College moves fast. One second you’re a freshman wandering around the campus with a lanyard and the next second you’re crossing the stage and collecting a diploma. You vaguely remember meeting your best friend when she held your hair back after your first frat party and you kinda remember that all-nighter you pulled to get 3 term papers done in one night. But the rest is a blur of theme parties, walks of shame, and begging your older sister for her fake ID.

Before you know it, you’re out in the real world, working a real job alongside real people, wondering what happened to no-class Friday and $3 pitchers. And trust me, it ain’t fun.

It gets pretty easy to get caught up in it all and forget to be young and crazy. That’s why, with only a little way’s to go until I hit the big 2-5, I’ve put together the ultimate list of everything we, as fun-loving and fearless women, need to accomplish before we turn 25.

initiating the gallery...

What is it about smoking that feels mysterious, or sexy, or chic? Or is that it? Do you smoke because of its image or do you smoke because it’s convenient? It gives you something to do with your hands at parties, I guess. But what else is there? Despite everything you know about smoking – emphysema, the fatality of lung cancer, the fact that it will give asthma to your kids if you keep this up – you’re still doing it. There has to be a reason.

Friends, I’m not trying to guilt-trip or shame you. Certainly, if you want to smoke – go ahead! It only hurts you (well, mostly — anyone in your direct vicinity is getting a good dose of secondhand, but hopefully, you make the conscientious choice to smoke away from others). I’m just trying to understand.

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Aren’t you glad these didn’t happen to you?

Is smoking harmful for your nipples?

What do you think about these crazy holiday gifts?

This is the greatest dog video ever

Finding style inspiration from Kurt Cobain

Meet the inspiration for the next Taylor Swift album

Movies you may have missed this year

Lilo’s Playboy mag gets leaked

The power of later

Thinking about lighting up? At about 530 colleges nationwide, you’ll have to step off campus. Over the past few years, more and more schools have started to implement smoking bans, and 120 campuses have been added to the smoke-free list in the past year alone.

Smoke-free advocates hail these changes as major advancements for student health. But others aren’t convinced, and smoking bans have become a controversial issue on many college campuses.

Everyone has heard about the dangers of secondhand smoke, and this is one of the major reasons for campus smoking bans. Advocates argue that it isn’t fair for students who choose not to smoke to be exposed to harmful cigarette smoke by other members of their community. But recently, the focus of many schools has turned to eliminating students’ smoking habits entirely.

For example, the University of Kentucky put in place a campus-wide smoking ban in 2009. At the time, the state of Kentucky had one of the highest smoking rates in the country, at 25.6%. The ban was protested by some students in a “smoke-out,” but went into effect despite opposition. And the University of Kentucky says that their program works. In 2008, before the ban went into effect, 33 people enrolled in a program on campus to help them quit smoking. Read More »

Is obesity contagious? What about smoking and drug use? Is it possible to unconsciously pick up the bad habits and health problems of your friends? First introduced in 2007, this idea has sparked a debate among researchers and doctors that is still heating up.

A controversial study led by researchers from Harvard and the University of California, San Diego, concluded that behaviors such as overeating and cigarette smoking could be contagious within close social networks. The researchers came to this conclusion by analyzing data from the Framingham Heart Study, a long-running, detailed survey that examined over 12,000 participants. The Framingham Study included information about body weight and drug use habits, and also indicated which subjects were friends or family members. Thanks to this unique feature, researchers were able to take a look at rates of obesity and other health risks among friend groups.

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Smoking is bad for you.

If any generation knows that, our generation does. We’re the ant-smoking campaign generation. We’re the ones who saw the pictures of the lungs before and after someone spent their lives smoking. We’re the kids who were told not to cave to peer pressure. The ones who sat through D.A.R.E. classes and school assemblies and were told before we ever encountered a cigarette that smoking kills. So we know the dangers, those of us who smoke and those of us who have never smoked. We’re well informed and well aware, and people make their own decisions for their own reasons regardless.

There will never be a world where no one smokes. (Maybe I’ll eat my words someday, but I’d do so gladly.) So why exactly is the campaign to rid the world of smoking still a big issue? Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg signed a law banning smoking in public places like parks and beaches. And now, according to Gawker, the government is asking tobacco companies to publish corrective statements on their advertisements and marketing materials, statements that read, “Smoking is very addictive. And it’s not easy to quit…We manipulated cigarettes to make them more addictive… When you smoke, the nicotine actually changes the brain—that’s why quitting is so hard.”  This is just one of many, and they do get harsher. And while part of me revels in the fact that tobacco companies are finally being forced to admit to just how harmful their products are, another part of me knows this will make no difference at all.

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I know what you’re thinking, but it’s all true. Clay Butler, a California entrepreneur, has now introduced the idea of marijuana-infused soft drinks. Combing regular soda flavors with THC, a psychoactive marijuana ingredient, Butler has produced an innovative line of refreshments that’s bound to be a ‘hit.’ Though Butler himself claims to be straightedge, he’s very dedicated to producing and marketing his drinks.

Just in case you’re curious…there are a bunch of flavors to choose from including: Sour Diesel, Grape Ape, Orange Kush, and Doc Weed – something for everyone! And for you traditional Coca Cola lovers, there’s Canna Cola. Though each bottle is going to be around $10 to $15, there’s no doubt this drink will be ‘high’ on everyone’s grocery lists…for medicinal purposes, of course!

With this new breakthrough, who knows what other products might hit the shelves? Pot-sicles? Marijuana marinara sauce? Pot-tarts?

The sky’s the limit!

5 WTF celebrity endorsements. Seriously, WTF??

Not gonna lie, some of those trapped miners were HOT.

Love makes our hearts melt.

Kanye West (nude photo) scandal alert!!

The history of women and smoking.

Fashion challenge: thigh-high socks. Do it right.

Bonjour, mon amis!

Sorry, couldn’t help it. I’ve just taken up French and I’m getting so obsessed! The language is so gorgeous (especially when it’s coming from the lips of a sexy Parisian man) and a nice change from Spanish, which I’ve studied all my life. Plus, every French class I sit through takes me back to my days in Paris this past summer. I loved everything about it: the food, the people, the fashion, the scenery.

Well, everything except for all the smoking. It seemed like everywhere I went there was a cloud of smoke around me. Call me crazy (a lot of people do), but all that smoke just made me super paranoid. I couldn’t shake the vision of my lungs getting just a little bit blacker and my skin getting clogged with wrinkle-causing smoke particles. Not that I know if smoke particles exist, but my imagination usually doesn’t adhere to scientific fact, so whatev.

This made me imagine what it would be like to actually be a smoker, which led me to wondering: Read More »

Let’s face it: we all make stupid decisions. Like choosing a fifth over a review session, or bringing that guy home…who stole our iPod in the morning. That’s part of college life… and a big part of what makes it so memorable. But there are some choices that have longer lasting repercussions; things we do now that will haunt us later.

So here are the 11 things from your 20’s you will most definitely regret when you’re 40. Read More »