It’s STD Awareness Month 2017. Please Show Up For Us This Year

April 2, 2017.Reading time 9 minutes.

STI stigma isn’t considered a real issue by the feminist community, the body positivity community, or the larger social justice community.

To The Woman Who Announced Her STI on Snapchat

December 19, 2015.Reading time 3 minutes.

I learned about you when I Googled myself—as a narcissist is wont to do—and discovered I’d been mentioned in an article about you on the Daily Star. I’m not entirely sure why my efforts to destigmatize herpes were mentioned in the article, which was a masterpiece of stigmatizing, sensationalized journalism that in no way respected […]

To The Teenage Girls Who Have Herpes

October 20, 2015.Reading time 4 minutes.

This world will tell you that you are worthless: because you are a girl, because you are sexually active, because you have a virus, because you have a voice. Don’t listen to it.

Some Thoughts on Going Viral (Again)

September 11, 2015.Reading time 8 minutes.

As I write this, an article about me is the number two trending story on BuzzFeed. My friends have been texting me all day to say that their friends have been texting them about me popping up on their newsfeed. The daily traffic to this blog has spiked into the thousands. Two different TV producers […]

Journal Entry: What happens after you tell the Internet you have herpes

February 15, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

1. As soon as you hit publish, you start crying. You can’t explain why—it’s a strange moment of bodily supremacy where your brain has been thinking about this decision for months but your lungs decide this is a big deal and you are no longer in control. You can’t explain this feeling when you have […]

My Characters Care About Safe Sex Because I Have To

January 24, 2015.Reading time 15 minutes.

I, as a real life person, have herpes. According to stigma, no sex I ever have will be safe.

Peter From ‘The Mindy Project’ Has HPV: Why This Is Awesome

May 11, 2014.Reading time 11 minutes.

I have long been a fan of Mindy Kaling’s flawed but whip smart sitcom The Mindy Project, which for the uninformed tells the story of Doctor Mindy Lahiri and her consistently ridiculous love life. The show’s second season finale aired last week and wrapped up (for now) the on again/off again romance of Mindy and […]