There were moments during 2016 where it was easy to wonder whether women were valued at all in this country. When a serial sexual predator can become the president of the United States, do women’s voices and stories even matter? But even in those darkest moments, we could count on those voices and stories to pull us all through. 

Moving into the next year, lifting up quality journalism ― specifically quality journalism written by women and members of other marginalized groups ― will be all the more vital. 

To that end, for the fifth year in a row, we’ve curated a list of pieces that made an impact on us as readers over the last calendar year. To make the list, an article had to be (1) published in 2016, (2) written by a woman and (3) be available online.

Below are 29 pieces of writing (though by no means is this an exhaustive list) to put on your reading list ASAP. They will make you think, laugh, cry ― alternately break your heart and put it back together again. Remember: Words still matter, perhaps now more than ever. 

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Hillary Clinton’s Nomination Is A Victory For The Smart Girls

Jill Filipovic, Cosmopolitan

No, Hillary Clinton did not become our first woman president. No, she did not shatter that “highest, hardest glass ceiling.” But she sure as hell got closer than any woman before her did.  And this alone, as Jill Filipovic argued in July, is a victory ― not just for women as a whole, but especially for a particular breed of ambitious, smart girls who have long been told those qualities which are virtues in men make them “unlikable.” “There was Hillary on stage,” writes Filipovic, describing Clinton’s speech at the DNC. “A go-getter, a hard worker, not immediately likable, uncool, but still, just maybe, the future president. A girl-nerd turned lady boss. One of us.” 

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Why Am I So Fat?

Sara Benincasa, Medium

When an anonymous man wrote to author and comedian Sara Benincasa to ask why she had gained weight, she decided to answer him honestly. Her response will have you cheering the entire way through. Sometimes women gain weight ― and don’t care! ― while they’re busy kicking ass. As Benincasa writes: “Anyway, during The Fattening, nobody who hired me or who wanted to hire me ever said that I was too fat. Do you think they were just being polite? I should ask. I will go through my union or one of my agents. I have several. I also have a manager. I should ask her. I could ask my lawyer, my CPA, my personal wealth manager, or the very handsome man who cleans my home in Los Angeles. He’s really nice even though he probably looks in my fridge and goes, ‘Oh my God, this kale is fattening!’”

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On Making Black Lives Matter

Roxane Gay, Marie Claire

Following the deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and five police officers this summer, our country was broken and grieving as the black community and allies tried to make sense of injustices that feel unfixable. In an essay for Marie Claire, Roxane Gay writes about how ally-ship alone will not solve any problems. “Black people do not need allies. We need people to stand up and take on the problems borne of oppression as their own, without remove or distance. We need people to do this even if they cannot fully understand what it’s like to be oppressed for their race or ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability, class, religion, or other marker of identity. We need people to use common sense to figure out how to participate in social justice.”

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Marcia Clark Is Redeemed

Rebecca Traister, New York Magazine

After nearly 20 years of being treated like a punchline, Marcia Clark’s story got a feminist re-examination thanks to Ryan Murphy’s “The People vs. O.J.” The miniseries shed light on the misogyny that dominated much of the coverage of Clark when she was prosecuting O.J. Simpson. She was called hysterical; the press and judge criticized her hairstyles and outfits; a tabloid published topless photos sold by an ex. Two decades later, these incidents read as so obviously disgusting that they require a reckoning. Clark deserves to (finally) have a voice, to tell her story on her own terms. So why reexamine Clark’s treatment now? As Traister surmises: “It’s not as if the swift judgments of social media have banished sexist bullshit from the land. In fact, I suspect that it’s an unconscious awareness of our contemporary hang-ups that prompts us to chew on the past.” Indeed.

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To The First Lady, With Love

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Gloria Steinem, Rashida Jones, Jon Meacham, T Magazine

In a gorgeous cover story for T Magazine, four authors (including one man, who we’re breaking our own rules for here a little bit) wrote thank you notes to Michelle Obama, “a woman,” they write, “who has spent the past eight years quietly and confidently changing the course of American history.” Each author has a personalized take as they outline FLOTUS’ impact on them and on society. As Gloria Steinem writes, “We will never have a democracy until we have democratic families and a society without the invented categories of both race and gender. Michelle Obama may have changed history in the most powerful way — by example.”

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What I Know

Jessica Knoll, Lenny

The main character in Jessica Knoll’s hit novel Luckiest Girl Alive holds a secret: as a teenager, she was the victim of a gang rape. In a gut-wrenching essay for Lenny in March, Knoll revealed that the inspiration for her character’s storyline had in fact come directly from her own life. “I’m not fine. It’s not fine,” she writes. “But it’s finally the truth, it’s what I know, and that’s a start.”

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The Night That Obama And Hillary Created ISIS

Liz Meriwether, New York Magazine

After Donald Trump proclaimed that Obama literally founded ISIS with the help of Hillary Clinton, Liz Meriwether imagines what that first conversation between the two of them must have been like in an (obviously) fictional piece for New York Magazine. Months after Obama thought of the idea for ISIS at Coachella, Meriwether writes, he decided to tell Clinton of his plans over popsicles. “Hillary was breathing hard. She walked the length of the kitchen, then walked the width of the kitchen, and then surprised herself by doing the first tumbling pass in Aly Raisman’s floor routine. Obama knew it was dangerous to tell someone his secrets, but it was such a relief.”

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There’s No One Abortion Story

Catherine Pearson, The Huffington Post

On the political stage, abortion is often disconnected from the women who get them. Some politicians don’t consider the many, many reasons women might seek abortions when they’re pushing legislation that would block access. To situate these laws within the complex, and often heartbreaking human stories of the women they impact, Catherine Pearson interviewed four women who got abortions for very different reasons under very different circumstances.

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And Do You Belong? I Do.

Solange Knowles, Saint Heron

Solange Knowles beautifully breaks down the insidious message at the core of subtle racism: “I do not feel you belong here.” Framing this larger point within a single incident at a Kraftwerk concert, Knowles explains that as a black woman with a black family living in a white supremacist society, simply asserting the right to take up space and express joy can be a radical act. “We belong. We belong. We belong,” she writes. “We built this.”

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Here Is The Powerful Letter The Stanford Victim Read Aloud To Her Attacker

Emily Doe, to BuzzFeed’s Katie J.M. Baker

In June, BuzzFeed published a letter that a victim of sexual assault, referred to as Emily Doe, read to her attacker, Brock Turner ― now a household name ― in court. Her statement spread rapidly across the internet, igniting a national conversation about campus assault, rape culture and victim-blaming. The letter gives a voice to so many silenced victims, culminating in a powerful proclamation: “Finally, to girls everywhere, I am with you. On nights when you feel alone, I am with you. When people doubt you or dismiss you, I am with you.”

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In Secretive Marijuana Industry, Whispers Of Abuse And Trafficking

Shoshana Walter, Reveal

Shoshana Walter does a deep dive into the sexual abuse that occurs in the marijuana industry, which has largely remained under the radar. “The forests also hide secrets, among them young women with stories of sexual abuse and exploitation,” writes Walter. This one’s a long read, but well worth the time.

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Play The Woman Card And Reap The Rewards

Alexandra Petri, The Washington Post

“Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she’s got going is the woman’s card,” Donald Trump said during the primaries. In a brilliant funny-because-it’s-true piece for the Washington Post, Alexandra Petri lays out all of the benefits that come with a so-called “woman’s card.” For example: “Present the Woman Card to a man you have just met at a party and it is good for one detailed, patronizing explanation of the subject you literally got your PhD in.” Sigh.

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I Cannot Take Nate Parker Rape Allegations Lightly

Gabrielle Union, LA Times

Actress Gabrielle union begins her brave LA Times op-ed by describing her violent rape two decades earlier. She writes about how her own experience led her to accept a role in Nate Parker’s “Birth of a Nation” and how the news of the rape allegations against him shook her to her core. She writes: “Since Nate Parker’s story was revealed to me, I have found myself in a state of stomach-churning confusion. I took this role because I related to the experience. I also wanted to give a voice to my character, who remains silent throughout the film. In her silence, she represents countless black women who have been and continue to be violated. Women without a voice, without power. Women in general. But black women in particular. I knew I could walk out of our movie and speak to the audience about what it feels like to be a survivor.”

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Why Snapchat Is Hell For The Brokenhearted

Alana Levinson, Fusion

Any woman who has gone through a breakup in the age of social media will understand exactly the type of pain that Alana Levinson so eloquently pinpoints in this essay. “When you lose someone completely, there’s a kind of sick comfort in still knowing some things about their life, even if it hurts like hell,” she writes. “So we often don’t unfriend or unfollow, choosing instead to keep the lifeline open, just in case.” Having a digital window into a lover’s life builds intimacy when the relationship is happening, but once it ends, our phones become emotional landmines.

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The Bitch America Needs

Andi Zeisler, New York Times

Before women across the country decided to take back the word “nasty,” Andi Zeisler called on us to take back “bitch.” Could a term that plagued “unlikable” Hillary Clinton for years be turned into a cheeky, powerful badge of honor? As Zeisler writes: “The power of ‘bitch’ to shame is, with a perspective adjustment, also its power to shine. All that’s required to reframe the word is to point out that the things bitches are often guilty of can be both unexceptional and necessary: flexing influence, standing up for their beliefs, not acting according to feminine norms and expectations.”

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To All The Straight Women Who Love Gay Men: Your Safe Space Is No Longer Their Safe Space

Melissa Harris-Perry, Elle

In the wake of the Orlando massacre, Melissa Harris-Perry examined the way straight women take the safety of gay male spaces for granted ― something gay men themselves can never fully do. “Straight girls love gay male public spaces because they feel like safe spaces,” she writes. “The Orlando massacre reminds us this safety is an illusion of our relative privilege. Not even gay public space is safe space to be gay.” And if straight women bask in the gorgeous glow of these queer spaces, they should also be the loudest allies to the queer community, using their privilege to fight homophobia and the effects of toxic masculinity. As Harris-Perry points out, “gay public space cannot be my safe space until all public space is safe for those who are gay.”

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Women Know Why Donald Trump’s Accusers Stayed Silent For So Long

Rachel Sklar, The Washington Post

When women come forward with allegations of sexual assault, harassment or abuse against a powerful man, especially if time has passed since the violating incidents, the question asked is always the same: Why didn’t she speak up sooner? As Rachel Sklar explains, the answer is quite simple. Women who experience sexual harassment, assault or abuse ― which is most women ― often have a choice: “Should I stand up for myself and risk everything, or let an awkward moment fade into the past? For many women, the answer is to set our jaw and move forward, and say to ourselves: We have worked hard to get where we are. It is not fair what you did to us, but it is even less fair to let you stop us.”

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When They Go Low, Can I Still Say Like One Bitchy Thing?

Gwynna Forgham-Thrift, Reductress

During her speech at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama told the crowd, “When they go low, we go high” ― a now famous quote that reminds us all to always be the bigger person. But, over on Reductress (a satire site that has been killing it all year), writer Gwynna Forgham-Thrift offered a more realistic take. “Can’t I just squeeze in like, one sick burn before I walk away? Just one?” she asks. “Does brunch count? I can still say what’s on my mind at brunch, right? Michelle Obama can’t possibly be nice for an entire brunch???”

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Giving Up Alcohol Opened Up My Eyes To The Infuriating Truth About Why Women Drink

Kristi Coulter, Quartz

You don’t have to agree with every part of Kristi Coulter’s assessment of why women drink to find it important food for thought. As she writes: “Even cool chicks are still women. And there’s no easy way to be a woman, because, as you may have noticed, there’s no acceptable way to be a woman. And if there’s no acceptable way to be the thing you are, then maybe you drink a little. Or a lot.” Worth considering when you see all the wine o’clock memes dominating Instagram.

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Not Just Words: Why Donald Trump’s Lewd Talk Matters

Lisa Belkin, Yahoo News

Following the release of that hot mic audio heard round the world in which Donald Trump explained how he likes to “grab ‘em by the pussy,” our now President-elect brushed off the convo as “just words.” In a piece for Yahoo News, Lisa Belkin explained precisely how important it is to understand that words mean things. She wrote, “Linguistic history is the measure of why we change our words and what the evolution reflects about a society… Words are never merely words. They are always a reflection of where a culture stands. And of what we as a society are willing to think, say and hear.”

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Why Lemonade Is For Black Women

Dominique Matti, Medium

Many women and men were moved by Beyonce’s stunning visual album “Lemonade,” but there is no confusion about who this work of art is by and for: black women. Dominique Matti’s gorgeous piece speaks to this truth. It’s hard to find just one passage to highlight, but this one near the end of her essay quite nicely sums it up: “’Lemonade’ is for Black women because the world treats Black women as though they are difficult daughters, difficult mothers, difficult lovers, difficult friends, difficult workers, difficult strangers. They treat us like we are difficult, because it makes us easy targets. They treat us like we are difficult so that no one in the world will defend us. But now we are defending ourselves. ‘Lemonade’ was an act of self-defense.”

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This Is Not A Love Story

Melissa Jeltsen, The Huffington Post

In the U.S., more women are killed by their intimate partners than by any other group. Melissa Jeltsen puts faces to the grim statistics surrounding domestic violence in her harrowing multi-media project, “This Is Not A Love Story.” And these statistics also hold a very important lesson. As she writes: “In the cases we examined, we found evidence that a large portion of the women killed had previously been abused by their partners. In many instances, there were signals that circumstances might turn deadly.”

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When Hillary Was A Black Man

Emily Nussbaum, The New Yorker

An early ‘90s episode of the sitcom “A Different World” re-imagined the 1992 presidential election if the Clintons’ genders and races were switched ― a black woman named Jill Blinton ran for president while her black male partner Hilliard is senselessly attacked by the press for having opinions. Nussbaum explains how this episode and the race/gender reversal serves as “a reminder of the many ways in which our interpretation of history can shift, as we change and the world changes.”

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“The Arrangements”: A Work Of Fiction

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, New York Times Book Review

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gives us a glimpse into Melania Trump’s world in a fictional, yet very believable short story. In Adichie’s version of Trumpland, Donald copy and pastes his tweets into texts to show his wife, Ivanka secretly donates to Hillary Clinton and of course, Tiffany tattles on her for doing so.

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Poor People Deserve To Taste Something Other Than Shame

Ijeoma Oluo, The Establishment

Through a beautiful mix of personal experience and analysis, Ijeoma Oluo breaks down exactly why the dominant narrative that often surrounds poor people is so problematic. From memes to headlines to tightened government support, Oluo outlines how “the fear of poor people squandering the charity of hard-working American tax dollars” ultimately serves to limit “the ways in which poor Americans are allowed to live.” When we shame those who are not wealthy for indulging in any bit of material happiness, we only diminish their humanity. As Oluo writes: “We deny them the opportunity to live like actual human beings worthy of dignity and respect. Everyone should be able to bring home a steak or a lobster, or a Boston cream pie, once in a while.”

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Hillary Clinton Didn’t Shatter The Glass Ceiling. This Is What Broke Instead.

Rebecca Traister, New York Magazine

Gutted. Broken. Shattered. These are the words used by so many of Hillary Clinton’s supporters to describe what they felt in the aftermath of election night. Clinton’s campaign staff, supporters and the press tasked with covering her campaign sat under a glass ceiling at the Javits Center on November 8. The symbolism, meant to be poignant, turned out to be painful. But as Traister so beautifully articulates, in a piece that has a 90 percent chance of making the reader cry, this type of disappointment is par for the American course: “This is normal — America as it has always been, not yet the better version we hoped it could be. But the half of America that lost is devastated. ‘Crying as if someone died’ is a text message I received from more than one friend last week. And it is as if someone died: a dream of what we could have been, of the president we could have had.” 

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The Problem With Obama’s Faith In White America

Tressie McMillan Cottom, The Atlantic

If you have read Ta-Nehisi Coates’s powerful story “My President Was Black,” published in The Atlantic, you absolutely must read Cottom’s equally powerful response. Cottom reflects on the visceral reaction she had reading Coates’s piece: “I screamed a lot,” she writes. “When I was done reading and screaming, I cried.” Coates wrote much about Barack Obama’s inherent trust of white people, a quality that perhaps both allowed him to become our nation’s first black president, and prevented him from seeing that the defense of whiteness (and white supremacy) would be what allowed ― or perhaps made inevitable ― the rise of Donald Trump. Cottom’s writing gets to the core of Obama’s blindspot: “Those of us who know our whites know one thing above all else: whiteness defends itself. Against change, against progress, against hope, against black dignity, against black lives, against reason, against truth, against facts, against native claims, against its own laws and customs. Even after Donald Trump was elected, Obama told Coates that all is not lost. He is still hopeful about the soul of white America. He said nothing about the soul of black America. That is where my hope resides. It is where my faith has always resided.”

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The Year We Played Ourselves

Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker

Early this year, writer Jia Tolentino began making a list of people who played themselves ― a term, she says, which “can be loosely defined as working against your conscious intentions.” On the night of the presidential election, she realized that she too had played herself ― as so many of us did ― in believing that Donald Trump was unelectable. “I had thought that, within my small life, I was credibly serving the future that I wanted: one in which we would have our first female President, one in which truth mattered, one in which Trump represented the death rattle of old prejudices rather than a vessel for those prejudices made hot-blooded and new. I allowed some sense of personal righteousness to satisfy me, and I suppose that’s the beginning of where I went wrong.” In 2016, we all played ourselves.

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Autocracy: Rules For Survival

Masha Gessen, The New York Review Of Books

Two days after a painful, tumultuous, polarizing presidential election, Masha Gessen lays out how Americans can live under ― and resist ― a leader who has autocratic tendencies. It is an anxiety-ridden read if you are someone who fears what Donald Trump may do to this country once he takes office, but for that same reason it is an amazingly important one. Gessen’s rules are simple to understand and likely much more difficult to live by: Be outraged. Don’t make compromises. Remember the future. We plan to repeat that last one to ourselves over and over and over again. 

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• Caspar: For their smart sleep focused content marketing site, Van Winkle. Bravo.

• Carpool Karaoke: James Corden, You Make America Happy. Thank You.

• Tribe Called Quest: Their new album We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service is a layered collage of sound and fury. Tribe did not let us down.

• Domino's Pizza: I am not the first to write about this, but I could not leave them out. First the pizza ordering emoticon and now the Google Home command integration, Domino's dominates market innovation. And they've got the brand loyalty to back that up. Listen here.

• Facebook: Facebook Live is great, but fake news sucks. Your priority should be cleaning up the feed.

• State of Rhode Island Logo and Tagline. Logo designed by my hero Milton Glaser isn't so bad, but the tagline Warmer and Cooler could only work if the brand guidelines required the tagline only appear with a recitation of it by Zach Galifianakis

• United Airlines: Starting in 2017 you will now have to pay for carry-on bags. Even one carry-on bag.

• Cheetos Brand Jewelry: Why? Cheesiest content marketing ever. Yes, in this case I call Cheetos Jewelry- content- because its purpose is solely driven to sell Cheetos. And it's not merchandising since it doesn't have any branding on it.

• IPhone 7: This wireless earphone nonsense is insane. I like the wire. It's a signal to people that I am in the middle of something. That's why the Bluetooth earpiece isn't a fad anymore because people looked like they were all talking to themselves.

• Tronc: This is Tribune's Online Content division that partners with brands in creating native and branded content. The name hurts. I just don't understand how global brands can develop names and logos in a vacuum like this. Names are the first customer touchpoint and can determine brand success. Letters and sounds create positive or negative sentiments in our mind. William Safire would have written a brilliant piece on this. Still miss you Mr. Safire.

• New Balance: Well, you know what you did.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Franca Sozzani, the longtime editor-in-chief of Italian Vogue, died Thursday at age 66 after battling an illness. 

Beloved by the industry and fashion enthusiasts alike, Sozanni was forward-thinking and passionate, catapulting Vogue Italia into the global spotlight with powerful imagery from the day she took the reigns as editor-in-chief in 1998. Her iconic and important magazine world moments include releasing a famous “black issue” in 2008, marking the first time a major glossy exclusively featured models of color.

As Hamish Bowles wrote on Thursday, Sozzani “turned her Vogue into a magazine that not only celebrated the power of the image, but also used fashion stories as a platform to discuss broader issues, and the obsessions of the fashionable world. Franca had a passion for, and a deep knowledge of, fashion and its history, but an ability to keep an amused distance from its modern day excesses.”

Beyond her admirable career, Sozanni was known for the impeccable personal style she displayed on many a red carpet and at various events through the years. 

Here, in remembrance, a peek back at some of her most iconic looks: 

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The fashion world lost a groundbreaking icon this week after lifelong model and fashion director China Machado died of cardiac arrest in Brookhaven, New York, at the age of 86.

Machado became the first non-white woman to appear in a major American fashion magazine, gracing the pages of Harper’s Bazaar in 1959.

“She was the first to put in front of the audience the idea of the otherness, bringing out memories of different cultures and fragments of other imagery,” Stefano Tonchi, editor of W magazine, told The New York Times. “She always did it with irony, without posing, modeling or vogueing. Somehow she showed it all while dancing.”

Machado, of Chinese and Portuguese descent, died Sunday, one week shy of her 87th birthday, on Christmas Day. She is survived by her second husband, Riccardo Rosa, her two daughters, Blanche Lasalle-Hills and Emmanuelle Lasalle, and two grandsons.

Machado was born Noelie Dasouza Machado in Shanghai in 1929. (Her model name is pronounced CHEE-na, a reclamation of the derogatory term “chinita” used in parts of South America to describe Asian women.) She and her family fled to South America during the Japanese occupation, when her father’s business and estate were confiscated, according to New York magazine.

Machado’s adventures included a passionate romance with famed Spanish bullfighter Luis Dominguín; a lustrous career as a couture model; positions as fashion director of Harper’s Bazaar and co-creator of Lear’s, a magazine for women over 50; and, at 81, a role as one of the oldest signed models in the industry, The New York Times reported.

Machado’s career reportedly began after she was discovered at a cocktail party in Paris, but she had said she did not initially recognize her own beauty because she was inundated with images of beautiful white actresses while growing up in Shanghai.

“We [non-whites] had no images. We had nothing that told us we were nice-looking. Nothing,” Machado told New York magazine in a 2011 interview. “So I didn’t think of myself as good-looking at all. It never occurred to me.”

Even after finding success during the mid-1950s as a house model for Givenchy and Balenciaga (Machado claims to have been the highest paid model of her time, according to CNN), she still faced racism during her earlier years in the industry, although she told New York magazine that she was sheltered from most of it.

In fact, her groundbreaking appearance in Harper’s Bazaar nearly fell through because the magazine’s then-publisher objected to having a non-white woman in his magazine, according to a 2013 profile in The Telegraph.

Richard Avedon, the renowned photographer responsible for the photo shoot, threatened to give up his contract with the magazine if the pictures of Machado were not used. The photos ran in Harper’s Bazaar in February 1959, and Avedon did not tell Machado about the incident until 20 years later. 

Carol Squiers, curator of New York’s International Center of Photograph’s exhibition “Avedon Fashion 1944-2000,” told W magazine in 2010, “That was a big step forward in terms of opening up the image of what a woman could be, of who could be fashionable and how fashion was going to relate to people other than its usual Caucasian base.” 

Machado claimed she ended her modeling career in 1962, but five decades later in 2011, she signed a contract with IMG models at the age of 81, according to The Telegraph’s profile.

That same year, Machado graced the cover of New York magazine, was featured in a fall ad campaign for Barneys New York and shot a fashion spread for Vogue, CNN reported.

Machado was most recently featured in the October 2016 issue of New York magazine and in an October interview in Vogue. Just last month, she was included in a photo shoot for Ray-Ban. Her most recent project was Cheena, a line of wool coats and capes “for the woman on the move.”

To sum up Machado’s colorful life and barrier-breaking career, her own words might explain it best.

“I think it’s survival,” Machado told W magazine in 2010. “That’s the way I am with men, with everything. I’m going to survive.”

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Bob Costas donned a fetching black fedora for “Thursday Night Football,” and instantly set Twitter alight.

The veteran sportscaster’s choice of headwear during the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles game sparked dozens of hilarious tweets, as users likened him to fictional characters such as Judge Doom, The Undertaker and Indiana Jones.

The hat even gained its very own parody Twitter account.

Here are some of the best posts we’ve seen so far:

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This is such a class act.

On the first day of school, high school psychology teacher Taylor Kerby complimented a student on his shoes — a pair of red Vans. Kerby mentioned he wanted a pair, but when the holidays rolled around, his students noticed he still hadn’t bought the shoes for himself.

So they pooled their money. And on Dec. 19, they did this:

One of Kerby’s students, Dyani Heredia-Urias, 17, posted a video of the sweet moment to Twitter, where it received over 145,000 likes and 52,000 retweets.

“I was sincerely touched. I had no idea they were planning anything,” Kerby, who teaches at Edgewood High School in West Covina, California, told The Huffington Post. “I found out later that they had planned it on a day when a they had a substitute. When I returned the day after the sub had written a scathing report about how talkative and disruptive they had been. In retrospect I’m glad I didn’t give anyone a detention.”

Heredia-Urias told HuffPost that two of her peers, Faye and Olivia, organized everything. Class members pitched in $2 each for the pair of sneakers and presented them to Kerby in the beginning of class.

“This class is insane, in all of the best ways,” Kerby told HuffPost. “It’s interesting, when I tell someone I’m a teacher, without fail they say something like, ‘How do you deal with the kids?’”

He says that he simply thinks of his students as people.

“When teachers think of students as students before they think of them as people,” he added, “teaching becomes a job instead of a passion.”

This may be why his students love him so much, but it doesn’t explain why the video of him receiving the shoes went bananas on Twitter.

“It went viral because Mr. Kerby is so lovable and sincere in his reaction,” Heredia-Urias told HuffPost.

But Kerby himself has a different theory.

“At the end of this turbulent year, when compassion seemed traded in for egotism, our souls needed reminding that goodness is still better than making a good point,” Kerby said. “I’m sincerely proud of my kids for actively reminding the world that kindness isn’t out of fashion.”

Or maybe the entire class just has a whole lot of sole.

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Over the past 12 months, the world has thrown some pretty hard punches our way, often leaving us all in a state of shock or disbelief.

In January, we lost music legend David Bowie, and a few months later, Prince followed him to the stars. Then, Hollywood’s most famous union fell apart. Yep, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie split, and it wasn’t pretty. Of course, no year would be complete without some Kardashian kontroversies, and 2016 was full of them. 

Check out our list below for 12 of the year’s most shocking moments in entertainment. 

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The Duchess of Cambridge had quite a year. She worked to end stigma surrounding mental illness, showed off her photography chops, hiked a huge mountain in Bhutan without a visible trace of sweat, hung out with the Obamas, guest edited The Huffington Post, wore tiaras, shopped at a thrift store, took a selfie with Serena Williams... the list goes on. 

As usual, the former Kate Middleton did it all with the utmost style and poise. We should know, as we’ve spent many an hour this year tracking her every move. 

It’s difficult to choose a favorite between the many dresses she wore (and re-wore) in 2016, so we’ve laid out our top 11 for you to choose from. We’re partial to the white Self Portrait gown, but that’s likely because we now know Kate has at least one item in her closet that none other than Paris Hilton has in hers. 

Take a look and pick your favorite below. 

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SANDRINGHAM, England (Reuters) - Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, 90, missed a traditional Christmas church service on Sunday for the first time in decades due to a heavy cold, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said.

Elizabeth, the world’s longest-reigning living monarch, and her husband Prince Philip, 95, suffering what the Palace described as heavy colds this week, delayed by a day the journey to their Sandringham country residence in eastern England. They traveled instead by helicopter on Thursday.

The queen has attended the Christmas service at the parish church of St Mary Magdalene in Sandringham every year since the family started celebrating Christmas there in 1988.

Before then, the family spent Christmas at Windsor where Elizabeth attended a service since the mid-1960s. It was unclear when Elizabeth last missed a Christmas Day service, if ever.

Philip was driven to church in Sandringham on Sunday and walked in unaided from a Range Rover, a Reuters photographer said, while Prince Charles, heir to the throne, walked to the church with his wife Camilla and other members of the family.

“The Queen continues to recover from a heavy cold and will stay indoors to assist with her recovery,” a Palace spokesman said. “Her Majesty will participate in the Royal Family Christmas celebrations during the day.”

Elizabeth’s other children, Anne, Andrew and Edward attended along with Prince Harry, Charles’s second son. Prince William, second-in-line to the throne, is spending Christmas with the parents of his wife, Kate.

After more than six decades on the throne, the Queen has cut back on international tours but still regularly performs official duties around Britain, although she said on Tuesday she would reduce such visits.

While Elizabeth’s father, George VI, died at the relatively young age of 56, her mother, who was known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, lived until 101 and was still appearing in public almost up until her death in 2002.

Both the Queen and Prince Philip’s good health has allowed them to remain very much in the public eye, despite their age. Elizabeth has maintained the popularity of the monarchy despite years of political, social and cultural change since she became Queen Elizabeth II on Feb. 6, 1952, aged just 25.

The Times reported on Wednesday that Philip carried out more public engagements last year than did his grandsons William and Harry, and William’s wife Kate combined.

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Here’s the proof that Kris Kringle doesn’t always get it right.

People are using Twitter to reveal the strangest gifts they’ve received from the jolly gift-giver, family and friends this holidays.

A calendar featuring images of Russian President Vladimir Putin? Check. A wrapped up bag of stones? Afraid so.

Here are some of the most bizarre presents we’ve seen so far:

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If you’ve been patiently waiting for the annual Kardashian Christmas card, it’s just not happening this year. Christmas has officially come and gone without the first family of reality TV releasing a traditional holiday photo. 

Of course, since Kim Kardashian is still adjusting after she was robbed in Paris this past October, and Kanye West was only recently released from hospital ― not to mention all the drama between Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna ― we can’t say we’re surprised the family skipped what was really just another excuse for yet another elaborate photoshoot. 

Still, this isn’t the first year, the family has skipped the sending out the card. Following their most over-the-top Christmas card ever, shot by David LaChapelle in 2013, Kim told Glamour UK that they “ran out of time” in 2014. 

So while a card isn’t in the cards this year, that doesn’t mean the Kardashians didn’t keep up with their other holiday traditions.

On Saturday night, the family gathered together for matriarch Kris Jenner’s annual Christmas Eve party, where guests wore their sparkliest attire and were treated to performances by John Legend and Babyface, according to The Daily Mail. 

Though Kim has yet to make a real return to social media herself, she was spotted enjoying herself in her sisters’ Khloe and Kylie’s Snapchat stories. 

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All you wanted for Christmas was ... a short film of a topless Kylie Jenner?!

The beauty mogul and Snapchat pro released a video exclusively through W magazine on Christmas Day, calling it “a little surprise gift for the world.” Jenner’s wardrobe in the film is minimal, ranging from a wet white T-shirt to nothing but a cigarette and her flowing blond hair as an accessory. Niia’s “Last Night in Los Feliz” plays in the background.

Jenner’s longtime boyfriend Tyga also appears in the film. Her look in the video is very similar to a steamy photo she posted in November for the rapper’s birthday.

The video was shot and directed by photographer Sasha Samsonova, who’s worked with Jenner extensively — in July, People called her “Kylie Jenner’s secret weapon.”

Kylie’s sister Kendall also recently took part in a racy video for the holidays. The model appeared in Love Magazine’s advent calendar, posing in lace-up heels and lingerie, earlier in December.

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On Dec. 22, news broke that the Rockettes would be performing at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.

Initially, it was reported that some of the dancers were contractually obligated to perform at the ceremony, despite expressing that they did not want to. The Madison Square Garden Company pushed back on that on Friday, announcing in a statement that every Rockette must “voluntarily sign up” for every event she performs in.  

But some Rockettes say they still fear for their jobs if they sit this performance out. Now one Rockette is publicly speaking out about the controversy.

In an interview with Marie Claire published Tuesday, a Rockette ― using the pseudonym “Mary” to protect her identity ―  discussed the turmoil going on behind the scenes in the wake of the famous dance troupe’s commitment to perform at Trump’s inauguration.

“This is making our show, our job, our name, branded as right-wing. An extreme right-wing,” Mary told Marie Claire. “There’s a reason why everyone else is turning this down. Why are we not?”

This is making our show, our job, our name, branded as right-wing. An extreme right-wing.

Mary told Marie Claire that many of the dancers first found out about the performance through text messages sent from friends. One dancer felt as though she was being “forced to perform for this monster,” Mary said, while another woman reportedly wrote in an email to the dancers: “I wouldn’t feel comfortable standing near a man like that in our costumes.” (The Rockettes often perform in revealing costumes, and Trump has both bragged about grabbing women “by the pussy” without their consent and been accused of sexual assault by more than a dozen women.) 

According to Mary, some of the dancers initially were obligated to perform at the inauguration. But after the backlash on social media from dancers and fans, the company quickly made participation optional. 

Unfortunately, many of the dancers are still afraid they’ll be penalized for not performing at inauguration. “It will be interesting to see who doesn’t get their job back,” Mary said. “If I had to lose my job over this, I would. It’s too important. And I think the rest of the performing arts community would happily stand behind me.” 

Mary admitted that the lack of women of color in the kick line is “embarrassing” already, adding that, “it’s almost worse to have 18 pretty white girls behind this man who supports so many hate groups.” 

The Rockette said that this performance is not about politics, it’s about human rights. “This is not a Republican or Democrat issue ― this is a women’s rights issue,” she said. “This is an issue of racism and sexism, something that’s much bigger than politics.”

Head over to Marie Claire to read the full interview. 

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Many touching obituaries have been written in the wake of Carrie Fisher’s death on Tuesday.

Yet, none are quite like the one the witty 60-year-old author once wrote for herself.

In Fisher’s 2008 memoir Wishful Drinking, which she also adapted into a one-woman show, the actress describes an exchange she had with “Star Wars” creator George Lucas about her iconic Princess Leia costume. She writes:

“George comes up to me the first day of filming and he takes one look at the dress and says, ‘You can’t wear a bra under that dress.’ So I say, ‘Okay, I’ll bite. Why?’ And he says, ‘Because ... there’s no underwear in space.’ I promise you this is true, and he says it with such conviction too! Like he had been to space and looked around and he didn’t see any bras or panties or briefs anywhere.”

Lucas, who deemed gold bikinis A-OK in outer space, later explained to Fisher the logic behind his no-bras-in-other-galaxies rule, which she also describes in the book:

“What happens is you go to space and you become weightless. So far so good, right? But then your body expands??? But your bra doesn’t — so you get strangled by your own bra.”

She then reveals how she would like her “fantastic obit” to read:

“Now I think that this would make for a fantastic obit — so I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.

And Fisher fans on Twitter certainly obeyed: 

And, at The Huffington Post, we’re honoring that too, Carrie. Rest in peace.

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We spent a large part of 2016 celebrating Michelle Obama’s legacy and trying our best to ignore the imminent end of her tenure as first lady. She has done a great deal to help distract us from the latter, blessing the masses with arguably her best dressed year yet.

Sure, FLOTUS has had too many incredible style moments to count over the past eight years, but she really turned it out for the farewell tour. This rose gold Atelier Versace moment serves as proof. 

Nothing can prepare us for the dark day looming in the distance when she passes along her title and the slew of best-dressed opportunities that come with itto the incoming first lady. But as they say, it’s better to smile because it happened than to cry because it’s over.

It’s in that spirit that we present 11 of Michelle’s best looks of 2016, which we intend to scroll up and down over and over again for the remainder of this year.

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The fashion industry is still working its way to real size inclusivity, but it undoubtedly played a major role in shifting toward more body positivity in the media ― and among those who consume it.

In 2016, there were champions of body positivity starring in major campaigns and magazine covers and wearing store-bought awards show dresses instead of conforming to strict sample sizes.  

Because we could all use a reminder of some of the good things that happened this year, check out 11 body positive moments in fashion below. 

1. Ashley Graham’s history-making Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

Graham’s February cover marked the first time a plus-size model headlined the hotly anticipated Swimsuit Issue, leading the way for her incredibly fruitful year ahead.

2. Bryce Dallas Howard calls out the industry for its lack of options.

Howard revealed in January that she often buys her own dresses at department stores instead of borrowing from sample-size-loving designers, so that she can choose from “lots of options for a size 6, as opposed to maybe one option.” She both won the hearts of women everywhere and pointed out how truly size-exclusive fashion can be. 

3. Christian Siriano’s Spring 2017 runway show.

The designer is a longtime advocate of inclusivity and champion of great style for women of all shapes and sizes. He further proved that there’s a place for varied bodies on the runway when he cast five plus-size models in his show at New York Fashion Week. 

4. The All Woman Project.

Co-founded by models Clementine Desseaux and Charli Howard, this empowering campaign was organized to shake up the industry standards of beauty and offer up new role models for underrepresented women.

5. Jasmine Tookes’ unretouched Fantasy Bra photos.

The news that Tookes is the third black woman ever chosen to wear the elaborate bra was cause for celebration, but this behind-the-scenes image released by the brand, proudly featuring the model’s stretch marks, was the icing on the body positive cake. 

6. Refinery29’s 67% Project.

Refinery29 launched an initiative back in September to more accurately represent the “67 percent of women who identify as ‘plus-size’” in its online content. It partnered with Getty Images to roll out a series of inclusive stock images and committed to featuring more diversity on the site moving forward. 

7. Self Magazine’s final print issue.

Self cast self-love champion and curvy model Iskra Lawrence as its final cover star, leaving a lasting visual message and reminder that health is not one-size-fits-all. 

8. This awe-inspiring take on the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

This video, in which women of all shapes and sizes stripped down to their underwear and recreated the VS show in front of friends and colleagues, was super empowering ― plus it just looked plain fun. 

9. These Women’s Running magazine covers. 

The running-focused magazine continued its streak of delighting us when it put a plus-size model on its March cover, and further impressed us by teaming up in November with plus-size model Candice Huffine on Project Start, a running initiative launched by the model and the mag to help beginners get started on their own running programs. 

10. Tim Gunn’s scathing op-ed about the fashion industry. 

Leave it to Tim Gunn to rally for body positivity while throwing the best shade at the same time. Calling out the industry for its lack of choices for women over a certain size, Gunn once again cemented his status as a champion of all women in the pages of The Washington Post. “I profoundly believe that women of every size can look good. But they must be given choices,” he said, calling out designers as “not interested” in catering to women over a certain size. “This is a design failure and not a customer issue. There is no reason larger women can’t look just as fabulous as all other women,” he said.

11. Ashley Graham’s British Vogue cover.

Ashley Graham both kicks off and signs off this list, as there’s no denying her impact in fashion in 2016. She nabbed a ton of covers throughout the year, but became the first plus-size model to cover British Vogue in December, giving us hope for the year ahead and beyond.  

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This article first appeared on QuietRev.com
Contrary to popular belief, not all introverts are homebodies. I myself love getting out on the streets and observing all the personalities colliding around me—and I’m the kind of person who gets nervous about interactions to the point where a little small talk with a cab driver puts me in cold sweats. However, a quiet, introverted mind does crave a safe, calming space built just for thinking and rejuvenation, especially after enduring a barrage of stimuli from the external world.

Creating that area within the home requires designing (and living) with intention. We tend to treat our homes as dumping grounds—not only for our possessions but also for our overly-tired bodies. I know that upon arrival home at the end of a long day, if my home feels uncomfortable, cluttered, or noisy, I tend to feel adrift. As an introvert, if my place of retreat is threatened, I can be easily thrown for a loop, and the quality of my writing and a clear headspace will be the first two casualties. To truly reap the benefits of a quiet space, you’ll need to learn the habit of treating your home with reverence and love, becoming more thoughtful about where you place items and how you spend your time inside.

Locate quiet within your space

Turn off your TV, your music, and your phone, and listen. Hear that humming from your refrigerator? The whoosh of the air conditioning running? The ticking of the clock? A lot of appliances and devices let off excess noise we don’t notice during our day-to-day routines. I’m a person who suffers from mid-level anxiety, meaning my brain is always anxiously ticking off a number of thoughts, and that excess ambient noise just adds to the neural confusion.

To combat this, I’ve tried incorporating more quiet spaces into my home. I turn off unnecessary devices—like DVD players, video consoles, TVs, and digital clocks—that add ambient noise, light, and heat pollution. Smoothly-running, new appliances help. If your dishwasher is old and noisy, get it repaired so that it will run quietly in the background. Alternatively, replace clanky appliances with new, quieter-running models, which may be more energy-efficient as well. Performing some acoustic investigation here is key, so make sure to unplug and listen carefully to the different spaces in your interiors.

If you have especially loud housemates or neighbors or a lot of street noise from outside, you may also want to consider soundproofing your interiors. This can be as simple as weatherstripping around doors and acquiring a carpet to soak up noise or as advanced as adding acoustic ceiling tiles. Homes are generally built with little to no soundproofing. In fact, interior wall construction unintentionally amplifies noise from room to room, so it’s worth investigating ways to block outside noise, whatever your time or budget.

Quiet means creating space

There’s a reason we call a busy design “noisy.” In the world of home decor, “quiet” and “minimal” can often go hand and hand. While there’s been many an article written on the valors of decluttering, you don’t necessarily need to go along with serious devotees who take the practice to extremes. For an introvert, particularly one drawn to quiet reflection, a too-stark room can be a prison sentence. Overly-empty spaces provoke a strong reaction in me, triggering feelings of abandonment and isolation. I live toeing the line between solitude and loneliness, so having furniture and decor that remind me I’m comfortable and cared for is key.

In fact, severe rooms, particularly those with many hard angles, have been shown to be associated with negative emotions, activating the amygdala (your flight/fight/freeze response center). We’re far more likely to thrive in a soft space with plenty of rounded surfaces. Striking a balance between organization and the chaos life can bring is the battle, but clean surfaces and uncrowded spaces are major strategical wins. Clutter, after all, can elevate our cortisol levels—the stress hormone—making a quiet mind harder than usual to achieve.

Introverts will be most comfortable in spaces where furniture is clustered in nooks rather than organized around the perimeter—as it would be for a large social gathering. That being said, tasks that involve heavy concentration, such as reading, writing, and design, will be better performed in a single room—that way you can shut off outside distractions at your discretion.

Ideal spaces for introverts

Given plenty of quiet time for reflection, introverts are generally well aware of their own preferences. That knowledge of self serves them well in designing their ideal places of rest in the home, especially because beyond a few standard principles, decor is often about the subjective connection we have with colors, objects, and items. Color, for instance, is so personal that even psychologists can’t agree on how it affects us. Brain scans offer mixed data on how we react to the color red, for instance.

Light is also controversial. I’m among those who feel trapped and weighed down without windows, but others may feel exposed in a home with too many openings. However, for my type of introversion, I find that an area that at least suggests a sense of seclusion is key. Seclusion can be fostered by setting up “thinking outposts” in quiet corners by windows or alcoves and making them your own. Fill them with tiny touches that speak to you alone and provoke thought. I used to keep a drawer filled with old black-and-white photos I’d bought from a thrift store so I could imagine the inner lives of the people in them. Find items that connect you to your deepest self.

Too often, homeowners feel they must design their homes to appeal to convention, but this is untrue. The designer that bucks tradition, choosing instead to listen to their own instincts when organizing a space, will find that even the process of redecorating can be a journey toward a deeper sense of self.

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