Articles...

…when you’re trying to figure life out.

Everyone has a different modern struggle, and our content is here to relate to, give advice, and show that you aren’t alone in trying to navigate the difficulties of modern life.

Find our latest articles here, covering everything from lifestyle, wellbeing, relationship, and world struggles. 

How the death of her dreams helped poet Saira Anwar find her voice

Saira Anwar is an educator, poet, author, content creator, and spoken word artist. She published her first poetry collection The Death of a Beautiful Dream in January 2014, which was featured on Amazon’s Top 20 Bestsellers list.

We were honoured to speak with Saira in anticipation of the launch of her second poetry collection, Rising From Despair: A Journey to Hope, the long-awaited sequel to her first collection and 10 years in the making.

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Love and Sex Ally McLaren Love and Sex Ally McLaren

Y or N?

Roses are red,

Violets are blue.  I have lived my life,

    And so have you.

But I need,

       Something more.  (I need)

Something to love

       —With all of my heart.

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Love and Sex Ally McLaren Love and Sex Ally McLaren

Her

All these lines.

All these words.

All these thoughts, scribbled across paper for a girl I do not see.

(Not know.)

Scribbled in ink, staining the paper.

                                    Staining my soul.

                                    …But she is—

                                    …she is beautiful…

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Love and Sex Ally McLaren Love and Sex Ally McLaren

Boyfriend

The word feels strange on my tongue. Like I might just taste it and spit it out because it tasted wrong.

I might as well bite my tongue and taste blood than say that word out loud, because the word girlfriend has never been reserved for someone like me.

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Letters and Lily's

You turned 5, and I have still partially forgotten the moment you came into the world. 5 years too late to meet the precious woman you were named after. You see, you were given your time to greet the world on the same day that we lost her. Your great grandmother. I can only think she was watching over us that day.

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Libby Jenner on unfurling her wings to heal through poetry

Following the successful launch of her second published poetry book, Wings Unfurled, we were overjoyed to speak with poet and author Libby Jenner about her poetry inspiration, writing process, and how poetry has been a powerful tool to help her with mental health and to heal traumas.

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Love and Sex, Lifestyle and Personal Ally McLaren Love and Sex, Lifestyle and Personal Ally McLaren

A Month’s Time

Do you know what it was/is to be in love? It was that spot in the woods by the park that is always filled with sunlight. The spot with the fairy garden that I took them to before they asked me to date them, like really date them. It was warmth and soup broth, it was a bath in some ways but not others. It is straining my eyes because I’m trying to peer into a wolf’s den or peering out of a cave and not straining my eyes because it’s night already. It is feeling like I was slapped in the face, and then wishing I had actually been slapped in the face because physical wounds are tangible. It is sobbing so hard I shake in my parked car the day after, before work, alone.

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Artist Aleena Sharif on the power of painting nudes

This Modern Struggle Magazine had the absolute privilege of speaking with artist Aleena Sharif and sharing her inspirational artwork.

She shares her artistic journey, her creative process, and how the power of painting the nude female form helps to promote body confidence and self-love for herself and other women.

Thank you so much to Aleena for creating representative pieces and a safe space to share nude paintings.

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Lifestyle and Personal Ally McLaren Lifestyle and Personal Ally McLaren

5 Things I Learned After Turning 30

When I was in my 20s, I used to dislike the idea of reaching 30. I always associated being 30 with being old (I am sorry to anyone I have hurt by saying this!)

However, now that I am in my 30s, as much as I wish I were in my 20s, I do think there is a lot of power in this new decade of my life. When I was 28-29 years old, I used to have conversations with people who were already in their 30s about how I should approach this new phase of my life.

A few things I was told are that the 30s are the most beautiful years of a woman’s life: she is confident, unapologetic, and daring.

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The Tangled Thread of Grief

Sometimes I think of grief like an old woollen jumper. It’s the knitwear you fold at the bottom of your drawer, only getting it out on the coldest of days or in the very midst of winter.  

Sometimes you only wear it on Christmas day, or on a special date that no one else celebrates.

Once it’s enveloped you, you fold it away again, smoothing down the fabric with your fingers in a private ritual, like the most sacred of things. 

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