Take a look at this Playtex tampon ad. One of these women is not like the others.

This popped up on my Pandora page, and I couldn’t help but be distracted by it.  Playtex’s current ad campaign is based on the idea that “every woman’s body is different,” and at first glance it’s a pretty standard tampon ad. Lots of pink and girly girls – note the skirts and long hair. But if you look at this ad, you’ll see that two out of the three female figures depicted here are almost identical, just posed differently. The woman in the middle and the one on the right are both very slim. They are ideal according to the “thin is in” mentality glorified in the media, but in all likelihood quite a bit smaller than the average American woman. The woman on the left is the only who looks “different,” as her silhouette is significantly more curvy than the others featured in the ad. (I’ll be using “curvy” as a very relative term – obviously, the “curvy” woman here is really pretty average, but she’s rather curvy in comparison to the other women in the ad.)

This is a tampon ad, and obviously a woman’s physical appearance has nothing to do with what type of tampon is right for her. But because it presents a picture of female silhouettes, in which we can see only the superficial outlines of three bodies, the focus of this ad becomes female body size and shape. Read More »

We no longer live in a world of fashion designers and magazine editors. With the growth of the Internet and free blogging platforms, girls and boys from all corners of the globe are becoming fashion icons. Sure, Coco Chanel and Marc Jacobs and Betsey Johnson still make any fashion-savvy individual swoon, but these days it’s the random bloggers who are influencing style and changing the face of fashion. And even designers and magazine editors are seeing this shift in power and acting on it.

Bloggers, once considered to be wannabe fashionistas, are now being treated like celebrities by editors — they’re included in big editorials and even interviewed for features.  What does all this mean for the average college girl? Well for one, fashion is increasingly becoming more about individual style and less about what’s ‘in style.’ It also means that if you’ve got a passion for fashion and an Internet connection, no matter who you are, you could be the next person influencing style worldwide!

Here are five bloggers who have helped change the face of fashion simply by showing their own individual faces! What’s great about these bloggers is that they make fashion close up and personal. These are all real girls who express their individualism through one of the greatest mediums — fashion. Enjoy!

[There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, TFLN…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there (like Ebates, Keep Me Out, and Hot List) and more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.]

Music is a huge part of life for most of us college students–it makes walking to class more interesting, provides background noise for sexy timefor study sessions, sets the mood for hook-ups, and pumps us up for a night of partying.  But keeping your music collection up-to-date can get kind of expensive–at 99 cents or $1.29 per song, those download fees can definitely add up!

But what if I told you there was a way to listen to the full-length version or practically any song, whenever you wanted, for absolutely free (without illegally downloading it)?  Pretty much everyone already knows and loves Pandora Radio for free music listening that’s catered to your tastes.  However, it does have a few pitfalls: you can’t hear a particular song exactly when you want to, you can’t replay or rewind songs you want to hear again, you can’t hear specific songs or artists or make playlists.  But there is a site that makes it possible to do all those things: Grooveshark.

Grooveshark lets you search for and stream music online for free, without having to pay any sort of subscription or pay-per-download fees.  Basically, users can upload their own music libraries, and other users can search and listen to them.  You can even mark songs as favorites so you don’t have to search for them again and create and save playlists. Read More »

You don't need a beard and a ship to discover something (sorta) new.

One fateful day back in the pre-Facebook days,  Christopher Columbus “discovered” America.  Much like you discovered that wearing a scarf around campus on a 75 degree day would not stop the hickey rumors from floating around. And we’re sure that’s not the only discovery that you’ve made since attending college. Just like Columbus discovered America and thought he was onto something pretty big, we’ve all found a few things along the way that wowed us as well. We rushed home, told our roommates, and sat there in shock when we realized that they already knew that it’s smarter to change into sweats before going to a booty call.

So here are a few more awesome discoveries that every college student needs to make:

1. Finding the secret bathroom so you can poo in private: We’ve all been victim to the poop wars in college dormitories.  You enter the community bathroom at the same time as another innocent pooper and each of you sit in the stall waiting for the other to make the first move.  It’s disgusting, but don’t begin to admit it hasn’t happened to you.  I’m guilty as charged, so finding the secret bathroom to do your business is a dream come true.  Nobody goes in there and you have hours to shadoobie in private. Glorious.

2. Finding the class where the prof puts the entire lecture online: This is one of the most wondrous discoveries. Attend class from the comfort of your bed. Just make sure to show up to the exam.

3. How to make a panini in the waffle maker: Or other fabulous cafeteria discoveries. The caf is a place to let your imagination span mountainous regions.  My freshman year, I discovered how to grill a sandwich on our waffle maker. My sophomore year I discovered how to mix the different kinds of cereals (preferably Cheerios and granola). My junior year I discovered the art of burrito making and bringing a Tupperware to the caf for leftovers.  You get the idea, now get out there and be your own Sous Chef. Read More »

While ya’ll were sippin’ on your mojitos and checking out the cute bartender, yesterday, after a long day of interning, I spontaneously decided I was going to wait in line for my new iPhone 4. So at around 6pm, I hopped in my car and  drove to the closet store (Old Town Pasadena) where I was flabbergasted by the line that formed around, yes around, the Apple Store. The crowd had literally snaked past three other buildings and people were camped out with their fold out chairs, magazines and electronics.

No joke, for a moment I thought I took a wrong turn and ended up at the Eclipse premiere.

By the time I had parked, the line had tripled. But I knew that if I didn’t wait in line for my iPhone then, my reservation would be canceled and I would have to wait till the second week of July to get my electronics fix.

Which was not going to happen. Read More »

[There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, Zappos…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there (like Voyij, ShopStyle and MappyHour) and more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.]

You’ve most likely already heard of online radio websites like Pandora, Last.fm, and LaLa. But you might not have heard of Musicovery, a radio-type site that helps you find new music.  And this is definitely a site worth knowin’ about – Musicovery brings something different to the online radio scene.

What really sets Musicovery apart from other radio-type sites are its incredible customization options. Like similar sites, Musicovery lets you specify what type of music you want to listen to based on genre (such as Country, Classical, R&B, etc.).  However, what makes Musicovery unique (and in my opinion, pretty awesome) is that instead of choosing the artist you want to listen to (like most other sites), you choose the “mood” of music you want to listen to – from energetic to calm, positive to dark, and everything in between – and the site creates a playlist of songs based on what you choose.  Read More »

Got something awesome everyone needs to know about? A really great local band? An awesome website? A product that truly changed your life? Personalized snacks? Email your “The Know” ideas to Jill@collegecandy.com and I’ll pass them along to everyone right here, every week. Make your kindergarten teacher proud and share!

This might be the most important “The Know” you will ever read.

Really, this piece of information is life changing.

I know on this website time and again we talk about how we should put in a little more effort for class, not roll out of bed in baggy sweats and at least put on jeans. But we all know that in the winter months even jeans seem like a lot of effort. Not to mention the uncomfortable factor of your jeans digging into you after weeks of late night pizza fests. Face it: there is nothing cute, comfortable OR put together about a muffin top.

It’s a mind boggling situation – how does one look put together yet still achieve maximum comfort?

Read More »

Every college library is similar – always too hot or too cold, smells kind of bad but you aren’t sure why, phrases etched into the tables, and a mixed population of students either writing on each others’ Facebook walls or writing 20 page term papers in a single night.

Good times!

I used to be very anti-library (who isn’t), but this semester I have found ways to make it more comfortable, enjoyable and conducive to a productive day/evening/month of work-doing. It’s all about being prepared (for anything) and as long as you have these essentials in that backpack of yours, you can be successful too.

Water bottle: This seems obvious but you’d be surprised. I once pulled an all-nighter without bringing a water bottle and because I was so into the work I was doing, I never felt like going to get water. Stupid mistake! I got tired and sick, and spent my night drooling on my laptop instead of researching on it. The next time I filled that sucker up a few times per hour, got everything done, and felt great the next day. Also, drinking only coffee, tea or Red Bull (or Bawls...) will almost definitely dehydrate you, cause you to crash sooner than without caffeine and probably give you a terrible stomachache (which may explain that weird smell in the libs….).

Personal hygiene products: I’ll admit that I’m a little weird when it comes to hygiene – I carry toothbrushes with me wherever I go – but I highly suggest anyone going to the library for an extended period of time should have at least a toothbrush thrown in their backpack. Some other products that always come in handy for me are hand sanitizer, lotion, tissues, chapstick, and deodorant. Trust me, it’s better for everyone if you smell like a “Satin Pear” (whatever that is) than whatever 10 hours in a dirty library smells like for a 9:35 Italian class! Read More »

Apple released a brand new iPod on Tuesday and while the rest of the nation was captivated by all the pretty colors and the new gizmo’s shake-to-shuffle feature, I was a little busy geeking out about the other announcement: iTunes 8.

Unlike previous incarnations, iTunes 8 is shaking up the application for the first time in years, this time with the introduction of a better visualizer, a new way to peruse your library and a handy little feature called Genius. Read More »

Now a days, it seems like if you don’t have an iPod and an iPod speaker system, or a very large collection of CDs either in disc form or hanging around on your computer, there isn’t a whole lot you can do for music variety. The radio stations play the same song every ten minutes or so, and unless you have a laptop, even iTunes’ handy Party Shuffle option can leave you in the musical dust. So what do you do?

What if I told you that there was a service online where you could enter a song or artist of your choosing, then get an indefinitely long playlist with songs that have similar sound? Not just any songs, mind you; these are songs like you’ll like, songs that you’ve never heard of before and songs that you adore. Above all, what if I told you it was absolutely positively free?

No, it’s not an e-mail scam that’s going to give you free software as long as you sign up for about fifty different sponsors. It’s Pandora, and she wants to be your friend. Read More »