Shirley Raines isn’t your typical beauty influencer. The 51-year-old mother of six, who’s worked as a medical biller in Long Beach, California for two decades, only started her Instagram account two years ago. But in the past six months, she’s racked up more than 20,000 followers, a prestigious award from the iconic Bronner Bros beauty show, and devoted fans that send her packages weekly. Unlike most bloggers, Raines isn’t selling hair gummies or reviewing new products. Instead, she takes to social media to spread the word about a side of beauty many people don’t see: what self-care looks like when you’re experiencing homelessness.

Raines is an unlikely advocate for the cause. She’s never been homeless and didn’t go to beauty school. She’s just a woman who started feeding the needy in her community and quickly realised what was lacking for the many women she met every weekend.

“The women would always compliment me on my hair and makeup,” Raines says. “I've always been told that the homeless need food, clothing, water, and resources, but no one ever said they need makeup and hair colour. I thought, ‘This is something that I can do!’" So she cashed in all her Sephora points, hit a few discount stores, and started handing out travel-sized products to the women who asked her about beauty.

“They want to look in the mirror and see something other than their circumstances,” Raines says. “They don't want to think about the fact that they lost their job and have to sleep in a tent. I think people forget that they're still women at their core.”

Fast forward to today and Raines and her team of volunteers are known as Beauty2TheStreetz, a group of Long Beach moms, IG followers who’ve gotten involved, individuals who’ve escaped homelessness themselves, and a charity-focused biker club called Fighters For The World, which provides security in L.A.’s Skid Row neighbourhood where the group sets up every Saturday morning.

Hundreds of people line up for the home-cooked meals that Raines plans, preps, and cooks herself on Friday night, but it’s the makeup and hair services that really help her connect with the women.

Using a bespoke collection of camping and salon equipment, Raines personally washes and colours hair and provides showers right on the street for people. It’s a pressing need for those with disabilities whose wheelchairs make hauling their belongings or navigating cracking sidewalks difficult, both of which often prevent them from getting to the limited bathrooms available at a handful of churches and shelters downtown. Her operation is both straightforward and scrappy. She brings numerous ‘solar shower’ bags filled with hot water from her home and uses a simple salon chair and shampoo bowl that drains into the gutter. She mixes hair colour in a red Solo cup and uses a basic hand mirror for the big reveal.

“There’s something about washing someone’s hair,” Raines says “You don't close your eyes in the streets; you're always aware of your surroundings. It means a lot that they can sit back in my chair, close their eyes, and just trust me. It's like the beauty salon; they open up when they're in the chair.”

On a recent Saturday, we met a woman named Alicia who patiently waited all morning for her turn. She’s been staying at a shelter nearby, trying to get back on her feet, and has always wanted to try blonde hair, a shade that reminds her of her sister. Raines makes it a point to give these women choices, to call them by their names, and to pamper them as much as she can — basic dignities she says you lose when you become homeless.

“It's been years since I’ve gotten my hair coloured,” Alicia says. She says she’s been eyeing hair colour at a pharmacy, but the options were overwhelming and she can't really afford it. With her new hair, she feels more confident looking for housing. “I'll be looking the part,” she says. “It might not seem like much, but it is something. And especially when somebody is doing it for you, because people just don't do that type of stuff. It's special.” Alicia left with a new golden shade of hair, a huge smile, and a pocket full of fake lashes, the product she picked from Raines’ box of goodies. “I don’t really wear makeup, but I love lashes,” Alicia says.

Raines is known on Skid Row as “the makeup lady” and keeps boxes in her trunk stocked with eyeliner, face wipes, lip colour, and other new items that her IG fans ship to her or donate through a simple registry process linked in her bio. She also distributes pre-packed hygiene kits with essentials like toothbrushes, tampons, and soap.

It means a lot that they can sit back in my chair, close their eyes, and just trust me.

It takes at least $500 to feed Raines’ line each week — between 300 and 400 people normally show up — plus more funding to provide makeup and hair services. Beauty2TheStreetz relies heavily on donations from fans, which is why Raines makes giving anything — from a used tent t a new lipstick — as easy as she can. “People will even order food from Walmart that I can go pick up before Saturday,” she adds. Lately, donations have been decreasing, so she’s had to replace more elaborate preparations with cost-efficient meals like pasta. She personally funded it in the beginning, but now her social media fans supplement her work.

For Raines and her team, the state of Los Angeles’ homelessness problem is too severe to ignore, so they’re doing all they can to help. Over the past six years, the number of people experiencing homelessness in L.A. has increased by 75% to over 50,000 people, but it’s not an isolated epidemic. It’s estimated that 553,000 people across the country were experiencing homelessness on any given night in 2018 — 39% of them were women and girls — which is an overall 4,300 person increase from 2017, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). But that’s just what the government can physically see; the numbers are widely believed to be underreported because those experiencing homelessness are difficult to accurately count, especially if they’re sleeping in tents, cars, or large-scale encampments.

About one third of people counted in 2018 were unsheltered — sleeping on the streets in abandoned buildings, encampments, or other places not considered suitable for human habitation — and that number is even higher for those under 25. Approximately half of all young people experiencing homelessness were unsheltered last year.

As the homelessness epidemic continues, but services remain limited, everyday citizens have stepped in with an unexpected source of relief: beauty. By providing hair color and cuts, makeup, showers, and other self-care resources, those experiencing homelessness feel a restored sense of dignity vital for getting back on their feet. It’s a missing piece to the puzzle of finding employment and housing, and avoiding discrimination when shopping or spending time in public places.

The Invisible Homeless: Women

One of the fastest growing groups among people experiencing homelessness are women, says Suzanne Wenzel, PhD, professor at USC’s school of social work. Wenzel attributes this to the gender pay gap, but there’s another cause: trauma caused by domestic violence. “Some of the official reports show that as many as 90% of women who are currently homeless have experienced physical or sexual victimisation sometime during their lifetime,” she says.

Michelle Parker*, 37, found herself homeless after fleeing from her live-in boyfriend. “I was afraid for my life,” she says. “My abuser was trying to kill me.” As a stay-at-home mom without a résumé or job skills, she ran out of options, and her four kids were forced to live with extended family while she applied for low-income housing through the city. Now she lives in a single room occupancy in Skid Row, a small bedroom with a communal kitchen and bathroom that dozens of residents share. “I never imagined that this would happen to me,” she says. Being separated from her kids is a painful reality that many women on the brink of homelessness experience and if extended family doesn't step in, like Parker's did, many are forced to put their children into the foster care system.

Trauma is something most women experiencing homelessness have in common, which makes getting back on their feet that much more difficult because sexual violence against women is also rampant on the streets. That was especially the case for Arien Williams, 29, who’s been homeless for five years. “Every homeless woman I've ever met has been raped,” she says. “I’ve been raped multiple times.”

Wenzel confirms this upsetting reality. “For a woman who is living on the street, it’s almost a rare occurrence for her not to be sexually assaulted,” Wenzel says. As more and more women experience homelessness, gender responsive services haven’t kept up with the demand. According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) women comprise 31% of the total homeless population, but only 17% of shelter beds are designed for them. That’s just 586 beds for over 16,000 women, according to the organisation’s 2018 data. On top of that, many women we spoke to say that they don’t feel safe in mixed-gender shelters, which represent many of these beds.

Williams says being homeless isn’t her choice: Abuse from her childhood and trauma from past relationships has made keeping a job difficult. She says she tried staying in a shelter but didn’t feel secure. Having to constantly worry about safety puts her basic needs on the back burner, which keeps her in the same frustrating cycle that prevents her from moving forward. She can’t stray too far from her tent, and packing up and hauling everything for blocks to a shelter isn’t worth the risk of getting robbed, so she feels stuck.

Every few months, Williams asks a friend to watch her tent and walks through Hollywood to the Seventh Day Adventist Church. It has a program where anyone can sign up for private, safe showers on certain days, but she only makes it there a few times a year. Mostly she just uses baby wipes to clean herself. This year has been especially hard with L.A.’s record rainfall, so she’s been forced to move to underpasses from her regular spot near the safety of a school. Monitoring and responding to the weather has turned into a full-time job.

Everything is just harder when you’re a woman, she says. “Being on your period while homeless is the worst,” she adds. “No matter how good your hygiene is while you're out here, it's not the same as when you're [in a] home.”

As people experiencing homelessness rapidly inhabit underpasses, river walks, and sidewalks all over Los Angeles, one might assume the city would be quick to respond, but that’s far from the reality. Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti has spent the past few years attempting to push through a program he calls bridge housing, shelters in which those experiencing homelessness can keep their pets and possessions and stay with partners. He’s only successfully launched three of 40 planned shelters, due in part to marches and rallies from residents who object to his plan. The opposition movement, nicknamed NIMBY for ‘not in my backyard’, has garnered national attention and has spread to cities across the country.

“It’s literally the most complicated issue I think I’ve ever dealt with and ever will deal with in public policy, because it has so many different elements and each person is different,” Garcetti told us. “I will take the responsibility as the leader of this city, but we all have to do it together. Government won’t do it on its own.”

Los Angeles is on the front lines of the homelessness epidemic, but has failed in showing the rest of the country a path forward. Those experiencing homelessness need more than food and temporary shelters to get back on their feet, so people like Raines are stepping up with non-traditional services — and she’s not the only one.

Beauty & Beating Homelessness

Like Raines, hairstylist Jason Schneidman has seen the problem growing and now helps bridge the gap with free haircuts, plus shaves and beard grooming for men. He sets up shop in places like Skid Row and Venice Beach about once a month for a day of free cuts; often, other stylists will show up to help after he puts out a call on social media. Unlike Raines, Schneidman once experienced homelessness himself while battling a crack cocaine addiction. Now 15 years sober, he has a family and a successful career styling mostly male celebrities like James Corden, Jonah Hill, and Paul Rudd. For Schneidman, free grooming and haircuts are his way of giving back. “I know I’m impacting lives because I’ve been there myself,” he says. “When I was ready to get help, there was someone there for me. A lot of these people don’t have resources.”

But this kind of work takes funding, so Schneidman recently expanded his efforts to a product line and forthcoming Venice Beach salon that opens on June 1. Not only do a portion of the proceeds from his styling paste go to his work doing free grooming and cuts, but he’s also able to contribute scholarships to the Awakening Recovery rehab facility in L.A., a yearlong addiction program similar to the one he went through himself. He hopes to have the salon contribute in even bigger ways, but is still working out what that will look like.

Both Schneidman and Raines have both recently been approved for a 501c nonprofit status and hope to expand their efforts. “My dream is to get a Beauty2TheStreetz mobile shower with a makeup station with the bright bulbs around it,” Raines says. “I want them to be able to see themselves in bright lights.” This dream is sharply juxtaposed with the reality of her hours spent prepping and hauling everything — from water to towels — to get the job done.

A mobile shower would make things a whole lot easier for Raines, and allow her to serve far more people. Just look at Lava Mae, a mobile shower non-profit that’s been able to help dozens of homeless individuals in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Lava Mae’s operation is stocked with clean towels, hot water, and guests are allowed up to 20 minutes of privacy to shower. While it sounds like the bare minimum, it can change the trajectory of a person’s entire week.

“We can serve up to 45 people per day/per mobile unit, but unfortunately, the demand far outpaces our capacity,” says Lava Mae founder Doniece Sandoval. “If our budget were unlimited, we could do more. Our hope, however, is that we’re demonstrating to local governments that this service is vital to dignity, resilience, upward trajectory, and public health.”

Lava Mae recently partnered with cosmetics conglomerate Unilever to stock showers for free with a new line that benefits homeless individuals called The Right To Shower. On top of that, The Right To Shower is donating all proceeds from sales in 2019 specifically to mobile shower NGOs like Lava Mae.

“The brand was built upon the belief that access to cleanliness is a fundamental human right, as is the feeling of dignity and confidence that can come with a single shower,” says Laura Fruitman, co-founder and general manager of The Right To Shower. “In 2019, we’re donating 100% of the brand’s profits to support mobile shower organisations around the country that help provide safe, reliable access to showers and other basic hygiene needs.” The product lines includes body washes and bar soaps priced between £5 and £9 that can be purchased in stores like Whole Foods or on Amazon.

For those experiencing homelessness, and for the people fighting to ease its symptoms, beauty has been an unlikely meeting place, but it’s one that provides the comforts missing in the streets: a place to rediscover lost confidence and dignity while safely accessing basic needs. “Showers alone won’t solve homelessness, but they can be a first step toward unlocking hope, dignity, and opportunity for those living on the streets,” Sandoval says.

For Williams, self care has been an important part of her coping while navigating the streets until she gets housing. “I do my makeup and take care of myself so that I don't look homeless,” she says. “So that I can go about the planet and eat my food and do all of these things without having to deal with discrimination.”

It’s a mission that Raines will continue to share through her social media for as long as she gets support from followers to fund her operation. “Someone is homeless not because they did something wrong — it's because life got the better of them,” Raines reminds us. “We give them food, but it's about the spirit, too. The spirit dies, then the body is gone. It's important to nourish the spirit so they don't feel forgotten .”

*Names have been changed.

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Ever since my first job at MTV working as a music programmer, I can't stop trying to match people with music they might like. So, I wrote a book calledRecord Collecting for Girls and started interviewing musicians. The Music Concierge is a column where I share music I'm listening to that you might enjoy, with a little context. Get everything I've recommended this year on Spotify, follow me on Twitter or Facebook, and leave a comment below telling me what you're listening to this week.

Carla Geneve "Yesterday's Clothes"

Australia knows how to make good guitar music. Carla Geneve is the latest export from Perth who you will want on your playlist. Her single, "Yesterday's Clothes," has the sort of laid back indie rock vibe of Courtney Barnett but with less urgency, and more of a sense of wonder. If you dig the track, her new self-titled EP is out in June and it's all worth a listen.

Jamila Woods feat. Nico Segal "BALDWIN"

Jamila Woods dropped one of the must-hear records of 2019 today. Get a sample of her Afro-centric work with this song, inspired by James Baldwin. But honestly you are going to want to do a deep dive on her. The sonic textures she messes with are almost as good as her heady lyrics.

CXLOE "Low Blow"

I promise, I am not on Australia's tourism board, but they are also great at pop music. This offering from CXLOE is a perfect example. She's got that syncopated delivery that's prime pop fodder, but it's the words that really got me. That "hit be below the belt / now I'm the psycho" of the chorus — wow who hasn't had someone pull that move on them? It's too real and too good of a song.

Lindsay Lou "Keep On Going"

There's a specific cluster of things that make songs by '60s artists like The Band so enjoyable (and help them transcend generations). It's one part guitar, and one part lackadaisical beat, and one part a feeling of being pushed forward by the music. It puts you in a good mood, even when the subject matter is dark, and makes you want to listen again and again. That's the note Lindsay Lou manages to strike with her newest song. If you don't believe me now, you will after the 36th listen.

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Thousands of mothers and their children marched on central London today in a show of solidarity with the global youth strikes inspired by teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg.

The Mothers Rise Up march began at midday on Park Lane before making its way peacefully to Parliament Square for a rally. "With pushchairs and song we will march to Parliament Square to demand climate action and a future for our children," organisers said ahead of the event.

The event was timed to coincide with International Mother's Day, on which 96 nations across the world pay tribute to mothers and maternal role models. Similar marches took place in other cities in the UK and abroad.

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“We are mothers, we are rising, it's our children you're compromising." . Today, @mothersriseup celebrates #InternationalMothersDay by taking to the streets to demand a safe climate for our children. . . #Signsofthemarch 📸credit: @friends_earth . . #mothersday #mothersriseup #parentsforfuture #savetheearth #motherearth #circulareconomy #recycle #extinctionrebellion #reuseable #sustainableliving #Climatestrike #bansingleuseplastic #plasticbags #FridaysForFuture #ClimateChange #saveouroceans #SaveOurPlanet #savethewhales ⁣#plasticwaste #noplastic

A post shared by Signs of the March (@signsofthemarch) on May 12, 2019 at 8:49am PDT

Former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq was among the mothers who addressed crowds at the London rally, the BBC reports. "The reason we are here is because of the youth strikes," Huq said from the podium. "The young people have been putting us to shame and it's time for us adults to take responsibility."

The march was led by a group of eleven 11-year-olds to mark the fact that we now have just 11 years to meet the UN's 2030 deadline for drastically reducing global emissions.

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Our eleven 11 year olds getting set to lead the march! ♥️

A post shared by Mothers Rise Up (@mothersriseup) on May 12, 2019 at 4:19am PDT

Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, whose nine-year-old daughter Ella died of a fatal asthma attack believed to be linked to illegal levels of air pollution near her south London home, also spoke at the London rally.

"If you deal with air pollution it means you will also deal with climate change," she told crowds at Parliament Square. "Everyone here needs to be bothered about the impact of air pollution. My daughter died a very, very horrible death. If you live near a main road you should be angry. I'm too heartbroken to be angry."

Although London's overall air quality is finally improving, the latest figures found that two million people in the capital are still living with illegal levels of air pollution. Yesterday TfL announced that it has commissioned a new fleet of super-green hydrogen buses in a bid to reduce pollution caused by London's transport network.

Very proud to be with my kids and @mothersriseup today #MothersClimateMarch pic.twitter.com/M8EtEgDkzo

— Emily Tempest (@emilyatempest) May 12, 2019

Today's Mothers Rise Up march took place just weeks after climate change pressure group Extinction Rebellion occupied four prominent sites in central London: Oxford Circus, Marble Arch, Waterloo Bridge and Parliament Square.

Greta Thunberg visited London during the high-profile occupation, and took the opportunity to condemn the UK for its role in bolstering the fossil fuel industry.

“The UK’s active current support of new exploitation of fossil fuels – for example the UK shale gas fracking industry, the expansion of its North Sea oil and gas fields, the expansion of airports, as well as the planning permission for a brand new coal mine – is beyond absurd," Thunberg said in a powerful speech.

"This ongoing irresponsible behaviour will no doubt be remembered in history as one of the greatest failures of humankind."

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Billie Eilish is taking the music world by storm, and now she’s coming for fashion. The teen dark pop star appears in the newest Calvin Klein ad campaign, called “I Speak My Truth In #MyCalvins.” And unlike CK campaigns from the ‘90s, Eilish is fully dressed in her signature oversized skater gear. I definitely dressed like her in high school (...all the way back in the ‘90s), and for me, it was a way to stand out from the crowd. But Eilish reveals that her style isn’t just about looking fire — for her, baggy clothes serve a protective purpose.

“I never want the world to know everything about me,” she says in the campaign video. “That’s why I wear big, baggy clothes. Nobody can have an opinion because they haven't seen what’s underneath.” Eilish points out that if she wore more figure-revealing clothing, she would be subject to a litany of sexist remarks about her body. “Nobody can have an opinion because they haven't seen what’s underneath. Nobody can be like, ‘she’s slim-thick,’ ‘she’s not slim-thick,’ ‘she’s got a flat ass,’ ‘she's got a fat ass.’”

That our culture feels entitled to women’s and gender-diverse people’s bodies is nothing new. That entitlement manifests in, among many things, the fetishisation of youth and policing women’s sexuality with clothing — not to mention the intersections of fatphobia, transphobia, and racism. Many women are way too familiar with how our appearances can dictate how we’re treated in public. At 17, Eilish subverts our image of what a pop star and a teenager are often expected to look like. Using clothing, she’s able to protect herself from disrespectful and unkind comments.

Check out the video below.

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Warning: This recap contains major spoilers for Season 8, episode 5 of Game of Thrones.

And just like that, we’re only one super-sized episode away from the final episode of Game of Thrones ever.

Last week’s episode, “The Last of The Starks,” was all about choosing sides. Sansa chose Jon over Daenerys; Arya chose her duty over marriage to Gendry; Jaime chose to have hot sex with Brienne, and then changed his mind and returned to Cersei; Daenerys chose Starbucks coffee over whatever it is they drink in the North; Cersei chose to burn it all down by murdering Missandei; Varys chose the realm, which is to say Jon Snow, and Tyrion isn’t really sure what to do about it. And to make matters even more fraught, Team Targaryen is down yet another dragon.

As it turns out, however, one dragon can do a whole lot of damage. In the lead-up to this final season, it looked as if the biggest existential threat to Westeros, and the world, was the Night King and his minions. And that was understandably terrifying — how do you stop death itself?

But as it turns out, the story George R.R. Martin set out to tell is a far more complex and troubling one. Sure, the dead are scary, but just think of the horrors humans have wrought in our long, bloody history.

This episode, titled "The Bells," tied up some long-standing loose ends: We finally got Cleganebowl! (And, unfortunately, more eye-gouging.) Jaime and Cersei proved that their love is the truest, bestest one of all! And most importantly, we finally got our answer to what was falling from the sky in Daenerys’ vision in the House of the Undying back in Season 2. It was ash. From her own dragon, burning King’s Landing on her orders.

The Battle of Winterfell is nothing compared to the Battle of King’s Landing, which unfolds over the majority of this penultimate episode. Both were directed by Miguel Sapochnik, and share a real sense of chaos (although, thanks to the blessed King's Landing sun, we could actually see this time). There are bodies everywhere, charred, slain, or running for their lives. And Daenerys is the cause. After getting Cersei’s forces to surrender by fire-storming the Iron Fleet and the remaining scorpion crossbows, the Breaker of Chains decides to celebrate Mother’s Day by encouraging her last remaining child to completely annihilate the city, and everyone in it.

But before we get into the fiery nightmare, let’s rewind a bit to the beginning of the episode, which kicked off with the death (also by fire) of a personal fave. RIP Varys, king of spies! In all fairness, this one we kind of saw coming. After all, Melisandre did predict that the Spider would also have to meet his maker in Westeros. “I will return, dear Spider, one last time,” she told him last season. “I have to die in this strange country, just like you.”

She came back, and therefore, his time had come. But also, Varys should know better than to write letters declaring a usurper as the rightful king. Ned Stark learned that lesson the hard way, and now, so has he. After Tyrion outs his treason to Daenerys, she sentences Varys to death by dragon, her first taste of vengeance in an episode seemingly designed to make us hate her.

When the episode kicks off, she’s been locked in her rooms for days, refusing food and company, a classic woman-on-the-verge-battling-hysteria movie. The news of Varys’ betrayal, and the role Tyrion had in fuelling it, combined with her grief over Missandei’s death, appears to push her over the brink. As Varys told Jon, “They say every time a Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin.” Her coin has just landed, and it’s a mirror image of her father’s. Sansa better watch out, I get the feeling Daenerys is coming for her next.

Her conversation with Jon, who who once again declares his fealty to her (even if he declined her sexual advances) cements her new identity. This woman wants to rule Westeros with fear, a true irony given that is exactly what Cersei has been doing for years.

And speaking of Lannisters, this episode gave us some of their best ever moments. Tyrion frees beautiful, dumb Jaime, captured by Daenerys’ forces on his way back to King’s Landing, and the two exchange a true, heartfelt brother moment. Tyrion has always been clear about his love for his older brother, but that connection has always been masked by humour. There’s nothing funny about their hug, and his plea that Jaime get Cersei and escape to Pentos for a better life, knowing that this will probably cost him his life. Daenerys will not brook another disappointing from him.

After a strange and anti-climactic encounter with Euron who, I guess, gets to claim that he killed Jaime Lannister after leaving him wounded, we get the moving, lovely Jaime/Cersei reunion that we deserve. Those two are end game, the one beautiful love story in Westeros, even if they are related. Their death together in the bowels of the crumbling castle is one of the show’s best and most powerful emotional moments ever.

Arya and The Hound’s narrative arcs are equally satisfying. The first, initially hell-bent on killing Cersei all by herself, is talked out of it by her curmudgeonly mentor, once it becomes clear that Daenerys won’t stop until the entire city is razed to the ground. It’s nice to see the old Arya briefly shine through. There’s still a young woman who wants to live inside the hardened killer. And the fact that she calls him “Sandor,” his real name, seems to indicate that she’s finally erased him — and Cersei — from her list. Instead of serving the god of Death, Arya now seems to be actively fighting him off. Her quest to help save the citizens of King’s Landing feels far more in line with the girl we first met back in Season 1, who wanted to be a knight of the realm. And by the very end of the episode, she’s even got a white horse to carry her to her green-eye killing destiny.

Meanwhile, the Hound finally got his redemptive moment. An epic altercation with his Darth Vader-like brother, ends with him gleefully charging at him, sending them both through a wall and into the fiery depths below. A relationship forged in fire, ends full-circle.

The weakest character development, as usual, comes down to Jon and Daenerys. The former is understandably dismayed at the carnage taking place around him. But rather than keep him lingering in guilt and self-doubt — he did, after all, help bring this about by supporting Daenerys — the show seems unwilling to make Jon even a little bit of a bad guy. (Case in point: the fact that he is shown saving a woman from rape. The showrunners want him to be a hero.) In a show that always seems to have questioned who gets to tell a story, and how historical narratives are eventually remembered, it’s disappointing that Jon’s part in this is never in question.

And then there’s Daenerys. The show has been building up her Mad Queen narrative for a while now, but has really leaned into it in the past episode and a half. And still, I’m unconvinced. Everything we’ve been led to believe about her goes out the window the second her friend — and subordinate — is killed? The only real clue that Daenerys has gone to the dark side is her sooty, suddenly frizzy hair. There’s ample material to justify her transition — this is a woman who has repeatedly been led to believe that she is special, only to arrive in the place she believes is her rightful home and met with scorn. It’s understandable that she would act rashly as a response. But the show doesn’t actually set that up. Instead, it presents us with mounting evidence that she’s suddenly inherited her father and brother’s mental illness, with no prior symptoms.

Daenerys ends this episode with basically no one but her dragon — and maybe Greyworm — in her corner. And as we look to the finale, I predict a final showdown between her and Sansa. That attack wasn’t just revenge. It was a warning shot. Submit, or burn.

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Counterfeiting is nothing new. Remember bootleg DVDs? What about that pair of 'Chanel' earrings you bought on Canal Street in New York, or the £10 Folex you treated yourself to on the beach. A friend of mine once arrived at a restaurant and asked the awaiting gang of us: "What do you think of my new Louis Vuitton bag?" "I think it's not Louis Vuitton" I said, and we all laughed, because it cost £30 and not £3,000 and what's the harm in that?

According to the OECD, handbags are the most counterfeited item on Earth, followed by shoes, watches, perfume and cosmetics. But in one area of the fast-paced and hugely launch-driven beauty industry, business is really booming. Counterfeits and knockoff (usually vastly inferior) versions of the pricey beauty tools we love – from hair straighteners to battery-operated cleansing devices – are springing up as fast as new products appear, and you don't need to lurk around a back alley to get your hands on them. They're all online and as easy to obtain as the real deal. One beauty tech brand alone says hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of fake stock is being uncovered every week.

If you are obsessive about your cleansing, you might own a Foreo Luna or something similar. These dinky beauty devices promise to enhance your everyday skincare ritual, with a gentle vibrating effect on the face. The Foreo Luna Mini 2 Facial Cleansing Brush is available on Amazon for £95.20. An almost identical counterfeit Foreo costs £6.99. Tempted? I was, so I ordered one. A few days later I received a garbled but friendly message from the supplier, which made me feel uneasy, but two weeks later my device arrived, in pink.

It looks almost identical to my legit Foreo; the bristles felt a little coarser on my skin but other than that, my 'Under Girl' device was pretty much a carbon copy of the real thing. I've used it about half a dozen times and so far, so good – but I have a sinking feeling that should it stop working, my dear friend Shirly will disappear.

Evan Feldstein is vice general manager for Foreo in North America, and part of his remit is guarding the brand's intellectual property. Feldstein says they are combatting forgery on a day-to-day basis. The law puts the onus on the company, he explains. "IP [Intellectual Property] law is that obtain your own copyright details etc, so it’s your responsibility to police this as a company from a legal perspective. IP protection is about protecting your consumers as much as anything else – so high quality Foreo products are in users' hands."

In 2018 alone, Foreo conducted 30 administrative raids and 15 criminal raids and seized approximately 30,000 fake Lunas. At any one time, the company has five cases under investigation.

Ninety percent of fakes (available on eBay and Amazon) are produced in China, then shipped around the world. (A note: It is possible to get a genuine Foreo on eBay, says Feldstein. "We don’t sell on there, but people do resell genuine products, unwanted gifts etc.") Caveat emptor: If it’s being shipped to you from China, it’s probably a fake.

It’s getting worse on a global level. There’s more money in it today than 20 years ago...it’s so easy to buy things online that people say are legitimate.

Feldstein (and all the other CEOs and beauty innovators we spoke with) says fakes are definitely on the rise. "It’s getting worse on a global level. There’s more money in it today than 20 years ago... it’s so easy to buy things online today that people say are legitimate."

The pro with a copy is obviously the knockdown price, but what about the cons? Well, obviously you have no idea what conditions the devices are produced in – they could be using child labour – although you should never presume that because you recognise the brand name, they are treating employees well. If in doubt about where your fashion and beauty purchases are coming from, you can check sites and apps like Cosmethics, Ethical Elephant and Good on You, or look for the Leaping Bunny. If you can't find the answers you need there, hold brands to account using social media – if they are legit and treat their workers well, then they have nothing to hide.

Ethics aside, fakes could be dangerous. With something battery-operated like the Foreo, there's a small risk but Feldstein says in all honesty, that's rare. The bigger issue for the brand, which is proud of the device it makes, is that its customers won't be getting the quality they expect. And while some people are proud of their frugal fakes (my mate and her LV bag), some are fooled into thinking they are purchasing the genuine article, only to end up with a cheap imitation.

Looking at the bigger picture, counterfeiting has a crushing effect on the economy, too. Fewer wholesale and retail sales equals thousands of job losses annually, and means governments lose out on not millions but billions in taxes.

If we're talking about heated devices – hairdryers, straighteners, curling tongs and the like – the risks are higher. A Dyson hairdryer will set you back £299, a ghd hair straightener costs from £80 to £155. That's a lot of money but a bad fake could cost you a whole lot more.

Tim Moore, the chief technical officer for ghd, warns: "While counterfeit stylers and curlers may look very similar, they pose a number of serious risks to consumers – including electrocution, burns and hair damage – and would not pass strict regulatory requirements. ghd are renowned for their dedication to testing products within their R&D labs in Cambridge."

If you want to spot the difference, it's easy enough. All authentic ghd products have verified hologram codes on them. If you’ve bought a ghd product and want to make sure it's real, go to their website and enter the code found on the product. Moore says that buying electrical goods when you’re unsure of their authenticity can be "extremely dangerous" so it’s important you purchase from reputable stockists.

Laurence Newman, CEO of beauty device experts CurrentBody, agrees that safety is a big concern. "These products are untested and unregulated. Many customers don't realise they have been sold a counterfeit product, then they begin to see issues with charging. Manufacturers and sellers of fake goods are not only taking advantage of hardworking consumers, but also damaging the reputations of brands that pride themselves on the quality of their product."

It's not just big name household brands that are fighting the counterfeiting war. When you hear about entrepreneurial types like Jamie O’Banion, founder and CEO of BeautyBio and the creator of GloPRO, talk about what counterfeits do to their business, it makes you think twice about purchasing a fake.

The GloPRO is a popular (and patented) microneedling tool that solves a genuine consumer need and thus is a target for the fakers. O’Banion elaborates: "In any industry where creativity and new product launches are the lifeline, you’re going to encounter forms of design borrowing. When you’re the first to claim a space, of course others are going to follow and try to capture the same audience."

O’Banion says the tool "took the technology out of the aesthetician’s hands, giving people control over their microneedling treatments with zero downtime," so there's zero surprise people want to rip off their good idea. "It would actually be stranger if there weren’t replica attempts and reproductions," says O'Banion, but while other rollers make the same claims as GloPRO (which costs around £199) and seem tempting at less than half the cost, there are major differences.

O'Banion believes the way to win the battle is to educate the customer. "We know you want to do what’s best for your skin, here’s how and why GloPRO is still the best and safest, but please make whatever choice is right for you."

The GloPRO "groupies", as she calls them, usually have lower quality needles and don’t offer the red-light therapy or pulse stimulation, "all which combine to give your skin the safest experience while maximising cellular regeneration."

As for the cost, she says her lawyers are kept pretty busy. "Protecting a patent is a full-time job, so there is definitely an arm of the company whose sole job it is to monitor competitors and whether any infringements are being made, not just on GloPRO but on other BeautyBio patents and formulas as well. The beauty industry is like its own little Silicon Valley, everyone racing to the next finish line, hoping to surprise customers with the most advanced tech, but we have the even harder job (thanks to today’s social media and comparative culture) of delivering it in vanity-worthy packaging. The biggest 'cost' to the company is time. We take competitor claims and product comparisons very seriously, so my team spends a lot of time educating customers on products, ingredients and points of difference so that they feel fully informed. There’s a lot to choose from out there. We want them to feel empowered in their choices."

I’ve seen skin scan analysis of a competitor’s tool where the needles created erratic slashes in the skin, tearing it instead of lightly puncturing.

As for the dangers, here's her informed opinion. "I don’t want to scream 'fire' in a crowded cosmetic aisle and scare anybody, but there are so many tools out there, I recommend doing thorough research, especially on any tool that disrupts the surface layer of skin. I’ve seen skin scan analysis of a competitor’s tool where the needles created erratic slashes in the skin, tearing it instead of lightly puncturing. BeautyBio has a lot of information about microneedling on our website, blog and partner websites, so if there’s anyone out there who just needs basic info, please use us as a resource." No amount of money is worth destroying your skin and creating long-term damage.

If you've got a guilty conscience or are worried about the safety of a dupe, then toss it, or you could try to return it to China. Good luck with that.

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Gemma Taylor had never heard of adenomyosis before she was diagnosed just last week, after a year of painful unexplained symptoms that her GP had put down to IBS. And she's not the only one. Adenomyosis is the even less well-known sister condition of endometriosis – but while endometriosis is slowly beginning to benefit from recent public awareness campaigns, adenomyosis is still virtually unheard of by patients and doctors alike.

"My symptoms started in April last year, with abdominal pains and sickness. I thought it was a bug, but it just carried on. I was bloated all the time, feeling sick, having awful cramps where all I could do was lie down and wait for it to pass, and a combination of diarrhoea and constipation," Gemma, a 37-year-old marketing manager from Cornwall, explains.

"I noticed my symptoms were getting worse in the run-up to, and around the time of, my period, so I spoke to another doctor and was referred for an internal (transvaginal) ultrasound, where they found fibroids and adenomyosis."

What is adenomyosis?

Like endometriosis, adenomyosis is a condition caused by tissue similar to the endometrium (the tissue in the lining of the womb) cropping up in places where it doesn't belong. In endometriosis, this tissue occurs outside of the womb, whereas in adenomyosis it's found between the muscle fibres in the uterine wall – the myometrium – which can cause painful and heavy periods, as well as pain during sex, urination and defecation.

I couldn't really use tampons because the clots would literally push them out of me.

"Essentially, you've got tissue that bleeds every month sitting between those muscle fibres, which means they can't contract very effectively during your period," explains Dr Virginia Beckett, a consultant gynaecologist and spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Thirty-seven-year-old Jasmin Harsono, a reiki practitioner and founder of Emerald and Tiger, has suffered from both endometriosis and adenomyosis since her early teens, but was in her 30s by the time either was diagnosed – endometriosis five years ago, and adenomyosis three years later.

"After my endometriosis diagnosis I kept querying some other symptoms. I had really scary, extreme clotting and was passing clots that were just gigantic, to the point where it felt like I was pushing out a number two," Jasmin explains.

"It was emotionally very draining. I didn't want to go out because I didn't know what to expect, and I couldn't really use tampons because the clots would literally push them out of me." Jasmin kept going back to her GP and was eventually referred for an MRI scan, which picked up adenomyosis.

How is it diagnosed?

This in itself is a relatively recent innovation, as Geeta Agnihotri, a consultant in maternal medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, and spokesperson for charity Wellbeing of Women, explains: "Adenomyosis wasn't recognised gynaecologically much in the past. It wasn't really detected except after a woman had a hysterectomy, when the womb was taken away and looked at histologically (under a microscope)."

Today, she adds, the diagnosis can still only be confirmed histologically, but endometrial tissue between the muscle fibres of the womb can now be picked up on ultrasounds and MRI scans. Despite this, Miss Agnihotri says, "adenomyosis is a coincidental finding in the majority of cases. It's not usually something we were looking for."

How common is it?

For obvious reasons, therefore, it's difficult to get precise numbers on the prevalence of adenomyosis, but it's thought to affect around one in 10 women. The severity of symptoms varies, and about a third of women with adenomyosis won't experience any symptoms at all.

Adenomyosis is also believed to commonly coexist with other uterine conditions, like endometriosis or fibroids (non-cancerous growths found in the womb), as is the case for both Gemma and Jasmin. The Seckin Endometriosis Center in New York estimates that 40-50% of patients with adenomyosis are likely to have endometriosis, and 50% of patients with adenomyosis will also have cases of fibroids – but again, it's tricky to know for sure.

When is it most likely to occur?

Adenomyosis can occur in anyone who has periods but is most common among women aged 40-50 and those who've had children – particularly, Dr Beckett says, "if you've had an operation like a Caesarean section which breaches the muscle wall of the womb."

For 58-year-old PR professional Caroline Ratner, adenomyosis symptoms didn't kick in until shortly before the menopause. "I was about 54, not yet menopausal, when it started – I literally didn't stop bleeding, was in a lot of pain, and obviously also anaemic and exhausted," Caroline says.

"The GP just put me on progesterone, which did nothing, and told me it was all just part of the menopause. The pain was hideous, and I got these terrible pains in my leg as well."

It wasn't until a year and a half later that Caroline saw a specialist privately, who gave her an MRI scan. "He diagnosed adenomyosis and I had an ablation – a procedure that burns away the lining of the womb. It's been absolutely fine since then, although that's probably partly because I've now gone through the menopause," she says.

How is it treated?

In terms of treatment options, Dr Beckett says: "I'd probably start with decent painkillers and things like mefenamic acid, an anti-inflammatory which reduces the amount of bleeding."

Second in line are hormonal treatments, such as the contraceptive pill – "particularly the mini (progesterone only) pill," says Miss Agnihotri, "which is brilliant because it thins out the lining of the womb" – or Mirena coil. Alternatively, Dr Beckett explains: "We can use GnRH analogues, which are a long-acting injection that cause a sort of temporary menopause."

In more severe cases adenomyosis can be treated using procedures such as ablation, which surgically destroys the endometrium, or uterine artery embolisation, which reduces the blood supply to the uterus. A hysterectomy, removing the uterus, may also be considered as a last resort.

However, many of these treatment options aren't suitable for women, like Jasmin, who are hoping to conceive. "There is no real way of calming my symptoms down other than suppressing my hormones. But I'm going through IVF and still want to have a child, so I don't want to do that either," she says. Instead, Jasmin's making lifestyle changes and tracking her cycle to try and manage the worst of the symptoms.

What to do if you're concerned

If you're concerned about any gynaecological symptoms, see your GP and don't be afraid to ask for a second opinion if you're not satisfied. "I think GPs are far less aware of adenomyosis than they are even about endometriosis. It might have been just one little paragraph after endometriosis in the textbooks when they were at medical school," says Dr Beckett.

"You can always ask to be referred to a gynaecologist if you think your GP isn't listening to you, and there are also GPs with a special interest in gynaecology who work in the community, so don't take 'no' for an answer if your symptoms are bad," she adds.

"If you're flooding, if you're passing clots bigger than a 50p piece, if you're having to use a pad and a tampon, or double pads, if your period gets you up in the night – none of those things are normal."

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Whatever your date night plans, make sure you're dressing up for the number one person in your life: yourself.

Finding lingerie that's as comfortable as it is beautiful, though, is a task and a half for many of us. And if you're curvy or have a fuller bust, it can be even more of a challenge. There are tons of lingerie brands catering to plus-size and big breasted women but more often than not, the designs err on the side of frumpy, rather than fabulous.

Luckily, a clutch of new brands is out to change all that. Whether you like minimal designs, lacy sets or are more concerned with ethical manufacturing and organic fabrics, we've found five size-inclusive brands that need to be on your radar.

At Refinery29 UK, we’re here to help you navigate this overwhelming world of stuff. All of our market picks are independently selected and curated by the editorial team. If you buy something we link to on our site, Refinery29 may earn commission.

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I should have known better. We all should have known better. After living through the fantastically disappointing Fifty Shades trilogy, having consumed each novel (and film, don’t lie) with a side order of "This isn’t at all what I thought it would be", we should’ve had a clearer idea of what to expect from the romance novel that came next.

The Mister is not a continuation of Christian Grey’s fleetingly racy, frequently superfluous exploits. No, this is completely separate. E.L. James' first literary venture beyond Grey’s world, this one is about an achingly rich and privileged bloke – late 20s, white, tall, muscular – who takes an "unexpected" (it’s not unexpected) shine to a wide-eyed, innocent and inexperienced younger woman. Oh, wait…

Take a moment to shake off the déjà vu but don’t bother dusting off the adjustable nipple clamps just yet. One of the key differences is that The Mister is far less BDSM and instead takes place here in the UK. Our protagonist is Lord Maxim Trevelyan, an earl with hefty estates in Cornwall, Oxfordshire, Northumberland "and a small portion of London". He lives on London’s Chelsea Embankment in a swish, modern flat with impressive views across the Thames – views that are painstakingly noted by the various women he brings back to sleep with. You see, his older brother has just died and has left him the responsibility of the family’s wealth. He’s always been a bit of a fuck boy but at the moment he’s fucking around to avoid the reality of his duties and his grief.

"Mindless sex – there’s a lot to be said for it," is Maxim’s opening line to us. And don’t worry, I judged him straightaway too. It’s justified. "It’s strange how some women behave the morning after: shy and quiet. She’s no longer the lascivious, demanding siren of the night before," he observes a chapter or two later.

There’s one woman in particular who he struggles to understand – his new cleaner, Alessia. She arrived unannounced after the surprise departure of his previous "daily" (an old-fashioned term for a housemaid who visits every day. James dutifully pops the definition at the very beginning of the novel, perhaps to warn us of its wildly excessive usage throughout). Brace yourself: Alessia has a harrowing back story that saw her being trafficked to the UK before eventually escaping and landing a job ironing Maxim’s shirts and emptying the used condoms from the bin in his bedroom. We don’t hear nearly enough about this, of course. This is merely a troubling plot device that pops Alessia in an even more vulnerable position before dancing an awkward tango with the next man who’s funding her existence.

Dark, yes, but it doesn’t get deeper. It only gets more annoying. Most annoying of all is how unsexy this very convoluted romance manages to be. Hats off, though. It proved ironically consuming for someone (me) who probably wouldn’t have been able to swallow the blurb, let alone the reality of the narrative. But sadly, no, it was hot. Allow me to tell you a little bit more about why…

There's a lot of lip licking

It really gets Maxim going when Alessia, the nervous 23-year-old who has recently arrived in the UK from Albania, licks her lips. Speaking from misguided experience, though I totally understand the aesthetic appeal of someone’s tongue slowly sliding across their lips, it’s never quite how it sounds, is it? That moist (erm, slobbery) upper lip can only do so much in the real world. In The Mister ’s world, it makes Maxim hard in a heartbeat.

Maxim's class-rooted arrogance

Nothing quite turns a girl off like the unwarranted fetishisation of a class, race or gender, you know? To set the scene: There’s a poignant bit quite early on in the book where we learn that, besides being an earl, Maxim also DJs on the side (classic) and models when he has the time. "Modelling could be mind-numbingly boring but after I was sent down from Oxford, the work had gotten me out of bed and given me an excuse to stay in shape. I also got to meet hot, skinny women."

His surprise at falling for one of his subordinates is a real kicker, though. "Who would have thought," he muses. Alessia arrives to clean his flat after walking through the pissing rain, so he takes it upon himself to give her an umbrella, to which she modestly says thank you. "I wonder what her life must be like that she’s so grateful for such a simple gesture." Her thanks is enough to have him ready to blow because "he’s not accustomed to doing good deeds". After spending literal days thinking about this specific interaction, he reasons that "it might confirm the shallow fucking bastard I think I am" and I concur.

Maxim's response to Alessia's past

It’s sex. But for his gratification, not hers. "I still want her and don’t my blue balls know it," is Maxim’s response to finding out that she was trafficked. Understandably, Alessia suffers awful nightmares and "screams in terror" at the memory of how she had a black plastic bag put over her head when she was brought here, to which Maxim thinks smirkingly: "Of course, I’d like to make her scream in a different way." It's painful and uncomfortable to read. Questionable enough, perhaps, to make a woman who's spent so much of her life trying to avoid abusive men only to be sex trafficked into the arms of the worst example of British gentry, such a poignant and almost inconsequential part of the narrative.

Maxim's blue balls

Christ, this guy is always on the brink. We've all been turned on at the most unexpected of times but so much of the book is spent having to hear about him salivating over the memory of weak exchanges between himself and Alessia. When they do eventually hook up, her moaning is described as "music to my dick" and it's here, friends, that I realised I'll never be able to use the otherwise innocent idiom "music to my ears" without being diverted into thinking about this guy's trite, money-pissing penis.

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The women of Monterey have a lot of explaining to do. In the new trailer for season 2 of Big Little Lies, Madeline (Reese Witherspoon), Celeste (Nicole Kidman), Jane (Shailene Woodley), Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz), and Renata (Laura Dern) attempt to put their lives back together after covering up the real reason behind the death of Celeste’s abusive husband Perry (Alexander Skarsgard). They may have gotten away with (kinda sorta) murder, but with Perry’s mother Mary Louise (Meryl Streep) in Monterey asking questions, it’s only a matter of time before something breaks, and those little lies cause big, big trouble.

Of course, there’s plenty of fun featured in the Big Little Lies trailer to counteract the more murder-y aspects of the HBO soap. The women have traded in their Audrey Hepburn costumes from the fateful night for ‘70s disco glam because just because someone fell to their death during a theme night doesn’t mean you forego tradition entirely. Madeline has also found someone new to gripe at during elementary school drop-off, as she and frenemy Renata are now involved in the same murder pact. There’s also what looks to be a sweet love story for Jane, who is dealing with hiding a major secret from her son Ziggy (Iain Armitage).

"When we come back, their lives, like all of our lives, seem very well put together on the surface but then the fissures and the fractures being to emerge,” executive producer David E. Kelley told E! News of the new season. "Once the crevices start to widen, it escalates pretty quickly."

Will the women of this idyllic California coastal town get away with their lies? If they don’t, at least we’ll have some fun Monterey parties before they head to prison.

Check out the new trailer below.

Big Little Lies returns to HBO on 9th June and will air in the UK on Sky Atlantic and Now TV from 10th June

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Sunday night saw some of the biggest names in British television gather in London to celebrate the last year’s very best programmes. From Killing Eve to Bodyguard, Queer Eye to Louis Theroux ’s Altered States, the most talked-about shows would finally find out if they’d been deemed worthy of taking home one of those heavy-looking awards. And though there were certain categories in which we could predict who would come out on top (here’s looking at you Phoebe Waller-Bridge), there were a few surprise snubs buried within the BAFTA TV 2019 winners list.

Shall we start with the positive outcomes to our predictions? Waller-Bridge’s international phenomenon Killing Eve took home three big awards this year, winning best drama series, best leading actress for Jodie Comer, and best supporting actress for Fiona Shaw. Though Comer was up against co-star Sandra Oh in her particularly strong category (they were joined by Ruth Wilson and Keeley Hawes), her win was perhaps the most readily celebrated of the night.

Comer, who plays Villanelle, your favourite TV assassin, gave an emotional acceptance speech in which she described writer Waller-Bridge as "the most talented person I know, also an inspiration" and dedicated her award to her grandmother, Nana Frances, who sadly passed away during the first week of filming the show.

Julia Davis’ wonderfully outrageous series Sally4Ever took home the gong for best scripted comedy, beating out Channel 4 favourite Derry Girls which, after a triumphant return for season two this year, was announced to be coming back for yet another series. Did BAFTA miss a trick here? Well, Davis was also nominated for best female performance in a comedy programme and, alongside This Country ’s Daisy May Cooper (we’ll come back to her in a minute), lost to Jessica Hynes for her performance in There She Goes. Now, we’re pretty confident it’s not as straightforward a matter of divvying up those gold mask statues like so, but had Davis won female performance and been taken out of the scripted comedy equation, we reckon Derry Girls would’ve taken home the BAFTA they deserved.

"Excuse me, where is Bodyguard in all of this? It was only the most talked-about TV show of the year," you ask. You’re absolutely correct. Though it was snubbed by the powers that be this time around – not even a nomination for Richard Madden in the leading actor category – the public came through with the votes, crowning it the must-see moment of the year.

Benedict Cumberbatch won his first BAFTA for his role in Sky’s Patrick Melrose, a fantastic show that also took home the award for best mini-series. Ben Whishaw earned the gong for supporting actor, though Save Me ’s Stephen Graham would have been a very deserving winner otherwise.

Outside London's Royal Festival hall was the red carpet, of course, where Daisy May Cooper was without a doubt the MVP. Opting to wear a bin bag dress (yes! A bin bag dress) trailing literal rubbish behind her, Cooper captured the type of sartorial attention that I'm pretty sure the BAFTA red carpet hasn't really seen before.

Humorous as it may seem, when asked about the dress she explained that it cost her "about a fiver". She added: "The reason I'm wearing this is if I wore a normal dress, that would cost a lot of money and I thought I'd donate that money to a local food bank and wear bin bags instead." Though Cooper was overlooked for her performance in This Country, memories of BAFTA TV 2019 will certainly revolve around her presence at the ceremony.

How do you feel about the BAFTA TV results this year? Mull it over as you peruse the full list of winners below.

Leading actress

Jodie Comer, Killing Eve - BBC One (Winner)
Keeley Hawes, Bodyguard - BBC One
Ruth Wilson, Mrs Wilson - BBC One
Sandra Oh, Killing Eve - BBC One

Leading actor

Benedict Cumberbatch, Patrick Melrose - Sky Atlantic (Winner)
Chance Perdomo, Killed By My Debt - BBC Three
Hugh Grant, A Very English Scandal - BBC One
Lucian Msamati, Kiri - Channel 4

Supporting actress

Fiona Shaw, Killing Eve - BBC One (Winner)
Billie Piper, Collateral - BBC Two
Keeley Hawes, Mrs Wilson - BBC One
Monica Dolan, A Very English Scandal - BBC One

Supporting actor

Ben Whishaw, A Very English Scandal - BBC One (Winner)
Alex Jennings, Unforgotten - ITV
Kim Bodnia, Killing Ev e - BBC One
Stephen Graham, Save Me - Sky Atlantic

Entertainment performance

Lee Mack, Would I Lie To You? - BBC One (Winner)
Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway - ITV
David Mitchell, Would I Lie To You? - BBC One
Rachel Parris, The Mash Report - BBC Two

Male performance in a comedy programme

Steve Pemberton, Inside No 9 - BBC Two (Winner)
Alex Macqueen, Sally4Ever - Sky Atlantic
Jamie Demetriou, Stath Lets Flats - Channel 4
Peter Mullan, Mum - BBC Two

Female performance in a comedy programme

Jessica Hynes, There She Goes - BBC Four (Winner)
Daisy May Cooper, This Country - BBC Three
Julia Davis, Sally4Ever - Sky Atlantic
Lesley Manville, Mum - BBC Two

Drama series

Killing Eve - BBC One (Winner)
Bodyguard - BBC One
Informer - BBC One
Save Me - Sky Atlantic

Single drama

Killed By My Debt - BBC Three (Winner)
Bandersnatch (Black Mirror) - Netflix
Care - BBC One
Through The Gates (On The Edge) - Channel 4

Mini-series

Patrick Melrose - Sky Atlantic (Winner)
A Very English Scandal - BBC One
Kiri - Channel 4
Mrs Wilson - BBC One

Soap and continuing drama

EastEnders - BBC One (Winner)
Casualty - BBC One
Coronation Street - ITV
Hollyoaks - Channel 4

International

Succession - Sky Atlantic (Winner)
54 Hours - The Gladbeck Hostage Crisis - BBC Four
The Handmaid's Tale - Channel 4
Reporting Trump's First Year: The Fourth Estate (Storyville) - BBC Two

Entertainment programme

Britain's Got Talent - ITV (Winner)
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway - ITV
Michel McIntyre's Big Show - BBC One
Strictly Come Dancing - BBC One

Comedy and comedy entertainment programme

A League of Their Own - Sky One (Winner)
The Big Narstie Show - Channel 4
The Last Leg - Channel 4
Would I Lie To You? - BBC One

Scripted comedy

Sally4Ever - Sky Atlantic (Winner)
Derry Girls - Channel 4
Mum - BBC Two
Stath Lets Flats - Channel 4

Features

Who Do You Think You Are? - BBC One (Winner)
Gordon, Gino and Fred's Road Trip - ITV
The Great British Bake Off - Channel 4
Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing - BBC Two

Must-see moment

Bodyguard - Julia Montague assassinated (BBC One) (Winner)
Coronation Street - Gail's monologue on the suicide of Aidan Connor (ITV)
Doctor Who - Rosa Parks, the Doctor and her companions make sure historical moments remain (BBC)
Killing Eve - Eve stabs Villanelle (BBC)
Peter Kay's Car Share - The Finale (BBC)
Queer Eye - Tom completes his transformation (Netflix)

Current affairs

Myanmar's Killing Fields (Dispatches) - Channel 4 (Winner)
Football's Wall of Silence - Al Jazeera English
Iran Unveiled: Taking on the Ayatollahs (Exposure) - ITV
Massacre at Ballymurphy - Channel 4

Single documentary

Gun No 6 - BBC Two (Winner)
Driven: The Billy Monger Story - BBC Three
My Dad, The Peace Deal And Me - BBC One
School For Stammerers - ITV

Factual series

Louis Theroux's Altered States - BBC Two (Winner)
24 Hours in A&E - Channel 4
Life and Death Row: The Mass Execution - BBC Three
Prison - Channel 4

Reality and constructed factual

I'm A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! - ITV (Winner)
Dragon's Den - BBC Two
Old People's Home for 4 Year Old - Channel 4
The Real Full Monty: Ladies' Night - ITV

Specialist factual

Suffragettes With Lucy Worsley - BBC One (Winner)
Bros: After The Screaming Stops - BBC Four
Grayson Perry: Rites Of Passage - Channel 4
Superkids: Breaking Away From Care - Channel 4

News coverage

Cambridge Analytica Uncovered - Channel 4 (Winner)
Bullying and Harassment In The House Of Commons (Newsnight) - BBC Two
Good Morning Britain: On A Knife Edge - ITV
Good Morning Britain: Thomas Markle Exclusive - ITV

Sport

2018 World Cup Quarter Final: England v Sweden - BBC One (Winner)
2018 Six Nations: Scotland v England - BBC One
England's Test Cricket - Cook's Farewell - Sky Sports Cricket
Winter Olympics - BBC Two

Live event

Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance - BBC One (Winner)
Open Heart Surgery: Live - Channel 5
The Royal Wedding: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle - BBC One
Stand Up to Cancer - Channel 4

Short-form programme

Missed Call - Real Stories (Winner)
Bovril Pam (Snatches From Women's Lives) - BBC Four
The Mind Of Herbert Clunkerdunk - BBC iPlayer
Wonderdate - BBC iPlayer

Bafta Fellowship

Baroness Joan Bakewell

Special award

Nicola Shindler

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Sabina Socol has all the trappings of that elusive 'French girl cool'. Brigitte Bardot bangs, a wardrobe that feels something like the 2019 version of Jane Birkin's, and an approach to beauty that says 'I just rolled out of bed' but is somehow impossible to recreate.

Her vintage finds – think flared denim and broderie anglaise blouses – have long filled our Insta feed with sartorial inspiration, so you'll be thrilled to know that she's collaborated with London label Rixo on a six-piece collection that will get us one step closer to Socol's aesthetic (even if that effortless French girl hair will never be ours).

"Cher Horowitz's '90s signature style meets Jane Birkin's '70s Parisian aesthetic," is how the brand describes the collection, and they're not wrong: vintage-inspired ditsy floral jumpsuits, leopard print dresses, pink cord flares and frilled crop tops meet hot pink party dresses and '90s silk slips.

"Rixo embodies what is fun and cool about English style," Socol said in a brand statement. "We connected as soon as we met, since we are both so attracted to vintage. Our mutual likes and ideas meant the collection grew from a really natural place – it’s a dream when it works out like this and I hope it transpires in the collection. For me, our collection perfectly personifies English and French style – when London meets Paris!”

The collection is available in sizes UK 6 to UK 16 at Rixo, in-store at Galeries Lafayette Champs Élysées in Paris, and Rixo’s pop-up on the Kings Road in London from today.

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Quite like Eve (Sandra Oh), I can't tell if I'm terrified or charmed by Killing Eve 's Villanelle (Jodie Comer). One minute she's smiling at a young child in an ice cream shop, the next she's smashing their sundae on the floor. Whether it's love or hate, I'm hypnotised, and it's not just because of Comer's incredible performance, but also the research done by creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge ahead of the BAFTA award winning first season.

The second season of the hit show drops this Sunday in America (we're still waiting for our UK release date) and ahead of the release, Waller-Bridge spoke about how the 14-time BAFTA-nominated show came together — and it starts with something to which all true-crime fans can relate.

“I fell into a Google hole around female assassins,” she told the New York Times, pointing specifically to an interview with convicted killer Angela Simpson. In March of 2012, Simpson was sentenced after her guilty plea for (warning, this gets graphic) stabbing, strangling, beating, dismembering, and setting pieces of a man on fire.

Simpson said as much in a video that ended up providing significant inspiration for Villanelle, in which the 36-year-old frankly answers questions about the killing in a way so calm and clear that it defies all conceptions of how a murderer behaves.

"She sounds more like a psycho than anyone has ever sounded," Waller-Bridge said of the interview.

There were other pieces to the puzzle that is Killing Eve: a 2016 perfume ad, the My Favorite Murder podcast, and the specific cinematography in No Country For Old Men, the NYT reports.

It's the perfect potion, mixed just right, that ended up making this:

Understandably, we're impatient waiting to learn more.

Killing Eve returns for season 2 in America on Sunday 7th April, and will be broadcast in the UK later this year.

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“This double standard makes it clear that women's sexuality is not worthy of innovation,” reads an open letter written by Lora Haddock, the founder and CEO of Lora DiCarlo, after she was hit with devastating news. Not only was her company no longer being recognised with an Innovation Award at the Consumer Electronics Show, but Lora DiCarlo wouldn’t even be allowed to present or have an exhibition space at the conference.

In October 2018, CES informed the owners of Oregon start-up Lora DiCarlo that they would be receiving an Innovation Award in the robotics and drones category for their hands-free sex toy for women and gender-nonconforming people, the Osé. To be able to present — let alone win an award — at such a large and notable event can be critical in a start-up’s journey to success and obtaining crucial investors.

Weeks later, Lora DiCarlo learned that the award had been rescinded.

CES’s sponsoring organisation, the Consumer Technology Association, originally cited a clause in the awards’ terms and conditions that said that products that were “immoral, obscene, indecent, profane, or not in keeping with CTA’s image” would be disqualified.

In the open letter published by Haddock, she pointed out the “obvious double standard” given that the show had featured a sex doll and virtual-reality pornography in the past.

“Clearly CTA has no issue allowing explicit male sexuality and pleasure to be ostentatiously on display. Other sex toys have exhibited at CES and some have even won awards, but apparently there is something different, something threatening about Osé, a product created by women to empower women,” reads Haddock’s letter.

Representatives for CTA later said the reason was because the device didn’t fit into any product category, reports the New York Times. Haddock found this claim to be an “insulting and frankly ridiculous assertion.” The Osé is the subject of eight pending patents — and possibly more — for robotics, biomimicry, and engineering.

Haddock’s letter inspired CTA to reverse its decision and reinstate the award along with a public apology. “CTA is pleased to present Lora DiCarlo with a CES 2019 Innovation Award,” said Jean Foster, CTA’s senior vice president of marketing and communications. “CTA did not handle this award properly. This prompted some important conversations internally and with external advisors and we look forward to taking these learnings to continue to improve the show.”

Lora DiCarlo also announced this week that it secured an additional $2 million (£1.54) in financing.

Haddock contributed a quote to CTA’s announcement saying, “The incredible support and attention we’ve received in the wake of our experience highlights the need for meaningful changes and we are hopeful that our small company can continue to contribute meaningful progress toward making CES inclusive for all."

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Three years ago, Glossier launched the Supers: a triad of shelfie-worthy serums designed to bring the ubiquitous dewy, cool-girl glow to the masses (for £24 a bottle). Though effective and and smart in the concept of cutting through the confusion of serum layering, the Supers never experienced the Glossier hype of say, Boy Brow or the Balm Dotcom.

But now, Emily Weiss & Co. are out to change the underwhelming Supers narrative, giving them a second chance to shine (and sell out). They've just reformulated all three Supers by increasing the percentage of key ingredients (while making sure they're still gentle and effective for all skin types), revamping the packaging (now cuter and more colourful), all while remaining loyal to the original goal of simplifying your skin-care routine.

Whether you need an introduction or a re introduction to The Supers, here's the CliffNotes version: There's the hydrating Super Bounce serum — the one in the opaque white bottle — with hyaluronic acid as its hero ingredient. It drips out of the pipette with a silky, milk-like consistency and is designed to be used after cleansing. Press it into the skin and follow up with moisturiser to soften dry or rough areas.

The Glossier Super Glow serum is also new; it now comes in a glass bottle with a tangerine tint, which makes sense considering its hero ingredient is vitamin C. This one's a bit thicker in texture compared to Super Bounce, but it's similarly milky-white in colour and melts into the skin immediately. With a 5% vitamin C derivative (Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, a more stable form of vitamin C) in this revamped formulation, a few drops on clean skin will help improve the look of dark spots and give skin a brighter glow.

Lastly, the Super Pure serum is designed for oily, acne-prone skin. It's made with Niacinamide and Zinc, which work together to balance and clarify skin that's on the verge of a breakout — be it hormonal, stress-induced, or after a night of eating extra-greasy pizza (no regrets). This guy's the thinnest in consistency and comes in a clear bottle — like the type of skin it's meant to leave you with.

The Supers are keeping their £24 price tag, but if you want to give all three a try, you'll save £12 by splurging on the full Super Pack. Based on the hype around this relaunch, that might be the best move before they all sell out.

At Refinery29, we’re here to help you navigate this overwhelming world of stuff. All of our market picks are independently selected and curated by the editorial team. If you buy something we link to on our site, Refinery29 may earn commission.

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Warning: This story contains details relating to the murder of a vulnerable young woman that some will find upsetting.

It's all too easy to skim headlines about crime numbers and not comprehend the link to real people's lives. Crimes against people with disabilities have risen by 300% since 2011 (according to the most recent Home Office statistics), and an important new BBC Three documentary puts a face to this harrowing figure.

Gemma: My Murder tells the story of the vicious and senseless killing of 27-year-old Gemma Hayter, who was found dead and naked on a disused railway line, having been tortured, in Rugby, Warwickshire in August 2010 by a group of five young "friends". Despite her mother's years-long battle with social services and medical professionals to ensure she received the support she so clearly needed, Hayter had not been formally diagnosed with a learning disability when she died, leading to accusations that social services had failed her.

Crimes against people with disabilities have risen by 300% since 2011.

Featuring interviews with Hayter's mother, sister, the lead investigator from Warwickshire Police, her niece Taylor, friends and others who knew her, the documentary gives a startling view into how vulnerable people can be victimised, hurt and killed by people they know.

Gemma: My Murder recounts Hayter's murder at the hands of Daniel Newstead (19), Chantelle Booth (21), Joe Boyer (17), Jessica Lynas (18) and Duncan Edwards (19), who were found guilty of the killing in 2011 under legislation relating to disability hate crime, and received sentences ranging from 13 to 21 years.

The group spent hours assaulting Hayter in a flat. The details are disturbing and difficult to hear. They wrapped masking tape around her face, forced her to drink urine from a beer can and broke her nose. Gemma was stabbed and stamped on, stripped naked and left for dead on a disused railway track.

"All of her blood was up the radiator and up the wall," says her sister Nikki. "The whole thing is just so sad. Her life was just so shit all along. So for her to die in such a… it’s just… everything about it is horrible."

Hayter's death was also one of an increasing number of so-called 'mate crimes' – bullying or abuse by people who claim to be your friends. Her killers, whom she befriended when she moved into her own flat at 25, had previously stolen money from her, stored illegal drugs in her flat (a growing trend known as cuckooing, which sees vulnerable people exploited by gangs), and pressured her into shoplifting for them.

Hayter received an autism diagnosis as a child but a psychologist disagreed with the label when she was retested as an adult, leaving a young woman without the specialist help that those around her could see she needed. Two years before her death, Hayter personally wrote to the authorities pleading for assistance with hygiene and finding a job. "I would like a job. I need my independence," she wrote. "I would like someone to help me when I ask for it. This is what I need and want in my life."

Her sister Nikki says: "One of the most maddening parts of my time with Gemma was the fact that we knew she couldn’t do anything that the other kids could do. And yet nobody took her out of her regular school and put her somewhere else. I don’t know how she kept slipping through the net because she was quite obviously struggling."

There were several missed opportunities to help her before she died.

A serious case review conducted after Hayter's murder concluded she had suffered from "a range of physical health conditions and her appearance has been described as being suggestive of a congenital disorder, genetic syndrome or birth defect, though all clinical tests for such conditions have been negative"; and that there were several missed opportunities to help her before she died.

"I’d tell other parents in my position to go with your gut instinct," says Hayter's mother Sue, who could tell that her daughter was developing differently from her other two children at an early age. "You know your own child and if you think something’s wrong, it’s probably wrong.

"That’s why I kept going back to the authorities and humiliating myself. But they wouldn’t listen. I was called an attention seeker. But I kept going back because I knew something was wrong – you do that for your children. I needed help."

Gemma: My Murder is available to watch on BBC iPlayer and YouTube now.

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There is no way to meaningfully parse the role of Jewish women in film without talking about Barbra Streisand. She’s the game-changer, the pivotal figure who made it acceptable to be sexy, successful, charming, talented, and have a distinctive nose and a penchant for Yiddish-inflected exclamations. As Patricia Erens wrote in her piece chronicling Jewish women’s contributions to Hollywood for the Jewish Women’s Archive, Streisand “proved that an openly Jewish story could be a blockbuster hit.”

It took 15 years for Streisand to make Yentl, her directorial debut and groundbreaking film about a young Jewish woman in turn-of-the-century Poland who poses as a man in order to pursue a religious Jewish education.

Fresh off the success of her 1968 Oscar-winning role as Jewish vaudeville and Broadway star Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, Streisand pitched a short story by famed author Isaac Bashevis Singer to her agent as her next movie. “Are you kidding me? We already turned that down for you,” she remembers him saying. “You’ve just played a Jewish girl, and now you tell me that you want to play a Jewish boy?”

Yentl was finally released in 1983, with Streisand listed as director, producer, writer, and star. It won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Score, and earned nominations for Best Supporting Actress (for Amy Irving), Best Art Direction/Set Design (for Roy Walker and Leslie Tomkins) and two Best Song nominations (for “Papa, Can You Hear Me?” and “The Way He Makes Me Feel”). It also earned Streisand a Golden Globe for directing (making her the only woman to receive the honor to this day) and took home the award for Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy. The five Oscar nominations for Yentl are among the fourteen Academy Award nominations for the three films Streisand has directed, which also include The Prince of Tides and The Mirror Has Two Faces.

In an interview conducted over email for Jewish American Heritage Month, Streisand told Refinery29 why portraying complex Jewish women has been such a priority over her nearly six decades in show business, overcoming pressure to change her appearance, and why she’s a big fan of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Refinery29: What was your Jewish upbringing like?

Barbra Streisand: “I was raised in a religious home. The Sabbath was always honored, candles were lit. My grandfather went to synagogue every Saturday and he would take me along, when I was about 5. I would sit next to him, with the other men, while the women sat somewhere else. I could follow the Hebrew because I went to the Yeshiva of Brooklyn, where half the day was spent on English studies and the other half on Hebrew culture. They taught us how to read the words, but I didn’t know what they meant. Still, I felt like a big girl, sitting beside the men. Maybe that’s why it was so easy to imagine myself as Yentl.”

Who were your Jewish women role models growing up? How about on screen?

“I wanted to be an actress, so naturally I was interested in a great actress like Sarah Bernhardt. And when I found out she was Jewish…well, half-Jewish…I related to her even more. I went to the 42nd St. library in Manhattan and looked up all the plays that she had done. She was fearless. She had no qualms about taking on a man’s role, playing Hamlet when she was 55, and she was still playing Joan of Arc and Juliet well into her 70s. Nothing could stop Sarah, and that was very inspiring.”

Was Fanny Brice’s explicit Jewishness always a part of Funny Girl? Or is that something you brought to the character?

“It was always a part of Funny Girl. Fanny Brice was a beloved Jewish comedienne who made her mark in vaudeville and had quite a range…she could make people laugh, and cry. That was intriguing to me, but it wasn’t easy to relate to the broad Jewish humor in some of her skits. I didn’t do that, and besides, I wasn’t interested in merely doing an imitation. I wanted to find my own connection to her. In some ways, we were kindred spirits, and I felt if I could be true to that, I would be true to her.”

Your characters in Funny Girl, The Way We Were, A Star Is Born, and Yentl are all Jewish, and their identity is a big part of the stories. Why was that important to you?

“Well, being Jewish is a part of my identity, and of course I’d want to honor that heritage, when it’s relevant to the story. Fanny Brice was clearly Jewish.

“My character in The Way We Were, Katie Morosky, was inspired by a politically-active Jewish girl the writer Arthur Laurents knew in college. Since I was also politically active and equally intense, I reminded him of her.

“When I made A Star is Born in 1976, I wanted to update the character and the love story to reflect the times. It was the height of the women’s liberation movement, and my Esther was not passive and adoring, as she’d been in some of the earlier versions. And she was certainly not going to define herself in terms of a man. I also changed her last name from Blodgett to Hoffman. It was just one more thing I did to differentiate her from the others.

Finally, Yentl was based on a short story by a great Jewish writer, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and he wrote about a Jewish woman. But I’ve also done many movies…like On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, What’s Up, Doc?, Up The Sandbox, Nuts, The Mirror Has Two Faces, and others…where there was no emphasis on being Jewish. It was immaterial to the plot.”

Did you ever face pressure to change your appearance or tamp down your Jewish identity?

“At the beginning of my career, I kept hearing, ‘“Why don’t you fix your nose?’ By the way, I’ve never understood the nose thing. If you look at photographs, you’ll see that Jewish people can have all sorts of noses…big, small, narrow, wide. Big noses are not unique to our religion. Jimmy Durante was an Italian-American Catholic who happened to have a large nose. Arabs and Jews are all Semitic people, and they often have similar noses. I happen to like my nose, and I’m proud of my Jewish identity.

“But somehow long, hooked noses became part of the caricature of Jews over the years. For centuries, Jewish people have been thrown out of countries, attacked in pogroms, and then they faced annihilation during World War II, when 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Hitler hated the Jews and made them the scapegoat for his own shortcomings. Like others before him, he took away their rights…there were occupations they couldn’t hold;, land they couldn’t own. He even confiscated their bicycles. But the one thing he couldn't take away was their devotion to learning. Education was the primal thing in a Jewish home, and it led them to elevate their minds, which elevated their status in the world, as they became doctors, lawyers, professors. I think Hitler and his followers resented their success.”

What inspired you to bring Yentl to the screen, at the particular moment?

“From the moment I picked up Singer’s short story and read the first words, ‘After her father’s death,’ I identified with Yentl. My father died when I was 15 months old, and that loss profoundly marked my life. By the time I turned the last page, I was captivated by this young woman in turn-of-the-century Poland who had to disguise herself as a man in order to get an education. And then it took me 15 years to get it made.”

Did you face any pushback when you pitched the idea? What was the response like?

“When I first read the short story, I had just made Funny Girl and I immediately called my agent, David Begelman, and told him I had found my next movie. He said, ‘Are you kidding me? We already turned that down for you. You’ve just played a Jewish girl and now you tell me that you want to play a Jewish boy?’

“And the response from most studio executives over the next decade was equally discouraging. I’d watch their eyes glaze over in disbelief as I pitched the story. They had no interest in making this movie. To them, it was a movie about Jews, and even though some of them were Jewish themselves, apparently they did not want to see themselves on screen.

“I finally had to agree to sing in it…and turn it into a musical where Yentl’s songs function mostly as an interior monologue…in order to get it made.”

How did you prepare for the role? Did you pull from your own experience as a Jewish woman?

“Naturally, I used my own experience…that helps me relate to any role. But this story takes place in another time, another country, and I wanted to understand it intimately. So I did a lot of research…watching documentaries, poring over books, talking to various scholars.

“I got totally immersed in Jewish history and culture. I asked a lot of questions and consulted three different rabbis, ranging from Orthodox to Reform. One was the first female rabbis on the West Coast! I even studied the Talmud with a feminist rabbi who considered himself Modern Orthodox and took his wife’s name in addition to his own (rather than the other way around).

“This was my opportunity to indulge my love of learning, which is probably embedded in my DNA. My father was a scholar, like Yentl’s father, and I liked to imagine that he would have taught me, just as her father taught her.”

Yentl is about a woman trying to make her way in a male-dominated society. How do you see those themes resonating into today?

“I’ve always been a big supporter of gender equality. Yentl wanted to get an education but she was relegated to a certain role…to cook, clean, have babies and take care of the man. That’s still true in many parts of the world today. Yentl defied those expectations…and I guess I did, too, by wanting to direct this movie. Ambition and authority were great qualities in a man, but not in a woman…and I spoke about this in a speech I gave at Women in Film in 1992, when I talked about the different ways our society perceives men and women.

“Strong men were seen as leaders, and looked up to; strong women were seen as suspect and looked down on. He was assertive; she was aggressive. He was committed; she was controlling.

“Now we’re in the process of redefining our roles…and reexamining our values. We, as a culture, have enabled sexual harassment of women. We have normalized violence against women. We have accepted men legislating what we can and cannot do with our bodies. We have normalized the wage gap. Even when it comes to the treatment of women in medical research, we are not valued as equals. You would think, in 2019, that we would no longer have to be fighting for civil rights. But the current administration is overturning rules and regulations that protect voting rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, children’s rights, basic human rights, and our environment.

“Thank God for the many people who are standing up and speaking truth to power. We are saying that we will not sit by as our rights are stripped away. We will not stay silent as the freedoms of others are destroyed.”

Were you ever scared that your characters would perpetuate stereotypes about Jews, positive or negative? How did you avoid falling into that trap?

“I try to avoid stereotypes…by definition, a stereotype is oversimplified, and the truth is always more complex. So in Yentl, for example, which had a Jewish theme, there’s no stereotypical face. I cast people who had the qualities I wanted, and they didn’t conform to any one physical type.

I hope that I have succeeded in portraying Jewish people as I know them, in all their strength and diversity.”

How do you see your characters playing into the history of Jewish portrayals on screen?

“That’s kind of a lofty question...and I’d prefer to let other people answer it.

All I can say is that I always try to do my best work. And I learned something early on, when I was just 14 and taking my first acting classes. I would watch other people do a scene, and they were often more interesting when they were just being, rather than performing. Good acting is more than just pretending. Acting is believing, which was the title of one of the books I read when I was a teenager.

“You have to use the truth. I believe in the power of the truth. It has always worked for me as an actress and a singer. An audience can always sense when you’re telling the truth.”

Are there any Jewish women characters on screen today that you admire? Why? (For example: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Broad City, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.)

“I wish I could say I’ve seen all those shows, but I just don't have the time. I have watched a bit of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, because they asked to use my music, and I thought it was funny and smart. It reminds me of when I was starting out and living through that era.”

Do you think that the culture has shifted when it comes to Jewish women onscreen?

“I’d like to see the day when you don’t even have to ask this question, because it would be totally normal to see all sorts of Jewish women on screen. It’s clear, just from the shows you cite, that Jewish people can be very funny. And that’s interesting. Going back in time, Jews had to develop a sense of humor in order to survive.

“Jews always question everything…it’s our way of learning. And there’s an inherent question in the cadence of Jewish speech that works well for a joke. We also happen to be very good at self-deprecating humor. Maybe that’s why so many of the greatest comedians were Jewish…Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, Judy Holliday, Madeline Kahn, Gilda Radner. And it’s great to see more amazing women like Sarah Silverman, Maya Rudolph, and Amy Schumer join their ranks.”

May 2019 is Jewish American Heritage Month in America.

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Following the growth of the body positivity and body neutrality movements, it seems to have become less acceptable to admit our physical insecurities publicly. If we're not preaching self love and confidence, it feels as if we're letting the side down, leaving many stuck in a hopeless double bind of wanting to "love our bodies" like our favourite bo po influencers, while simultaneously feeling pressured to adhere to the 'perfect' Kardashian-esque aesthetic that is so prolific on social media.

All this stress about our bodies, it turns out, is contributing to worrying levels of mental health problems, with one in eight people having considered taking their own life because of concerns about their body, according to a new report on 4,500 UK adults by the Mental Health Foundation (MHF), one of the largest polls on the issue. Meanwhile, just over a third (34%) said they'd felt anxious or depressed (35%) about their bodies.

The report shows that while body image satisfaction can vary depending on factors such as age and racial and ethnic background, young women are most likely to experience body image issues (no surprises there). "While the differences across ethnicities may be small, where such differences have been observed, they tend to show that, in general, black women are more satisfied with their bodies than white women," the charity says.

Mark Rowland, the charity's chief executive, called on social media companies including Instagram and Twitter, and advertisers to promote body diversity on their platforms. "Body image issues can affect anyone and at any stage in life. Many people identified social media as an important factor causing them to worry about their body image – and the majority of respondents felt the government needed to take more action."

Low body image can be a risk factor for developing mental health problems, such as psychological distress and eating disorders, MHF clarifies.

Tom Quinn, director of external affairs for the eating disorder charity Beat, expounded on this distinction to Refinery29. "People who are dissatisfied with their body image are at higher risk of developing an eating disorder, although this is only one of many factors that can lead to the development of these serious mental illnesses."

Quinn says that educating people about body image can help to reduce the risk of eating disorders. He's also careful not to lay the blame for toxic body image ideals squarely on social media: "There are also positive spaces online where people can find inspiration and support if body dissatisfaction is putting their mental health at risk."

That being said, over a fifth (22%) of adults and 40% of teenagers surveyed by MHF drew a direct link between images on social media and and body image worries. Ahead, one woman who attributes her own suicidal thoughts to the bodily self-scrutiny engendered by social media, shares her story.

Katie Scott, 21, a nutrition student from Guildford, has a history of mental health issues including borderline personality disorder and anorexia, from which she suffered for several years between the ages of 14-18.

"I've always felt incredibly negative regarding my body image, which has fuelled my need to eat less and greatly impacted my daily life. If I wake up with bad body image I will usually be in a horrible depressed state for the majority of the day, feeling hopeless and like I'm worth nothing. I wish I could care less about scrutinising my body and focusing in on 'problem areas'. I wish I could be 'body positive' and love my body for all the things it can do for me. This is something I’m working on, it’s just so difficult to retrain my brain after years of hating my body and thinking I need to change it.

"I've had suicidal thoughts relating to my body, especially in my late teens. I often thought that being dead would be better than the constant torment from my brain telling me I was pathetic and disgusting because I wasn’t skeletal – in my eyes. The ironic thing is: my confused ideas about what I should and did look like meant I didn’t even see how underweight I was, and every time I lost weight it wasn’t ever enough. I couldn’t win against my own brain. I couldn’t achieve this abstract idea of perfection I had developed from pro-anorexia social media and societal ideas of the 'perfect body'.

These body 'ideals' are everywhere – all over reality shows where the qualifying criteria seems to be skinny and beautiful and not much else. This is the idea of beauty we've been raised on. This is what we supposedly should be aiming for.

"Comparison is the biggest thing that triggers my negative body image. Comparing my own shape in the mirror to celebrities and influencers on Instagram, who are almost certainly edited and/or on very dangerous diet regimes. These body 'ideals' are everywhere – splashed across magazine covers in local newsagents, filling the Discover pages on social media sites, and all over reality shows such as Love Island, where the qualifying criteria seems to be skinny and beautiful and not much else. This is the idea of beauty we've been raised on. This is what we supposedly should be aiming for.

"Anyone struggling with their own body image, who may be feeling invalid or like a failure for not being able to meet societal expectations, should remind themselves that there is no wrong way to have a body. The 'perfect' body is one that is healthy and allows you to do what you want to do in life. If you're affected by social media, I'd advise scrolling through your timeline and removing accounts that make you feel like you're not beautiful and perfect as you are. Try and remind yourself to be grateful for what your body can do for you and stop waging war on yourself – you haven’t done anything wrong."

If you or someone you know is experiencing mental health issues, call Mind on 0300 123 3393 or text 86463.

If you are struggling with an eating disorder, please call Beat on 0808 801 0677. Support and information is available 365 days a year.

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It’s the end of an era over at Victoria’s Secret. On Friday, the retailer told employees that its annual fashion show will no longer be televised. The last Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show that aired on network TV took place in December 2018, where Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner, Leomie Anderson, and more made appearances on the catwalk.

According to The New York Times, Leslie Wexner, CEO of Victoria’s Secret’s parent company, L Brands, sent out a memo to workers outlining the changes.

“Fashion is a business of change,” Wexner wrote. “We must evolve and change to grow. With that in mind, we have decided to re-think the traditional Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Going forward we don’t believe network television is the right fit.”

He explained that the retailer is shifting its focus to develop “a new kind of event,” but he did not offer up more information about what that event might look like.

end of an era: the Victoria’s Secret fashion show will stop airing on network television, associates were told in a Friday memo. first aired on network TV in 2001 on ABC. pic.twitter.com/4VKH8fZR0e

— Sapna Maheshwari (@sapna) May 10, 2019

The VS Fashion show has been a pop culture fixture since 2001, coinciding with the brand’s rise in popularity, especially among young women. Everyone from Rihanna to Lady Gaga to Taylor Swift has performed at the annual event, which drew in nearly 10 million viewers at its peak in 2013. Last year, that number plummeted to just above 3 million viewers, reports the Times.

The sparkly showcase of lingerie has come under intense scrutiny in recent years, largely due to scandals of the retailer’s own making and what appeared to be an outright policy against inclusivity. Last year, L Brands' chief marketing officer Ed Razek revealed to Vogue that Victoria’s Secret would not consider featuring more diversity in their model cast, like plus size and transgender models.

Razek said: "Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don’t think we should. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy. It’s a 42-minute entertainment special. That’s what it is."

A few days later, Razek walked back his comments on Twitter and in a statement said: “My remark regarding the inclusion of transgender models in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show came across as insensitive. I apologize. To be clear, we absolutely would cast a transgender model in our show. We’ve had transgender models come to castings...And like many others, they didn’t make it. It was never about gender. I admire and respect their journey to embrace who they really are.”

Refinery29 has reached out to Victoria’s Secret for comment and we’ll update this story if we receive a response.

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Felicity Huffman pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges on Monday afternoon for her role in the college admissions scandal. Prosecutors said the Desperate Housewives actress paid the scheme's ringleader William “Rick” Singer $15,000 (£11,500) to doctor her daughter Sofia Grace Macy's SAT score.

Huffman agreed to plead guilty last month to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. She is married to actor William H. Macy, who has not been charged in the case, but has appeared in court as support.

Prosecutors recommended four months in prison for Huffman. But legal experts told the L.A. Times there is a strong chance she will get electronic monitoring via ankle bracelet instead of actual prison time.

Based on 2019 federal sentencing guidelines, four to 10 months is the standard prison sentence for Huffman's charge. However, because she has no criminal history and her financial contribution to the scandal is considerably smaller than others, her recommended sentence is on the lower end.

"She was first out the gate to take responsibility and will be handsomely rewarded for it, especially if the other defendants drag their feet, which [we're] beginning to see," Louis Shapiro, an L.A. federal defence attorney, told the L.A. Times last month.

Huffman was one of 33 parents, including actress Lori Loughlin, charged in March as part of the scheme, in which wealthy families paid Singer to help their children cheat on tests or pose as recruited athletes in order to help them gain admission to top universities.

"I am in full acceptance of my guilt, and with deep regret and shame over what I have done, I accept full responsibility for my actions, and will accept the consequences that stem from those actions," Huffman wrote in an apology back in April. "I am ashamed of the pain I have caused my daughter, my family, my friends, my colleagues, and the educational community." She also apologised "to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices to support their children and do so honestly."

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