Celebrity Coverage
Taylor Rooks is putting mental health front and center with LG’s “Transparent Conversations.”
A sports reporter Taylor Rooks has gained widespread respect within the sports industry for offering invaluable insights as an NBA and NFL broadcaster. Now, with a while in the sport, she’s adding just a few latest titles to her repertoire, including her latest podcast with her friend and co-host Joy Taylor, in addition to becoming the host of season two LG . The latter is a traveling podcast series in partnership with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA®) “that focuses on college student-athletes discussing mental health and well-being.”
Rooks, graduate University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign draws on his own experiences to attach with his guests and speaks to the experiences of faculty athletes. In each episode, he travels to different college campuses to debate mental health on the earth of faculty athletes.
“When I heard about , it really resonated with me because that’s what I try to do both in my career and in real life. I think the basis of everything is communication, and if we can all be honest about ourselves and our experiences and feel that these words reach safe spaces with people who really care, who want to learn more and want to help in this way, that they can – that’s what transparency is all about,” Rooks says on the ESSENCE podcast. “The feeling that you can be vulnerable and that you can be open, open enough to talk about the things that really matter in your life or the things that are maybe bothering you. So when I heard that LG wanted to be able to have these kinds of discussions on college campuses with young student-athletes who are really trying to find a solution outside of the pressures of sports, school, family, friends and it just grows. It just felt right and really important. And something I was truly called to do.”
Rooks has already had university interviews with NBA star Kenny Anderson, Fisk University men’s basketball head coach, 2X NBA All-Star Jerry Stackhouse and Vanderbilt head coach, in addition to current college players.
In support of those intergenerational conversations, LG is reaching out to advocates, administrators, coaches and student-athletes to debate the work-life balance that characterizes the student-athlete world. Just last month, Rooks traveled to the NCAA Final Four to film two latest episodes that focused on the role coaches play in student-athlete mental health and the importance of collaboration in implementing effective mental health initiatives.
While she says she learned so much from the experience, what really stuck out to Rooks was an exchange with Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley during which the 2 discussed the role coaches play in keeping players’ mental health each on the sector and and beyond. “It was incredibly insightful to hear a coach have such a keen awareness of how he can both positively and negatively impact a student-athlete’s mental health and how he wants to make sure he is always doing the right thing,” Rooks explains. “Above all, beyond wins and losses, the important question was: Are my student-athletes feeling well and am I doing everything I can to support them?”
The NBA host continued to debate how many colleges have beefed up their athletic staffs, in order that sports teams usually are not just limited to coaches and trainers, but additionally expanded to incorporate mental health professionals. “It was a real eye opener and it was great to see these positive steps that schools have taken to ensure their athletes feel supported. There are a lot of people who employ sports psychologists, a lot of mental fitness coaches, some they really call mental coaches, people who work there and their job is to make sure you feel supported,” Rooks continued.
In addition to keeping players in good mental and physical condition for on-court performances, these professionals also help with the transition away from post-graduate sports, as for a lot of student-athletes, sports turn out to be a big a part of their identity. Drawing from my very own experiences as a school athlete, I noticed a paradigm shift in my life and how I needed to rediscover my identity away from sports – because life doesn’t at all times have the identical outlook that may be translated into wins and losses. “It’s cool that mental health is being talked about so loudly and so proudly, and right in front of our faces, in order that athletes know that they’re greater than only a champion or a winner or someone who plays football or basketball or soccer , which is just a part of them. This is the vital part. But that is not the entire part.
When Rooks turns the tables on me, he asks, “But how did you manage to do that? Did you rely on therapy or did you rely on self-reflection?” In response to Rooks’ inquiry, I share that while therapy played a pivotal role in my journey, it was ultimately self-reflection and a commitment to non-public growth that paved the way in which for navigating the complexities of mental health in athletics after graduating from university. She praised me for this, confirming that life after sports is a difficult journey. “Especially when you’ve been seen as a person for most of your life. This is what I hear a lot of athletes talking about both in , but also in the conversations I’m having now [with] current athletes, the identity issues they have and how they deal with it.”
As a Black woman in sports, Rooks, while excited by the sudden surge in interest in a women’s sport, namely basketball, also believes it calls for a much-needed audit of what it took to get here. “I think what we really lose is that this moment can exist, fortunately and fortunately, because of the many moments that preceded it. For it to be long-lasting, I think it’s a validation of all of us, athletes and media fans, how we all contributed to this very positive moment that we’re seeing now and which I hope will last forever, but also how way we contributed to why it took so long. Because that’s how we’ll continue to see the game really grow.”
She passionately advocates for changing the narrative around women’s sport, calling for a deeper dive into their individual stories and achievements. “I would like to proceed to see the expansion of girls’s sports based on who they’re, not only the indisputable fact that they’re women. I feel that was an issue,” he says. This feeling resonates inside her WNBA player Angel Reese’s recent criticism of sportscaster Emmanuel Acho’s views on the LSU team.
As Rooks points out, “Me personally, in the media, we still talked about these athletes from the point of view and perspective of the fact that they are women, without really telling their story.”
For women’s sports to actually reach its peak, Rooks says, the narrative needs to vary. By encouraging much-needed conversations and storytelling, you can too profit the long run of the sport for generations to come back by utilizing a podcast. “they concentrate on their humanity, and we center their experiences. In my opinion, this is the way you develop the sport because this is the way you develop the athlete.
Celebrity Coverage
Tara Davis -woodhall on her hair trip and showing on a representation of textures with a pigeon – the essence
Patrick Khachfe/Getty Images
The average American publishes 4.8 hours a day on their phone. Meanwhile, 90 percent of black people live in a household with smartphones, i.e. Six percent of the higher than the total US population. But despite almost 4,000 emoji coded in our phone, most of the black ones have Difficulties to get hold of emoji which exactly represent our hair.
Calling for change, athletes Tara Davis-Woodhall He works with #CodemyCrown, a Crown Coalition campaign led by Dove and Rise365 To put pressure on the Unicode consortium to include emoji depicting Afros, Braids, Cornrows and Locs. Like the game industry, Black Beauty is poorly represented by technology with such platforms Idor And my leading integration of the crown with the digital world.
“8 out of 10 black people in the USA fights to find Emoji that reflect their hairstyle,” says Davis-Woodhall. “I wasn’t surprised, just disappointed.” Wearing hair relaxed to College, the athlete says that her relationship with her hair was about assimilation, which is capable of likely be attributed to the lack of representation.
“Growing up in white society, black hair is too much work and is not seen so beautifully,” he says. “I’ve always tried to straighten my hair.” But when she was natural in college, she understood the beauty in our texture of the hair. In March, for the first time, she published Afro on Instagram along with a blow and braids, all of which could thoroughly be styles absent in the Emoji Apple library.
Nowadays, “I change hairstyles every month,” he says, now leaning to sewing. However, he says that finding a routine will likely be like finding emoji: harder than it should. “I’m trying to protect my omission as much as possible,” he says. “In fact, this is impossible when you do so many shoots and try to keep your hair as tame as possible.”
Banking about deep treatments and oils, finding time in her tight schedule to take care of her hair is an act of self -care. This and opening pores on her skin and scalp in a long, hot bath at night. “I work on the skin, I work on the skin of the body, making sure that I remain moisturized and exfoliated,” he says. “I give myself a little more time because I feel that I give [most of my] Time for other people. “
Now, back to the track season in full bloom, finding styles which could withstand blood, sweat and tears of an Olympic athlete is one other obstacle. But one thing is for certain, he hopes that Emoji represents the emotions he puts in each. “The beauty of our hair is that you can have options and wear everything you mean.”
William Gottlieb/Redferns
When Billie Holiday entered the stage, not only her voice turned her head – it was her presence. Known as Lady Day, she embodied the timeless type of beauty that cannot be reproduced – only worship. More than an icon of jazz, Holiday was a plan: her appearance, its mastery and its unrestricted elegance are still inspired by generations of black women who understand that beauty concerns the soul, as in style.
In the Nineteen Forties, the singer was known for wearing a deep, dark lipstick, which made her hair decorated with gardenia relatively more. Her eyebrows have contained throughout the least times been thrown out and eyelashes? Flirts, feathery and unforgettable. Sometimes she liked to take care of cool and canopy with packaging, contained throughout the least times emanating this sort of glam. In 1939, she added to the photo session, gardens in full bloom-nevertheless it surely’s eyelashes and it is a soft look, to which we’re still attracted.
Quickly until 1947, when the legend hit the stage on the Downbeat Club Manhattan. No foundation, no powder – just daring lipstick, natural leather and star power.
Until 1957, Billie modified every little thing to her performance to Newport Jazz Festival, leaving Gardenias behind, but keeping a characteristic red lip. And because of all this she never avoided the camera. New head shots, latest corners – because my love is contained throughout the least times in style.
In honor of the late icon we rejoice some of the most unforgettable moments of beauty Billie Holiday.
Celebrity Coverage
Hannah John -kamen on Thunderbolts* and always remains ready to get close – essence
Killer Action Role on television, science fiction Odyssey Outlaws and Hyper-Dystopian Stories are stuffed with the movie Hannah John-Kamen as a performer with strength in her emotional performance on the screen. A 35-yr-old English actress known for her roles in movies similar to Andas, just like the television program, Likeand is ready to bring her to her because she had large roles supporting in lots of successful franchises. He represents his role Ghost (Ava Starr) in Marvel. Directed by Jake Schreier, The Asterisk within the title of the film is an actual show Way Marvel, and the filmmaker intended to be this story to be the departure of Disney franchise and resign how very different it’s from the more shiny repertoire of Marvel’s movies.
“Jake’s lens of this film was very, tonally specific”, he describes John-Kamen through the conversation. “It was like creating an independent film in the Marvel universe – Jake had a level of sensitivity and nurturing this story.” Re-reembodiment John-Kamena Ava Starr as a spirit, a killer for employment, is a key paria of the newly formed group, which was later recognized within the film as Thunderbolts, the name developed by the character of David Harbor, Aleksiej Andreovitch (Red Guardian).
The family roots of John-Kamen reach her Nigerian father and Norwegian mother, who performed significantly different works as a criminal psychologist and fashion model. With her established experience in Performance’s art, she was able to introduce her history of upbringing in a house stuffed with beauty and brains in her roles on the screen. The English contractor doesn’t stop his roles on television and film and cooperated with the maestros cinema, similar to Steven Spielberg (), and now Jake Schreier. “It’s quite difficult, because when you filter abroad, you revolve with a time difference that is easier to say than to do,” says John-Kamen. “In this world it can be a lonely lifestyle that concerns the spirit, and I grounded, taking breath and seeing my loved ones, friends and hugging my dog.”
Florence Pugh leads as Yelena Belova, a self -sighted super agent who suffers from disturbing episodes that recreate memories of the past that persecute her. The unusual childhood injury Belova led her to becoming a one who acts probably the most alone. Belova and Starr are a fortress behind Anti Hero Alliance of the Thunderbolts. They are the one women in a six -person organization who meets with controversial forces. “He, very, controls himself, his body and making decisions very much,” the John-Kamen explores. “She is Fort Knox and is a lonely wolf.”
The unusual moments of the comedy from the forged, which incorporates Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Pullman and many others, does so related and feel more human than OR. Without having shiny superpowers, which make up lightning, they’re forced to face their reality without pursuing fandoms and public support. In the film Arch Nemesis Thunderbolt is the vengeful figure of Louis-Dreyfus, Valentina Allegra de Fountaine-infiltrating director who tries to manipulate and remove the Marvel Hero team.
During the 2 -hour journey, which makes up the history of Thunderbolt’s origin, the audience experiences the way in which these qualified warriors are still fighting for the worst problems. Ava Starr remains under the radar for many of the film because he has more sequences than words. “Her guard is very elevated,” says John-Kamen. Ava Starr appears when Yelena Belova needs her most to save the world overtaken by darkness. The character of Lewis Pullman, Robert “Bob” Reynolds, is armed against Thunderbolts, and his arch symbolizes how our minds may be as powerful because the uncomfortable villain.
Schreier’s approach to this film within the Marvel series was to enlarge greater than outside, removes all glamorous aesthetics that makes the heroes so aspirative. Even in Thunderbolts marketing, a wheat box standing in the course of the box is caught to satirize the trail of superheroes created within the Marvel cinema. Each anti -hero character stands in front of its own internal battles created by the trauma and wounded within the script by Eric Pearson. “We really laughed between shots,” Hannah warns me, talking in regards to the heavier features of the film. “I really created this beautiful family in this cast.”
In general, it is a story that follows wounded individuals who learn to treat. Along the way in which, they establish a family bond and support system. In 2025, when people can feel more disconnected, the narrative of Thunderbolts hits the home harder, watching the characters construct sufficient confidence and mental Harta to stand in themselves and their newly discovered friends. “I think that at the end of this movie I want you to hug a loved one or make sure someone feels safe and informed him that they do not have to boldly smile,” John-Kamen says.
