about

"Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love" - Albus Dumbledore

Hi, I'm Laura. I'm a senior in college & I'm slowly deciding what I want to do with my life. I love Harry Potter, coffee, writing, and sleeping (amongst other things). I'll never claim to know everything, but I'm confident in my ability to help people with their problems. Feel free to send me an inbox question; I'll get back to you!




A few thoughts I've gathered from my teenage years (and being on this site for most of them!):
1. If you Google song lyrics, the song will come up 99% of the time.
2. Dress to fit your body type, and buy the size that fits. If you're a size 6, squeezing into a 4 won't make you look skinnier. It makes you look fat when you aren't.
3. You will never regret waiting to lose your virginity.
4. There is such a thing as a stupid question, but we're all allowed to ask them.




BU 2014 :)


wicked awesome conversations

^my forum, liven it up a little?

advice

14/f (9th grade)

I need a tote bag for school. It doesn't have to be big enough to carry a bajillion books (i still have arms and boys :] ), but I want it to be able to carry some books and stuff.

I like PacSun's bags (minus black and a lot of them aren't big enoguh :[ ) and I kind of don't want to pay $40 for one (coughAbercrombiecough).

So can you give me a link or a place to look at some cute totebags?

Thanks.
-Hater of akward backpacks


Delia's:
http://store.delias.com/browse.do?categoryID=416&sidenavTrack=accessories.bags


Target:
http://www.target.com/gp/browse.html/ref=sc_fe_l_0_12940921_11/601-7273490-8604922?ie=UTF8&node=238058011


& the clearance section of Hollister & American Eagle. You can get those bags/totes for around $10-15 on clearance.


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

Back fat. Haha, that sounds so gross.

Anyway, I do have quite a bit of fat on my lower back, coming around to my higher hips so I have pretty big love handles and I look quite out of proportion.

I'm wondering if I can get rid of the fat with just cardio? I know cardio is what burns fat, which is why I'm asking, but with it being on my back would I need to do any other excersizes?

Doing cardio will burn fat regardless of where it is, unless you're eating a million calories a day. Balance your diet too and you'll see results.

I do a fair amount of side crunches [the ones where you bring your elbow toward the opposite knee instead of straight-on] and I found that doing those helped tone my sides & my back. I'm no expert, but hey. What harm can crunches do? It's worth trying!


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

I am 15, 5'2, and 118 pounds. How much weight could I lose before September 26th, if I eat no junk, and do 200 crunches , and 20 pushups a day?

Right now your BMI is 21.6, well within the healthy range for your height. It doesn't appear that you need to lose a significant amount of weight the way you are now. By eating better & exercising, though, you can "tone" and improve the appearance of your arms and stomach. Walking & maybe jogging will work your legs and help you lose weight all over.


I'd say you'd lose 5-10 lbs, depending on your body type & how much fat is on your body already (which I imagine isn't very much at all)


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

ok this girl i babysit for the summer is really annoying and she lies to me constantly about everything. her parents kind of scare me so i am a little afraid to bring it to their attention. her mom tells me every morning to not let her call her or her dad at work in less it is an emergency and she goes upstairs pretending to play with her dolls and calls her parents.she is rude to me when her friends are here and doesnt listen to me at all. what should i do

Why do her parents scare you? A lot of people seem intimidating but are actually very nice. Explain to them that their daughter is lying to you [bring up specific examples, preferably recent ones] and apologize that she's been calling them at work. Don't blame her fully for this one- she should know better than to call, and you should have been watching, etc. You can solve the problem of her going upstairs to call her parents by going with her, or taking the cordless phone downstairs, depending on her age. An older child, 8 or 9, can usually be allowed to play alone [just check on her every few minutes]. Her parents should know about this, since she's probably only doing this to you it's possible she's afraid of new people or disrespects strangers.


If she's rude to you with friends over, don't let her have friends over. If her parents insist on it [like if they're sleeping over] ask if her friends can come AFTER you leave, since you don't want to handle more kids. You could also ask for a raise in pay, which could make the situation less irritating! Set ground rules and take away the "extras" [TV, phone, going outside or staying inside depending on the kid, etc.] for breaking them.


Good luck!
-LM
[15/f]

[view]

Well, normally I would know what to do, but I REALLY need some help:/ I have this friend named Adrain. He's half black, half Filipino, and at my school, dating someone oustide your race is not frowed upon, but it's not looked up too either, if you know what I mean. I really like him and he really likes me too. I can talk to him about almost anything and stuff like that. I wanna know if I should go for it or not. And if I do, how to deal with all the snobs who tease you about it.

Since you want to go out with him, and you both like each other, why give a damn what anyone else thinks? If they give you any crap, ignore them and don't let them get you down. They're just ignorant if they give you a hard time for dating someone THEY think you shouldn't... it's your life, not theirs.


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

whats good stuff to put in a beach bag?

Sunscreen, bathing suit [or change of clothes & underwear if you wear your suit to the beach], sunglasses, a couple drinks & some snacks, magazine, MP3 player, hair clip, Sun-In if you use it, body spray/deoderant, summer reading, chapstick with SPF.


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

Okay so my state (TN) has decided to mandate that every student K-12 get 90 minutes of excersize a week. Well they are using our homeroom time at my school to do just that. I think it is incredibly stupid because its not the school's responsibility to tell us what to do as far as excersizing goes. It is so damn retarded I can hardly stand it. I HATE coming to school now. OMG as if it wasnt bad enough LETS THROW IN SOME EXCERSIZE!!! Plus my homeroom teacher is strict with the rules, so if we dont do these excersizes every morning, she will write us up. I dont feel like I can talk to her because she wont understand. And I cant sit there and object while everyone else is doing it because that will draw negative attention to me. I get enough attention as it is for being fat. And thats not the reason I dont want to do the excersizes. It's just that 15 minutes is a long time for someone who is as heavy as I am and its embarassing to have my fat jiggle around for the whole freaking class to watch and laugh at. I would much prefer to excersize in PRIVACY where I dont have to worry about what I look like. High school is bad enough as it is. I think this is pure torture and I really want to refuse to do it. But I dont want to bring negative attention to myself. WHAT SHOULD I DO???? and what is your opinion on our new state law??

Look, you have no reason NOT to exercize. Fifteen minutes a day isn't a big deal AT ALL. It's a heck of a lot shorter than a gym class would be. You'll only benefit from 15 minutes of exercise a day. Your excuse for NOT exercizing is that you're self-conscious about being fat? If you work out/move for 90 minutes a week, you'd see an improvement in how you look.


If I were you, I'd stop complaining about it and just exercise for 15 minutes. You're acting as though your state is torturing you!! All they're doing is looking out for your health and trying to prevent obesity, which is a national epidemic if you haven't noticed. Just walk around or something for 15 minutes. It's not the end of the world.


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

i chewed this gum.. uh i think it was like Dentyne Ice, and then i chewed it in bed and when i woke up.. the gum was everywhere! i guess i shouldnt have chewed it all at once, and then in bed.. but thats in the past.

my issue is that one of my bedsheets and a pillowcase has some gum stains on it. like the gum has been there for about a week now, too. i couldnt ask this question before, because my mom blocked the internet for a while and i just fixed it now. so.. whats the best way to get rid of this problem?? my mom suggests putting ice on it, but i dont get how that will really work, since gum has gotten on my jeans before, and ice didn't help much, really. and putting it in the washer wont help.. it will come out even worse that way; personal experience.

so.. please help me!!

Put the pillowcases & sheet in the freezer. The gum should peel right off. It'll do what ice does [make it hard] only faster and in a less messy way.


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

So at camp this past week this guy was like asking all these girls to be his gf and to give him blow jobs and stuff, and he kept on saying that he wanted to be alone w/ me, and whenever we were he'd be like "oo i think ur so hot let's get freaky!" then i'd be like "ok let's do it!" adn he'd be like "haha ur stupid." like he would get my hopes up and then just yank away the opportunity. What kind of a mental problem does this sound like to you? (meaning him)

it made me feel even worse about myself. I'm crying as i write this. I can't seem to get over this, it's like i'm taking it personally like he didn't want me just because of my appearance or w/e even though he already said i was hot.


:(

help.

He was probably kidding. Guys are like that. Not all of them... but a fair amount. It's defnitely not something worth crying over. It's his way of joking around with girls, my friends say things like that all the time, and they hardly ever mean any of it. Jsut laugh it off.


Oh, and I wouldn't consider it a mental problem, just "typical horny teenage guy"-itis =]


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

how do i quit? i've been at this since i was little kid, and everytime i see like a nail growing in i have to bite it. =[

Biting your nails is a nervous habit, so if there's something you're stressing about, that could be why. But since you've been biting them for so long, it's probably just a habit and nothing more. Try getting a nice manicure, your nails will be so pretty you won't want to chew them! And if you do, the polish is gross. Fake nails could be helpful too. You could get acrylics at a salon, or get stick-on ones and do them yourself. Your real nails will grow in as the fake nails protect them from the elements, and you. Also, as your nails grow in [assuming you don't have fake ones] shape and file the edges. That way, they won't be all ragged and weird-looking.


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

We refilled our ink but the colours look way off to the colours we're copying when it's printed.

Why is that?

You probably used bad ink. A lot of refill kits are cheap and have yucky ink in them. Get a new cartridge and see if that fixes the problem. The colors your monitor is displaying could be off too. The printer could also be on its way out. If you're printing photos, they'll come out better if you use photo paper & change the print quality.


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

you know those really thick, doughy sugar cookies you can get at walmart and other grocery stores? They come in a lot of cookie boquets with loads of icing? they look similar to these:

http://skiptomylou.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/missys-sugar-cookies.jpg

anyone know a recipe for them? they're pretty much my favorite things EVER.

You can make similar-tasting cookies [which I think are better because they're homemade] by using these two recipies:

Simple sugar cookies:
-http://mccormick.com/recipedetail.cfm?id=10259
[make sure you refrigerate the dough long enough. It's an important step!]


Frosting:
-http://mccormick.com/recipedetail.cfm?id=11401
[I've never put corn syrup in that recipe though, so you could skip it if you wanted. If you want a softer frosting, like the kind on a cake, use a basic buttercream recipe.]

Buttercream frosting:
1 - (1-lb.) pkg. confectioners sugar
1/2 cup - butter or margarine, softened
3 to 4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla


Cookies will be chewy in the center if you take them out of the oven when they look slightly underdone. They continue to bake when you take them out, so they'll be perfect when they cool off.


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

Where are some places that have cute and cheap bags that are big enough for school?

thanks

Hollister, AE, Delia's, Walmart, Hot Topic, maybe stores like Forever 21 and Claires too. Lands End has good backpacks but they're boring-ish patterns sometimes.


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

14/f. 150lbs. 5'5.

I really need to lose weight. Once school starts (in a week) I can't go to the gym anymore. I ride my bike around the neighborhood, but I've only been doing that for 3 days. I'm going to continue to do that too. My Mom made a deal with me that if i lose 20+ pounds then she would take me on a shopping spree. Shes even starting to help me too. Shes giving me these pills that are supposed to make me less hungry all the time? I take one before breakfast, lunch and dinner. I've been doing this since Wednesday. The pills work, I used to eat a bunch a junk food. But, now I only eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. No snakes inbetween. But once school starts, I'll probably want to eat a snake while I'm doing my homework or something. Im also starting to not eat after 6.


Are there any exercises I can do? Or anything?
I really want to lose the 20 pounds. and more.

Oh, and are there any exercises I can do to build my tricepts and bicepts (if thats how you spell them) Because, last year i was real weak, and i had this total embarressing moment in PA. and if I get PA again, i deff. dont want that to happen again.


THANKS!

Okay, be careful with taking diet pills. They can really screw up your metabolism. See a doctor if you're having trouble losing weight. And your weight's fine already, why do you need to lose?


I'm assuming you meant "snacks". If you find yourself eating snakes, get yourself some help ;) Snack on healthy things like celery or other vegetables. Walk after school & go on bike rides in between homework assignments. Stuff like that.


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

how do people do the graffiti that is high up on the bridge? 1. how? spray cans? how do they know how to do the fancy lettering? 2. how did they get that high? some are in hard to reach places 3. isnt that illegal? how do they not get caught

1. Spraypaint, I assume. Regular paint doesn't look like that and takes too long to dry.

2. I guess some could lean over and paint upsidedown. Or rappel [spelling?] down with rope or something from the overpass.

3. Yes, it's destruction of property & possibly tresspassing. A lot of times they DO get caught, it may not be the first time they vandalized something either.



I certainly hope you're not planning on doing this, in which case I could be considered an accessory to the crime! =D


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

I read an article in US Weekly about Hilary Duff's dieting techniques. A few years ago she did carry more weight as some of you might remember... but I never considered her "fat." But apparently others did and she did herself.

I weigh 130 pounds and am 5'1, while she was 130 pounds and 5'2 back then. It immediately made me sad... because lately I've been worrying if I am "fat" or "chubby." When I look in the mirror I see someone who certainly isn't rail thin, but not OBESE either. I honestly am not sure.

What are you guys' opinions? If you remember the "older" Hilary Duff during the Lizzie McGuire era, would you consider her fat? Please don't base your judgements on whether or not you are a fan of her, I just want to know what you think of her past appearance.

Pictures:
http://www.hduffworld.com/gallery/albums/ryvPREMIERE/2.jpg

http://www.hduffworld.com/gallery/albums/exclusive_rare/normal_HILARY_DUFF_15_04253_DALLE.jpg

http://www.hduffworld.com/gallery/albums/rareposes1HQ/normal_001.jpg

http://www.hduffworld.com/gallery/albums/raresoyesterdayset/normal_06.jpg

I never considered her fat, ever, nor would I consider YOU anywhere near being fat. If you stop comparing yourself to celebrities & their photoshopped, airbrushed pictures, you'll be a lot happier with yourself and have more self-confidence.


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

So does love happen when you are not even thinking about it. I mean I see a lot of people that have love in their life and I wonder how did they get there? Is it all really planned out or do those people look for love? I just want to know if it's ever gonna happen to me? I'm tired of waiting for mr.right. I'm starting to think that he's not real. Maybe for other girls. not for me. I dont feel right going out with all the guys i have went out with. It seems to me that no guy out there is for me. No guys seems right. Everyone is just ugh! I dont know what to do anymore. please help...

For the record, I don't think I've fallen in love before. But I have my opinion on the subject anyways.


You can't look for love, love just finds you. It takes time to find the right person. Assuming you get married, you'll be spending the rest of your life with this person and when you find "the one" you'll know. Sometimes you have to step back and see if you're not setting standards too high. You could be passing up an amazing guy just because his eyelashes aren't long enough, or something equally ridiculous.


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

16, f

Ok my mum and cousin and i think maybe a few others females on my mums side had had this..
i cant remember what its called though..


they like have some of their cells or something burnt away from the ovaries or tubes or somewhere in that area.. can this cause missed periods before its treated?

could i get this at some point? if so what are the possibilities of it being now??

sorry this wasnt clear i can remember what its called :(

If you're worried about your health, see a doctor. No one on here can diagnose you. Your mom and others in your family have it- ask them what it's called, not us. Anything that causes damage to your body could, in theory, cause a missed period. Definitely see a doctor though, it could be hereditary.


EDIT: How is this answer abusive? Since you're convinced it's abusive, have you filed an abuse report? I'd like to know what I did.

Besides, if you knew the name of the disease, you could research it on the internet or have us help you a lot more...


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

Ok so in 5 days i will be on a plane on my way to quebec canada, for 4 days. well i checked out the hotel were staying at and there's a fitness center open 24 hours. the problem is that i get embarrased or self concious working out by myself , how can i make myself not feel like that?
( no one is going to work out with me , dont consider that )

No one's going to be staring at you & judging you. Bring music along with you if you can, iPod, CD player, etc. How much walking will you be doing on vacation? That may be a workout in itself, & you'll be too tired to do anything else besides sleep at the hotel.


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

Well im 13/f. Umm.. this is kinda embarresing but is there anyway to make my breasts grow faster? Cause im kinda "flat". I dont even wear a bra with cups. I heard of training bras but im not sure what they look like, ( i dont go t thsoe departments) and I heard sports bras are okay. Help anyone?

Many Thanks :]

Whatever bra you want to wear is fine. Victoria's Secret [and other stores too, thats just one that comes to mind] has AA cups, and you could get one with padding or inserts. You can't really do anything to make them grow faster, enjoy being flat-chested while you can. Large breasts aren't all they're cracked up to be.


-LM
[15/f]

[view]

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