You’ve probably all heard about clothing swaps, and maybe even experienced one first-hand, but do you know about the S.W.A.P Team?

The S.W.A.P. Team is behind North America’s largest clothing swaps. So far the organization has exchanged over 12,000 items! I had the pleasure of volunteering with the Calgary (Alberta, Canada!) chapter this spring, experiencing the beautiful chaos that is a clothing swap. And it’s definitely something everyone needs to know about.

For the “Take Off Your Clothes” events, a S.W.A.P. Team staple, volunteers collect clean, undamaged items ahead of time (people can also bring them to the event, though they have to wait for them to be sorted.), at which point they are sorted to make sure they are swappable. If your stuff meets the criteria, you (the swapper) are given one ticket for every item you bring in. Then, on the day of the event, you take those tickets and go shopping… er… swapping, choosing from the thousands of items in the “boutique.”

Yup, you get tons of “new” stuff and you don’t have to spend a dime! That’s the beauty of the swap. Read More »

[Everyone’s got a morning after story and we wanna hear yours! Send it over to us and we’ll post it – anonymously, of course – right here!]

Freshman year.  What’s there to say?  You go in with the best of intentions: not losing your scholarships, making the deans list, aiming for the toilet when you puke.

For me, the first few weeks of school went along like perfection.  I had met the one goal I had set for myself, the top tip I read in all the college mags: get to know your professors.  They all knew me by name, even the ones I had for packed seminar classes.  My Sociology professor would go so far as to wave to me on campus.  If that wasn’t an achievement, I don’t know what was.  Plus, he looked just like Maury Povich, which – bonus – I thought was so cool.

Anyway, one evening I find myself in the library being an A+ scholar…sort of.   Picture the scene:  I’ve got a textbook open, my Starbucks in front of me, and I’m just jamming out to my iTunes when The Most Beautiful Guy in The World stands up and leans over the little desk divider.  In an exact quote, he says, “I love that song.”  Expletives abound in my brain as I rip out my ear buds, wondering if these charming blue eyes are really masking his rage at my liberal use of the volume-up button.  In an ultimate loser move, I stare back in silence.  “The Postal Service, right?  Yeah, they’re really good,” he continues.  I’m still staring.  He’s drumming his fingers on my desk in rhythm with the music, which continues to play entirely too loud.  “I’m Will….you are?”  I finally blink, the first time since the start of this whole one-sided exchange, and mumble my name, choking halfway through the second syllable.  “Okay, well then, I guess I’ll be seeing you around,” he goes, and then winks (which, for the record, did not come off even mildly cheesy) before sitting down and going back to work. Read More »

In CC Beauty Live’s new segment, Quick & Dirty, I’ll be doing short reviews of good, cheap products. So if you have anything you want me to review, let me know!

As a college student, I’m always on the lookout for bargains. And as a beauty addict, it can be difficult coughing up $30 for products. So that’s why I get really excited when I find amazing products for even more amazing prices. I often scour drugstores for a hopeful product, and every once in a while I find a great one, like Queen Helene’s Mint Julep Masque ($3.95, Ulta).

This product is fantastic and you can’t beat the price! You get an 8 oz tube for under $5! Check out my Quick & Dirty review for the DL.

[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer as she takes on a personal challenge. This month we're following Jill as she gets out of that boring box of hers and starts facing some fears. First she killed a spider. Then she sang some karaoke. And this week, she confronts authority.]

Ever since I was little, I have had a hard time communicating with authority. So much so, that in 4th grade, when I did my worksheet and left it at home, I stole, YES stole, my desk partner’s worksheet (who I also happened to have a MAJOR 4th-grade style crush on) when he got up to go to the bathroom, erased his name and wrote mine in and handed it in before he got back; a story that to this day I cite as one of the worst things I’ve ever done. (When he searched around in disbelief for his worksheet, asking me if I knew where it went, I twirled my hair saying in a high pitch voice, “I have no idea, Eli!” while trying to flutter my eyelashes and not look guilty. Gulp.)

If I was missing a dance class, I was scared to tell my teacher and tears would well up in my eyes as I tried to explain to her why I wasn’t able to come. When I met with a TA in college over a bad test grade (in a class called Human Sexuality. Tear.), I burst out crying in her chair.

The point being, for some reason, I have a fear about confronting people who are my authority. I don’t know why, but even now, a quarter century on this planet later, I can talk to my peers about what they’re doing wrong or tell my friend something that’s really bothering me, but I can’t tell my boss that I feel sick and need to go home without getting misty eyed.

Until now! Read More »

Recently, a few of my friends and I got into a bit of a disagreement over who pays on a date. Although a few people agreed with me that if the relationship is long-term, the couple should split the costs for practical reasons (after all, especially if you’re on a college budget, it’s hard to bear the burden of all expenses), the overall consensus was that the guy should always pay at first. Some said the first date, some the first three dates, and others advocated up to the first year. My friends argued that if he’s trying to win the girl over, this is the way to do it. Some even joked that it was payment in exchange for what they hoped would be a different type of payment later on.

Personally, I’m still in disagreement with the others on this one. The idea of letting anyone pay for me is just. . . wrong. It makes me feel uncomfortable and goes against every fiber of my feminist being. I’m a strong, self-sufficient woman; I work and take care of my own personal expenses, so why should I have a guy do it for me? And, even more to the point, why should I allow him to pay for me if I can’t pay for him? If we’re going for equality, then why is he footing the bill every time?

At the same time, I can see my friends’ point: the way our society functions, refusing to let a guy pay is usually a girl’s way of expressing disinterest. Social protocol practically dictates that if you like the guy, you let him pay.

Which, to me anyway, is a little twisted.

Read More »

LOVE HER.

I’ve been a fan of Ann Brashares for a decade. “The Sisterhood” series is one of my favorites and practically defines my young adolescence. So, when the opportunity to interview Ann Brashares and review her new book “My Name is Memory” came up, I jumped at the chance! I’m still in shock that I had an actual conversation with one of my favorite authors.

Below, find the interview with one of the neatest women I have ever met and then the review of My Name is Memory. Read More »

The following post is courtesy of our gal pals over at CollegeFashion.net. Check them out for all your fashion and beauty needs!

A beach babe can’t be beachy without rocking wavy hair! As much as I would love to hit the beach every day (and therefore get beachy-wavy hair), most of us, myself included, don’t have the resources or time to do so! So here are some tips to help you create perfect beach waves without a trip to the seashore. Read More »

Yikes! It’s been a crazy week! We had a wedding, some engagements, and a divorce (with some possible cheating in the forecast). Plus, Perez is in trouble and a fallen star was kidnapped??

It wouldn’t be Hollywood if it didn’t keep us entertained!

Craziness:

1. Former 7th Heaven star, Jeremy London, was kidnapped last week by two men in Palm Springs. They helped him change his flat tire, and Jeremy offered to give them a ride home since they arrived on foot. The two men forced him at gunpoint to “smoke dope and hand out alcohol” among other things. Jeremy eventually escaped and contacted the police. The poor guy is a recovering drug addict, and this just makes his road to recovery even more difficult. But luckily, authorities have arrested one of the kidnappers, Brandon Adams, and charged him with kidnapping and robbery along with several other charges. Hopefully Jeremy will make a speedy comeback from this crazy ordeal!

2. Harrison Ford and longtime girlfriend Calista Flockheart are married! You thought they were already hitched, didn’t you? Well, they weren’t. But now they are… finally! They had a small ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion in Santa Fe, New Mexico with Calista’s son, Liam, and the governor and his wife as witnesses. How quaint. Congrats! Read More »

Needy. Ugh. That one word can make any guy run for miles, and being labeled as such is every girl’s worst nightmare. It’s funny in the movies; we can all ROTFL when a character leaves a guy seventeen voicemails in a row (“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”) or assumes that an invite to a party is a declaration of love (“He’s Just Not That Into You”), but the reason it is so funny is because it’s based in some very real, very painful truth.

But being that needy in real life, is not funny.

The problem is that so many girls in our generation are so terrified that some boy might call them needy that the line between being needy and having respect for oneself has blurred. A friend, let’s call her Laura, currently has those two confused, and she is driving me insane. Laura has been kind of in a thing (i.e. the college version of dating) with this guy, we’ll call him Brad, since some time in April. Brad is, to put it nicely, not the world’s most considerate guy. He’ll make plans with her and bail at the last minute, say he’ll talk to her tomorrow and disappear for a week with no communication, hell, he almost forgot to even say “Happy Birthday!” to her. Read More »