Jody Allard

Jody Allard

Bio

Jody Allard is a former techie turned freelance writer living in Seattle. Her online work has appeared on Time, xoJane, and Offbeat Home, among others. She writes primarily about food, family, mothering, and life with a chronic illness. 

Jody Allard Articles

Blacks Belong At "Slower Schools": Supreme Court Justice Scalia Really Just Said That

ICYMI amongst the chorus of outrage over Donald Trump's latest round of racist comments, the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments this week in Fisher v. the University of Texas, a landmark case challenging the use of race in college admissions –– and Justice Scalia just lost his goddamn mind.

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Image: Wikipedia

The Problem With Giving Your Kids Experiences Instead Of Gifts

Advertisers don't encourage us to believe that our kids need to make memories more than another toy to wage war on capitalism; they do it because these experience gifts support incredibly successful industries. When we shift our dollars from toys to travel, for instance, we are still supporting big business.

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Scientists Discover Ancient Viruses In the Arctic That Will Probably Kill Us All

No, really. It turns out that incredibly strong viruses have been chilling in the arctic (see what I did there?) for millennia, and NOW they are being uncovered by the melting of the ice.

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5 Tips For Talking About Incest...From A Survivor Herself

All responses by victims of incest are valid. Fear, anger, and rage are often the most understandable, but victims often love their abusers, too. That love doesn't always vanish the second that abuse occurs, and in fact many abusers rely on that love to conceal and even continue the abuse.

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Don't be afraid.

It Doesn’t Matter What Causes Autism (But It Does Matter How We Treat It)

I know what autism looks like, and I understand why people are afraid of it because, at its worst moments, it is desperately, terribly ugly — it is children who can’t communicate, who become adults who are unable to live independently, and who simply cannot cope with the onslaught of sensory input that we barely notice. It is meltdowns that are triggered by nothing and everything, learning difficulties, and services that cost our healthcare system billions of dollars every year.

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Rachel and her family

What Rachel Dolezal Teaches Us About Mental Illness

What initially broke as a story of possibly fraudulent misrepresentation by a public figure quickly morphed into the downfall of a highly disturbed and probably mentally ill woman.

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Bruce Willis Caters Meals for Firefighters Battling Idaho Wildfires

ICYMI, half of my home state of Washington, as well as our neighboring state of Idaho, has been or is currently on fire.

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Image: healthaim.com

As France Drops Bombs, I Demand Peace

There is a bitter, ugly irony today in the trending hashtag #Pray4Paris and the haunting “Peace for Paris” graphic shown alongside the news of France’s military strikes against ISIS-held positions on Sunday.

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Bernie Sanders (image credit: Gage Skidmore)

White Liberals, Black Lives Matter Protesters Are Targeting Bernie Sanders (And Us) For A Reason

While Sanders is better than the clown car of horrors that is the Republican crop of presidential candidates, he's failed to listen to the BLM movement or even respond to protesters — twice.

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Study Finds That You're Probably Eating Horse and Beaver

In case ground meat wasn't sketchy enough, a new study by Chapman University found that as much as twenty percent of specialty ground meats are mislabeled –– and many include ground horse and even beaver.

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