There are some things in life that are too embarrassing or to taboo to talk about openly, well at least in polite company of course.
One good example of this is our sex life, another could be toilet goings on, women’s periods, everything associated with it, tampons etc, and last but not least women’s hygiene.
Lily Alter, a 14 year old, was writing an essay at school and decided to make the subject of her work a subject that she felt more people should be able to talk about more openly without feeling bad or embarrassed, women’s hygiene.
Lily dove into the subject deeply and thoroughly, but the more she realized what a burden it might be for some, that’s when she had a brainstorm, a lightbulb moment that was to spread far further than the realms of her classroom.
Her English teacher in her school, Oak Park River Forest High School in Chicago, had requested that students write an essay on a school issue, and that’s when Lily had the wonderful idea for her project.
Lily said:
“I thought about homelessness, women’s rights” … “And I wanted to combine it in a way that I could actually maybe help people.”
Lily had been deeply researching the subject, and that’s when she made a really sad discovery.
She discovered that of the population, there are many homeless women who constantly had to make tough choices, but that one of those choices lay between Staying healthy, Eating, having a roof over their head, or having sanitary products, and the last of these, the sanitary supplies, was usually the first thing to cut out!
Lily thought about this and really wanted to make a difference, not just write a school paper about it, so she started collecting tampons and other little things for women’s hygiene and pack them into little kits.
Lily said:
“They contain enough supplies for one menstrual cycle”
She took the kits out into the streets with her and gave them to homeless women, such a great, kind and selfless act, both compassionate and thoughtful Lily had stunned her teacher and everyone else!
No too long after this she had collected $3000 for her project to continue!
Lily said:
“With the money I have made now, I could probably have a year’s worth of kits for the woman in the shelters”
A small gesture that made a huge impact:
If more people could be so selfless and follow this girl’s passion for helping others. Maybe if you share her story it will prompt others to get stuck in and help each other out!
Dick Hoyt and his wheelchair bound son Rick Hoyt were icons of the Boston Marathon.
Not only people from the U.S, but also from countries from all over the world learned of this incredible duo that paved the way for other disabled people participants in marathons.
Sadly, the Boston Athletic Association shared the devastating news of Dick Hoyt’s passing at 80 years old on Wednesday, as per Today. “We are tremendously saddened to learn of the passing of Boston Marathon icon Dick Hoyt. Dick personified what it means to be a Boston Marathoner, finishing 32 races with son Rick. We are keeping his many family & friends in our prayers.” He died in his sleep.
The organization further wrote: “Team Hoyt’s 1,000th race together came at the 2009 Boston Marathon, and in 2015 Dick served as Grand Marshal of the race in recognition of his impact on the event and Para Athlete community.”
Team Hoyt crosses the finish line of the 118th Boston Marathon on April 21, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)
Over the years, these father and son completed more than 1100 marathons together, among which 32 Boston marathons, with Dick pushing his son in a customized wheelchair.
Rick has cerebral palsy and was diagnosed as a spastic quadriplegic. He is unable to walk or speak. His condition is a result of the lack of oxygen in his brain during birth caused by the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck.
When Rick was welcomed into the world and diagnosed with the condition, Dick and his late wife were advised to place him in an institution, thus telling them he would be vegetable and burden for the rest of his life, according to his now late father Dick, as per Today.
However, his parents never gave up on him. On the contrary, they did all in their power to offer him the best life. Despite his condition, Rick finished high school and graduated from theUniversity of Boston.
Dr. Bryan Lyons throws out the first pitch as Dick Hoyt and his son Rick Hoyt, left, look on before the game between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park on April 19, 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts. Dick and his son Rick have competed in marathons and triatholons together. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
After Team Hoyt were memorialized in a life-sized bronze statue placed at the starting line of the Boston Marathon, Dick opened up and said: “Today he’s 51 years old and we still haven’t figured out what kind of vegetable he is — and guess what? That vegetable has been turned into a bronze statue.” He was very proud of his son, and happy that Rick proved the doctors wrong.
The story behind the love for marathons is truly a touching one.
One day in 1977, after he got back from school, Rick wrote on his computer how he wanted to take part in a charity race for a boy who was involved in an accident and was left paralyzed.
Dick agreed and the two participated in that race. “We came in next to last, but not last,” said Dick. “When we got home that night, Rick wrote on his computer, ‘Dad when I’m running, it feels like my disability disappears’ — which was a very powerful message to me.”
“YES YOU CAN”: Dick Hoyt, the dad famous for completing more than 30 Boston Marathons with his quadriplegic son, has passed away at 80. @willganss reports on his inspiring legacy. pic.twitter.com/ysla3SFVPA
Speaking on their positive impact on others, Dick once said: “It gives me a great feeling inside to see other families run with their family member with a disability, or for people without disabilities to push people who are disabled in races. We run for the people who think they can’t run.”
Not being able to see your parents for long periods of times can be devastating. This is something children whose parents serve in the military know best.
Brian Kelly is a 5-year-old boy from Belleville, Illinois, who loves spending time with his dad. The two do a lot of fun things together, and that includes yard work. However, now that Brian’s dad Daniel is overseas, serving the country, the little guy feels really sad.
“Brian misses his father,” mom Barbara Kelly says of her youngest son. “He’s a shy boy, and he loves his daddy.”
Source: YouTube Screenshot / CBS Evening News
Luckily, Brian found a way to fill his void, and now the story of him and one of the neighbors who stepped up when the boy needed it the most is melting hearts all over the Internet.
Namely, one day, Brian decided to knock on Dean Cravens’ door and that’s how the lovely friendship started.
“Nobody ever comes to our front door, so I was like, OK, who could that be?” Dean said. “And you could see him through the window, it’s Brian. And I just looked at him and I could tell he wanted to do yard work and I said, ‘Sure, meet me around the garage. We’ll get some tools out and go.’”
Source: YouTube Screenshot / CBS Evening News
For the next six weeks, the newly made friends had a lot of fun together. Dean went on to say that sweet Brian was “taking it upon himself to adopt me to do the yard work.”
Although Dean is quite busy having a full-time job and a family on his on, he just couldn’t say no to a boy who was missing his dad’s company so much. “I just like to see the smile on his face and see him happy doing it,” Dean said and added how he cherishes every moment spent with Brian.
Source: YouTube Screenshot / CBS Evening News
Brian’s mom said she was extremely grateful to Dean for standing as a father figure for her son while Daniel was away. “He’s just there to help Brian get through the days. He’s ‘absolutely’ filling in. That’s exactly what he’s doing.”
Thank you Dean for showing the world how awesome you are for impacting the boy’s life in such a manner.
Source: YouTube Screenshot / CBS Evening News
You can take a look at the whole story and how these two friends have fun together in the video below.
Not everyone is lucky enough to meet that special person they want to spend their eternity with. Well, true love is hard to find, so once we stumble upon it, we should never let it go.
Matt Grodsky and Laura Steel have known each other their entire life. Their families were good friends and they got to spend a lot of time together. What’s more, they attended the same preschool and loved hanging out.
Source: Facebook/Matt Grodsky
When they were just three years old, Matt stood in front of his class and said that he would one day marry Laura. Of course, everyone thought that was very sweet coming from someone so young. The truth is, no one ever believed this promise would one day turn into a reality.
“We have very fond memories of each other. Matt reciting movie lines and scenes from “The Lion King,” Laura teaching Matt how to draw and swing. We went on playdates to each other’s houses and movies with our parents,” they told Obsev.
Spurce: Facebook/Matt Grodsky
After preschool, Matt and Laura attended different elementary school and would only see each other on the Christmas photo cards their families sent to each other.
Years passed by, and these two were reunited once again during high school. They instantly fell for one another and started dating. Unfortunately, after finishing high school, they attended different colleges which were some 1,600 miles apart. Laura went to Northern Arizona University, while Matt went to Columbia College Chicago.
They could easily call their relationship quits, but their love was so strong that they came up with suitable visiting schedules.
Source: Facebook/Matt Grodsky
Long-distance relationships can be hard to maintain, but when it comes to true love, nothing is impossible, and Matt and Laura are the perfect proof of that.
During their senior year, Matt popped the question. He had his friends capture the lovely moment on camera.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, is this happening?’” Laura told Today. “I saw the ring and was like, “This is gorgeous. I’m so happy with it.’”
Matt’s uncle, who officiated the marriage, said: “For most kids in preschool, it’s about finding your snacks and your sleeping mats, but for them it was about finding their soulmates.”
The American dream became a reality for the Trump family when the grandfather of former president Donald Trump, Frederic, placed foot on the U.S. soil back in 1885 from Kallstadt, Germany to join the Alaska gold rush. Over time, he became a restaurant owner and married his neighbor from Germany, Elizabeth Christ.
In 1905, Fred Trump, the father of Donald Trump was born. From very early age, Fred showed interest in creating things from wood and cement, and he used that in order to start a business in the building industry.
Youtube/ABC
In a 1973 interview with The New York Times, mogul Fred Trump said: “When I was a lad I discovered that I was agile with my hands, that I could take pieces of wood and nail them together, and that it was a lot of fun. When I was 16, I built a garage for a neighbor, probably not the greatest garage ever put up, but the experience reinforced my hope of doing something creative with wood and bricks and cement.” And, as we all know it, constructing things would become this incredible man’s calling.
Twitter/DonaldTrump
The famous Trump empire started taking form when Fred was still in high school. He graduated from Richmond Hill High School in 1923 and took classes in building construction at the Young Men’s Christian Association. In 1924, young Fred built his first home. In the following years, more houses arouse in Queens, and Fred, along with his mother, started the company E. Trump & Son.
Fred, being the oldest of the siblings and losing his father at the age of 11, took care of his brothers and sent them to college. But they, however, weren’t into the business as Fred was. At the time, the houses were sold for around $4,000 dollars. So, Fred was helping the middle class and was doing a lot for the community while getting extremely wealthy at the same time.
Business was booming, but then the World War II happened, and Fred was afraid he would lose clients, a lot of which Jews, so he hid the fact that he was of German origin. Instead, he claimed his father came to the U.S. from Sweden. During the war, Fred’s company was building apartments for the Navy and later homes for the veterans. He was well respected and helped improve the lives of those belonging to the middle class a great deal.
Donald Trump claimed his grandfather was Swedish for long, but then, during the annual German-American Steuben Parade in New York City in 1999, the former president said: “We passed Trump Tower, 69 stories. I looked up and I said, ‘This is a long way from Kallstadt’, I’m a proud German-American.”
Donald Trump and his siblings were all looking up to their father Fred who was a very successful, yet an extremely humble man who taught his children how life works the hard way. “My father was my inspiration,” Trump said in 1999.
Donald was the sibling who would take over the family business and Fred was quoted saying: “I gave Donald free rein. He has great vision, and everything he touches seems to turn to gold,” after he allowed his son enter the real estate and construction market in Manhattan despite the huge risk.
Youtube/ABC
Fred Trump passed away in 1995, after his health declined due to Alzheimer’s. It was Donald who recognized his dad’s condition when they were driving down 5th Avenue in New York City, and Donald said he’d bought the land underneath the Empire State Building. Fred’s response was: “That’s a tall building, isn’t it? How many apartments are in that building?”
Céline Dion‘s voice has been dubbed nothing less than angelic by many of her fans. From the moment she started her singing career, she captured the sympathy of many and remains until this day one of the most beautiful and most powerful female vocals ever.
Her hits ”My Heart Will Go On”, ”All By Myself” and ”Because You Loved Me” are simply iconic.
One person in the singer’s life believed in her talent more than anyone else. Her manager, and later husband, René Angélil. In order to help her finance her first record, René remortgaged his house.
The two first met when Dion was just a girl of 12 years, and they got engaged in 1991, when the singer was 23 years old. The famous couple tied the knot in 1994. René was 26 years her senior.
Wikimedia / Georges Biard
Sadly, he passed away in 2014 after battling throat cancer. Dion stayed by her husband’s side until the end of his life and their love story was a true inspiration. Both showed their affection for one another every single day and were considered one of the best celeb couples.
Dion was devastated, but she found the courage to stay strong for her children. ”Knowing that now he’s in peace and is resting and is always within me. I see him every day through the eyes of my children. He gave me so much strength,” she told Hello Magazine. ”To be honest, I think I’m at the best of my life right now and I want to enjoy and embrace every moment of it and really enjoy it. It’s like I’m having a second wind, like I’m having the wind beneath my wings. I’m having a good time.”
Instagram/celinedion
Dion and her husband of 21 years had three sons together.
They welcomed their first boy, René-Charles Angélil, in 2001. Years after that, they both wanted to give him a sibling, and turned to IVF. The couple spoke openly about the process of trying and finally, in 2010, they told the world that after seven miscarriages, Dion was pregnant with twins.
The boys were named Eddy, after Dion’s favorite French songwriter, Eddy Marnay, and Nelson, after former South African President Nelson Mandela. They are now all grown up and love being around their mom’s side.
Dion is a proud mother and now takes care of her boys all by herself. She said that losing their dad was hard for her kids, but they all managed to move on. She often shares photo of them and speaks of the love she has for each of them and how they make her life complete.
Steven Seagal is one of those Hollywood celebrities who gained fame almost overnight. However, this actor has had quite a turbulent life, moving from one place to another and devoting his time to the things that truly made him happy.
Seagal was born on April 10, 1952, in Lansing, Michigan, but his family moved to Fullerton, California when he was just five. Growing up, Seagal has always had a thing for blues and got his first instrument at a very young age. Another thing that interested him a great deal and which later became crucial part of his life was martial arts.
At the age of 17, Seagal lied about his age in order to get a job at a restaurant as a dishwasher. The chef, who knew karate, could see young Seagal’s affection for the art so he decided to teach him some moves. This made Seagal fall for martial arts even more, so he decided to leave US and move to Japan in order to master the art.
Source: Shutterstock/ Bart Sherkow
He spent 15 years learning karate, judo, kendo, and aikido and received black belts for each of these arts. At the same time, Seagal became the first ever Westerner to open dojo, a “school for training in various arts of self-defense,” in Japan.
Unlike many foreigners who go to Japan in order to learn martial arts and pay to be taught the basics before they return home and try to spread that knowledge, Seagal excelled and told the Los Angeles Times in 1986, “You have to understand that the way to enlightenment is through deprivation. They create an environment where you’re not getting any approval for all the work you’re putting in.
“You’re not getting any sleep or love or attention, you’re getting your butt kicked and you’re up before anyone fixing meals and cleaning.
“They push you to your limit and when you are so deprived and so hungry for everything, a little window opens up in your mind that when they do give you something you’re going to get it, understand it, appreciate it, and you’ll understand some of the mystical deeper meaning that starts to become available to you.
“The martial arts have to be an endeavor in which you’re trying to develop the physical man and perfect the spiritual self at the same time,” he added. “If that you’re doing is devoid of the spiritual essence, i’s nothing but street fighting.”
Source: Youtube/MNE Clips
Once in America, Seagal practiced what he learned throughout the course of 15 years.
After watching some movies in which actors tried karate or other martial arts and failed or weren’t that good, according to Seagal, he decided to move to L.A. and offer his knowledge. At the same time, he wanted to try himself in the acting business.
Seagal worked on films such as The Challenge (1982), starring Scott Glenn, and the James Bond film Never Say Never Again (1983) with Sean Connery.
Speaking of working with Seagal, Connery said on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1996, “We were going to do a film called Never Say NeverAgain and there was a possibility I was going to do Aikido and what have you.
“I got ahold of Steven and we had this training in the building where I had an apartment and he was really very, very good and everything. And I got a little cocky because I thought I knew what I was doing because the principle is its defense, so it’s a pyramid and I got a bit flash.
“I did that – and he broke my wrist.”
Source: Shutterstock/Featureflash Photo Agency
Along with being sort of celebrity in the world of martial arts and appearing on the covers of many magazines, Seagal also worked as a bodyguard for many celebrities, among which Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz, who would become his life-long friend and who would help him with his acting career.
Ovitz was certain that Seagal would do great on screen so he decided to pay for his screen test with Warner Bros.
“The demonstration was quite miraculous,” Warner Bros. President Terry Semel told the Los Angeles Times in 1988. “With just a toss of his hand, Steven would send the other guy flying. I’m no martial-arts expert, but he had the ability to knock these guys up in the air so effortlessly–well, it was pretty astounding.”
That was the start of a successful career which made Steven Seagal an international star. Over the course of the years, the Under Siege star starred in more than 50 movies.
Source: Shutterstock/ Bart Sherkow
When it comes to his private life, it’s nothing short of tumultuous .
Seagal has been married four times and has seven children. With his marriage to aikido master Miyako Fujitani, he has son Kentaro and daughter Ayake.
Seagal and his second wife, Adrienne LaRussa, were married for only three months before calling it quits. Three years after the divorce, he married actress Kelly LeBrock and welcomed daughters Annaliza and Arissa, as well as a son, Dominic. The marriage ended after nine years, in 1996. While married to LeBrock, Seagal had an affair with his children’s nanny, Arissa Wolf, with whom he has daughter Savannah.
Currently, Seagal is married to Erdenetuya “Elle” Batsukh, Mongolian-American television personality and dancer. They have one daughter together.
Source: Shutterstock/Markus Wissmann
When it comes to Seagal’s children, reports are he’s not in a great relationship with any of them. Speaking to RadarOnline, his eldest son Kentaro revealed that he doesn’t speak to his father anymore and Seagal hasn’t reached out to him. Kentaro went on to say that he doesn’t “even know” his father.
Steven Seagal is now living in Moscow, Russia, after he was granted Russian citizenship in November 2016. Apparently, he’s working as a “special representative for Russian-US humanitarian ties” and left America in order to avoid paying $200,000 which he owes for failing to disclose after he was being paid to promote a digital token.
Source: Shutterstock/Markus Wissmann
In most of the photos he shares on his Instagram account, Steven Seagal, 69, looks almost unrecognizable. The 6 ft 4 actor has a net worth of $16 million.
Donatella Versace helped her brother, Gianni Versace, build one of the most influential fashion houses in the world. She was his muse and his best friend. His assassination in 1997 shook Donatella’s world. With his loss, she lost part of her soul.
Today, she is the vice president of the fashion brand Versace and the driving force behind the glamorous designs worn by celebrities, influential people, and those in love with high cotoure.
Donatella was born on May 2, 1955, as the youngest child of four. Her father worked as a salesman and her mother was a dress maker. Both Donatella and her siblings grew up around different fabrics they got fascinated with. Their mother’s passion for design was soon passed on to her children.
Donatella Versace (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Donatella’s sister Tina passed away at the age of 12. That was a huge heartbreak for the family. The rest of the siblings, Donatella, Gianni, and Santo were extremely close although the brothers were eight and ten years older than Donatella.
When she was 11, Gianni made Donatella dye her hair blonde because he was impressed by the Italian singer Patty Pravo and wanted his sister to look like her.
“I was his doll and his best friend. He dressed me up in cool clothes, took me out to discos and clubs from when I was 11. I loved it. It was the best time of my life,” Donatella told The Guardian.
Toni Thorimbert/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images
Donatella studied languages in Florence but visited her brother Gianni who was living in Milan every two weeks. She was his muse and the closest person in his life. The two were inseparable.
“Donatella filled an indefinable role of muse, sounding board, and first assistant . . . Donatella became Gianni’s shadow in the atelier [and] had a great knack for sizing up a dress or a pair of pants or a color palette and deciding whether it had that mysterious quality that would make it trendy,” expert Deborah Ball wrote in her book House of Versace in 2010.
As Gianni conquered the world of fashion, Donatella and Santo were by his side every step of the way.
“There was Santo, the calm one; Gianni, the enfant terrible, and me – Gianni’s accomplice,” she once said of herself and her brothers.
She was the company’s vice president, and Gianni helped her start her own label, Versus.
Donatella Versace and Gianni Versace at the Paramount Hotel in New York City, New York (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
When Gianni was killed, Donatella was crushed. “For the first five years, I was lost,” she said. “I made a lot of mistakes.” She was feeling so bad and struggled so hard that Elton John once staged an intervention for her after she had a meltdown at her daughter’s birthday party.
She couldn’t imagine her life without Gianni, but she knew she needed to stay strong and continue his legacy.
After Gianni’s death, Donatella took over the creative control of Versace. “Donatella is very much the image of the company. He (Gianni) made strong, sexy clothes for strong sexy women. She was the girl he was designing for,” designer Marc Jacobs said in 1997.
Gianni and Donatella Versace, New York, New York, 1990s. (Getty Images)
Donatella married husband Paul Beck in 1983. The two have two children, daughter Allegra Versace Beck and son Daniel Versace Beck.
Allegra inherited 50% of her uncle’s company. She and her brother also got Gianni’s valuable art collection.
Donatella and Paul divorced in 2000. Speaking of her role of a mother, Donatella shared with Vogue in 2013, “I’m sure I made a lot of mistakes with my children, but if you stay home, I think you make more mistakes.
“Of course, mother is the first thing. I was travelling a lot when the children were little, but I made sure that the time I was spending with them was quality time.”
In 2004, the glamorous fashion designer married her second husband, Manuel Dallori, Italian businessman, but the marriage was short-lived. After the divorce, Donatella decided to focus on her career entirely.
Donatella Versace with her son Daniel, daughter Allegra and Paul (Getty Images)
Besides her enormous success and wealth, Donatella Versace is also known for the many aesthetic interventions on her face. Once, Daily Mail wrote that she “transformed herself into a human waxwork with Botox, implants and laser resurfacing.” Donatella has never spoken publicly if she had gone under the knife.
Dr. Katz from Juva Skin & Laser Center in NYC told HollywoodLife how he believed that Donatella “had her cheeks augmented, probably with filler and certainly her lips have been filled, her eyelids are a little droopy. I think she has had some bad Botox because they look like they are drooping. Maybe a little too much Botox in the forehead. She certainly can use some filler in her ear lobes, they are very stretched.”
Even today, Donatella Versace is one of the most influential designers there are. She and her brother changed the world of fashion forever and influenced many trends over the years.
She has a net worth of $400 millions and says family always remains the most important thing in her life.
“Family is always at the heart of everything I do, which is why I love Bella and Gigi so much. They perfectly exemplify the strength between sisters, and they share that message to our Versace sisterhood worldwide,” she said of her latest campaign she did with the Hadid sisters.
