Wander, Woman A column by Gabrielle Bellot about books and culture, the body, memory, and more.

On Jellyfish and the Fear of Touch

Early in the trip, the jellyfishes begin to take on the quality of metaphor.

Dec 14, 2022
Kamala Khan, Ms. Marvel, and Me

I’m still drawn to stories about teenage girls’ lives, real or fantastical, and a part of it is trying to glimpse a world I never fully got to walk in.

Feb 16, 2021
Rewatching ‘Freaks and Geeks’ in a Polarized America

For all the pain, there is also beauty in the margins those outside of them may never understand.

Jan 19, 2021
The Year of Breath

I try to feel my lungs expanding and contracting, just to make sure they still are. There is something soothing, like the indigo of a fading day, in that reminder.

Oct 15, 2020
Living in Dread of the Next Name We’ll Chant

There is hope in the size and power of our protests, hope that our message will truly, finally be heard—but whether it will be understood in the hearts that need it most is a much harder, scarier question.

Jun 03, 2020
Why Do We Read Plague Stories?

They suggest that we can get through adversity, that things could always be worse. And sometimes, the best of these stories are genuinely full of love.

Apr 06, 2020
The Curious Language of Grief

I don’t think I cried over his death for a long time. I wondered if something was wrong with me. I hadn’t realized that we have to learn how to cry.

Mar 11, 2020
The Wildness of Maurice Sendak

Just as Sendak inverts a stereotypical association of white with youthful ingenuousness, Max inverts the expectations of many a children’s morality tale, for he is allowed to be wild.

Feb 12, 2020