For seven seasons, Dancing with the Stars has been a crowd-pleasing hit. What’s not to love? Whether you love cheering for your favorite celebrities; watching sexy, sassy, or snarky dance routines every week; engaging in some family-friendly reality fun; or endorsing your competitive side by entering DWTS pools (or voting for your favorite dancer until your votes are maxed out)– Dancing with the Stars really seems to have it all.

What’s more, the show has proven that working out can be fun, and that dancing is an excellent way to shed some unwanted pounds, build muscle, and start living an overall healthier lifestyle. I know I signed up for Zumba and impulsively bought the DWTS Cardio Dance workout DVD without batting an eye.

As DWTS has increased our awareness of fun ways to stay fit, it’s also a great vehicle to demonstrate that fitness comes in all shapes and sizes. In the past, we’ve seen DWTS combat some of the Hollywood stereotypes that distort women’s body images across the country. Remember when all 167 pounds of Laila Ali made it to the top three? How about when Sabrina Bryan, who is “chunky” by Hollywood standards, was sent home simply because everyone thought she was too talented to need their votes?

Most importantly, consider the fact that normally the beauty queens and supermodels are the first to get the boot: Paulina Porizkova, Shandi Finnessey, and Shoana Moakler are among the competitors who never saw round three, and thus, they all blend together into one generic DWTS loser, while fan favorites like Marisa Jaret Winokur show you that being skinny doesn’t mean you can move. Read More »

This political season, everyone who is against abortion keeps rattling off about how it’s an easy choice for a woman. I hear words scrambled into arguments that are excruciatingly harsh. Words like…MURDER and SELFISH and HUMAN LIFE and RESPONSIBILITY. I am here to tell you that abortion is never an easy choice. For anyone.

No, I have not had an abortion myself. Thankfully, I have been using birth control and condoms consistently and I have never been pregnant. If I were to ever become pregnant somehow, I cannot say that I would have the baby. I know that choice is gut-wrenching. That is why I do everything I can to make sure that I don’t ever have to make it. I have been sexually active for almost 5 years now and my methods of birth control have always worked.

Some of my friends, however, have not been as careful as I have been. Some of my friends, including a best friend and a roommate, have gone through the process of an abortion. Believe me, it is not as easy as many people paint it to be. I have watched these girls cry for nights on end. The choice to have something taken out of your body that could grow into a life, regardless of whether or not you believe it is currently ‘alive,’ is one of the hardest choices a woman can ever make.

My old roommate, Carol, couldn’t speak for days after she found out she was pregnant. She was 21, in college, and a dancer. Going forward with having the baby would mean postponing her college graduation at least a year. She would have had no way to pay rent — since she was paying it through student loans — if she left her dance program. She would have to move back across the country to live with her mom and be apart from all of the friends she had made, including her boyfriend. Her boyfriend wanted the choice to be hers, but we all knew the truth: he didn’t have any money and hardly any responsibility. Read More »

Like many young stars, Emmy Rossum has dabbled in more than one of the arts. A dancer, actor, and singer, Emmy has finally released her first single “Slow Me Down”.

Check out her website here!

Who doesn’t enjoy rerun episodes of MADE on MTV? Sure, the show got annoyingly repetitive and started selling out near the end of the series, (what MTV shows don’t? Believe it or not the Real World used to have something to do with its title. And MTV stands for music television…ironic I know.) but overall it was highly enjoyable to watch an angry gothic chick try and make the cheerleading squad or a socially awkward Bible-thumper audition for the step team.

Anyone who ever watched the show undoubtedly considered, if ever given the opportunity, what they themselves would ask to be made into. My sister, (a highly uncoordinated 24-year old with no athletic experience) claims she would want to be made into a dancer. I’m not sure what I’d request. Maybe to learn how to surf. (In accordance to my unconstrained high-pitched glee, the roommates thought I’d either won the lottery or spotted one enormous cockroach. In fact, I’d just seen that Blue Crush was airing on HBO.) Plus, I’d probably get a free trip to California or somewhere nice out of it. Read More »