Ashley Stoney

I grew up yearning for young adult movies with a black girl in a starring role. My all-time favorite movie is Crooklyn, a Spike Lee film centered around a family in a Brooklyn brownstone, following their trials and tribulations through Troy…

My VHS collection of labeled Sister, Sister episodes includes (yes, I still own them) nearly half a dozen or so fully-maxed out tape recordings of the half-hour long series that followed the lives of two twins who reconnected in junior high school.…

I read a lot of parenting media and as a former brand PR girl spent countless billable hours researching bloggers who "fit the bill" to endorse mom products (hint: a narrow grab of women). And when I was about to become a mom myself, I paid…

In a groundbreaking cover story for Vogue, Beyonce Knowles-Carter talked about her emergency c-section, in the process demystifying the many complications of birth, the messy aftermath, and the idea that a strong black woman can simply ~overcome~…

Cardi B did it her way. Shortly after her debut album hit the stratosphere, and after weeks of speculation and bump-watching, the Bronx native appeared on SNL in a ruched white Christian Siriano dress that showed her no-denying-it baby bump. And on…

After hours of debating, at 3:04 p.m. on Sunday, I uploaded three photos to Facebook for a Father’s Day shoutout, honoring my father, my partner, and my mother’s long-term boyfriend. Realizing my omission, I immediately texted my partner’s father,…

There are so many initiatives these days aimed at telling girls they are smart, brave, independent, inspiring and any other number of positive adjectives that don't reduce our girls to potentially nice, loving, and attractive homemakers and wives.…

While the February 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, seemed somehow predictable, or inevitable, the calls to action on gun regulation, led by the teenagers of Parkland, have been a heartening surprise. The teens behind the March For Our Lives…

If your social media timeline is anything like mine, you'll know just how many people are talking about Marvel Cinematic Universe's Black Panther. Whether the conversation is organically happening in your social newsfeed, or you've caught one of the…

The stealth pregnancy of our times was revealed on Sunday after Kylie Jenner, 20, announced the birth of her daughter with boyfriend Travis Scott, 25, on Instagram. The message was followed by an 11-minute YouTube video that acted, essentially as a…

Last week, new mother Jessica Porten wrote a Facebook post about her experience seeking help for postpartum depression that quickly went viral. After telling the nurse practitioner during her first postpartum checkup that she had "postpartum…

Here we are again. Every January, we celebrate the vision of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. on his namesake day. And in recent years, families have been using the day to participate in community service activities, as non-violent…

This year I got my Santa Claus paws on a coveted golden egg — Hatchimals Surprise. I have seen my fair share of unboxing videos on YouTube, and that, mixed with my millennial nostalgia for Tamagotchi and Fuby, of which Hatchimals are basically a…

I hear a lot of adults tell my kid the same advice: be good and Santa will bring you a sh*t-ton of toys. And while I appreciate the positive reinforcement from strangers who aren't too woke to flat-out tell my toddler that this whole concept is a…

On Saturday, a group of White nationalists convened in Charlottesville, Virginia for a Unite the Right rally, just a little over a month after the Ku Klux Klan gathered in the same otherwise idyllic community a month earlier. I watched…

Let’s be very, very honest about this — pregnancy and childbirth change your body. Regardless of what tabloid headlines about celebrities’ post-baby bodies and Instagram #fitspo posts might tell you, the reality is that your body’s going to look and…

Beyoncé is a force to be reckoned with. She is intensely dedicated to her craft and her brand, overriding the tabloids so she can carefully control the release of her personal information. There's a reason why Beyoncé has inspired the…

Yesterday, Kim Kardashian West posted several videos to Instagram Stories previewing the latest pieces in her kids' clothing line with Kanye West, The Kids Supply. The line boasted custom Yeezy sneakers and denim jackets, along with the collection’s…

Most of my favorite childhood movies have female protagonists. So a few years ago, when I found out that I would be the mom of a girl, I relished in the possibility of sharing all of my favorite films with her and exploring new ones together. When…