How Wellness Culture Killed the Party Somewhere along the way, partying stopped being cool. I’m almost embarrassed writing that. In 2026, it feels trendier to wake up at 5 a.m. than to stay out until 5 a.m. Morning routines have replaced dance floors. Matcha has replaced vodka sodas. I wake up after a night out and scroll through Snapchat stories of people waking up to go on runs, rather than a stream of blurry slides capturing someone’s mistakes from the night before.  And I

A poem written when life felt so uncertain and life felt very sweet in the present. Senior year of college  By Kiki Pape  Throwing up in the airport bathroom.  My parents are packing my suitcases.  I am still a kid.  I am on my own now.  Writing and promoting my own dreams in my own words.  I wish I had the confidence I had at eighteen. But knowing nothing at twenty-two.  Becoming something other than someone's girlfriend.  I live out others' dreams rather than my own. Wearin

Sabrina carpenter on the muppet show  bedazzling everything in sight  Lady gaga at the super bowl  Elmo  Copenhagen Fashion Week  chloe kim listening to young thug before getting a medal  JFK JR’s style  Wuthering Heights  February has been a slow month for me. Most of these days were spent writing, working, or figuring out how to write while I worked. This seasonal depression brought me to gravitate toward more media than usual — things that bring joy, rather than what th

‘Romance of Football’ and is it lost?  College football is something I don’t always follow. I was blessed to go to the University of Colorado Boulder, where Coach Prime dominated the stadium during my years of attendance. I graduated this May and found myself searching for that love of following a team I had discovered in college. Most boys I met in college were fueled by skipping class, ghosting girls, and hitting a vape every other sentence. Young men have dragged this cu

A Guide to Beaver Creek, Colorado Après as a personality trait When the first snow falls, Michiganders tend to make a familiar choice. Some head south toward Florida’s beaches, while others travel west in pursuit of snow-covered peaks and long winter weekends. For travelers drawn to both skiing and the culture that surrounds it, Beaver Creek, Colorado offers a refined alternative to the busier mountain towns nearby. Often compared to Aspen or neighboring Vail, Beaver Creek d

“I had three Diet Cokes today,” I told my mom, already knowing it wasn’t true. I had five.    The lie itself wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t even necessary. That’s what made it uncomfortable. I’m twenty-three years old, and somewhere between budgeting groceries and calling my parents more than I’d like to admit, I realized I was lying about a caffeinated soda. That realization stuck with me longer than the caffeine ever did.    I am twenty-three years old, and lately, I’ve noticed

There’s this moment in your twenties when home stops feeling like a finish line or a fallback and starts feeling like… a throbbing little reminder that life isn't happening in the order you imagined. That’s the home sweet headache— that oddly tender, slightly painful sensation of returning to the place that raised you while you're still trying to raise yourself, and also, proving to others that you don’t need help.  It is not dramatic. I should be stopping my tears; it is li

Food, fashion, tailgating, chants, and the little details outsiders don’t notice. Most women grow up with routines — morning or night — that feel like small acts of self-care. The therapeutic strokes of a makeup brush, the careful choosing of which version of yourself to present that day. It is a practice, a ritual, a rhythm that sets the tone.              Detroit football is no different. It is an inherited ritual, passed down through generations. From family gatherings to

Martin Scorsese  once said that, “the true goal of storytelling is to make the audience care about your obsessions.” What strikes me is how lucky the people who achieve  that really are—those rare artists whose obsessions become something the world cares about too. Most of us dream of that kind of resonance, but we only see the polished surface once they get there. The struggle it took to be understood, to be noticed, to be cared about—that part rarely makes the story. I wa

By Kiki Pape January 2025 Picture 2014. Middle school was buzzing like a hive of awkward beauty decisions, parents pretending they understand your interests, and me at my vanity, trying to invent something that vaguely resembled adulthood on my thirteen-year-old face. YouTube became my unofficial older sister. Bethany Mota taught me how to flick a wing without stabbing my eyeball. Jaclyn Hill quietly saved me from zit-induced panic attacks, like some kind of makeup superher