Taylor Lamb

Each year in May, the Women’s Center gathers its graduating interns to thank them for the impact they’ve had on the UVA community. As they look back on their experiences working with the center, they offer some terrific insights that we at Iris want to share with you. 

Well, it's the end of an era. The school year is over, and my matriculation at the University of Virginia is over. I graduate this weekend. By the time you read this, I'll have already graduated. 

As women, we have a lot of expectations to uphold. One is the expectation of being "feminine." Google defines femininity as "the quality of being female; womanliness." 

That... doesn't tell me much. Based on that, every woman would be "feminine." But we know that's not true. There are requirements to being feminine. 

Ah, love. A four-letter word to describe what may be the most complex thing that humans are fortunate enough to experience. 

In today's looks and media obsessed society, we spend a lot of time thinking about the image that we're cultivating to the world. What do people see when they look at us? What persona are we giving off?

Well, the semester has kicked off and is in full swing. Students are having "midterms" (which, as all UVA students know, are not at all confined to the middle of the term), people are freaking out trying to come up with summer plans, and we have a bunch of stuff to share with you all!

Well, folks. We did it. We made it through another semester. Considering the circumstances under which we entered this semester, it certainly felt a little new this year. But we made it through! 

Fun fact: having a vagina is hard.

If it's not the lawmakers trying to legislate what we do with our bodies, it's ridiculous pressures to make our vaginas "smell good."

BREAKING NEWS: it's not always great to be a woman. Shocking, huh? I could make a list of a quite a few things that tend to make womanhood seem more like a curse than the blessing.

Here at Iris, we strive to be a provocative magazine for thinking young women. That means we want to make you think, and give you things to think about. Here are some things you might not know:

Las Vegas just happened, and we are heartbroken and numb. What follows is the editor's note as it was written Friday, before the Sunday night massacre in Las Vegas.

Well. It’s been quite the interesting start to the semester, huh?

Walking through Grounds the first day, knowing just days before it had been filled with torch-wielding neo-Nazis was a bit of a weird feeling.