Editor's Letter

Ah yes, the beginning of a new school year. This is it, the year we finally use our agendas. The year we tell that person we really like them and want to make him, her, or them a plate of meat, cheese, and stone-ground mustard because that’s how much we care about them. The year we tell our parents to get off our backs and START LIVING! But I digress. Let’s be real, this usually never happens. The transition from summer to fall is nothing new. It’s usually filled with a bunch of empty promises we make to ourselves with no real tangible outcome.

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. 

I promise I'm not so much of a narcissist that I chose to use my picture for this. I was encouraged to by the rest of my team. But hey, I look pretty good, right? 

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?

As we get ready for the day, we have so many thoughts about our body (54 perhaps?) as we try to find the balance betwen looking good, feeling good, and... not caring what anyone else thinks. 

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! 

And 2017 is almost over, too. Whether this was the best year of your life, worst year of your life, or somewhere in between, give yourself a pat on the back for making it. 

The semester being over doesn't stop our Iris writers from doing great work. We have four excellent pieces for you to reflect on as you enjoy your break:

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."

If it's not those ridiculous pressures, it's the periods we certainly did not sign up for. Bleeding for days is bad enough, but then we have to make sure we have money to buy tampons? No wonder women of a certain age called it "the curse" (shout-out to Iris editor Mary...). 

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: