Shubnum Khan | Order The Djinn Waits
@ShubnumKhan
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Author. Artist. Words: NYT, McSweeneys, HuffPost. THE DJINN WAITS A 100 YEARS/THE LOST LOVE OF AKBAR MANZIL out US, UK, SA. A New York Times Editor's Choice
South Africa
Joined June 2009
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I may have been in The NY Times but my mamma is only proud when I make it in
@FairladyMag
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So today I'm going to tell you the story of How I Ended Up with my Face On a McDonald's Advert in China - A Cautionary Tale. Six or so years ago, a friend in Canada posted a pic on my FB wall to say she found an advert of me promoting immigration in a Canadian newspaper.
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Not unlike the feeling in my father’s letter to my mother in 1972:
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So today I'm going to tell you the Strange Story of How I Ended up as a Bride on a Rooftop in Shanghai.
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It feels like I sell everything! If I'm not welcoming immigrants to Canada, I'm selling carpets in NYC, leading treks in Cambodia, or looking for love in France.
Let's start with something light: here I'm the face for dental sedation in Virginia Beach. Innocent enough, you say,
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This is what the first victim said to the gunman before he shot him down. This is what I will take from this tragedy - that my religion teaches me peace and respect and that even when I stand in fear, on the edge of death I will reach out to you with compassion.
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And then suddenly all this facial work has you getting attention and you're Dina M, with a baby and post pregnancy melasma until Dermolyte comes to the rescue and gives you photoshopped finished skin.
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Naturally I was shocked and... confused. I studied the pic and agreed that it was me. Now I didn't mind that I was promoting immigration in Canada but I couldn't understand why my face was in a paper all the way on that side of the world.
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I can also take on new identities. The most shocking of these are adverts to teach & care for kids - so who is actually with the kids? When I asked the photographer abt this, he says I signed away rights to 'distortion of character including false names'.
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Be clever. Be aware. Don't get caught up. I'm sure I could have made some money out of this, but instead I'm out there promoting acne cream while someone else gets the profits.
And now you know.
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but now that I'm older and more assertive & aware of power plays and manipulation I can easily see how we were all used - a whole gallery of free photographs for this photographer to sell and we haven't made a cent for all the things WE'VE advertised.
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life in a small town in S Africa not knowing about how her image is being used. So, if anything use my story as a cautionary tale. Don't sign up for free photoshoots, read what you sign and also don't believe most of the things you read on the internet.
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It's also pretty telling of how easily you can be exploited in this new age & how startlingly deceptive everything is. Those testimonials are fake, those adverts are fake. Your holiday tour guide, your tutor or your future bride could just be some random uni student living her
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Also, I love my ethnicity varies according to whim. I'm Seng Bonny leading Cambodian tours, Phoebe Lopez from San Francisco, Kelsi from San Francisco, Chandra from California, Christine from LaTrobe Uni, Dina M etc.
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I don’t feel sad about being single but increasingly I feel sad about the missed shared history. If I fall in love now, I don’t know how to explain HOW MUCH has happened; the amazing aunt or uncle who passed away, the in-jokes, the travel stories, the accumulation of who I am now
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took photos of 100 various faces of all ages & races in Durban. Young friends & I were excited; we signed a release form at the start (I thought it was to give him permission to use the photos for his portfolio). We didn't read the small print. I know. It was stupid.
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Saw this on Instagram and didn’t know! (I adore Jacinda but yes, it’s frustrating how western media portrays white women as the ‘first’). New Zealand was not the first country to give maternity leave for miscarriage: these Asian countries have been doing it.
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So I contact the photographer and he says, yeah, we signed away these photos (we took 3 photos - straight faced, smiling and crazy) and they're now stock photos that he sells. He says I might start popping up in places. So I start a reverse google search of these images & well,
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So beside the fact that all of us were never paid for ANY of these advertisements, there's also the misleading and downright dishonesty of promoting these products. Eventually I contacted the photographer and said I didn't know I signed up for any of this,
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After some wtf moments, a friend reminded me we did a photoshoot a few years ago. When I was at university I heard about a free photoshoot by a CT photographer who promised us professional portraits in exchange for shooting us. It was called the 100 Faces Shoot & the photographer
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but once that's all treated you can grace some book and magazine covers.
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Also this could have gone badly - my photo could have come up in a wrong place (I mean, the right to 'distort photo and character!') is scary af and so if anything, I hope my story is also a cautionary tale to be careful what you sign
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but then I get into the hard stuff and I'm all about getting rid of those pesky eye bags. Haloxyl is the stuff to inhibit facial muscle tightening and is the buzzword (obvs) in anti-ageing eye cream
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Again, the face of positive immigration in Uruguay. (TBH I don't really mind the ads promoting immigration).
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The thing is I've laughed over the years about this and it's a great party story and I do find some of the images hilarious and I still laugh when people find me randomly advertising for teeth implants while browsing a paper in New York,
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I've also looked for love online on a French dating website. This roughly translates to: 'I’m here, do not click too hard I’m fragile. Here I am looking prince charming of my dreams, who comes on his white horse to steal my heart...'
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But also, some hyper-pigmentation just doesn't leave and then you must resign yourself to your fate with a sad glare,
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because while it's occasionally funny to randomly come across your face on a board at the McDonalds in China, you also don't want to be Dina M, complaining about post pregnancy melasma to the internet or calling out for prince charming on a white horse (ok, that bit is okay).
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And the list goes on; numerous testimonials for different products, someone spotted a poster at a bustop in London, posters for McDonald's in India, China and S Korea, banking brochures, eye clinics, make up websites, laser eye treatments etc.
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He explained he was sorry I felt hard done by but it was all legal & explained to us beforehand (I really don't rem anyone telling me my pic would become a stockphoto & that it could be distorted)
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Author Zukiswa Wanner, the first woman from the African continent to receive the Goethe Medal, has surrendered her medal in protest of Germany’s participation of the genocide in Palestine.
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I wrote about being single and life with my parents for
@nytimes
Modern Love series. It feels incredibly unreal (and scary) to share this story but also, wonderful because I know how far we've come. Alhamdulilah for everything.
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but he agreed to take it down from his site since I complained as an author I could be recognised (I don't think this was a legit excuse but it worked in making him take it down). He also said I could still keep popping up where my image was already purchased.
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‘Too haraam for the halaal ones and too halaal for the haraam ones’ is going to be written on my grave stone.
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Twitter Legal emailed to say they received a request from ‘India’ about my account for this tweet of a drawing for Kashmir as it ‘violates the laws of India.’ I want you to think how deep this atrocity goes if the government can’t handle a drawing in solidarity.
#StandwithKashmir
Too much bad news lately. Kashmir has constantly been on my mind. Painted this image of Kashmir’s famous chinar leaf. We see your pain. We stand with you. We acknowledge you. (Anyone is welcome to the image)
#StandWithKashmir
#KashmirBleeds
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Guys, my neighbour asked for a recipe and my mother writes recipes as if she is writing love letters 😭❤️
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My big sis is a hero; she’s lived in US & Europe but she returned to Durban because she believes in the city. She co-founded an NGO that helps clean Durban amongst other things & when I called her today she was planting a veg garden at the local library. Say a prayer for her pls.
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Breaking my drawing break because my heart is broken.
#NathanielJulius
was 16 years old. He was disabled. He was eating biscuits. The police shot him because he couldn't answer a question. They left him at a hospital and said it was gang violence.
#JusticeforNathanielJulius
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Listen, your mother didn't push you out of her womb to let someone push you to the ground. Get up, wake up, celebrate the victory of life.
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So, while you're here, if you want to read about some of the other strange things that have happened to me, have a look at this story:
So today I'm going to tell you the Strange Story of How I Ended up as a Bride on a Rooftop in Shanghai.
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When people ask me why I’m not married this is going to be my answer:
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COVER REVEAL: I interrupted my mother in the MIDDLE of rolling rotis to shoot this and I am so awkward and weird and now I have flour all over my phone but it’s the cover for my new book!
#ShubnumStories
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And to this day I still don't understand what I went for and what was going on. But I got to do something completely unexpected and I use it as a reminder that even when you want to say no, just say yes to the unexpected.
Whatever happens.
It will take you somewhere.
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A word of advice: no matter how much you think you need them, don’t work with people who don’t respect you.
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Passed 3 mosques in Durban today with long queues of all types of people waiting for bread. This is the what they are supposed to be used for - a centre for the community.
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@Siphokazi_J
It's the funniest but also scariest thing and I don't know how to explain it more than that.
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Too much bad news lately. Kashmir has constantly been on my mind. Painted this image of Kashmir’s famous chinar leaf. We see your pain. We stand with you. We acknowledge you. (Anyone is welcome to the image)
#StandWithKashmir
#KashmirBleeds
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I still can’t believe we are watching thousands of children and adults being bombed and starved to death everyday for the last 5 months. I still can’t believe there are people justifying it. Our hearts are breaking every day.
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I don’t know who needs to hear this but whatever you’re going through right now, it’s going to be okay. There’s a place in the future waiting for you, where nothing is heavy anymore, where the sun is bright and you smile again. It’s there. I promise you. I’ve seen it. Hold on.
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Coming out of depression is like seeing a slit of light in a dark room. Everyday gets better. The best thing is you get your sense of wonder again; that excitement for life - you want to know everything & see everything.
I need you to know this: you can get that back.
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Look what happens when you learn to love yourself✨
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If you haven’t seen that heartbreaking video of a father opening his dead daughter’s eyelids to kiss her eyes, you are lucky. I did a drawing with 5500 dots representing each dead Palestinian child so far since Oct 8.
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There are more pics - some I forgot to save, some I've heard of and of course, those that I don't even know about. Their appearances have certainly been lessening after the photographer told me he took them down so that's been welcome.
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My abba with all the editions of my new novel going out in the world next week. Indian Muslim girls who grew up in Durban can do the things too. Even the things that growing up other people told us were impossible to do. Alhamdulilah.
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I think it is completely possible and perfectly normal to be both the biggest cynic of love and the biggest romantic in the world.
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These photos make me want to cry. This is how reading makes me feel: it reminds in my lowest moments that we are not as simple, or as empty, or as weak as we feel, we are entire universes within, a sky full of stars, a history of beauty and courage.
So there's me wearing 2 woolly hats, a scarf, a blanket, and a coat, crunching through the frost in the dark, exulting in the stars on this clear cold night. Every Pixel 5 astrophotography photo takes 4 minutes to shoot, and I was out there for 90 minutes, and it was glorious.
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Here’s a sad thought I will probably delete: I wonder when will I be loved for who I am? And be able to love in return. I’ve waited so long you guys. I’m mostly an optimist and not one to complain (or sometimes even care), but I deserve love too. It’s hard to carry things alone.
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I think the biggest secret they keep from us when we’re children is that life is unbelievably strange.
They make it seem like life in the future is clear, with rules and steps. But life has no rules, it is so unknowable. It is so much stranger than they tell us.
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Pretty impressed after everything I heard online. Went shopping in Durban today (Checkers and Pick n Pay). Quiet. Someone squirts hand sanitizer for you at entrance. Shelves full of tp & cans. Signs say only 3 per customer. Special queues for disabled & pensioners.
#Covid19InSA
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Anyway I make some friends and now I'm into this thing and I'm posing like it's my wedding day (except without the husband).
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All these pics of trucks coming with bread protected by guards and planes being prepared to bring baby formulae and meds from other parts of the country to Durban are making me cry. South Africans are so beautiful when we open our hearts 😭🥺
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Fam I did a drawing for us because while I’m so happy for this couple, I’m more proud of us coming together like the crazy, wonderful and loving people we South Africans truly are.
#KFCPropsal
#KFCWEDDING
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So here’s the story of how I almost met the love of my life in NYC. It was the start of autumn and I was the starry-eyed girl from South Africa who entered the Big Apple with big dreams and a thrumming heart. Anything can happen here! I believed with all my heart.
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A thread on how to make life a little easier for older people in your life. Having lived with 4 older people at some point in my life, I’ve found that simple things can make a big diff. Here’s some things you can do:
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I don’t know who needs to hear this but: WRITE YOUR DAMN BOOK.
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We’re waiting for some tests at the hospital and my father forgot his Quran so I lent him my kindle and he’s reading Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime and he’s sitting and reading so quietly for more than hour and it’s really cute how he’s enjoying it.
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When you’re laughing at the ship in the Suez Canal memes and then realize *you* are the ship in the Suez Canal of your life.
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South African aunties are the best! ‘Ey come here! Where’s Archie?’
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My grandfather was the quietest & nicest man on earth. He had anxiety but he never spoke about it. He lived to 93 and spend most of his time perusing bookstores in Durban and reading. He underlined words either to emphasize them or find their meanings in his Gujarati dictionary❤️
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A mosque for me, has always been a sacred space, a home to find yourself when you are lost. I will not let it become a site of horror and pain and loss. I will celebrate it as a beautiful, peaceful space with welcoming words for everyone.
#HelloBrother
#NewZealandMosqueAttack
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In 1909, 30 yr old Emma Hauck was admitted to a psychiatric hospital diagnosed with schizophrenia. A collection of her letters were discovered after she died. Letters written to her husband with ‘Sweetheart come’ or simply ‘come, come, come’ written thousands of times.
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Sindiswe van Zyl (3 April 1976 - 10 April 2021)
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Did the art work for local chocolatier, Honest Chocolate for their Eid range - salted almond in milk chocolate and it’s available at their store in Cape Town. All proceeds go to
@GiftoftheGivers
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When I get really mad with someone close to me, I think of the nicest thing they've ever done for me and I hold onto it tight, tight, tight and I usually forget the other thing.
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And I know I can tell it; I can try. But it would have been better to have that together, you know? Shared history is an imp thing. It’s why I sometimes envy couples who met younger. You’ve seen each other grow and evolve.
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My father leaves calcium tablets at my desk: a series
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My sister exchanged a packet of noodles for milk with us. And then she exchanged the milk with her neighbour for bread. We are back to the bartering system.
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Almost 50 years after writing this love letter and my father is still pretty much the same romantic.
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Some exciting news! Just signed on to write a book about my strange life stories: how I became a global stock photo, a bride on a rooftop in Shanghai and my other wierd life and travel stories - and how this relates to being Muslim, single, female and South African.
So today I'm going to tell you the story of How I Ended Up with my Face On a McDonald's Advert in China - A Cautionary Tale. Six or so years ago, a friend in Canada posted a pic on my FB wall to say she found an advert of me promoting immigration in a Canadian newspaper.
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If you liked this, I think you’ll like my other strange stories which I will share soon (one involves a trip to Turkey & another on how I found myself on a Macdonald’s advert in India) but in the meantime if you want to read my novel, you can order it here
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I wept. Over the moon to share this. Only a few ppl know how hard (and long!) I've worked on this novel. I'm grateful to
@jlkardon
for championing me,
@jennydeluxe
for bringing us together,
@makep1enotw4r
and
@VikingBooks
for seeing the vision of this story! Alhamdulilah.
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This, for every single person out there.
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The idea in my notes: June 2012
The finished product: January 2024.
You can make the things you imagine possible.
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Shout out to the person who advised me at 18 not to study art because all an Indian Muslim girl who did art would end up doing was decorating family wedding ‘kunchas’: hey boo, I’m ouchea illustrating book covers and art pieces for companies. No wedding kunchas yet🤷🏾♀️
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Taylor Swift was right about one thing tho: YOU’LL NEVER FIND ANOTHER LIKE ME
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God, keep me soft, keep me loving, keep me kind.
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No one talks about the burnout of waiting to be loved.
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Not me posing on the NYC subway with my own book.
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I went to a bookstore today for the first time to see my novel in real life on the shelf and they didn’t have a single copy and I felt so despondent and when I asked them about it they said, Oh that book? It sold out really quickly! We’re waiting for more copies! 😭
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Btw if you’re in Durban, this is near the beach and you can just stop here and buy any of the vegetables you want. Please support them. x
[PICTURES] Homeless men housed at a temporary shelter in EThekwini during Covid-19 have established an agricultural project in the inner-city. With assistance from the municipality and NGOs, they are now selling organic vegetables to locals.
@NkoRaphael
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So here goes: I’m a South African ink artist interested in women, love, culture and exploring grief and personal growth.
#artvsartists
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I don’t know what these grapes are called but these are the ones. ✨
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I still think about this message in my community Whatsapp group.
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Me and my boyfriend having a laugh together.
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People really grapple with the idea of a woman living for herself.
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I think there’s a big group of ppl between outspoken pro vaxxers and anti vaxxers who want to get vaccinated but are just really scared to do it. I was one of them. I wanted it but I was scared when it came down to it. So here’s my story if it helps anyone:
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I feel like a writer is someone who fills a room with a lot of objects, crams it full with things and an editor comes into that room to make space so that folk can see the objects, sit down on the sofa, have space enough to walk around and admire the room.
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