Culture · Expatria · Guest Posts · Marriage · Spain · Travel · Wear Your Voice Magazine · Women

Why I Almost Chose an Arranged Marriage

“For as long as I can remember, I wanted to get married. A huge part of this desire was most certainly Disney movies and romantic comedies, where a dorky bookworm like me takes off her glasses, becomes beautiful, and weds the hunk everyone else covets. Another part was that getting married felt like an escape from my own dysfunctional family, where I’d be whisked far away and have a chance to build a new life with someone who actually loved and respected me.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, August 2016.

Expatria · Florida · Health · Repatria · Third Culture Kids · Trauma · Wear Your Voice Magazine · Women

Everything I Know About Body Positivity I Learned From Saris and Tattoos

“My tattoos teach me how to own myself, to shape my figure into who I want to be, not the person anyone else expects. My new curves make me feel solid and present in my body like I’ve never felt before, fierce and strong. And now all I need is a sparkling plus-size sari to pour all this fabulousness into.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, August 2016.

Books · Culture · Expatria · Guest Posts · Repatria · Third Culture Kids · Travel · Wear Your Voice Magazine · Women

A Woman of Color Author’s ​12 Favorite Novels by Other Women of Color Writers

“As an avid consumer of books and especially fiction, over the years I’ve developed a special shelf of particularly beautiful and inspiring works by women of color that help me not only walk around in another woman’s experiences, but also situate my own culturally and ethnically fluid self within a canon of women writers. Being a half American and half Sri Lankan Third Culture Kid — and a woman of color author myself — who has lived in 13 countries and 18 cities around the world in her 30-something years, I’m drawn to stories that negotiate race and culture in distinct and sensitive ways, and each of these books brings something unique to the cultural table.” For Wear Your Voice Magazine, July 2016.

Culture · Expatria · Food · Huffington Post · Istanbul · Movies · Travel · Zuzu Huffington

Towards A Sociology Of Turkish Food: Zeynep Kilic’s Tables of Istanbul

“While food is one of the two fundamental pillars of human survival — water being the other — how often do we stop to think about food in a socio-cultural sense? For Zeynep Kilic, sociology professor, Fulbright Scholar, and Turkish transplant in Alaska, Turkish food has been the link between her new world in the US and her upbringing in Turkey…” My 34th article for HuffPost, and my first feature for HuffPost Taste.