can save us. 

Modern Love goes about that aim very differently than NBC’s family drama blockbuster. This Is Us has an obsessive working class streak running through its teary DNA. Modern Love, on the other hand, luxuriates in beautifully appointed apartments and the kinds of sleek lives that usually hide universal issues such as relationship decay and surprise pregnancies. Even when Modern Love gets painfully serious — as it does in stand-out episodes like “World of One,” “Take Me,” and Cristin Milioti-starring premiere “When the Doorman Is Your Main Man” — it would rather have that conversation in a beautiful brownstone than dilapidated public housing. In fact, the latter kind of residence doesn’t exist in Modern Love‘s New York. 

The West Elm-y glow of the series can usually lull you into a sense of warm complacency. That is, until you arrive at “So He Looked Like Dad. It Was Just Dinner, Right?,” starring newly-minted Emmy winner Julia Garner and Homecoming’s Shea Whigham. 

As the title suggests, “Dad” follows a young woman as she falls into a complicated relationship with a father-like figure. Specifically, a powerful older man in her workplace. In a post-#MeToo society, it is already doubtful viewers are clamoring to see that story brought to life through a multi-million-dollar production. That fact that “Dad’s” Amazon-penned summary involves the words “daddy issues” only makes the narrative more cringeworthy. Unfortunately, the Garner vehicle never feels like it’s running on all cylinders. Instead, the episodes comes off as a flimsy best case scenario in a deeply terrible and unsettling series of events. 

At least Shameless’ Emmy Rossum, who directs the installment, uses “Dad” to prove she can excel at suffocatingly good close-ups that filtering two complex emotional perspectives into one frame. 

Take a bite out of Modern Love. All you have to do is eat around the metaphorical pieces of stray coconut. 

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Prince Harry has had enough of tabloids spreading “relentless propaganda” about his wife Meghan Markle, according to an open letter the royal published on the official website of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Meghan, who was recently on tour with Prince Harry in Africa, has been the subject of tabloid scrutiny ever since she began dating him. Around the time of the couple’s wedding in May of 2018, tabloids focused on Meghan’s difficult relationship with her father Thomas Markle and sister Samantha, the latter of whom plans on publishing a book titled The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister. 

Now, Prince Harry and Meghan are suing the Mail and its parent company Associated Newspapers for publishing a private letter written by Meghan to her father, which was released in February. According to the Sussex website, the lawsuit against Associated Newspapers will be paid for privately by Prince Harry and Meghan. 

“There is a human cost to this relentless propaganda, specifically when it is knowingly false and malicious, and though we have continued to put on a brave face – as so many of you can relate to – I cannot begin to describe how painful it has been,” reads Prince Harry’s letter. “Because in today’s digital age, press fabrications are repurposed as truth across the globe. One day’s coverage is no longer tomorrow’s chip-paper.”

Prince Harry also noted in the letter that his mother, Princess Diana, was killed in an accident after paparazzi chased her car. He cited this as one of the reasons he is taking a stand now against the tabloid. 

“Though this action may not be the safe one, it is the right one. Because my deepest fear is history repeating itself. I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditized to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces,” he wrote. 

Should Prince Harry and Meghan win this lawsuit, proceeds will be donated to anti-bullying charities, per the website.

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Haircuts are notoriously stressful experiences, but if you thought asking your stylist for a trim was nerve-racking, imagine how Timothée Chalamet felt after he was told he had to get a bowl cut for his role in The King.

Fans were perplexed when Chalamet debuted the now-infamous look at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, but it all made sense after the trailer for The King dropped in August: Chalamet’s cut was for his part as King Henry V in the Netflix historical drama that tells the story of Hal, a wayward prince and heir to the English throne.

The cut may be polarizing now, but when filming for the movie based on Shakespeare’s play Henry V began, The King‘s makeup and hair designer Alessandro Bertolazzi knew it was necessary for the role. Although the original text has been adapted before (including in 1989’s Henry V starring Kenneth Branagh, and the 2012 British television film of the same name with Tom Hiddleston), this version of the story — directed by David Michôd and written by Michôd and Joel Edgerton — hinged on the historically accurate details, including the kind of haircut a young king would actually sport in 1413. “We had to follow the rules of the period [and] make this extreme haircut,” Bertolazzi tells Refinery29. “If we didn’t, we’d lose the idea of the period.”

Turns out, most people living in the 15th century weren’t too concerned with beauty in the way we are today, Bertolazzi explains. Any drastic haircuts were most likely inspired by male members of the Church, like priests or monks. Many of them sported a partially-shaved head as a sign of religious humility, in a practice called tonsure — including Henry V, who wore his hair cropped in a ring shape around his head and cut just above his ears.

Bertolazzi knew that he couldn’t pitch the radical haircut right off the bat because, well, this is Timothée Chalamet, the Hollywood pretty boy known for his luscious curls. “I couldn’t say, ‘OK, we’re going to cut Timothée [with his] lovely curly hair, like a beautiful super sex symbol, like a monk,'” he says.

As Bertolazzi had anticipated, Chalamet was nervous about the dramatic transformation, which he admitted to Variety’s Marc Malkin at Tuesday’s red-carpet premiere of the film. “Even Timothée was worried,” Bertolazzi recalls. “He was terrified. It was really scary. But he was perfect for the character — [the cut] was perfect. He was different [after the haircut]. He become a king for real. It was cool.” (Bertolazzi notes that the divisive cut didn’t affect Chalamet’s cool-guy status IRL. He was still pretty cool.)

Don’t feel too bad for Chalamet: His hair clearly grew back fast enough for him to play Laurie in the Greta Gerwig-directed Little Women, a role that’s sure to have fans swooning over his wind-blown perfection for years to come.

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In dance and denim, movement is key. Refinery29 is proud to team up with the LYCRA® Brand to introduce two promising young dancers, pictured here wearing American Eagle jeans equipped with LYCRA® dualFX® technology. It’s an advanced blend of fibers for a great fit that moves with you, whether your style is hip-hop, tap, or something in between.

There are jeans that move with you, and then there are jeans that can keep up — and keep their shape — through endless fouettés. Here, dancers Jasmin Corley, 19, and Lizzy Howell, 18, come together from opposite ends of the country for one collaborative dance in their respective genres of hip-hop and tap, and one uplifting, meditative conversation.

Teaming up with LYCRA® Brand, we outfitted Corley and Howell in American Eagle jeans — made with shape-retaining LYCRA® dualFX® technology for total freedom of movement, in any size — and sat down with them to talk combatting stage fright, carving out spaces for themselves in the sometimes-exclusionary world of dance, and the ritual of preparation.

On meeting — and connecting — with other girls in dance

Jasmin Corley: “When it comes to girls, we’re usually inspired by one another even if we’re finna go head to head [in a competition]. It’s still inspiring because it inspires the other dancer to go harder. And that’s really cool, even if people see it as ‘they probably don’t like each other.'”

Lizzy Howell: “With dance competitions, I usually stay to myself, because I’m not the typical dancer body, and I don’t think people understand that I’m the same as them. Just because I look different doesn’t mean you can’t talk to me. When I do talk to people, I find that they were scared to talk to me because they didn’t know how I would react.” 

JC: “I wasn’t afraid to speak to you. I knew that you dance, and I wanted to [talk to you] because we were going to be working together today. We [all] have to take that initial step, because if you don’t, you might not get to meet [someone like] Lizzy, who’s really cool. If you don’t take that step, you’re not going to meet these great people and have those conversations.” 

On pre-show jitters and rituals

JC: “Everybody gets nervous before a big performance. But then you feel excited at the same time. The feeling you get through your body is you’re powerful. Like three seconds before I go on, I’m nervous, like I have to go to the bathroom. Two seconds before I go on, I’m like, I’m so excited, we’re going to kill it. Then, in that last moment, I’m ready to take the stage. 

“I was very shy and quiet before I started performing. One of the tricks I used before, because I wore glasses, was I’d take my glasses off so I couldn’t see anything. So I’d just go up there like, I can’t see you guys anyway. But then when I got contacts, I tried to think, I don’t know these people, but I want them to remember my name. So I’m going to go out there and do it to the best of my ability. They don’t know me now, but they will after the show.“

LH: “[Before a show] I listen to the songs I’ll be dancing to, and I do the [dances] in my head while I’m in the car, because I’m a perfectionist, so I need to make sure I don’t forget what I’m doing onstage. My aunt stays in the dressing room while I go find a quiet place, and I start warming up to songs that aren’t dance related, because it gets boring listening to dance music all the time. Once I’m warmed up, I start going through my solo; I have the music on my phone, and I mark through it. While I’m backstage, I don’t watch the other people performing because it psychs me out.

“I’m mostly scared because I’m a very sensitive person. I don’t really like people watching me dance, which doesn’t make sense, because dance is all about people watching you. The excitement is because you’ve been working so hard on a little two-minute dance, and you finally get to show them what you’ve done. But it’s also, What if they judge me? What if they don’t like me? That’s the fear I always have.”

On the objects they always have backstage

JC: “I hold a necklace my mom and grandma gave me when I graduated high school. It’s gold and says ‘Jasmin’ on it. It’s my grandma’s old chain, and my mom bought the pendant for me. My grandma used to wear the chain when she was a cheerleader, and she used to dance, as well. It makes me feel lucky. It’s like they’re right there with me.”

LH: “I pace a lot, and I pray; it’s a thing I always do. I have a pin one of the dance moms at my former studio gave me. It’s an angel in memory of my mom [who passed away]. I always pray to her, and I pray to God that I don’t injure myself.”

On dancing in American Eagle jeans, built for all bodies with shape-retaining LYCRA® dualFX® technology

JC: “They’re super stretchy and movable. I feel like I can do a six-minute set in them.”

LH: “It was really easy for me to dance in them; it felt like I was wearing a pair of leggings. The biggest move I could probably do [in them] is a split, and I’ve never done one in jeans before.”

On seeking more inclusion in dance

JC: “I feel like a lot of people don’t feel comfortable dancing. At my studio, I just want to be able to tell people that it’s okay for them to do it — they don’t have to dance alone in their rooms.”

LH: “I started at a studio in Delaware, where there aren’t many dance studios. When I was 8 or 9, the director said that if I didn’t lose weight, I couldn’t go en pointe, and I’d have the same part in The Nutcracker for the rest of my life. I always knew I was bigger, but I didn’t see it as a problem. But then when I got that talk, it was like, Oh, maybe I am too big to dance.

“I stayed there until I was 12, playing the same part in The Nutcracker. It just [seemed] like this was how it was going to be. I ended up switching studios, and that’s where I went viral. They supported me in the beginning, but then they’d pick costumes that weren’t made for me. It was a white lace two-piece with almost my whole stomach showing, and when I told the teacher I wasn’t comfortable, they gave me a separate costume that didn’t look anything like what the other girls had. My aunt ended up making a two-piece with nude under it. The studio I’m at now is about an hour away from my house. They have people of all sizes; the teachers are all sizes. They accept everybody, which is a great thing for girls who want to dance.” 

On inspiring other young dancers

JC: “When I started dancing professionally, I joined a nonprofit in San Francisco called Project Level. There wasn’t a dance department, so I started one, and now I teach kids from ages 7 to 15. [Preparing to teach and perform] is similar. It’s great to see the kids encouraging one another, like I encourage the people I perform with or even myself. I have to lead these kids — that type of responsibility has helped me grow as a leader and dancer, because it makes me want to do better for the people watching me.”

LH: “I’ve been dancing since I was 5, because after my mom died, my aunt put me in a bunch of different things trying to keep my mind off it. It was the one thing that stuck. The video of me went viral two years ago, and my aunt has always told me God has a reason for everything happening, and I believe that’s true. Even though it’s weird to me…I feel like I need to go out there and show little girls that you can do this, no matter your size. Now I feel like there’s a greater purpose to me dancing.” 

On responding to people who say “dance isn’t a sport”

LH: “Not only do we have to do a lot of athletic things, but we also have to make it look easy and pretty. I dance about 12 to 20 hours a week, every day, so when people say dancers aren’t athletes, it’s kind of hurtful, because they don’t see all the work that gets put into a two-minute piece — they just see the two-minute piece.”

JC: “We do exactly what athletes do. We’re putting in physical work, we’re practicing, we’re training. And just like when athletes have games, we have performances. It’s the same story, just told a little differently.”

On personal mantras

JC: “Trust in your process, because everybody’s is different. It’s going to take a process to take you where you want to go, but you’re going to have to trust it, love it, and wait on it. If I want to be a professional dancer, I have to train, meet people, make choreo; I have to maybe get on social media and make videos. But either way, I have to trust the process I started.”

LH: “I tell myself this is what I love to do. And if people don’t like me for it, that’s their problem. It’s just hard when you’re at a dance convention and there are a lot of people there who don’t look like you. I have to keep telling myself I’m doing this for a reason, and I can pull myself together.

With inclusive sizing and a movement-friendly fit, it’s easy to do what you love in American Eagle jeans, built with LYCRA® dualFX® technology.

“I’ve been told multiple times not to dance, and I moved studios until I finally found a place that accepts and supports me. Find a group of people who accept you for you, and always do what you love.”

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Chances are, you know someone who’s been diagnosed with breast cancer. About one in eight women in the U.S. will develop the invasive disease during their lives. If you don’t know someone personally, you probably have a friend who’s mom, aunt, or grandma received the diagnosis. You’ve seen people running “for the cure” in fuchsia tutus, you’ve probably bought the baby pink merch, whether it came in the form of a rubber wristband or a Peloton sports bra. 

You know the people, the charities, the ribbon symbol. But how much do you actually know about the cancer itself, and who it’s most likely to affect. This morning, the American Cancer Society released a new study showing who breast cancer impacts, and what’s going on with death rates. Notably, it found that breast cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death for Black women in six states, Carol DeSantis, MPH, lead author of the report, told Refinery29. And although deaths from breast cancer have been rapidly declining since 1989, they noticed in their report that the decline has slowed since 2011. “It’s slowing slightly,” DeSantis said. “It was surprising. This is the first time we’ve noted that happening.” She couldn’t say for sure what was slowing the decline, but said it could have to do with a saturation of certain groups of patients who have been steadily benefiting from advances in early detection, treatment, and technology. 

Here’s what else you need to know about breast cancer, and who’s likely to get it. 

Age

Dr. Dorraya El-Ashry, Ph.D., the Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s Chief Scientific Officer, says that breast cancer risk increases as you age. “There are a number of facets associated with great risk, and age is definitely one of them,” she says. 

According to the new ACS report, 82% of breast cancers are diagnosed in women older than 50. The probability of a diagnosis is highest for women who are in their 70s, and breast cancer death is more likely for women in their 80s. 

However, preventative care should start earlier than that for some. For the record, some of the leading cancer organizations offer differing guidance on screening. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says that women between 50 and 74 years old should get a mammogram every other year, and those under 50 should make individual decisions based on their medical history, and other factors. Meanwhile, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends a mammogram yearly or every other year for women considered average risk, beginning at age 40 through age 75. But, if you’re genetically predisposed or present with other risk factors, that guidance changes. 

Gender 

While 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point, the lifetime risk of breast cancer in men is about 1 in 883, according to the ACS. They’ve estimate that in 2019, about 500 men will die from breast cancer, compared to 41,760 women. 

Race 

Dr. Peter Eby, a radiologist specializing in breast imaging in Seattle and longtime member of the Breast Imaging Society, says that there’s a considerable race disparity between Black and white women when it comes to breast cancer deaths. According to the new ACS report, that disparity has widened over the past three decades. 

From 2013 to 2017, the breast cancer death rate was 40% higher in Black women than it was in white women, despite slightly fewer Black women actually being diagnosed with the disease. This is magnified among Black women under 50, among whom the death is double that of white women, according to the new report. 

The ACS said it was hard to parse out why this gap was so shockingly wide, but noted that Black women were more likely to be diagnosed at later stages, and have “unfavorable tumor characteristics.” 

“There’s a real push now to make sure those women start screening at 40 and get screened every year because of their risk for developing more aggressive cancers at a younger age,” Eby says.

As far as the decline in deaths by race from breast cancer, the report found that during 2013 to 2017, it declined by 2.1% per year in Latinx women, 1.5% per year in Black women, 1% per year in white women, and .8% per year in Asian women. The numbers stayed the same for Native Americans.

Genetics 

Although there has been plenty of buzz about the BRCA1 and BRCA2 “breast cancer genes” thanks to a rise in popularity in at-home genetic tests and pop culture references in shows such as The Bold Type, only about 5% to 10% of breast cancers are thought to be hereditary, or caused directly by abnormal genes passed from parent to child, according to the ACS. 

Eby says that there are steps you can take with your doctor to find out, especially if you’re worried you might have cancer in your family. 

“The American College of Radiology and some other groups are now recommending that around 30 years old, you should go to your regular doctor and just say: ‘Hey, I want to be proactive about my health, and know if I’m at increased risk for breast cancer,’” Eby says. “And they can sit down and go through a family tree. Did your mom, sisters, aunts, or grandmothers have it? Then you do a genetic test. That’s one step to take.” 

Location 

Believe it or not, breast cancer statistics can vary depending on the state. There are a few reasons for this. DeSantis notes that, depending on where you live, there may be different local initiatives that can increase screening among underserved groups, which can help doctors catch the breast cancer at an early and more treatable stage. 

The new ACS report notes that during 2016 to 2017, the diagnosis was the leading cause of cancer deaths among Black women in six states, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina. Same went for white women in Utah. This surpassed lung cancer, another aggressive and deadly condition that affects one in 17 women during their lifetime. In four other states, Alabama, Massachusetts, New York, and Texas, the numbers of breast and lung cancer deaths among Black women were similar.

This is the bottom line, according to DeSantis: “More can and should be done to ensure that all women have access to quality care to help eliminate disparities and further reduce breast cancer mortality,”

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In light of Breast Cancer Awareness month, Mathew Knowles, the father of Beyoncé and Solange made a big announcement. In an interview on Good Morning America on Wednesday, the 67-year-old revealed that he’d be diagnosed with breast cancer recently. When he received the shocking news, the first call he made was to his family, he said. 

“This is genetics,” Knowles said. “It also means that my kids have a higher chance, a higher risk, even my grandkids have a higher risk. And they handled it like they should. They went and got the test.”

Knowles, who was formerly his daughter Beyoncé’s manager said that he reached out to his doctor after noticing dots of blood on his shirts. His wife found the stains on their sheets. Although men are far less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than women — one in 833 men will be afflicted in their lifetime, compared to one in eight for women, according to the American Cancer Society —  his doctor still performed a mammogram. Knowles revealed to Michael Strahan in the GMA interview that he has the BRCA2 gene mutation, which makes puts him at higher risk for the disease. He notes that he underwent surgery during July, but is doing better now, although he’s much more conscious about the way he lives his life. 

.@GMA EXCLUSIVE: @MathewKnowles, the father of @Beyonce and @solangeknowles, sits down one-on-one with @michaelstrahan as he reveals his breast cancer diagnosis. https://t.co/zMRJ4O03lS pic.twitter.com/eaQz5yqHIv

— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 2, 2019

“I have four things to be concerned about: prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, melanoma and breast cancer,” he told GMA. “The rest of my life I have to be very much aware and conscious and do all of the early detection… for the rest of my life.” 

He says he’s taking steps to be healthier, including quitting drinking, and incorporating exercise and meditation into his routines. “Things that used to be important… are not important to me now,” he said. “[I] just look at the world differently.”

Knowles said that he was coming forward because he wanted to let other Black men know that this could happen to them too. They should keep that in mind and get tested, he noted. (A study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that Black males are more likely to die from breast cancer than white men.)

“I’ve learned that the numbers that we have for men on breast cancer are not adequate because we don’t have enough men that come forward that take the exam,” Knowles told GMA. “I’m hoping by me coming here today, speaking out, letting folks know that you can survive this, but it has to be early detection. I can’t over emphasize the word ‘early.'”

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This story contains spoilers for Netflix’s The Politician.

As The Politician intro sequence makes clear, there are many parts that go into making Payton (Ben Platt), all carefully curated by the student himself: Patriotic school pins in one compartment, prescription drugs in another. However, his actual success (although that term is debatable) in the St. Sebastian High School election and beyond is constructed almost entirely by the characters in his orbit. Alice (Julia Schlaepfer), McAfee (Laura Dreyfuss), James (Theo Germaine), Infinity (Zoey Deutch), Skye (Rahne Jones), and even nemesis Astrid (Lucy Boynton) individually inform, supplement, and challenge Payton’s image creating the ideal candidate. It would not be wrong to say — and this is especially true by the end of season 1 — that Payton doesn’t have what it takes by himself to make a convincing case for his presidency, yet we see his entire campaign team, as well as former enemies, abandon their adult lives to return to their down-and-out former candidate ahead of season 2. Despite their arguably superior knowledge and perspectives, their political dreams rest solely on Payton. 

They have stellar GPAs and are ruthlessly bloodthirsty, but the show’s creator Ryan Murphy never gives these six characters a chance to fully pursue their own political ambitions that you know they so desire  — so we did. 

This isn’t shade to Murphy, who knows full well that a story about 20 people running in the same election would be, well, a little too close to reality. The same way a horror movie wouldn’t be compelling if that character didn’t go in there, The Politician’s story is best served with one person as the flawed leader. The cast agrees, but they were still game to imagine their own character’s hypothetical political future when Refinery29 sat down with them in New York City. Schlaepfer, Dreyfuss, Germaine, Deutch, Jones, and Boynton all offered original slogans, and we did the rest.

Since there are reportedly four more seasons of The Politician ahead of us, this leaves ample room for a change in the narrative, and I firmly believe one of these supporting characters deserves your vote.

McAfee Westbrook, “Kill The Spare”

A vocal feminist, McAfee Westbrook is the leader St. Sebastian needs and will get whether they like it or not. There is literally no other reality that exists in which she doesn’t take the vote by a landslide. Hillary Clinton’s pantsuits have nothing on her vibrant ensembles, which is not the point of electing a female leader, but if it will convince you, then by all means follow that feeling all the way to the polls.

James Sullivan, “Stop Fucking Around”

Frankly, stopping to read this campaign description is already a waste of James’ time. Politics are about instinct, and James does not hesitate when it comes to making decisions. He’s not going to pander to voters or win you over with an emotional story. Instead, here are the cold hard facts: James is the one for this job, and if you don’t realize it then that’s actually sad for you.

Alice Charles, “Listen To Everything I Say”

Alice Charles is whatever woman you want her to be. She can be stoic, composed, and languid in her speech, or just a 17-year-old girl you want to look at puppies on Instagram with. It’s never certain which side you’re going to get, but both are effective in procuring the wants and needs for the students of St. Sebastian. She would literally leave her wedding for you.

Skye Leighton, “No Time For The Bullshit”

The choice is simple: You can be on the side of progress or against it. Skye Leighton would — will — be St. Sebastian’s first Black, gender nonconforming president, and a voice like that is long overdue in the high school’s higher office. The rich, white, male president is a myth, and Skye’s candidacy is proof of progress.

Astrid Sloan, “Just: Astrid.”

Astrid Sloan does not want to be here, but somehow found herself in this race. She’s not going to fight for your vote, which makes her the most appealing candidate in a sea of aggressive wannabees. Also, her boyfriend died, remember? He moved an entire student body with a vulnerable speech at the debate? Feels weird for you to not honor his memory.

Infinity Jackson, “Macaroons For Everyone”

A vote for Infinity is a vote for freedom. Wouldn’t a world filled with sweet treats, amusement parks, and unlimited breadsticks be wonderful? What if that world was inside the halls of St. Sebastian? You know Infinity’s story. Now help her write a new chapter as your student body president.

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There are no bagels in Netflix’s new movie The King, but you wouldn’t know that from Tuesday night’s premiere. Star Timothée Chalamet showed up at the SVA Theater in New York City without his character’s signature bowl cut, but with multiple bags of bagels, which according to fans in attendance, he then handed out to eager attendees.

This all stems from a Twitter joke among stans, who noted the actor’s proclivity for bagels from Tompkins Square Bagels in New York City. While Chalamet may not be active on social media, he clearly keeps his eyes peeled. He saw the bagel discourse and, like the dutiful monarch he plays in The King, he obliged.

“We were ALL starving with most of us standing in line waiting for the red carpet for 5 hours, so it was amazing that he was literally feeding us,” one such bagel recipient, who wished to remain anonymous, told Refinery29.

“I watched the movie with the bagel in my lap,” another fan, whose overjoyed reaction can be seen in the photo above, explained.

The bagels were reportedly whole wheat everything, according to one fan, and apparently most of the people who received them devoured them immediately. Chalamet even engaged in bagel banter as he moved through the crowd on his way into the premiere, gamefully responding to important questions about his favorite bagel order — a bacon, egg, and cheese.

I don’t get why I’m being asked what my favorite bagel is? Such a random question… pic.twitter.com/6LolrqyXqB

— Timothée Chalamet. (@chclcmettim) October 2, 2019

Tompkins Square Bagels confirmed the bagels at the premiere were purchased by Chalamet ahead of the event.

“He said he had a premiere and he’d like to give out some little tokens,” an employee explained to Refinery29 over the phone. “I said, Take bagels.”

While the shop is a known hot-spot for Chalamet (and a number of other celebrities like the Jonas Brothers, and the Kardashians), it’s not overrun with fans attempting to glimpse the actor.

“More my kids,” the employee joked. “Her and her friends always come in.”

Instead, Chalamet is the type of celebrity who brings the bagels to you — a quality any good King should possess.

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As Elizabeth Warren ramps up her campaign to break up big tech one company is preparing for battle. According to leaked recordings from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the Massachusetts senator’s plan to undo mergers between tech giants won’t go down without a major fight from his camp. Meanwhile, theDemocratic presidential candidate, who is running on a policy-driven platform, tweeted yesterday that she won’t back down from Zuckerberg’s threats, creating a potential war between Facebook and the U.S. government if she’s elected in 2020.

“If she gets elected president, then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge,” Mark Zuckerberg announced in a leaked recording addressing Facebook employees. “At the end of the day, if someone’s going to try to threaten something that existential, you go to the mat and you fight.”

Warren’s plan to “Break Up Big Tech” was fueled in large part after she orchestrated a massive campaign billboard with her face on it in the middle of Silicon Valley. Now, she is making good on her promise after launching a proposed plan that targets Facebook, Amazon, Google, and a number of major tech giants. The plan of attack, which she introduced in early 2019, detailed a way to break up the monopoly of big tech companies. But it struck a major nerve with Zuckerberg. 

According to recordings acquired by the Verve, Zuckerberg says it would “suck” to be in a legal war with the United States government, but it’s one he is fully prepared for if Warren is elected. 

After hearing the recordings for herself, Warren jumped right back into the conversation with a series of tweets yesterday, illustrating her proposal (and demonstrating that she is definitely not backing down from the Facebook CEO’s idle threats). 

“What would really “suck” is if we don’t fix a corrupt system that lets giant companies like Facebook engage in illegal anticompetitive practices,” Warren tweeted. “I’m not afraid to hold Big Tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon accountable. It’s time to #BreakUpBigTech.”

Facebook is doing pretty well right now. They’ve acquired potential competitors WhatsApp and Instagram. More than 85% of all social networking traffic goes through sites owned or operated by Facebook. They’ve got a lot of power—and face little competition or accountability.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 1, 2019

But what exactly is Warren proposing that’s scaring Zuckerberg into company-wide announcements like this? According to her plan, Warren wants to break up mergers between major tech companies that monopolize a specific sphere of the industry. For example, she doesn’t want to see huge companies like Google or Apple taking over every part  of the tech scene, which is basically the direction we’ve been heading in for over a decade. But, according to Warren, her efforts to take down “Big Tech” serve a greater purpose: to protect user information from being shared across multiple platforms owned by the same company (i.e. Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp). 

Imagine Facebook and Instagram trying to outdo each other to protect your privacy and keep misinformation out of your feed, instead of working together to sell your data, inundate you with misinformation, and undermine our election security. That’s why we need to #BreakUpBigTech.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 1, 2019

For Facebook, this would mean dividing up the company’s brands, which include Instagram and WhatsApp to “promote healthy competition in the market.” Warren’s greater initiative to break up the tech giants isn’t so far-fetched, either — according to a poll last month, almost two-thirds of Americans are on board with this overall plan if it means more privacy for users and a leveled playing field for online content. 

But just as Warren is pleading to force Facebook to relinquish ownership of Instagram and WhatsApp, Zuckerberg is gearing up for an all out war under a Warren administration. The CEO backed up his own leaked recordings in a Facebook post yesterday, urging people to read his now-public comments and decide for themselves where they stand in the war against big tech.

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