Blue Tile Skate

When Sasha Ariel Alston pursued her love for coding, she noticed there were never many girls ― especially girls of color ― pursuing it, too. That’s why she decided to write a children’s book to encourage girls to learn about coding and STEM fields at an early age. 

Alston is a 19-year-old Pace University student getting a major in information systems and a minor in marketing. She spent two years writing Sasha Savvy Loves to Code, a kids’ book about a 10-year-old who becomes interested in coding, just like Alston.

“The purpose of the book is just to get girls interested in coding and to provide basic coding terms,” she said.

The teen told HuffPost that across her coding experiences she has noticed a “lack of diversity in terms of gender and race,” which motivated her to write the book. She also said her mom helped her come up with the idea after people continued to ask her to explain coding.

“A lot of people aren’t aware of what STEM is and what coding is,” she said. “I wanted to raise awareness of the acronym, specifically for girls.”

In the self-published book, which is illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, 10-year-old Sasha Savvy goes to coding camp with two friends after her mom, a software developer, gives her a peek at what it’s like to code. When Sasha learns she can create gaming apps by knowing how to code, she becomes ecstatic.

Alston raised money earlier this year on Kickstarter, meeting her goal of $5,000 in just four days. At the end of her campaign, Alston had raised more than $17,000. 

Alston told HuffPost she will receive the first physical copy of the book soon and then take care of orders for people who donated to her campaign. She hopes to have Sasha Savvy’s adventures available on Amazon by early June.

Once the book makes it way into the world, Alston wants her words and Sasha Savvy’s story to catch girls’ attention and encourage them to tackle their dreams.

“I just want them to know they can achieve whatever they want.”

H/T The Renewal Project

The HuffPost Parents newsletter, So You Want To Raise A Feminist, offers the latest stories and news in progressive parenting.   

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Kirsten Dunst has no problem letting you know that she just doesn’t care anymore.

The 35-year-old actress, who became a household name after she starred as Mary Jane in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy, sat down with Variety for a profile with frequent collaborator Sofia Coppola in lieu of their new film “Beguiled.” And boy, does Dunst let some of her opinions be known.

For instance, she could care less about those “Spider-Man” reboots. Per Variety:

She’s ambivalent about Sony’s decision to keep rebooting the franchise, now in its third iteration. “I don’t care,” she says of the reboots, admitting she didn’t see the last installment. “Everyone likes our ‘Spider-Man.’ C’mon, am I right or what? Listen, I’d rather be in the first ones than the new ones.”

Dunst, who also starred in movies like “Bring It On,” “Wimbledon” and “Elizabethtown,” also thinks playing a romantic lead is a big ole snooze-fest.

“It’s just so boring. I think that was a time when the romantic comedy was so big. I knew it wasn’t for me. I just didn’t have fun making them. I guess it’s not in my DNA.”

Dunst also lets out a few verbal gems in regards to criticisms she’s gotten about her body over the years — one of which recently came directly from Coppola herself.

According to the profile, the director asked Dunst to lose a few pounds for her role in “Beguiled,” and she pretty much said, “Uh, no thanks.”

“It’s so much harder when you’re 35 and hate working out,” Dunst told the magazine. She then used the film’s location in Louisiana as an excuse for why she couldn’t shed the pounds.

“I’m eating fried chicken and McDonald’s before work. So I’m like, ‘We have no options! I’m sorry I can’t lose weight for this role,’” she said.

But it may have been Coppola’s influence that turned Dunst into the self-assured and outspoken woman she is today. In the interview, Dunst also recalls a compliment Coppola gave to her when the two first began working together in 1999 for the film “Virgin Suicides.”

“She said to me, ‘I love your teeth; don’t ever fix your teeth.’ I remember doing a ‘Spider-Man’ movie later, and one of the producers was like, ‘I need to take you to the dentist!’ They even fixed my teeth on the poster. But I just knew I was never doing that. Sofia is the chicest, coolest girl, and she thinks my teeth are great.”

She added, “She gave me confidence in little things that I wouldn’t necessarily have had.”

For the full interview, head to Variety. 

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Almost immediately after Ivanka Trump released her new book Women Who Work: Revisiting the Rules For Success, the delightfully savage reviews arrived to greet it. The self-help tome has been described by critics as both “witless” and “insufferable,” “vapid and “very vapid,” “a strawberry milkshake of inspirational quotes” and “a grab-bag of generic work-life advice for upper-middle-class white women.”

Apparently, a guidebook of rules for success it is not.

So it’s no surprise that a vigilante bookstore patron took it upon her- or himself to “fix” a recent display of Women Who Work. Instead of several copies of Trump’s latest title, the new arrangement showcases a few other suggested reads underneath the banner “Revisiting the Rules for Success.” They include Children of The Self-Absorbed, Disarming the Narcissist and Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life. 

While some online sleuths have guessed the new book display is the work of a rogue librarian, judging by the 20-percent-off sticker peeking out from beneath the carefully chosen books, all we can say is that the display appears to be located at an undisclosed Barnes & Noble. 

B&N vigilante, whoever you are: Your work has not gone unnoticed. 

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U2 musician Bono has spent years reading and learning from the poetry of the Psalms, a book of the Bible that contains ancient hymns.

If there’s one thing Bono has realized from his studies, it’s that art always requires honesty.

During a conversation with Fuller Studio, the rock star spoke at length about the intersection of faith and art, particularly art that is produced by Christians.

“I would really like this conversation to unlock some artists,” the singer, a devout Christian, said. “Because I think there are trapped artists and I’d like them to be untrapped.”

In a previous dialogue with Fuller Studio released April 2016, Bono compared the Psalms with contemporary Christian worship music ― and found modern-day praise music to be sorely lacking. He argued that some contemporary worship music lacks the range of raw emotions that’s contained within the Psalms. 

In the new video series, released this April, Bono revisited the topic with Fuller Theological Seminary’s professor David O. Taylor. He offered further insights into how deeply the Psalms have influenced his life and his music. 

Before taping the new interview, Bono said he reread the Songs of Ascents ― a series of Psalms that were possibly sung by Jewish pilgrims as they made a trip to Jerusalem. Within those few chapters, Bono said he found songs about peace, protection, laughter, hubris, rage, tears, humility, and unity. 

“Okay, that’s just Songs of Ascent. They had utility. And why is it in Christian music, I can’t find them?”

He also critiqued the impulse to label music as “Christian,” or not Christian.

“Creation screams God’s name. So you don’t have to stick a sign on every tree,” Bono said, suggesting that just because a song isn’t explicitly called a “Christian” song, that doesn’t mean it isn’t spiritual in nature. 

“This has really, really got to stop,” he said.  “I want to hear a song about the breakdown in your marriage, I want to hear songs of justice, I want to hear rage at injustice and I want to hear a song so good that it makes people want to do something about the subject.”

The musician also shared his biggest dream for up-and-coming artists ― that they would create art for themselves and not necessarily just to please other people.  

“I want to argue the case for artists or potential artists who might be listening in on our conversation and are not giving expression to what’s really going on in their lives because they feel it will give the wrong impression of them. We don’t have to please God in any other way than to be brutally honest,” Bono said. “That is the root. Not just to a relationship with God, but it’s the root to a great song. That’s the only place you can find a great song. The only place you can find any work of art, of merit.” 

Listen to Bono’s second conversation with Fuller Studio above. For more, visit their website.

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Aidy Bryant debuted her impression of White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders this past weekend on “Saturday Night Live” and ―big shocker ― not everyone is happy about it.  

“For those of you who don’t know me yet, my father is Mike Huckabee and my mother is a big southern hamburger,” Bryant-as-Sanders told the press pool in a deep southern drawl during the skit.

While the the skit was fairly complimentary toward Sanders, dubbing her “articulate and charming” and an improvement over Sean Spicer, it seems her father, former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, was not amused. 

“I thought it was a little bit silly, sexist, [and] misogynist, but my daughter is certainly capable of handling a whole lot worse than that,” Huckabee said on the Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co” on Tuesday. 

Other commentators claimed the skit fat-shamed the deputy press secretary.

“You guys were mean about Huckabee Sanders,” CNN’s Chris Cuomo said on Monday. “You were fat-shaming her. You were talking about how she looks and what she wears. I thought that it was mean, not funny.”

He added, “They had her eating. I thought it was in poor taste.”

Cuomo is referring to the show’s decision to have Bryant eating an apple when she reappears at the podium after being kicked off the stage by Melissa McCarthy’s Sean Spicer.

The apple was no doubt a strange choice, but it’s hard to argue with the fact that casting Bryant as Huckabee Sanders is pretty spot-on. And if there’s any fat-shaming going on, it was coming from Cuomo, who probably owes Bryant an apology. 

As for joking about how Sanders looks and what she wears, that’s likely a reference to the Weekend Update segment on Saturday’s episode, in which host Colin Jost took a swing at her. 

“Spicer’s thirsty understudy Sarah Huckabee Sanders said James Comey had committed basic atrocities while he was head of the FBI, like reopening the Hillary Clinton investigation,” said Jost. “But that’s not a basic atrocity. A basic atrocities is when you post a brunch photo that says, ‘Pizza is life.’ Or when your profile pic is you on an inflatable swan. Basic Atrocities, by the way, is also where Sarah Huckabee Sanders gets her wardrobe.”

Yes, this is horribly sexist, regardless of the fact that Sean Spicer’s terrible sense of style is routinely dissected in the news. Horribly sexist. 

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These images are not your average engagement pics. 

On Monday, Junebug Weddings revealed the winners of their annual “Best of the Best” engagement photo contest, and boy, are they stunning. 

“The 2017 collection is compelling, breathtaking, and undeniably sexy,” Junebug editor-in-chief Carrie Crooks said in a press release. “People are going to love these photos and the stories that they tell.” 

Below, we’ve featured 25 of our favorite images. To see the collection in full, head over to Junebug Weddings. 

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The first trailer for the Lifetime Michael Jackson biopic no one really wanted is here.

“Searching for Neverland,” based on a 2014 book by the late King of Pop’s former bodyguards Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard, focuses on the final years of Jackson’s life.

In the trailer, we catch glimpses of the star ― played by the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest” MJ impersonator Navi ― balancing his home life, on the infamous Neverland Ranch, with his fame and celebrity. To be honest, Navi makes a pretty convincing Jackson in some moments. 

In the 45-second clip, things get a little intense when investigators question Whitfield and Beard about Dr. Conrad Murray, the doctor who gave Jackson a lethal dose of propofol just hours before his death. 

Given Lifetime’s history with unauthorized biopics (see: “Britney Ever After,” “Aaliyah: Princess of R&B”), we don’t have high hopes for this one. But you can be the judge when it airs on May 29 on Lifetime.

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A gay couple have paid tribute to pop icon George Michael in a new video aimed at raising awareness of LGBTQ issues in Poland.

Released May 14, the video is a colorful mashup of three of Michael’s classic hits, “Faith,” “Too Funky” and “Freedom ‘90.” A bevy of well-known Polish personalities, including singer-dancer Wiktor Korszla, drag queens Charlotte Drag Queer and Aldona Relax, and vloggers Piotr Sokołowski and Paweł Dworak, star in the clip, which can be viewed above. Marek Idziak-Sepkowski and Jedrzej Idziak-Sepkowski, who tied the knot in a symbolic 2014 ceremony even though same-sex marriage is not recognized in Poland, also make appearances in the video, which concludes with a hashtag call for equality, #PolandWakeUp. 

The project was spearheaded by Polish LGBTQ rights activists Jakub Kwiecinski and his boyfriend, David. The pair shot to viral fame in August 2016 when they repurposed Roxette’s “Some Other Summer” as a coming out anthem in a colorful video that has received over 490,000 views to date. Since then, they’ve produced a number of other popular YouTube clips, including LGBTQ-inclusive renditions of RedOne’s “Don’t You Need Somebody” and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” 

Their homage to Michael, who died in December, is particularly fitting, given his cultural significance to the queer community. “He was the greatest gay artist of our time, a real icon,” Kwiecinski told HuffPost. He noted how he and David continue to find strength in Michael’s music. “We grew up with it, we fell in love with it… and now we can fight with it.” 

Kwiecinski said he and David will head to Portugal to marry in June, even though their union won’t be official in their home country. The country’s parliament has no openly gay or transgender members, and national efforts to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination and violence have been unsuccessful. 

Still, the couple have vowed to keep fighting. “We just did to say it loud and clear – we are not gonna let go and we are not afraid,” Kwiecinski said. “When we sang ‘Freedom ‘90’ at the end, we really felt a power that we can change the world. Not today, not tomorrow ― but one day, it will happen.”

No doubt George would be thrilled by the efforts his legacy has inspired. 

For the latest in LGBTQ entertainment, check out the Queer Voices newsletter.  

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Following what’s been described as a “rash of suicides in southern Colorado,” a school district in the state ordered librarians to temporarily remove the book Thirteen Reasons Why from its shelves.

The YA novel, written by Jay Asher, is the source material for a wildly popular and highly contentious Netflix adaptation of the same name, about a high school girl who decides to commit suicide after compiling a series of tapes that chronicle her reasons for doing so.

The show, considered a smash success for the streaming service, has been both praised by critics for its unsettling take on teenage-centric TV and denounced by psychologists for its irresponsible depiction of mental illness. 

Teachers and parents have expressed similar concerns, claiming that the TV show glorifies and romanticizes suicide ― taking issue with the graphic depiction of the lead character’s actual suicide, which some have claimed opens the door for copycats.

In response, the curriculum director at Mesa County Valley School District in Colorado, Leigh Grasso, told her schools’ librarians to temporarily pull copies of Asher’s book from circulation. “I think we were just being cautious until we had the opportunity to look at the book and see how closely related to the movie it was,” she told The Associated Press.

According to the AP, the order “rankled some librarians who called [the decision] censorship.” Following protests, the books ― 19 of which were already checked out by students at the time ― were officially returned to circulation. 

“Censorship is a slippery slope,” one librarian wrote to the school, according to emails obtained by The Daily Sentinel through a Colorado Open Records Act request.

James LaRue, director of the American Library Associations’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, confirmed that the book Thirteen Reasons Why has been challenged by at least one other school besides Mesa County, though he declined to give details on their ongoing investigation. (The AP cited yet another school district in Minnesota, which temporarily pulled the book after a parent complained about its sexual content.)

“There are a lot of people that are terribly afraid when something like this comes out,” LaRue told HuffPost over the phone. “That when teen suicide happens in an area, sometimes they’re contagious. Every time someone writes about, it seems like there tends to be more of them. So I totally understand the fear that some parents have about this.”

People have been writing about suicide because it happens. It doesn’t happen because people write about it.
ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom director James LaRue

However, he does not condone the decision to remove the books without due process, noting that “people have been writing about suicide because it happens. It doesn’t happen because people write about it.”

Attempts to remove the book from the school, he says, particularly in ways that bypass processes that libraries have long had in place for reconsideration, could be hurting the situation rather than helping.

“When someone comes in and complains about a book, what should happen is not that the book is immediately withdrawn, but that a committee is put together, [made up of] some parents, some teachers, some librarians, and they look at this and say, ‘Does this fit the curriculum? Does it make sense? Is this a way for us to talk about an important issue?’” he explained, adding, “I would urge schools to follow their policies and procedures, rather than have this reflexive attempt to halt discussion of other important issues.”

LaRue pointed out that the book does stand apart from the Netflix adaptation, describing the show as more “in-your-face graphic” than Asher’s novel. (Other differences between the two have been outlined here.) Still, he believes that both the TV version and the book have merit.

“I just want to leave people with this thought,” he concluded. “The popularity of the series might really save lives and so might more reading and talking about the issue. But silence won’t help us at all, and censorship is never the answer.” 

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Seventeen years ago, the Oscar-nominated documentary “Buena Vista Social Club” chronicled the titular Cuban members’ club, which spawned a crew of musicians who recorded an album of the same name. Opening May 26, a new movie will revisit the band members on their farewell tour, and the ups and downs they experienced in the intervening years.

HuffPost has an exclusive clip from “Buena Vista Social Club: Adios” in which one of the group’s spirited veterans gives a tour of the old venue. He stresses the institution’s importance: “This is the place where It used to be, the society for black people.” Thanks to Lucy Walker’s documentary, this piece of Havana history will get the send-off it deserves. 

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