Jacquelyn Scieszka

Grayscale Mode  changes all pixels on your screen to shades of gray. It's supposed to be for photosensitive users. Grayscale Mode has become something of a trend lately, but mostly for the youth obsessed with their phone. Me. It must have been January of 2024, when trying to get my head out of my phone, that I heard this mental health tip discussed in a YouTube video that attempted to rehabilitate addicts like me, from a former addict themselves. I recall not their name, gender (hence the gender-neutral pronouns), or even their facial features or  the nuances in their voice. Just what they said: Try Grayscale. They said this step might be a bit extreme, and I agree, it would be hard for many of us, and outright impossible for visual artists. I tried it anyway. At first, I had trouble acclimating my eyes to the dimness of my new screen. It kept me off my phone more. I rarely used it. The glamor and sparkle were gone. I don't recall very well, but it did the job. Th...

Millie's post about misogyny in sports had me thinking: wow, it's one of the biggest insults you could give a person, when you tell them what to  like. I'm not really a sportsperson, I'm miles far from athletic, and sports of any kind isn't something I know much about, so I'm not qualified to say much regarding how women are treated within that sphere, but her post was spot on. I know this because I've seen it. We've all seen it, haven't we? It's everywhere. This brings me to interests as a whole. I'm autistic, and my whole life I've never really been open about my interests out of fear of being judged, both at home and at school. They didn't know I was disabled until recently, I was afraid to express myself. And trust me, it's the worst.  Several people with all kinds of disabilities, often have many doors closed for them because of not being abled. I mean, I wanted to become a singer in fourth grade, but having a flat tone of v...

I've been listening to Queen a lot lately. Obsessing over the band, watching interviews and live performances countless times, feeling intimate euphoria materialise upon my lips every time I see Freddie Mercury smile, or Roger drum and sing at the same time, or Brian stand like a stump while rocking out one of the most iconic guitar riffs in rock history, or even when when John goes  boing boing boing  on the stage- And while my eyes were glued to the screen, I thought, Huh. So that's hyper-fixating. Something I've been actively experiencing my entire cognizant existence, now has a term for it? I pondered over this for a few days. It made me feel sick. Hi, I was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder a mere couple months ago. I meet the diagnostic criteria for Asperger's (which means I don't need that much support), and I was confused. Do people like me really need this diagnosis? Autism is a disability. Symptoms manifest differently in every individual, and in...