Our weekly recap highlighting the best feature stories from around the internet.
Tess Holliday Photo: BuzzFeed
Tess Holliday Is The Biggest Thing To Ever Happen To Modeling – by Amanda Shapiro, BuzzFeed
“For the record, Holliday is 5’3½” and wears a size 22. She eats what she wants and exercises when she has time. She doesn’t care if you think she’s healthy, or beautiful. She doesn’t care whether you call her plus-size or curvy or any other euphemism for “fat”. You can also just call her “fat” — it’s OK. ‘The reality is I am fat. It’s a word. It’s an adjective. And I don’t care.’”
Why Are Palo Alto's Kids Killing Themselves? – by Diana Kapp, San Francisco Magazine
“For the parents, kids, and concerned citizens of Palo Alto, two suicide clusters in the space of one adolescent generation has been almost too much to bear ... Cameron’s death in November, in particular, sent the community reeling. A goofy basketball player with short brown hair and a pixie face, Cam, as he was known to friends, was the last kid anyone would have suspected of being troubled.”
Jelly Wrestling, Advice for Beau and Burying the X Factor Corpse – by The Spinoff
“If X Factor has given us anything (and it hasn’t), it’s Dom Bowden bobbing around on the Rainbow’s End stage to the dulcet tunes of ‘Goody Goody’. Why is your mouth open?!”
Growing Up Metal in a New Zealand Beach Town – by Alex Harper, Vice
“It was 1997 when I moved to Tauranga, a coastal town on New Zealand's North Island. I was 12 so I didn't really grow up there, but I grew up metal there….The toughest part of being metal in Tauranga was the sand, and walking down to the beach in Dr. Martens with your pants tucked into your boots.”
Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions – by Declan Walsh, The New York Times
“Axact’s main business has been to take the centuries-old scam of selling fake academic degrees and turn it into an Internet-era scheme on a global scale…“Customers think it’s a university, but it’s not,” said Yasir Jamshaid, a quality control official who left Axact in October. “It’s all about the money.””
Glamour Ambassador – by Rosie Kelway, Viva
“Conchita Wurst, the bearded singing sensation and drag artist who won last year’s Eurovision Song Contest and has become a global ambassador for diversity and the LGBT community… Her win garnered criticism from Eastern European conservatives, including Vladimir Putin. ”
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