As a new school year gets underway, we survey a century of names that represent each decade over the past 100 years. The path from traditional names like John and Mary to today’s Anakin and Zendaya has not been a straight one, but it’s certainly been educational.

1915: The (Old) School of Baby Names 

A century ago, mandatory education was finally becoming the law of the land in the U.S., with John and Mary the undisputed top names for children. John would remain number one through 1923; Mary, until 1946. The Class of 1915 names are a mix of traditional baby names reappearing today, such as Frances, Evelyn, and Ruth, Charles, Arthur, and George, along with others still hovering in fashion limbo: Helen, Irene, Frank, Howard, and Harold.

1925: Hi, Dottie and Bobby!

In 1925, schools in the U.S. were still largely segregated by race and sometimes also by gender. On the name front, Doris joined Dorothy in the Class of 1925, as did Lois, Jean, and Gloria, as in Hollywood superstar Gloria Swanson. On the boys’ side, Robert toppled John, becoming the only non-Biblical name to ever hold the boys’ top spot in the U.S.

1935: Cheer us up, Shirley

The 1930s marked the rise of the cheerful and charming Shirley Temple. The Class of 1935 included many a little Shirley, along with the future women of "Mad Men," Betty and Joan. Larry, Jerry, and Raymond were the Mason, Logan, and Oliver of their time.

1945: A Celebration of New Names

World War II was ending, and the world was ready for a fresh start with a new generation of names. Linda, Carol, and Susan were popular for girls; boys were Donald and Ronald, Larry and Gary, Douglas and Dennis.

1955: The Boom of Debbie and Michael

The Class of 1955, at the height of the Baby Boom, included many a Debbie, with both Deborah and Debra among the most popular names of the decade. Barbara was big, and the iconic Barbie doll would be released in 1959. But shades of today’s trends can be seen in the Class of 1955, too, like modern innovation Cheryl. Boys’ names, too, start to look familiar. Michael took the number one spot in the U.S., and Paul, Kenneth, Jeffrey and Gregory all caught on.

1965: The Dawn of a Revolution

The mid-sixties saw the dawn of school integration and student revolution, and newcomer Lisa hit number one on the baby name list. Other novel entries at the top of the girls’ list included Kimberly, Tammy, and Michelle, famously crooned by the Beatles in 1965. For boys there was Brian, as in the Beach Boys, along with fellow surfer dudes Scott and Todd.

1975: The Rise of Jennifer and Jason

School became a more free-wheeling place by the mid-1970s, with more innovative teaching methods and adventurous classrooms. The names of 1975 were radically different from the stalwarts like John and Mary, yet there was a certain conformity amid the nonconformity, with Jennifer and Jason, Kimberly and Christopher, Amy and Eric all hugely popular. They would inspire the very first book by Nameberry’s creators, Beyond Jennifer and Jason, first published in 1988.

1985: Names in the Club

Ashley, Megan, and Jessica were the cool kids of 1985. Kimberly gave way to Stephanie, Tiffany, and Brittany. Class of 1985 members Amber and Crystal were early nature-inspired baby names. And while Michael remained the Class of 1985’s Prom King, the real story of the decade was the letter J. Joseph, James, and John were joined by Jason, Justin, Joshua, Jacob, Jeremy, and the still-popular Jeffrey at the top of the charts.

1995: A New Class of Baby Names 

As we watched the young British princes William and Harry move through their school years, the English-speaking world aspired to a new classiness in baby name choices.  Upper-crusty surname-names such as Tyler (usually a boy) and Taylor (often a girl) rose to the top of the charts. Rachel was everybody’s favorite Friend, haircut and baby name. Pop culture influences included Alyssa and Samantha ("Who’s the Boss"), Alexis ("Dynasty"), and Kayla ("Days of Our Lives"), plus Disney’s Jasmine, from "Aladdin." On the boys’ side, Andrew, Brandon, Zachary, and Kyle were go-to choices. But the real story was the slow rise of Aidan, which started in the 1990s.

2005:  The Vowels Have It

The class of 2005 is still in elementary school, but some of their names are already fading. Aiden and his brothers were heading toward their peak in 2005, with at least five aiden-ending names in the U.S. top 100. Girls’ names ranged from the literary and ladylike Emily and Emma, to the modern Madison.

2015: A Global Mix of Names

As the 2015 school year gets underway, children are entering new schools and introducing their diverse world of names. While the top names in the U.S. this year are Sophia, Isabella, Noah, Liam and Mason, the most interesting name stories are the global sensations and novel inventions increasingly heard here and around the world, from Anakin to Zendaya.

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The original draft of Valeria Luiselli’s sophomore novel was first read aloud to factory workers at the Grupo Jumex factory near Ecatepec, Mexico. The workers, she explains in her afterword, knew her only as the character Gustavo Sánchez Sánchez, even as she was receiving notes with their feedback and writing new chapters for them to hear. When she recorded an audio message to her original audience at the end of the project, it was the first hint they’d received of her real identity.

The Story of My Teeth, on every level, is obsessed with artifice and the slipperiness of identity. Now translated by Christina MacSweeney, in collaboration with Luiselli, the book mimics her own play with authorial identity. In the book, Gustavo Sánchez Sánchez, also known as Highway, claims to be writing a “dental autobiography,” though the question of whose words we’re actually reading later becomes complicated.

“I’m the best auctioneer in the world,” he begins. He narrates his youth quickly, dwelling on his interest in collecting, poor teeth, ill-chosen marriage, and his brief career as a clumsy interpretive dancer. When middle-aged, he hears of two life-changing success stories: a wealthy author who replaced all of his teeth with implants, and a man who took up auctioneering and raked in cash. Soon, he tells us, he’s abandoned his wife and son to study auctioneering in Oklahoma, where he not only masters the existing arts but invents a new technique: the allegoric method, which seems to consist of telling fabulist tales about each item on the auction block.

Though he quickly achieves massive success as an auctioneer, he says, he chooses to remain in his hometown of Ecapetec, where he builds a turreted palace of a mansion and fills it with collected items purchased at auction. Also purchased at “an auction of contraband memorabilia in a karaoke bar in Little Havana”: his new teeth. “[T]he sacred teeth of none other than Marilyn Monroe,” claims Highway, who wins the set and has them implanted into his own mouth.

Highway and his teeth, new and old, endure more twists and turns than he could expect at this moment of triumph, but always he’s unbowed and in ultimate control, like a battered but sinewy action movie hero. His auctioneering genius -- which he establishes by including full transcriptions of particularly impressive auctions -- is his superpower. 

“I wasn’t just a lowly seller of objects but, first and foremost, a lover and collector of good stories.
Valeria Luisellia, "The Story of My Teeth"

But just as we’ve acclimated to his self-aggrandizing tale, Sánchez gives way to another narrator. Voragine, a wannabe writer, meets our hero at a point in life even Highway would have to describe as rock bottom. He befriends the auctioneer, agreeing to write a dental history in exchange for hearing all the tales of seemingly barren Ecapetec. Yet his reflection on the life of Sánchez bears little resemblance to the man’s own account, save for the barest facts.

The Story of My Teeth originally came to readers as the work of Gustavo Sánchez Sánchez, and it comes to a wider audience as an autobiography by a character called Gustavo Sánchez Sánchez, but repeatedly, this persona is picked apart, revealed to be nothing more than a vaporous disguise or a cloud of hot air.

Unless that, itself, is more real than we tend to think. His auctioneering strategy rests on outrageous exaggerations and even extravagant lies, but he sees them not as lies, but tangible improvements in value. “I wasn’t just a lowly seller of objects but, first and foremost, a lover and collector of good stories, which is the only honest way of modifying the value of an object,” he claims. Most would say this is the least honest way, but his logic also resonates with the mission of a fiction writer.

In a delicately layered, wryly funny fashion, Luiselli is exploring the actual value of telling made-up stories -- what it can do, what it can’t, what can’t be quantified. She even includes a chronology constructed by the translator and a fact-checking report from the publisher, which knot Highway’s story still more closely to the warp and weft of his historical and cultural milieu. Luiselli prompts us to consider the uneasy relationship between fact and fiction, and whether the two can ever truly meet, or even become one and the same.

The Bottom Line:

Luiselli’s witty, wise metafictional novel unravels the boundary between truth and fiction.

What other reviewers think:

LA Times: "At every turn, the book has this careful architecture, even if it feels like a strange, blind alley. Luiselli writes with a confidence that demonstrates she's going somewhere."

The Millions: "You probably think that this sounds like performance art, which it might be, or like an MFA candidate’s anxiety-induced nightmare. But the thing is, Luiselli pulls it off."

Flavorwire: "At most every turn, in fact, The Story of My Teeth breaks faith with the prevailing notion of a collaborative work as a sideline and asserts itself as a fleet, allusive, often humorous novel-essay."

Who wrote it?

Valeria Luiselli has previously published a novel, Faces in the Crowd, which won her a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” Award, and an essay collection, Sidewalks. Born in Mexico City and raised in South Africa and South Korea, she currently lives in New York. The Story of My Teeth was translated by Christina MacSweeney in close collaboration with Luiselli. 

Who will read it?

Readers who love stories within stories, fantastical realism, and sly absurdist humor. Fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Italo Calvino and Virginia Woolf.

Opening lines:

“I’m the best auctioneer in the world, but no one knows it because I’m a discreet sort of man. My name is Gustavo Sánchez Sánchez, though people call me Highway, I believe with affection. I can imitate Janis Joplin after two rums. I can interpret Chinese fortune cookies. I can stand an egg upright on a table, the way Christopher Columbus did in a famous anecdote. I know how to count to eight in Japanese: ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi. I can float on my back.”

 Notable passage:

“For months after the operation, I couldn’t keep the grin off of my face. I showed everyone the infinite line of my new smile, and whenever I passed a mirror or a shop window that reflected my image, I would raise my hat in a gentlemanly fashion and smile at myself. My thin, ungainly body and my rather ungrounded life had acquired serious aplomb with the appearance of my new teeth. My luck was without equal, my life was a poem, and I was certain that one day, someone was going to write the beautiful tale of my dental autobiography. End of story.”

The Story of My Teeth

by Valeria Luiselli, translated by Christina MacSweeney

Coffee House Press, $16.95

Published Sept. 15, 2015 

The Bottom Line is a weekly review combining plot description and analysis with fun tidbits about the book.

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Last year, the Tupac-inspired musical "Holler If Ya Hear Me" hit Broadway to tepid reviews and slow sales, forcing the production to close after less than two months. But fast-forwarding to 2015, it seems it's finally hip-hop's time to shine on the main stage.

"Hamilton," which headed to Broadway from the Public Theater in July, tells the story of founding father Alexander Hamilton and is littered with references to hip-hop greats like Notorious B.I.G., Grandmaster Flash and Mobb Deep. Thus far, the Broadway production has garnered rave reviews, attracted notable patrons like the Obamas and seen phenomenal ticket sales. In fact, Lin-Manuel Miranda's "Hamilton" has become the second-highest grossing show on Broadway, with more than $1.697 million in sales. 

So what's behind the show's success?

As New York Magazine theater critic Jesse Green told HuffPost Live, the show is a "game changer," that completely lived up to the hype. Where "Holler If Ya Hear Me" faltered, Miranda leaned on his knowledge of both musical theater and old school hip-hop to seamlessly marry the two, American Theatre senior editor Suzy Evans told host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani.

"A lot of hip-hop musicals weren't crafted for the theatrical stage -- think of 'Holla If You Hear Me,' the Tupac Shakur-scored musical.  That was music from Tupac made into an official musical," she said. "With Hamilton, Lin grew up with '90s hip-hop and R&B and he grew up with musical theater, and he's basically taking his knowledge and his following … and he's bringing the two worlds together, as I feel like only he really can."

John Keene, the department chair of African-American studies at Rutgers University, praised Miranda for crafting a story that could have been both "dry" and "academic" and bringing it to life with its modern sound. 

"You're really getting this extraordinary history lesson in the form of hip-hop," he said. "And not just through a static version of hip-hop, but hip-hop that is drawing on this array of styles -- beatbox, chopper, freestyle. It's really quite remarkable."

He also lauded the show for its "nontraditional casting," which produced a refreshingly diverse cast. As Miranda told The New York Times earlier this year, that was no accident.

"Our cast looks like America looks now, and that’s certainly intentional," he said. "It’s a way of pulling you into the story and allowing you to leave whatever cultural baggage you have about the founding fathers at the door." 

Watch the full segment about Broadway's most talked-about musical "Hamilton" here. 

Want more HuffPost Live? Listen on the go with free downloads of our best interviews on iTunes here, and subscribe here for our morning email to guarantee you won't miss our buzziest conversations. 

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What if you could hop from Brooklyn to Tokyo to Berlin in the blink of an eye? It’d be nothing short of a miracle -- not to mention an exciting, enriching experience -- to witness the everyday dramas unfolding during a given second across the globe. Yet scrolling through award-winning photos has that effect; photographers, adept as they are at freezing funny or perplexing moments, offer a quick look at the essence of a place and the people in it.

This year’s EyeEm Awards, billing themselves as the world’s largest photography competition, are no exception. The winners, chosen from a pool of 200,000 submissions, are divvied up into categories including fashion, food, portraiture and photojournalism, and nearly each manages to avoid the banal stereotypes of its genre. 

The winner for architectural photography, for example, does much more than capture stunning, geometric buildings. Instead, Jan Tong shows a snow-covered city dotted with white, snowflake-like skyscrapers, captivating in their uniformity.

Winners from other categories hail from Qatar, Lithuania, Italy and beyond. The contest’s overall winner, Porter Yates, is based in Brooklyn, but is lauded for his images of Southeast Asia. EyeEm’s description of his work reads:

“Porter addresses the question of what it means to be an outsider, which everyone feels at some point in time, while also showing the viewer the significance of being part of a culture or community. The way people connect to the world is what really defines his outstanding body of work.”

Below is a roundup of the 11 EyeEm Award-winning photographers to watch out for:

The Moment

Arsenio Nidoy Jr., @ArsenicJunior

From Doha, Qatar

The Action Photographer

Dainius Dirgėla, @dainiu

From Vilnius, Lithuania

The Street Photographer

Dan Szpara, @danszp

From Tokyo, Japan

The Foodie

Fiorella Macor, @fiorellamacor

From Muggia, Trieste, Italy

The Portraitist

Hiroki Fujitani, ​@hirokifujitani

From Saitama, Japan

The Architect

Jan Tong, ​@jantong

From Hong Kong

The Photojournalist

Lino Guardian Escandor II, @linusescandor

From Manila, Philippines

The Fashionist

Stefan Dotter, ​@stefandotter

From Berlin, Germany

The Great Outdoors

Varun Abhaykumar Dahotre, ​@Varunikon

From Pune, India

The Traveler

Yu­-Chen Chiu, @yuchenart

From Brooklyn, New York, USA

2015 EyeEm Photographer of the Year

Porter Yates, @porteryates

From Brooklyn, New York, USA

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Hey, hey, the dog's eyes are up here, thank you very much.

For the second year running, the nonprofit Louie's Legacy has come up with an extremely compelling case for animal rescue, in the form of a calendar that'll keep you feeling warm even when the weather's turned frigid.

"We hope that people will buy the calendar for the guys, but stick around and find out more about fostering, volunteering or adopting from Louie's Legacy or your local animal shelter or rescue," Emily Gear, the group's founder, said.

Sorry, did we say calendar? That should should be calendars.

That's right, last year's Hunks and Hounds calendar was so wildly successful, so fabulously appealing, that this year the group is putting out two different versions.

"People can get one or the other, but for a discount, they can get both," Gear said. 

Mike Ruiz is the brilliant dog-loving photographer who is responsible for these images. (He and the models all do this shoot pro bono, or, you might say, pro canine.)

Ruiz tells The Huffington Post he's hoping that a very particular message comes through.

"We paired hulking men with sweet rescues to convey the idea that these animals need protection from the cruelty and indifference that exists in the world of discarded and abused dogs," he says. "If that isn't apparent to some, then we hope that they will appreciate the delicious eye candy!"

But seriously, this is Louie's Legacy's biggest fundraiser of the year, and calendar proceeds will cover a whole lot of homeless animals' medical bills.

"We are happy last year's calendar helped us save animals like Damien, a Rottweiler who required $6,000 in hip surgery in addition to his regular vet expenses, and others like him," Gear said.

We do have one bit of slightly disappointing news. We can't speak for the humans, but all the dogs you're admiring here have already been adopted. 

So, right now, you can only go home with their photos.

"Don't worry, there are plenty more waiting in rescue for their forever homes," says Gear.

 The 2016 Louie's Legacy calendars go on sale Sunday night! 

Get in touch at arin.greenwood@huffingtonpost.com if you have an animal story to share.

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If you've ever heard of "Earth porn," this isn't exactly it. 

Some photographers snap pictures of pretty landscapes, but Swiss-born Italian artist Filippo Ioco uses nature as a canvas to subtly explore artistic nudity.

His landscapes include nude models painted to resemble their surroundings. Sometimes the people are very well-hidden, while other times they stick out rather obviously.

Why hide naked models among rocks, cliffs and trees? Ioco says he hopes that spotting the nudes will help people better accept the nude human form as art.

"Bodypainting will never save the world, but it's presence will certainly change the way society around the world views and embraces artistic nudity," Ioco wrote on his website. 

If nature photography isn't your thing, Ioco has also shot pieces with naked people as cocktails, desserts and wild animals.

Can you spot all all the nudes in Ioco's images below?

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Photographer Jonathan Diaz likes using his work to foster kids' vivid imaginations and inspire them to follow their dreams. His "Anything Can Be" photo series brings joy and encouragement to a group of kids who, he told The Huffington Post, "could use a dream to hold onto" -- children battling pediatric cancer.

"Anything Can Be" features young cancer fighters fully immersed in imaginary worlds, dressed as whatever they dream of being -- whether that's a baker, superhero, magical fairy or fashion designer. "We all want to believe in miracles, that the impossible is possible, that we can overcome adversity," Diaz said. "I felt that if I could show these kids that anything was possible through photography then they would believe that anything was possible in real life through hard work."

One inspiring little boy named Ethan dreamed of being both Batman and a doctor, two jobs that involve helping people in need. Diaz helped bring his dual-career dream to life through costumes, makeup, props and a little photo shoot magic.

Now Ethan and his fellow cancer fighters have been immortalized in a book called True Heroes. Diaz recruited 21 bestselling authors to write short stories about the kids and their dreams to accompany the magical photos. The finished book was released on Sept. 8. "I want this book in the hands of every kid fighting this disease," Diaz told HuffPost. "I want them to read this book and imagine themselves as fairies, dragon riders, football players and more and believe that they can be those things."

The photographer also hopes that families will read this book together and that it will lead to earlier discussions about cancer. "I see the effect this project has had on my family, and it is immense," Diaz said. "My 10-year-old son has decided he is going to be the doctor that cures cancer. At first it was hard to talk about, but now my kids talk about it openly, they want to help, they want to give of their talents."

The authors who wrote the short stories were also inspired by the project. "You can’t spend a minute around these kids and not have your heart and soul expanded," author J. Scott Savage told The Huffington Post. "They have gone through things that as I parent I can’t even imagine, and yet they are all smiles and laughs." 

"On the surface, this book is just a bunch of cool pictures and cute, little stories," author Sara Larson added. "But when you meet these children, when you see the glow in their eyes as they hug those books close and keep glancing at those pictures -- the images of them having their dreams come true -- you realize it is much, much more."

Keep scrolling to see a sample of the inspiring kids living out their wildest dreams.

H/T Today

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Photographer Natalie McCain has made headlines for her "Honest Body Project" -- an empowering collection of photo series that feature moms in a stripped-down state, discussing parenthood and body image. The latest photo series in the project focuses on a particular group of parents: moms of children with special needs. 

Titled "Defined by Our Hearts," the new series shows six mothers posing with their children and sharing their stories and thoughts on parenting kids with disabilities.

The photographer told The Huffington Post that she also hopes "Defined by Our Hearts" resonates with other moms of kids with special needs and inspires all parents -- regardless of their child's level of ability. "I hope that it helps mothers whose children are typically developing to start conversations with their children on how amazing these kids are and to be more understanding," she said.

"Don't hush your child when they have questions about another child's special needs," the photographer continued, adding that her 3-year-old son attends a special needs school for sensory issues and speech delays. "I've had so many children ask me, or my son, why he sounds like a baby," she said. "I hope by me modeling a healthy response and reaction to these questions, it will give him the confidence to not be embarrassed as he grows. I never want him to feel that he is less than others just because he has a hard time with his speech."

As with her previous photo series, McCain photographed the moms having open and honest conversations in their underwear -- to empower them, "help normalize the natural body" and "paint a better picture of motherhood," she said.

"While the mothers may be speaking about their children, the series still focuses on the mothers' lives, feelings, bodies, and general motherhood," she added. "When you feel more confident and have a healthy body image, this positively affects all areas of your life."

The series title, "Defined by Our Hearts" comes from one of the moms' quotes about her son, which stuck with McCain. The photographer told HuffPost, "We should all be defined by who we are, how we love, how we live our lives, rather than the disabilities we may have."

These captions have been edited and condensed. Visit the Honest Body Project website to read more about these moms and their families.

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There really are few better ways to mark the birth or end of a season in Brooklyn than the Psychic party series.

Psychic parties, which last for 10 hours, are truly unique experiences in New York City nightlife. For over three years now producer David Sokolowski has curated these events, with the upcoming Psychic Summer becoming the seventh installment in the Psychic party series.

Billed as a queer coming-of-consciousness party, Psychic aims to provide the space, aesthetics and music necessary to transport its attendees to a higher spiritual plane. 

"The space is as liberated as the people in it," Sokolowski told The Huffington Post. "Spaces like Psychic and those who share similar values as a means of production in nightlife give opportunity for people to get a little deeper into individual and shared consciousness. To me, what’s most important is people coming together and doing their own thing. We don’t impose rules on people -- the vibe is to do your own thing and strengthen autonomous space."

Psychic Summer will also provide an opportunity for queer hip hop artist Will Sheridan to take on a different role at the function, serving as the emcee and primary host of the event in addition to performing. 

"My role with Psychic has grown organically," Sheridan said. "So has my relationship with David. We’ve worked together at Hot Fruit for over a year. I, unlike a lot of hosts, believe that the responsibility of a host is to enhance the environment. And that’s what I wanna do -- I wanna facilitate the fantasy that the party was curated for and I want to weave it together, working with the DJs and live acts."

Brooklyn nightlife team The Culture Whore, made up of Mark Dommu and Paul Leopaold, will not be working on this installment of Psychic.

"I feel like our tastes have developed and become refined in ways that are unique to each of us," Sokolowski elaborated on the collaborative departure. "I felt the need to fulfill a very strong desire to display and engage in my own particular taste. I obviously plan to continue to collaborate with The Culture Whore in the future... after having the first Psychic in 2013, I came back in 2014 with Paul. Since then the party survived and thrived because of his engagement with it, and also later on because of Mark. I’ll always be really thankful for that."

A portion of the proceeds raised from Psychic will go to The Red Umbrella Project, an organization committed to amplifying the voices of those engaged in sex work and providing resources to enable them "to take greater control of their lives and livelihoods."

"The Red Umbrella Project is working very hard to provide the public with a much-needed context of what the sex worker experience is and where it should be going," Sokolowski explained. "It’s important to support social issues that affect real change and empower people to support themselves."

The Psychic party series, in many ways, represent much of the positive cultural production that comes out of nightlife in New York City. Not only do these events tend to bring people together in a unique form of queer community building, but they provide an escape and fantasy into a liberating space that, at it's root, is about empowering and celebrating people to live authentically and openly.

Psychic Summer will take place on Friday, Sept. 18 in Brooklyn, New York. Head here for tickets and information.

All photos courtesy of Tinker Coalescing. Check out photos from past Psychic parties below.

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A group of talented teen filmmakers is making sure everyone feels at home. 

Teens at Deaf Film Camp, a two-week camp for aspiring filmmakers who are deaf or hard of hearing, have released their 2015 American Sign Language music video -- for Phillip Phillips’ song “Home.”

"We picked 'Home' because the lyrics are simple, but heavy with soul," Wayne Betts, Jr., Deaf Film Camp co-founder, told People.com. "The concept of translation is abstract, and we try to capture that in the sign language. Translating the melody of the song into a visually meaningful way was a challenge."

The final product is beautiful and touching. Produced by both campers and staff, the music video “[highlights] the emotional connection that our campers have made with each other,” the video's description says. Each shot -- which varies between locations like a dormitory, beside a lake and in the theater -- gives viewers a different perspective on the actors’ camp and personal experience being deaf or hard of hearing.

In 2014, the camp produced an ASL video for Pharrell’s hit “Happy.” YouTube users showed support for the campers in the videos comment section, with one user, Judith Jessop writing: “The computer world has truly rocked the deaf community and brought the hearing and the deaf together in a way that I never knew back in the '70s!" 

The video for Phillips’ song has a different energy and pace, but is equally awesome, and emphasizes that all young artists have a home at Deaf Film Camp.

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A mom-of-two felt "embarrassed" and "degraded" after she was allegedly kicked out of a local gym's locker room for trying to breastfeed her baby in one of the stalls. 

Caroline Hoffman was at LA Fitness in Buford, Georgia with her 7-month-old son Elliott on Sept. 15, when she went into the women's locker room to nurse him, she told The Huffington Post. While she was in the locker room with her son in a carrier, an employee instructed her to leave. "She was standing outside my stall door going, ‘Ma'am, Ma'am you can’t be back here,’" the mom told WSBTV. 

"I felt embarrassed that I had been chased down and yelled at in front of the other members," Hoffman told The Huffington Post, noting that the employee said children were not allowed in the locker room, though no signs stated that. "I had no idea any rule was broken, and I came out to the front right away and apologized to the staff for my mistake, even though, as it turns out I was not in the wrong, and I should have been allowed back there."

After being told to leave the locker room, Hoffman went to the front desk, where employees gave her two breastfeeding location options: on the toilet in the "Kids Klub" bathroom or a chair by the front entrance. Not wanting to nurse in a "disgusting bathroom stall" or in front of fellow gym members coming and going, Hoffman requested a chair in the corner of the children's area, but she says her request was denied.

Hoffman shared her experience in a negative review on the gym's Facebook page.

"This is so degrading and disrespectful to mothers everywhere." she wrote. Hoffman also shared her story with the Atlanta Moms Club group on Facebook, which she founded herself. Fellow parents jumped to her aid, commenting on her Facebook review, writing their own and reiterating Georgia state law, which protects a mother's right to breastfeed her child anywhere she has a legal right to be.

"I have the unique ability to reach a wide audience of local women with the push of a Facebook post, and ultimately they gave me the courage to share this experience," the mom told HuffPost. "We hope it will spark change not only within LA Fitness locations across the board, but that other gyms will look at their own facilities and ask themselves if they are providing reasonable accommodation for mothers."

LA Fitness faced similar criticism in April 2014, after a breastfeeding mother was instructed to leave the locker room at a California location. A group of moms staged a nurse-in shortly thereafter.

Later on the same day Hoffman's incident occurred, the manager of the Buford gym location called Hoffman's husband on his cell phone and offered an apology. The mom later called the manager back to speak with him herself.

"The apology seemed heartfelt but still came with the qualification that I must check in with the desk staff any time I wanted to breastfeed," she said in retrospect. "I was still disappointed and felt uneasy being treated like a special case, when in fact many mothers breastfeed, and many others would like the same equal treatment I was looking for."

Hoffman said she plans to go to another LA Fitness nearby where she has been treated "very well" but does not wish to return to the Buford location while the same manager is in place. 

The day after the incident, the mom received a longer email apology from a regional manager, pledging to "prevent any future occurrences of this nature." The email reads in full: 

Dear Caroline,

What you had to go through yesterday was terrible. I am sincerely sorry your experience went the way it did. I have been made aware that since sending your email, you were contacted by the Operations Manager, Nima, in which he apologized for giving you wrong information.

To clarify - you (and every Mother) are permitted to breastfeed anywhere in the gym you would normally be. This includes the locker room and Kids Klub. I will ensure every staff member, at every gym, is educated on this policy to prevent any future occurrences of this nature.

Going forward we will also ensure there is a chair available in the Kids Klub for breastfeeding Mothers to utilize. Once again I apologize for the embarrassment you were put through. Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or further concerns.

Sincerely,

Kevin Suggs
District Operations Manager

While the note was promising, Hoffman said she hoped to see more tangible initiatives. "I responded to him and asked what kinds of change I could expect to see companywide and have not heard back."

LA Fitness did not respond to The Huffington Post's request for comment.

Still, Hoffman remains focused on the broader impact of her story. "I hope this educated men and women to their rights legally and gives mothers the strength to speak up when a business breaks the law," she said. "Women need to stand together on this and remember what we are doing today impacts the quality of life they will experience later."

"I want my own daughter to know women can make a difference and insight change in the world," she continued. "Speaking up when you are treated unfairly helps everyone, not just yourself. There's a bigger picture to this one, small experience."

H/T WBSTV

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The ladies of Twitter never fail to brighten our days with their brilliant -- but succinct -- wisdom. Each week, HuffPost Women rounds up hilarious 140-character musings. For this week's great tweets from women, scroll through the list below. Then visit our Funniest Tweets From Women page for our past collections. 

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Reeling after the love of her life broke up with her, Singapore-based illustrator Cherlyn Chong did what she does best: She sat down and drew a heartening, totally relatable comic about the experience. 

"Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I resolved to use the breakup for good instead of evil -- which basically means I decided to turn a very painful thing into something really positive. I just think good vs. evil sounds so much more dramatic," the 28-year-old cartoonist joked in an interview with The Huffington Post.  

In the comic, Chong outlines her baby-steps-first approach to getting over a breakup: It's OK to mourn the loss of your partner, she reminds the reader. Expect to have very little energy in the weeks to come. And yes, well-meaning friends will offer some bad advice. ("You'll get over it!" is not helpful, folks.) But eventually, it does get better.

Readers have really connected with the comic on on Tumblr, where Chong first posted it. She told HuffPost she hopes her work inspires others dealing with heartbreak to "love themselves just a little bit more."

Read part one of the comic below, then head to Chong's website to read the comic in its entirety.

Like what you've read so far? Read the rest of the comic here (including part two, where you'll meet the turtle mentioned in the title).

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On Wednesday, Sept. 16, students of the University of Buffalo were shocked to find "White Only" and "Black Only" signs hung near campus bathrooms. Students were sickened and traumatized by the apparent act of racism; by 1 p.m., the police had received 11 phone calls regarding the signage.

It was later revealed, however, that the signs reminiscent of the Jim Crow era were put on display by graduate fine arts student Ashley Powell, who is black, as part of an art project. 

Before Powell admitted to hanging the signs at a Black Student Union (BSU) meeting on Wednesday night, students and faculty were left wondering about the source of the racist designations. "We didn’t know it was an art project, it could’ve been an act of terrorism," a student explained to The Spectrum, the independent campus newspaper. 

When Powell revealed that she was behind the act, a project for her "Installation: Urban Spaces" class, which requires students to install art in a public space, many students stormed out of the BSU assembly, some in tears. "It brought up feelings of a past that our generation has never seen, which I think is why it was so shocking for us to see," Micah Oliver, president of the BSU, told ABC. 

"As an artist, I respect you as an artist," said student Jefry Taveras in the BSU meeting. "But you should know racism isn’t art, it’s a reality and traumatizing."

In a statement to The Spectrum, Powell explained the reasoning behind her installation, which addresses issues of non-white suffering and white privilege. "I apologize for the extreme trauma, fear, and actual hurt and pain these signs brought about," she wrote. "I apologize if you were hurt, but I do not apologize for what I did."

She went on to expand upon the motivations behind the project, which was intended to spark outrage and discomfort in viewers. 

"My art practice is not an act of self-policing meant to hide my rage. Instead, it uses pain, narrative, and trauma as a medium of expression and as grounds for arguing a need for change in the first place. I understand that I forced people to feel pain that they otherwise would not have had to deal with in this magnitude. But I ask, should non-white people not express or confront their trauma? Should we be content with not having to confront that pain? We know it exists, and it often causes many of us immediate discomfort. Should we not be in a state of crushing discomfort?

These signs made you feel discomfort. They are tangible objects that forced you to revisit your past, to confront your present, and to recognize here and now the underlying social structures that are directly responsible for your pain and suffering. This project makes forceful what has been easy for you to ignore."

Read Powell's statement in full here.

University of Buffalo released the following statement regarding the incident: "After an initial investigation by University Police, it has been determined that the signs posted in Clemens Hall were part of a student art project. The University is continuing to review this matter through appropriate university policies and procedures."

Powell is far from the first artist to toe the fine line between critiquing racism and embodying it. Brett Bailey's "Exhibit B," a performance recreating the "human zoos" of the 19th century, Ti-Rock Moore's sculpture of Michael Brown's dead body, and Kenneth Goldsmith's poetic reading of Michael Brown's autopsy have all caused dire outrage. However, it should be mentioned that the three artists listed above are white. 

"My practice wants to call you to action and force you to make a choice," Powell expressed in her statement. "I ask, why have these signs caused more outrage than the fact that over 800 people have been unjustly murdered by the police since the death of Michael Brown? Why does it take signs, and not the public and unlawful police gang rape of Charnesia Corley to cause one of, if not the biggest, turn out of the BSU ever? Why does it take these signs for students of different non-white organizations to finally and passionately verbalize a need for non-white solidarity?"

Do you think Powell's art project was an effective and provocative challenging of white privilege? Or did the artist go too far in exploiting a painful history for her artwork? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. 

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Bride Liisa Luts and her husband-to-be wanted their nuptials to be low-key, so they ditched many of the traditional parts of wedding planning --  like hiring a photographer.

Instead, Liisa -- who runs a photography and videography company in Tallinn, Estonia with her husband -- decided to take photos of the August 28 wedding herself.

 "We just didn’t feel the need for a beautiful and more classical wedding gallery from third person’s perspective," Liisa told The Huffington Post. "We wanted something 'our own' and that’s what this series is about."

The ceremony was held in the Tallinn Registrar’s Office and the reception was held at a restaurant later in the day, making it a low-key and intimate celebration. 

"I just snapped a photo every now and then, as sincerely and straightforwardly as possible," she said. "No planning or staging was involved, so it wasn’t inconvenient and didn’t take any attention away from the day itself."

The bride said that it's difficult to pinpoint her favorite part of the day, but she really enjoyed the moment right after the ceremony was over and the sun came out.

"We were able to let the car roof down and fly through the city with new kind of happy and paradoxically free feeling that took over," she said.

Liisa chronicled the day on her Fujifilm X-T10 camera because it was easier to carry around all day than her professional camera. 

"My aim isn’t to prove any point or to tell people not to hire or fire wedding photographers," Liisa added. "I think that everyone should make their own decisions whether to get married at all, how to celebrate that day if they do and all other aspects in life too. "

Check out some more photos from their celebration below:

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Photographer and artist Jack Pierson's newest book is now available -- the third volume in his ongoing series Tomorrow's Man.

The previous two volumes have included the work and collaborations with a number of other artists, and this third volume includes the work of three more: Richard Tinkler, Peter Fend and writer Veralyn Behenna.

The title of this ongoing project, Tomorrow's Man, comes from the famed physique pictorial magazine from the 1950s and '60s.

"Reappropriating the publication’s title as well as its retro bodybuilding aesthetic, Pierson takes viewers on a dizzying visual journey encompassing the full spectrum of cultural references," a press release for the book said.

Check out some of the work yourself below.

Tomorrow’s Man 3 made its debut at Printed Matter’sNew York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1, on Sept 18.

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Kun Kun, a young boy living with HIV, was banished from his village in China last year by residents who described him as a "ticking time bomb." The case drew international attention to the severe discrimination faced by children with HIV in China.

Kun Kun has since found a new home, at the Green Harbor Red-Ribbon School in Linfen, China. The boarding school is a rare refuge for HIV-positive children in China, where infection rates are relatively low, but social stigma is high.

The school is the subject of an ambitious documentary project called "Children of the Harbor," which is following the students' passage through the boarding school until the first class graduates in 2017.

The project was conceived by Bryan Anker, a 27-year-old medical student originally from Los Angeles, who lived at the Green Harbor school in 2012 during an internship at the affiliated hospital.  

"It broke my heart to learn that these children had been shunned by society all of their lives," Anker told The WorldPost by email. "The level of awareness these children possess is mind-boggling. They fully comprehend their current situation and are well aware of how society perceives them."

Anker and his small team of filmmakers, including Myanmar-based photographer, journalist and cinematographer Ann Wang, started to document the students' lives in December and plan to follow their stories through graduation. "We want to film up to this point and see what road the students take after graduation. Will they go to university? Will they return home? Will they find a job?" Anker said.

"These children are smart and resilient, and some of them have thought up intricate plans for escaping the HIV stigma in China," he told The WorldPost. 

The school was set up in 2006, and is home to around 30 children and teenagers with HIV, ranging in age from 6 years old to 19.  The students have "very complicated feelings ... about themselves, about the school and about the disease they’ve been carrying since birth," Wang told The WorldPost by email.

Many of them are the children of patients being treated for HIV/AIDS at the affiliated Linfen Infectious Disease Hospital; others have been orphaned by AIDS or thrown out of their schools and local communities due to stigma.

This is a pervasive problem for children with HIV in China. "If their HIV status has been disclosed, it’s very common that parents of other children complain to the school and force the school to separate their children from HIV positive children," Xu Wenqing, an HIV/AIDS specialist at UNICEF China, told The WorldPost by email. 

Nearly 10,000 children in China live with HIV/AIDS, among some 500,000 reported cases in the country. (Experts estimate the total number of cases, including those undiagnosed, may be around 800,000.) This is relatively low compared to countries like the U.S., which has a population a quarter of the size of China's, and an estimated 1.2 million HIV/AIDS cases among people 13 or older. 

Yet discrimination is widespread, and affects old and young alike in China. Advocates say people known to be HIV-positive are often barred from attending collge or refused public and private-sector jobs. The main problem is a lack of information about HIV/AIDS, including how it is transmitted and treated. Experts point to China's poor sexual health education and the ongoing repetition of myths about HIV by public officials. 

China's leaders have made a high-profile effort to combat this prejudice in recent years, as well as stepping up free treatment for AIDS patients and measures to prevent mothers from passing on HIV to their newborn children. In 2006, a new law banned discrimination against people living with HIV, although it has been difficult to enforce. On World AIDS Day last year, China's first lady Peng Liyuan released a music video with the students of Green Harbor-Red Ribbon School, urging an end to the stigma they face.

Anker hopes that telling the stories of the children at Green Harbor can convince more people to leave their prejudices behind.

"I believe the children’s stories are so poignant, and their personalities so radiant, that our viewers won’t have any choice but to empathize with their situation," he said. 

To learn more about the media project and support the documentary, go to the Children of the Harbor website.

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A new photo book has just been release and it examines the power of identity, desire, and connection through the art of portraiture.

Every Breath We Draw is a striking collection of images from photographer Jess Dugan, who sought out subjects that exhibit, in her words, a form of "gentle masculinity." Through this work, Dugan complicates traditional notions of masculinity by photographing individuals in intimate spaces as meaningful exchanges took place.

In many ways the project is personal for Dugan, who calls it "one big self portrait" and who reveals that she came to define what masculinity means for herself apart from societal expectations.

"I am interested in a version of masculinity that is more expansive, and more vulnerable, than the kind often represented in mainstream culture," Dugan told The Huffington Post.

Check out some images from Every Breath We Draw, as well as an interview with Dugan, below.

Head here to see more from Dugan and Every Breath We Draw.

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Jeffrey Tambor took home the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series at the Emmys on Sunday night for his role in "Transparent." 

The actor, who plays a trans woman named Maura Pfefferman on the Amazon original series, dedicated his award to the trans community with a beautifully touching speech. This is the first time the actor has won the award, and he made sure to make it count.

"I've been given the opportunity to act because people's lives depend on it," the actor said while on stage. "Thank you for your courage. Thank you for your stories. Thank you for your inspiration." 

Tambor beat out fellow actors Will Forte, William H. Macy, Don Cheadle, Louis C.K., Matt LeBlanc and Anthony Anderson. 

"Transparent" director Jill Soloway also took home an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series. 

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Despite the fact that professional awards show hosts Amy Poehler and Tina Fey should host every award ceremony forever, the 2015 Emmys managed to deliver some greatness. Badass women took home awards (oh hey there, Viola Davis, Jill Soloway, Amy Schumer, Uzo Aduba and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, to name a few), and those women used their platform to draw attention to people whose voices are often not heard.

Here are 10 of our favorite lady love moments:

1. Andy Samberg called out Hollywood sexism within the first 10 minutes of the show. "The wage gap between men and women hired in Hollywood is still an issue," Samberg said in his opening monologue. "Wait, sorry, I misread that. The age gap between men and women hired in Hollywood is still an issue. Wait, I'm sorry I misread again. It's both, still both."

2. Julia Louis-Dreyfus celebrated "funny, powerful women." "I love funny women. I love funny, powerful women," the "Veep" actress said when accepting her Emmy for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy. All we have to say is Hell. Yes. 

3. We were all reminded that funny women are just -- gasp! -- funny people. "Amy Schumer is really, really funny. You know, for a person," said Andy Samberg. 

4. Jill Soloway used the Emmys stage to bring attention to the discrimination trans people face on a daily basis. "We don't have a trans tipping point yet. We have a trans civil rights problem," she said. 

5. Taraji P. Henson and Regina King shared a moment of sisterly love. After thanking her mother for teaching her the "power and blessing of being a woman," King got a "Yaaassssss!" and a huge hug from the "Empire" actress following  her Supporting Actress win. 

6. Amy P. and Amy S. teamed up to take over the world -- and call out the bullshit female comedians face. #AmyAmy2016 "What an exciting two to four hours for women in comedy," Poehler said. “Let’s not forget what tonight is about: celebrating hilarious women and letting the Internet weigh in on who looks the worst," Schumer chimed in. Too real.

 7. Amy Poehler was a badass, even if she didn't win the Best Actress In A Comedy Series award. She did not give a f**k. And we loved it. 

8. Richard Jenkins accepted his award for his role in "Olive Kitteridge" by thanking the "incredible women" who made it happen. "There were about a hundred thousand of them," Jenkins added, before naming just a few, some of whom -- Jane Anderson, Lisa Cholodenko, and Frances McDormand -- also won awards for their work on the show. 

9. Amy Schumer beat out a billion dudes for Best Variety Sketch series. "This show fights for what we believe in," Schumer said. 

10. Viola Davis's acceptance speech for Best Lead Actress In A Drama Series was moving -- and important. She reminded us why awards shows can be great sometimes. "The only thing that separates women of color from everyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for a role that isn't there." Amen. Give all the things to Viola.  

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