But what does the red button actually do?

Okay, I have an experiment for you. I didn't invent it but it's something that I've seen before and found really interesting. Grab a piece of paper and pen (or just memorise the words).

1. What is the first thing you think of when you hear 'mental health'?

2. What is the first thing you think of when you hear 'physical health'?

Now look at what you've written. Or ponder over the words you've memorised and make the people around you think you're being really clever.

It is a recurring theme that the first thing people think of when they hear 'mental health' is usually examples of poor mental health (eg. depression, suicide, crazy) whereas generally the first thing people think of when they hear 'physical health' is ways in which you can maintain it (eg. exercise, fruit, not smoking).

I think this experiment perfectly illustrates the difference in how mental and physical health are perceived. Mental health is thought of instantly as a negative term. Physical health is seen as something we have to look after. I've never seen a post on Pinterest about '5 Minute Exercises You Can Do In The Office To Improve Your Mental Health'. There are never columns in magazines dedicated to all the ways you can get your kids interested in mental well-being.

Yes, I've seen a lot of 'positive thinking' articles and we've all seen those annoying accounts on Instagram dedicated to '100 days of happiness'.*

*Annoying only because they generally give up 15-20 days in, leaving their Instagram account abandoned and definitely not happy.

But those articles never relate positive thinking to mental health. Mental health is what crazy people have. Normal people don't need that.

Well, I'm sure it doesn't come as a surprise that we all have a brain. We all have mentality. We all have mental health. Some of us will be lucky enough to never have to worry about the state of their mental health. But most of us will.

The physical health equivalent is a bit like that friend that everyone has who eats everything (and I mean everything) and does no exercise (and I mean NO exercise) but still manages to have an amazingly slim figure, great skin and will probably live to 200. However, most of us will have to think about what we eat and do regular exercise to maintain a healthy weight and lifespan. This is exactly the same as with mental health.

If we don't exercise our brains, and give it the fuel it needs, it will eventually give up.*

*This is excluding genetic mental health disorders.

So here are my tips for exercising and feeding your brain:

Exercise

1. Learn! Never let yourself get to a point where you're not learning something everyday. This doesn't have to be advanced trigonometry, or German grammar rules, just something! It could be learning something about someone you know, learning to cook something you've never known how to make or even learning what every single button on your TV remote actually does.

2. Those 'brain training' apps you can get for your phone. Yes, most of them are either ridiculously easy or impossibly hard but it keeps your brain busy.

3. Create something. This could be a drawing, a song, a dance, a website, a book or even a blog (because I make it sound so fun). It doesn't have to be typically creative things either. It could be a maths puzzle, an acronym to remember chemical elements or an amazing personal statement (I tried to make that sound as fun as possible).

Food

1. Read. Just reading one article in a magazine will feed new words into your subconscious and give you something to think about.

2. Change. Go to a place you've never been before, listen to an artist you'd never usually listen to, or even change the colour of your duvet cover. Little changes force your brain to adjust and take in more information, but also prepare your brain for having to adapt if something big happens. Honestly, the only reason I managed to settle into Bristol after moving was because I used to change my duvet cover and pillowcases once a week.*

*Sarcasm but the rest of it was sincere.

3. Socialising. This sounds cliche but forming new relationships is an essential part of maintaining your mental health. Countless studies have shown that social interaction can prevent chronic mental (and physical) health disorders.

Learn, change, create.

I'm starting to sound like one of those weird life coach people you always see on American TV programmes, sorry. I'm done now.

Be the change you want to see! Okay, I'm actually done now.

So you work well in a team? Get in line.

I actually have something really exciting to announce! I have started blogging for the BMA communities website, about applying to medical school!*

*British Medical Association

Here is the link to where my posts will be published and below is the thing I just posted.

phobia

ˈfəʊbɪə/

noun

noun: phobia; plural noun: phobias

an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something.

I am scared of a lot of things. Injections (yes this is extremely unhelpful when wanting to be a doctor, we'll come to that later), applying to medical school (once again unhelpful but seemingly understandable), spiders (this is definitely not a phobia as it is completely rational), sundried tomatoes (a crime against any tomato anywhere) and technology. No, wait, correction. Technology is scared of me. 

This may seem like an odd thing to talk about on a 'road to medical school' blog forum but I'm going to turn it into a metaphor.*

*Yes, a metaphor! Brace. Yourself. Also, a side note to anyone who hasn't read anything on my main blog and happens to love drawn out and confusing metaphors, check it out. 

I ran into a few technological (that definitely doesn't sound like a word) problems when setting up my account for this. Firstly, my email wasn't being recognised and secondly, I couldn't upload an avatar.*

*Does anyone else find it really hard to separate that word from the memories of watching Avatar for like 4 hours and being completely and utterly confused? No? Just me then.

So, my solution to these problems was to send loads of emails. Ever since I turned 16, I've been really into emailing. I know I should be more enthusiastic about Instagram or Twitter but as a 2

1st century child, email is way more indie and retro. Anyway, it was as I was writing these panicky emails that I realised there was some blogging gold in this dilemma. 

The reason I included the (proper Oxford Dictionaries) definition to phobia was because I genuinely believe computers, phones and any sort of internet thing have some sort of irrational vendetta against me. Every single phone I've ever had (except my Nokia but not even I can break a Nokia) has eventually given up and died. This includes turning permanently mute, not letting me find WiFi, and even, in the worst circumstance, my phone deciding that the bottom of half of the screen was unnecessary anyway. 

Can I just clarify that I have had phone cases on all my phones. Like proper, thick, rubber cases that actually give the phone an ability to bounce to heights of 20cm, maybe more. I take all the precautions. Phone cases, firewalls, screen protectors, not installing dodgy virus-ridden apps et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Whatever I do, these phones are determined to break.

Now, we're finally getting to the metaphor. I like to imagine my battles with technology like the battle to get into medical school.

I call it a battle because it is. You wear the armour (grades, voluntary work, work experience), you wield your weapons (grade 8 flute, violin and piano, magical healing abilities) and you have opponents (every single other person who is applying to medical school). It is a battle.*

*Sorry for the unexpected metaphor.

No matter how much protection you wrap around yourself, let it be amazing A2 grades, 52 weeks of work experience or 17 years of voluntary work; or how many anti-failing software programmes you install, let them be compassion, empathy or The Ability To Work In A Team, there will always be obstacles trying to stop you getting there. They could be people telling you 'you're not the sort of person I can imagine being a doctor' or perhaps UCAS forms that make you realise that there is not one single thing you have done that makes you stand out from anyone else. I'm sorry, but your avatar won't load.

I don't know much about applying to medical school. I have no idea whether I'll get in. But whether I do or not, I am determined to learn something from this experience, even if it is just loads of amazing new metaphors.

Overthinking Tumblr

Recently I've kind of felt like a 'bad feminist'.

I put that in apostrophe-things because I know (like in my heart #cringe) that the only way to succeed at being a 'bad feminist' is if you don't actually believe in gender equality. I also know that there is no panel of judges, or governing body, to approve of your worthiness to label yourself as a feminist. Even so, I can't help constantly saying to myself 'I shouldn't think that' or 'A real feminist wouldn't think that'. I'll elaborate because I feel like you've now got this picture of me liking 'Menimist' posts on Facebook and tweeting about how I believe women were created to pleasure a man.

This is going to sound really trivial but the first time I thought this was on tumblr. I follow loads of great blogs (if I'm honest they're all very very similar but hey they repost nice pictures) and a lot of them repost feminist-y things. I love all these posts and agree with them 100% but a lot of the time I don't repost them to avoid my blog becoming too feminist.

Don't shoot me! Don't shoot me! Don't shoot me!

I know that is awful and I'm kind of considering deleting this.*

*I'm just being so brave.

I justified this to myself by saying (to myself, in my head) that I wanted just one form of social media where 'FIERCE BUT NOT AGGRESSIVE FEMINIST' wasn't the first label that people placed on me.

This is relevant to Facebook, Twitter and essentially every single social media.*

*Yes, I'm pretty sure I'm a member of most of them which is of great embarrassment to myself and my family.

This even happens in real life. OMG yes, I said it. Real Life. For example, someone I'm talking to might mention an article they read about how feminists are actually a Top Secret Global Organisation Working Closely With The Government To Brainwash The Brains Of The Nation's Children (or TSGOWCWTGTBTBOTNC for short). And instead of taking that opportunity to remind them that 'feminist' just refers to a person with a belief (that happens to be equality between sexes, lol) and actually feminists are just normal people who, no, don't believe all men should be locked in a dungeon as their primary function is to provide semen to make more humans, hopefully women, I will just make a sarcastic remark and move on as if it didn't happen.

This is all to minimise the number of people who decide it doesn't matter what my name is, what subjects I study, or even whether I'm actually a nice person or not, and instead just refer to me as 'that annoying feminist girl'.

However, I'm pretty sure if I had to have any label, category or neon pink flashing sign above my head it would say feminist. And I am proud of that. I want one of the first things people to know about me to be that I'm a feminist who is not only willing to take that label and own it, but also willing to educate and be educated about the millions of injustices and inequalities around our world.

So, from now on I am making a promise to myself to repost every feminist post I see on my tumblr dashboard, to 'like' every feminist status I see on Facebook, and to take every chance I can to call out inequality and promote equality.*

*Do you now understand my blog title? I got all that from not posting something on tumblr.

I like ----- for the flavour.

Guys, I found a thing!

Yeah, I know, OMG, a real thing.

Basically, you know how I'm always going on about how just because different people experience inequality differently around the world, it doesn't make that inequality any better?*

*No.

Yeah, I know I don't always phrase it like that but that's essentially what I was getting at. Anyway, I found a thing that describes that thing!

It's called....dun dun DUNNNNN.....

Intersectional feminism!!!!

Okay, yeah I know it doesn't sound quite as exciting as I made it out to be, but it is, trust me.*

*Or don't, considering the only stuff most of you know about me is from this blog, which I edit and edit and edit and edit.

This term isn't in the dictionary (yet) so I had to trawl for ages online (3 minutes tops) to find this definition.

intersectionality: the view that women experience oppression in varying configurations and in varying degrees of intensity. cultural patterns of oppression are not only interrelated, but are bound together and influenced by the intersectional systems of society. examples of this include race, gender, class, ability, and ethnicity.

*Click the link 'cause it's a really good article and explains this WAY better than I can.*

 I guess the first thing we need to clarify is privilege.*

*Scary sounding parent-word.

If you are male, you have privilege.

If you are white, you have privilege.

If you are cis-gender, you have privilege.

If you are heterosexual, you have privilege.

There are a million more but I think you get it, right?

This doesn't mean that it's better, or that all the people who don't fit into those categories spend their entire lives wishing they were different (hey, I like being female!) but just that you happen to not be in that particular social group of people who have been historically oppressed.

Okay, so I have strayed pretty far from the original topic of this post which was -intersect intersexual intra interact section feminine feminism- intersectional feminism!

I am a woman, which is a historically oppressed group of people. However, I am also white, cis-gender and heterosexual.*

*Not that any of that stuff should matter but I needed to relay it all, to make this clearer.

Because of this, I will never be the victim of racism, transphobia or homophobia. And also because of this, I will never truly understand what it is like to be a victim of racism, transphobia or homophobia.

However, what I can understand is that different people have different issues, and different scary sounding '-isms' they have to deal with. What I can understand is that while I will never be a victim of racism (unless I pull a reverse Michael Jackson), a victim of homophobia or a victim of transphobia, I am allowed, and invited, to fight against those injustices.

Yes, some of the injustices I experience personally may be different to the injustices a Woman Of Colour experiences, but we will both be fighting for feminism.

The best analogy I can think of is that there are loads of flavours, and colours, of feminism (like fizzy drinks) that we all need to embrace. For example, cream soda.*

*THE DRINK OF GODDESSES.

I like cream soda for the flavour. Someone else might like it for the flavour and the fizziness. Someone else might like it not for the flavour or the fizziness, but just for the can. If the main manufacturer of cream soda decided to just stop making it for some reason (this is starting to sound like an Economics lesson), those two other people and I would all be angry. Let's say we decide to start a campaign to get this drink back on sale (with pink glittery placards and all). We would all be fighting the same cause, but from slightly different perspectives, and maybe some with slightly more to fight for.*

*I mean, a girl can get pretty attached to the aesthetic of a can.

I feel like I just demonstrated how not to explain intersectional feminism. 

If you guys are now just really confused, you have two options.

a) Read the article I linked above!!!
b) Read this all over again, slowly.
c) Close my blog, listen to a yoga class playlist on Spotify and drink some cream soda.

Really uninspirational inspirational speech.

If you don't live in the UK, you probably will have no idea what I'm talking about but if you do live in the UK, you will know that this day will forever be known as the day all hope died.

So, I wrote that intro a couple of hours ago. And now I'm kinda going to contradict it. I'm not going to congratulate the new government, I'm not going to pretend it's all fine but I'm also not going to let it ruin the next five years.*

*I'm also not going to try and write this impartially, funnily enough.

For the entirety of the Labour-Tory fight, the Conservative Party have stood for making the rich richer and the poor poorer. They want to concentrate wealth, and ensure anyone who needs help for whatever reason, doesn't get it. They seem perfectly content with keeping bedroom tax, a tax that unfairly negatively affects people with disabilities, and not considering mansion tax, a tax that would only affect people with houses worth £2m+ (poor them) and would mean more money for the NHS.

Even writing that made me want to just go to bed and sleep for the next five years.

But, on the plus side, because this election result has angered so many young people, hopefully this result will make people realise that to change politics, you actually have to be involved in it.

Voter turnout for 18-24 year olds increased this year, and I can almost guarantee it will increase further at the next General Election. If my Twitter and Facebook are anything to go by (not that it is really, considering I'm a 16 year old female living in Bristol aka. prime Labour/Green supporting suspect), the next bunch of 18-24 year olds voting in the election in 2020 will hopefully swing the vote the other way.*

*Ie. away from the Tories.

If we let this election result define our lives, we are essentially bowing down to the Tories. Instead, why don't we show them just how hard the 'non-voters' can fight when they believe in something.

They didn't care about us this election because we couldn't vote, but next time we can and we will.

Feminism Is Like Sex.

I tried writing this while listening to the BBC Woman's Hour election debate episode but couldn't quite concentrate while UKIP's Diane James talked about her party's 'fair' policies.

Today's one is going to be both political and feminist because I believe those things are completely intertwined and should be seen as being completely intertwined.

My mum asked me whether I'd listened to the Women's Hour episode (see above) and I said I hadn't but would. However, in true Lily fashion, I also went on a bit of a tangent about the separation of women and men's politics. Because I felt like I didn't quite articulate myself well enough (hard to believe, considering how beautifully written this blog is) I'm going to try again, with the aid of Women's Hour, Google, and the backspace button on my computer.

We hear loads of stuff about how women are unrepresented in the House of Commons (currently only 22%, compared to 51% in the UK), and how the current government have a complete disregard to maintaining gender equality (eg. classing sanitary products as 'luxurious' and 'non-essential') and how even Labour got trying to encourage women to vote so wrong (pink vans ring a bell?). What we don't hear much about is how these problems can be resolved. The resolution I'm going to discuss today is positive discrimination.

positive discrimination /noun/: the act of giving advantage to those groups in society that are often treated unfairly because of their race, sex, etc.

 The way in which this can be done is by setting a quota for the number of MPS in the House of Commons (or Lords) that are female and male. This means you can guarantee a fair number of women MPs (51%, I guess, would be the ideal amount).

This would almost guarantee 'women's issues' would be debated (eg. sanitary product tax) and the women of the country's views would be much more fairly represented. 

The first problem with this is with the method of allocating MPs. Positive discrimination means that women wouldn't be chosen for their skills, or qualifications, but for their gender. Isn't this the very issue we should be trying to fight? I can't help but think of the gender pay gap. The gender pay gap, 19.7% in 2013, is based on the fact that women are paid less on account of their gender. Shouldn't we be concentrating on trying to remove this bias, not instilling the reciprocal of it into our political system? 

However, positive discrimination would provide a ground for which representation of women can be fair, which is essential if we ever want gender equality to be achieved. It's stupid that the need for positive discrimination is so high, but it is.

I, personally, have a bit of an issue with the separation of gender-orientated policies. Yes, it may be hard to see how the tax on sanitary products negatively affects men (no judgments here) but things like free childcare hours and maternity/paternity leave are not gender exclusive. This relates to the issue of men's rights activist groups. The things these groups fight against (eg. unequal maternity and paternity leave) are a result of gender inequality. The reason women have longer leave is because, traditionally, women were (and still are) expected to stay at home and be the sole childcarer, while the man goes out and works. Not only is this hetero-normative, but it also reinforces gender roles and stereotypes. 

Gender equality benefits both sexes, and all genders.

In conclusion, positive discrimination is not really a good thing in itself (why have we got to this point of needing it?) but would ensure women, and their views, are fairly represented. The fight for gender equality (aka. feminism) is for both sexes, and needs both sexes to succeed. A bit like sexual reproduction.

Babe Is Busy

The music has changed!

I'm sure only a tiny fraction of you actually let the music play (instead of instantly hitting pause*) but I really feel like one of the best ways to get to know a person is by what music they like/listen to. The songs I choose to put on this blog are songs that make me happy and if you don't like them, that's fine. I'm glad you don't all like the music because if we were all the same, and liked the same things, conversations would be boring and there would be way fewer emojis. 

*The pause button is the little daisy flower thing, just in case you hate the music so much that when you can't find the pause button, you have to mute the entire computer (it happens, I have done it).

I'm so sorry I haven't posted in so long. I will abide by the promise I made last May (when I started this blog) that this will not just become one of millions of slowly decaying blogs, but be a positive influence on the Youth Of Today's minds. Okay, maybe that wasn't the promise, or the outcome, but it is the dream.

This post is going to be a light-hearted one because:

a) I can't be bothered to thesaurus-up long, confusing words and google the definitions of these long, confusing words.
b) I've already ruined the mood by saying 'daisy flower thing' and mentioning emojis.
c) I've just had a long cry about my exams and it's kinda making writing a heartfelt essay on how you have to be able to exert power to discriminate against someone, or how we all have to accept the inevitability of death, and dying, in order to not alienate people in our society who are termincally ill sound as appealing as letting my two year old brother lick my face.

I thought I'd go through the songs on my new playlist and explain why they make me happy. Yes, I've already done this with Scissor Sisters but I love writing lists and I love being happy.

1. In The Long Run - The Staves
I was introduced to The Staves by a friend of a friend (who is now, hopefully, my friend too). I can't quite remember when, or where, but I know that it has definitely improved my life. I love harmonies and I love three part harmonies even more. The Staves write such beautiful songs and this is my favourite because of the Beyonce-esque run* on the word 'long'.

*The thing where singers make one syllable last for a couple of minutes by travelling to many different realms of musical perfection.

2. Magic - Eliza Doolittle (originally by Coldplay)
I didn't really choose this song because of the song, but because of the artist. I have loved Eliza Doolittle since about Year 8 (12 years old) when I first heard her song Pack Up. It was a song about not caring about what people say and leaving behind your 'worries'. It was the song that made me genuinely stop caring what people thought about me, and instead just focus on what I wanted. It was also the song that gave me the incentive to buy knee-length purple converse. So, mixed results.

3. I Try - Macy Gray
I only really heard this song properly about 8 months ago when me and my mum were in the car on the motorway. It was after we'd just been to look around Bristol and I remember me and my mum trying to guess the words to it and failing miserably. It's also super catchy and just a real classic.

4. At The River - Groove Armada
I can't remember when I first heard this song but everytime I do now, I get this really nostalgic feeling I can't quite pinpoint. To me, it sounds like a blend of The Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty. Completely random but so right.

5. Care - Hudson Taylor
I had never heard this band play before but I agreed to go to their gig with my friend in Nottingham. It was so good and I loved every single one of their songs, this one in particular. It reminds me of those friends in Year 7 who would be like "Omg 'Generic Female Name' said this about you yeah she really hates you - I'm only telling you because I'm your friend". I don't think that's quite what the song was intended to be about.

6. Lovers' Carvings - Bibio
I had this friend in Nottingham who was essentially a music prodigy (or at least the most music prodigy-y friend I had) and we used to send each other music we were listening to. My stuff was all cheesy and high-pitched and his stuff was either beautiful or electronic and made me feel way too uncool to be his friend. Anyway, this song was one of the many he sent me and now it brings back happy memories of listening to all these weird electronic songs and hating them all unless they had some sort of lyric. Like I said, way too uncool.

7. Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae
This song is completely self-explanatory and anyone who says they have never felt at least a little twinge of joy when listening to this song is lying. Top. Tune.

Sorry I've been too busy to write on this thing. I will try and write a couple more during exam-time but I warn you, they may reflect my emotions a little too much and put you into an almost trance-like state of stress.

Just joking, I'm totally unstressed. *nervous breakdown laugh*