Author: Vanessa Lamothe
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The Studio TV Show Review: Growing Up With Seth Rogen and Revisiting My Love for Film
I grew up on Seth Rogen’s movies, so watching The Studio felt like growing up alongside him in real time. What I expected to be a simple comedy turned into a funny, honest, and nostalgic look at Hollywood that brought me straight back to my film school days and the chaos of creating with a…
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One Battle After Another (2025) Film Review
This film moves across two time periods and focuses on the aftermath of a radical resistance movement after it’s been dismantled. It’s less about the movement itself and more about what’s left behind, the people, the damage, and the systems that quietly survive it. It opens very strong. The very first scene is nearly perfect,…
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I Love Being a Mother, But It’s Harder Than I Ever Expected
Motherhood is beautiful, but it’s also overwhelming in ways no one really prepares you for. As a stay-at-home mom, stepmom, and holistic practitioner, I’m learning to hold gratitude and exhaustion at the same time, embracing the mess, the noise, the loss of freedom, and the deep love that comes with raising a child.
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Nothing Exposes Ego Like Social Media
I don’t know why people still act shocked when couples who constantly post perfect, curated, “so in love” photos end up breaking up. Most of the time, the signs are right there. The more something needs to be proven online, the more fragile it usually is in real life. Healthy relationships are busy living.Unhealthy ones…
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The Red Flags Most People Miss When Choosing a Holistic School
Over the last few years, I’ve enrolled in three different holistic education programs, clinical herbalism, Ayurveda, and wellness coaching. People ask me all the time which school they should go to to become a holistic practitioner. I always wish I had an easy answer, but the truth is, holistic education doesn’t work like regular schooling.…
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When BPD Isn’t BPD: The Quiet Crisis of Misdiagnosed C-PTSD
For a long time, I truly believed I had Borderline Personality Disorder. Not because it deeply resonated with me, but because a therapist gave me that label when I was raw, heartbroken, confused, and just trying to understand why my emotions felt so big and overwhelming in my body. It was right after a complicated…
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Reading Beauty Sick as a Muslim Woman: A Book Review
In the book Beauty Sick, Renee Engeln talks about how modern society’s obsession with physical appearance slowly chips away at our self-worth, mental health, and even our ability to focus on what actually matters. From magazine covers to social media influencers, we’re constantly surrounded by “perfect” bodies and faces, most of which are unrealistic, edited,…
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Blink Twice (2024) – Film Review
It’s been a while since a movie really caught my attention, but Blink Twice is one of the few recent releases that genuinely stands out. In a year full of remakes and predictable thrillers, Blink Twice actually has a pulse. It has intention. It has something to say. The film seduces you the way the island seduces…
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My Daughter Didn’t Mean to Hurt Me, But the World Already Did
When my biracial daughter told me she thinks “bright” skin is more beautiful, it opened a much deeper conversation about colorism, media influence, and how early beauty standards take root, even in children.
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The Five Types of People In The Holistic Wellness Space
I’ve been in the holistic wellness space for a while now, and I can confidently say this work will humble you, stretch you, and reshape you, if you let it. When I first started my wellness journey, I was so enthusiastic, so curious, and so passionate… But also, if I’m being honest, I was extremely…
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My Faith Is Not a Spectacle
A personal reflection on how extremism and media narratives harm Muslims, distort Islam, and turn a deeply peaceful faith into a public spectacle.
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What It’s Like Being a Stepmother and Coparenting with a High-Conflict Bio Mom
I became a stepmother when the kids were 9, 10, and 12, old enough to remember life before me, but young enough to still need stability, guidance, and love. Now they’re 12, 13, and 15, and I’ve watched them grow into teenagers right in front of my eyes, all while raising my own 3 year…
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Exploring Costa Rica as a Herbalist: A Day at El Arca Jardín Botánico
If you ever find yourself in Costa Rica and you’re into herbal medicine, El Arca Jardín Botánico is a must-visit spot that beautifully blends nature, healing, good food, and breathtaking views. El Arca Jardín Botánico is a beautiful botanical garden tucked away in Santa Bárbara de Heredia, home to a wide variety of medicinal plants, themed terraces,…
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The Menu (2022) Film Review
I did not expect to love The Menu as much as I did. It is so unhinged, hilarious and honestly kind of cathartic. This is not a food movie. It’s a movie about power, entitlement, and the absurdity of people who confuse taste with worth. I thought it was so clever and dark. At the…
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Mad Hatters Kava Bar Review
As a revert Muslim, I’m obviously not looking for a nightclub vibe. Loud chaos, alcohol-centered spaces, and drunk energy just aren’t aligned with where I’m at anymore. I still enjoy music, community, and being out around people, just without alcohol being the focal point. That’s why Mad Hatters Kava Lounge in St. Petersburg really stood out to me.…
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Getting Beyond the Baby Blues
I remember the day I found out I was pregnant. I had been dealing with painful cramps for days and, like I often do, my mind jumped straight to worst-case scenarios. I was convinced it was something serious, maybe pelvic inflammatory disease. When I went to the doctor, the nurse casually handed me a pregnancy…
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Husna Vacations Muslim Workcation in the Bahamas Review
I finally got the chance to experience a Husna Vacations retreat in the Bahamas for the Global Muslim Workcation at the Breezes Superclub and honestly, it was exactly the kind of trip I didn’t know I needed. I’ve traveled a lot, but there’s something different about being surrounded by people who share your values, your…
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What to Pack in Your Airport Travel Bag: The Essentials
We just got back from Saudi Arabia, which meant a very long journey with multiple flights, long hours in airports, and a lot of physical and emotional energy being used. On trips like this, having the right essentials isn’t about convenience, it’s about staying regulated. If I don’t have these things with me, long travel…
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Ramy (2019-2022) TV Show Review
When I first watched the first season of Ramy, I wasn’t Muslim.I didn’t know I would become one a few months later either. I watched it as an outsider. Curious, observant, but emotionally detached, or so I thought. Looking back, I wasn’t detached at all. I just didn’t have the language yet for what was…
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Beginner Gardening Tips I Wish I Knew Sooner
Gardening looks simple… until you actually try it. You buy the plants. You water them faithfully. You check on them every morning like they’re your babies. And somehow… they still struggle. When I first started gardening, I honestly thought effort was enough. If I cared enough, watered enough, watched enough, it would all just work.…
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Loving Music and Choosing Islam: A Tension I Still Live With
Islam discourages music not because sound itself is evil, but because of what it can do to the heart. In Islamic tradition, anything that distracts from remembrance of Allah, inflames desire, or pulls a person away from presence and accountability is treated with caution. Music, especially when it becomes constant stimulation or emotional escape, has…
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What the Health (Netflix 2017) Documentary Review
What the Health wants you to believe it’s exposing hidden truths about nutrition. It isn’t. It’s pure vegan propaganda, wrapped in a documentary format. The film starts with a conclusion and works backward to justify it. Meat is bad. Eggs are bad. Dairy is bad. Animal foods are positioned as the villain behind nearly every…
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The Beach (2003) Film Review
The Beach follows Richard, a young American backpacker traveling through Thailand who stumbles upon a secret island community living off the grid, untouched by tourists, money, or modern life. What begins as a dream of freedom and belonging slowly reveals itself to be something far darker, a closed system where idealism, denial, and fear quietly replace…
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Elite Season 1 Watched Through a Muslim Lens
Let’s be honest, Elite is chaotic, morally unhinged, and clearly written by people who think shock value equals depth. And yet… it works. I genuinely enjoyed watching it. Elite is a Spanish thriller-drama about three working-class teens who enter an ultra-wealthy private school after a scholarship program throws them into a world of privilege, power, and…
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When Women Fight Each Other Instead of Holding Men Accountable
Something I keep noticing in different times of my life, and something I reflected on heavily in therapy the other day, is how quickly women turn against other women… while the man in the situation walks away untouched. A man will lie, cheat, manipulate, disrespect and somehow another woman becomes the main problem. I’ve learned…
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Inglourious Basterds (2009) Film Review
Inglourious Basterds is not a war film. It doesn’t pretend to be responsible, educational, or historically faithful. And that’s exactly why it works. Quentin Tarantino isn’t interested in accuracy, he’s interested in emotional revenge. His favorite trope. This is a film about power, humiliation, storytelling, and what it feels like to watch evil finally lose control.…
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The Messy, Beautiful, and Confusing First Year of Becoming Muslim
For my one-year anniversary of becoming Muslim, I figured I’d finally sit down and write about what this first year has actually been like. I’m currently bored out of my mind in a cabin in the mountains of South Carolina, pregnant and feeling like this baby in my belly is about to arrive at any…
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What Led Me to Islam: Trauma, Solitude, and a Turning Point
I came to Islam during one of the lowest points in my life. During the COVID lockdown, everything slowed down. I didn’t realize how much I had been distracting myself until I couldn’t anymore. Having more time on your hands can make you think about your past more than you want to. All the trauma…
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Sisters, Growing Pains, and Finding Our Own Homes
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about sisterhood, and how strange it feels when the people you once shared every corner of your life with suddenly aren’t under the same roof anymore. Three sisters, all creatives, all with the same slightly dramatic, slightly introverted, deeply imaginative personalities. Growing up in a home where our relationship…
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The Message (1976) Film Review
I just finished watching The Message earlier this morning, and I wasn’t expecting it to hit me the way it did. I’m currently up in the woods in North Carolina at a cabin with my husband and he recommended we watch it together since I’ve never seen it. He recommends it to me, and I…
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The Warehouse Job That Looked Perfect From the Outside
What looked like a dream warehouse job, free concert tickets, generous perks, and a wealthy, seemingly kind owner, slowly revealed a hidden system of favoritism and unspoken social classes. From working the warehouse floor to managing returns, I witnessed firsthand how power, proximity, and privilege shaped who truly benefited.
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Why I Stopped Hot Yoga and Fell in Love With Aerial Yoga
I was really into hot yoga at first. The heat felt incredible, like my body was finally melting after years of holding tension. My muscles would loosen in a way they rarely do, and when I stepped out of the studio and the fresh air hit my face, the contrast made me feel even more…
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Scarface (1983) – My Film Review
I’m not usually a fan of violent or crime-related films. I’m actually anti-violence unless it’s in the context of fighting oppression. But Scarface is one of my biggest exceptions, and honestly, one of my favorite films as a film buff. There’s something about it that goes beyond the blood, beyond the guns, it’s entertaining, funny,…
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How The Social Network Keeps You Hooked: A Film Review
This was one of the most exciting films to come out of the 2010s,. On paper, a movie about the creation of Facebook and the fight over who actually owned it should’ve been boring. I honestly expected it to be like that. But it completely blew me away. There are so many reasons why this…
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Terrace House: The Coziest, Messiest, Most Human Reality Show Ever Made (Super Long Review)
Terrace House is a Japanese reality TV series that follows six strangers, usually three men and three women, who live together in a shared house. There’s no prize money, no forced eliminations, and no scripted challenges. Instead, the show focuses on everyday life, relationships, friendships, and personal growth as the housemates navigate work, love, and…
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Why I Find Japan’s Mask Culture Really Beautiful
One thing I’ve always quietly admired about Japan is how normal wearing a mask is. Not because of fear.Not because of rules.Not because someone told them to. But because it’s considerate. If you have a cold, you wear a mask.If your allergies are acting up, you wear a mask.If you’re packed into a train with…
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Memoirs of a Geisha: My Film Review
Memoirs of a Geisha has been one of my favorite movies for as long as I can remember. Every time I rewatch it, it hits me the same way. The storytelling, the cinematography, the acting, everything feels intentional and deeply emotional. It’s one of those films where every scene feels like it was carefully thought…
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VR, Quarantine, and Making the Best of It
2020 feels so unreal right now. It really feels like the world has slowed down, maybe even stopped. We’re home all the time now due to the quarantine that’s just been sanctioned. Isolated from society. Extremely bored. My best friend just bought me a VR headset a few weeks prior, and I don’t think she…
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Why Women With Big Hearts Attract Men With Unhealed Trauma (DV Content Warning)
Content Warning: This post discusses domestic violence, emotional abuse, childhood trauma, and near-lethal situations. Please read with care, and only if you feel grounded and safe enough to engage with these themes. I don’t remember much of my childhood in detail, but I do remember the overall environment. My parents were emotionally volatile, always fighting, and…
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The Side Effects They Don’t Tell You About: What Long-Term Benzos and Adderall Use Can Really Do to You
For years, the mental health industry has sold us this idea that a pill is the fastest way out of our pain. A shortcut. A lifeline. A chemical solution for emotional problems that were often created by our environment, our trauma, our relationships, and our lifestyle. And when we’re desperate, hurting, or exhausted from carrying…
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How My Love for Film Started
My love for film started when I was a child, long before I ever understood what filmmaking even was. Growing up, we had movie nights every Friday. It was a whole ritual, the popcorn, VHS rentals, the excitement of picking something new at Blockbuster. My parents worked a lot and I never got to spend…
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Film Review
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the rare sci-fi stories that has nothing to do with space or technology. Instead, it dives straight into the emotional architecture of the human mind. The film follows Joel and Clementine as they undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories, turning the breakup…
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American Honey (2016) Film Review
American Honey isn’t a feel-good road trip movie. It’s a portrait of lost youth with no safety net. The screenwriter Andrea Arnold strips the American dream down to its bones and shows what’s left when guidance, stability, and protection are missing. This is freedom born from neglect, not choice. The film is about a mixed-race teenage girl…
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How I Realized that Novel and Blog Writing Suits Me Better
I love films. I always have. Cinema shaped how I see the world, how I understand emotion, pacing, silence, and beauty. Some of my most formative experiences came from watching stories unfold on a screen, feeling seen by characters who didn’t even know I existed. Film made me fall in love with storytelling long before…
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Shameless (2012 – ) TV Series Review
Don’t get me wrong, Shameless is freaking hilarious. But it’s also stressful. Loud. Triggering. Not because I grew up like this, but because I’ve seen these dynamics up close. In people. In families. In the way adults avoid responsibility and kids quietly adapt. Shameless follows the Gallagher family, a group of siblings growing up on the South Side…
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ClassPass, Yoga, and Finding My Calm in This City
Miami is loud, fast, colorful, chaotic, and distracting. Yoga is the opposite. It’s the only place where I’m not thinking about anything else, not my phone, not my to-do list, nothing. Just breath, heat, music, and movement. Lately I’ve been using ClassPass to hop around different yoga studios all over Miami, and honestly… it’s becoming…
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Anima (2019) – Experimental Film Review
Watching Anima gave me goosebumps. It’s art. Disturbingly beautiful art. Anima is a Netflix Original short film, currently streaming on Netflix, with a runtime of just under 15 minutes. I’ve been a longtime fan of Thom Yorke, his music has always felt like it understands emotional confusion better than words ever could. So seeing him…
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The Hardest Truth Therapy Made Me Face Today
I just walked out of therapy and I feel very unsettled right now. The entire session came down to one thing I really didn’t want to accept. Some people will hurt you and they genuinely do not care. They don’t sit with it. They don’t feel the weight. They don’t lose sleep. They don’t replay the…
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Unfck Your Brain by Faith G. Harper (Book Review)
Honestly I’m really in my self-help books era right now. I’m craving anything that helps me understand my mind, my patterns, my healing, and the way my past still echoes through my present. What struck me most is how compassionate the book is. It doesn’t treat you like you’re broken or weak. Unfck Your Brain isn’t just a catchy…
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My Experience at the Cirque du Soleil LOVE Show in Vegas
There are some experiences that stay with you long after the room goes dark, and for me, the Cirque du Soleil LOVE show in Las Vegas is one of them. It was a mind bending sensory experience that felt bigger than entertainment. It felt like stepping inside a dream. I went with one of my…
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The Dreamers (2003) – French New Wave Cinema
Synopsis: A young American studying in Paris in 1968 strikes up a friendship with a French brother and sister. Set against the background of the ‘68 Paris student riots. I’ve always been deeply drawn to French cinema even as a child, and honestly I’m not a plot-driven viewer, I’m an atmosphere, psychology, and emotion-driven one. And…
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Why I Can’t Connect With Christianity
I grew up technically Catholic. I was baptized, did communion, all of that, but my parents were pretty secular. We were Catholic by name, not really by practice. I mean I could how many times I’ve been to church using one hand. Around 25, I started dating a Christian guy I’d known for a very…
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My Favorite Black Mirror Episodes of Season 3
I really love the science fiction genre and my taste in sci-fi is actually very distinct just like everything else about me. The tech-heavy or hard-science side of the genre really bores me unless it’s character-driven with romance arcs and plenty of other elements to give it more personality. What I’m really drawn to are…
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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle – Book Review
I’m currently reading this book The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle which centers on living in the present moment to find peace and emphasizing that things like anxiety and worry comes from dwelling on the past or future, and that true self is consciousness beyond the constant mind chatter. It’s seriously changing my life.…
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My 23andMe DNA Results: A Deep Dive Into My Ancestry🧬
My best friend had bought me a 23andMe DNA kit for my 27th birthday and and honestly… it was wild seeing my genetic story laid out in charts, colors, and timelines. I always knew I was mixed, but seeing the exact regions and generations mapped out felt like opening a time capsule of everyone who…
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Crashing (2016) UK TV Series Review
Crashing is about a group of twenty-somethings living together as property guardians in a massive, abandoned hospital. So British lol they’re broke, directionless, emotionally messy, and way too close to each other for comfort. Basically: chaos with thin walls. It’s short, fast, awkward in the best way, and painfully funny. Every episode feels like it ends…
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Misfits (2009) – UK TV Series Review
Misfits follows a group of young adults who are forced to do community service together until a strange electrical storm strikes the city and suddenly gives them superpowers, but not the glamorous kind. Their powers reflect their deepest insecurities: invisibility, mind-reading, uncontrollable sexuality, time reversal, rage. Instead of turning them into heroes, the powers throw them…
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Kill Bill – An Unexpected Childhood Classic for Me
Kill Bill was one of those movies I never expected to love as much as I did. As a kid, I didn’t fully understand all the symbolism, the genre-blending, or the emotional weight behind The Bride’s story but it was really cool for it’s time and there was definitely something about it that grabbed me…
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Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) Film Review
A lot of us idolized Holly before we understood her. When you’re younger, she looks like freedom. No rules. No roots. Beautiful, desired, unattached. She answers to no one. She floats through life on her own terms. That kind of woman feels powerful when you’re still learning how painful attachment can be. But idolizing her is…
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Grieving a Friendship That Wasn’t Healthy
I’m writing this because I feel heartbroken. I just cut off one of my long-term best friends, and even though it had to be done, I still feel terrible about it. We met as kids at Norwood Elementary, right off 19th Street and 14th Court in Miami Gardens. From the beginning, there was this magnetic…
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Curly Hair Gang: How I Take Care of My 3C Curly Hair
If you have 3C curls, you already know this, your hair has a personality. Some days it cooperates. Some days it absolutely does not. And a lot of what I learned about my curls came from trial, error, and ignoring advice that clearly wasn’t made for my hair type. I’ve straightened and colored my hair…
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Enter The Void (2009) Film Review
Set in the neon-soaked underbelly of Tokyo, the story follows Oscar, a young American drug dealer, and his sister Linda, who works as a stripper. They are emotionally fused by shared childhood trauma and an unspoken promise to never abandon each other. Early in the film, Oscar smokes DMT, a powerful psychedelic substance known for…
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Mass Effect Sci Fi RPG Video Game Review
I discovered Mass Effect almost ten years after its first release. I wasn’t looking for a video game to play per se. I was writing sci-fi stories at the time and wanted some inspiration when it came to world-building, something immersive enough to pull me into another world for a while. What I ended up…
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Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Film Review
The film follows a married couple, Bill (a doctor) and Alice Harford (a housewife). On the surface, they look like they’re doing well, until the party. A lavish, glittering night where small cracks start to show. Bill flirts comfortably with two models, almost on autopilot, while Alice lingers on the dance floor with another man a…
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Honestly, Vanessa 