It’s been an unusual week in politics, which is saying something considering the last 12 months. After the rapper and grime artist JME had brunch with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and took over his Snapchat at the weekend, young people have actually been talking about it. Other grime artists, including Stormzy, Novelist and AJ Tracey, have also helped to pique teenagers' interest in the upcoming general election by speaking out and publicly backing Corbyn.

I met @jeremycorbyn today, and explained why bare of us don't vote. I forgot to ask for a pic, so here's one I borrowed 📸 pic.twitter.com/9X62jU8pQg

— Jme (@JmeBBK) May 14, 2017

But what can we mere mortals do to encourage the next generation – and the less interested members of our own cohort – to wield their political influence on 8th June? With less than a week to go until the deadline to register to vote, the question has seldom been more urgent.

This is a subject particularly close to Billie JD Porter's heart. In the aftermath of last year's EU referendum result, the journalist and filmmaker travelled the country to speak to young people about the big issues and their engagement with the political process. "One of the main things I noticed was how many of them said to me: ‘Wow, no one's ever asked me my view on that’, or ‘I didn’t think I cared about politics’, or ‘I didn't realise politics encompassed so much of my life’. Lots of them found it inspiring just to be given the opportunity to speak about it," Porter told Refinery29.

Now, she's set her sights on getting young people interested and engaged in the general election. Her campaign, Use Your Voice, has received online backing from the likes of Emma Watson and Cara Delevingne, and last night teamed up with ThinkNation to host an urgent summit addressing the state of political engagement across the UK. Students and young people joined thought leaders from the media, education and politics to tackle the question of how we can get more young people voting in the general election and generally more engaged in politics.

One week left to register for your right to vote in UK election: https://t.co/3FjKcTfIiH #UseYourVoice pic.twitter.com/jP8lWAkARq

— Emma Watson (@EmmaWatson) May 15, 2017

Young people are the least likely to make it to the polls, with 18-24s almost half as likely to vote as those aged 65 and over (it was 43% vs 78% in the 2015 general election); only around two-thirds (64%) of young people voted in last year's EU referendum, compared with 90% of over-65s. Porter believes a large part of the problem is that young people don't see themselves represented in Parliament or believe the language of politics speaks to them. “I don’t see myself in Parliament and I’m a middle-class white woman who reads The Guardian,” she says, referencing the fact that just 29% of MPs are women. As a result, most young people across the country told her they believe all politicians and parties are untrustworthy.

Young people of colour feel a similar way, says Leah Cowan, politics editor of gal-dem, who spoke at the event. "Despite having more MPs of colour in Parliament than any other time in history, there's still a huge problem in that the young people of colour I speak to don’t see themselves represented by politicians," she told Refinery29. "For the most part – understandably – young people and adults alike cannot relate to the way politicians communicate both in the house and to the media." Thus, electoral democracy in the UK is far from "democratic", she says – as it stands, only an elite few understand its systems and processes.

Inadequate – and often non-existent – political education in state schools is also a huge problem, Porter believes. "Pretty much every single young person I spoke to thought politics should be taught in schools." Politics is included in the PSHE curriculum, but it's often not a priority for teachers and may be neglected altogether. "Some of them said they didn't want to vote and never would, but they still wanted to understand how it works – a basic approach to the system, how it works, local elections versus general elections, that kind of thing."

I'm so overwhelmed at the response we've had to both the digital campaign and our event yesterday evening. #UseYourVoice made it to the Twitter homepage yesterday thanks to all of you guys (and my close personal friend, Emma Watson) posting. Our age group has the most to lose in this election, but we're still the least likely to vote. Let's smash those stats and change that. Thank you to all of our brilliant speakers last night, and anyone who's posted or helped out with the whole project in any capacity x

A post shared by Billie JD Porter (@billiejdporter) on May 16, 2017 at 1:21am PDT

This lack of sufficient education means most young people don’t feel confident discussing political issues and may even believe it's "not their place" to wade into the debate. "My aim is to make sure no one feels too scared to talk about politics," says Porter. "I think it’s one of the reasons I’ve shied away from it in the past, because I went to a shitty school and left when I was really young. I didn’t know the slightest bit about politics."

The writer and digital influencer Gemma Styles agrees that lack of confidence is a huge issue. "One of the main messages coming from young people I've spoken to online is concern over gaps in their own knowledge," she told Refinery29. "Some have even said to me they think it would be unfair of them to vote because they don't know as much as other people; you don't need a politics degree, or need to shout loudly about it all the time, to earn the right to an opinion."

But it's worth remembering that a minority of young people will never experience this lack of confidence. Shelly Asquith, vice president for welfare at the National Union of Students, says: “We have to start talking about class again,” referring to the fact that private school students often receive a stellar political education and are taught from a young age that their opinions matter. Their schools have debating chambers and semi-serious mock elections, and politics is generally considered a normal part of life.

Some believe lowering the voting age to 16 could enthuse the younger generation. Just look at Scotland’s independence referendum in 2014, in which 75% of 16 and 17-year-olds voted (more than the 54% of 18-24-year-olds and 72% of 25-34-year-olds). An overwhelming majority of the young people Porter has met believe 16-year-olds should be able to vote – especially considering the life-altering EU referendum result – but Theresa May ruled out the prospect earlier this week. As Areeq Chowdhury, chief executive of WebRoots Democracy, a campaign for digital voting, said last night, the government has no incentive to open up or change a system that’s working in its favour.

So what specific things should be done to get more of us, and young people in particular, talking about politics? Porter believes more celebrities and those with online and media influence should be stepping up to the plate ahead of the election. "The biggest people in this country, for better or worse, are reality TV stars and none of them are commenting on it. It’s not like you have to say you’re backing a party, but comment on the fact that the deadline to register to vote is coming up." Despite the positive response she's received from influencers to her own campaign, Porter says she can tell many celebrities feel like it’s a taboo to get involved in politics. "We’re in a weird time where no one wants to be vocal about what's going on and if one artist tweets about animal rights, suddenly they’re an 'activist'! You can understand why they shy away from getting involved because they don't want to be questioned." But she believes anyone with a big public following should be using it for good.

You've got until 22nd May to register to vote in the upcoming UK general election. Search 'REGISTER TO VOTE' and spend two minutes making sure you're prepped to exercise your rights 💪🏻 • A lot of people who aren't intending to vote say that they don't know enough to make a choice - you DO NOT have to be an expert in order to have your say. There is plenty of time left to do some research and if you do make a decision either way before June 8th then you'll be registered and ready to go, not kicking yourself that you didn't bother! 🗳 #useyourvoice • Artwork by @unskilledworker

A post shared by Gemma Styles (@gemmastyles) on May 12, 2017 at 9:41am PDT

One person who has been using her digital influence for good is Gemma Styles, who has already reminded her 3.5m Twitter followers and 3.9m Instagram followers of the need to register to vote. Others have also been using the #bloggerswhovote hashtag over the last few weeks to reach those who may not otherwise get political information. But even those of us without millions of followers can make a difference, says Styles. "A tweet about registering to vote mixed in among your usual social media posts doesn't have to be a big deal and I think it would help to remind friends, start conversations and show first-time voters, especially, that voting doesn't have to be complicated – and they have just as much of a place at the polls as anybody else."

We all need to be talking to our younger siblings, relatives and friends about the issues affecting us ahead of the election, Porter adds. Use Your Voice has also created a toolkit with help from the London School of Economics, the University of Kent and the University of Sheffield, aimed at answering young people's key questions about politics, which has been peer-reviewed by people from all political backgrounds and is free for anyone to share.

And even if you meet a young person who isn't planning on voting, tell them to hold their nose and think of their loved ones as they mark that 'x' in pencil. "Someone may get sick and need treatment, or want to study abroad or go to university. All these decisions are so greatly impacted by who’s in power," Porter says. "We need to hammer this home to young people."

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Director Sofia Coppola and actress Kirsten Dunst go back a long way. The pals of 20 years have a history of making great movies about women together, like 1999’s The Virgin Suicides and 2006's Marie Antoinette. At this point, they're so comfortable with each other on and off set that Coppola felt comfortable asking Dunst to lose weight for her role in their new movie The Beguiled — and Dunst had no reservations about pushing back.

In their new cover story for Variety, Dunst recalls how the 46-year-old director — who said she feels "big-sisterly" to the 35-year-old — suggested she lose a few pounds for the upcoming Southern gothic drama, co-starring Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning. Dunst "pushed back" at the directive, and says that Coppola was pretty understanding. "It’s so much harder when you’re 35 and hate working out," Dunst explained to Variety. The actress also pointed to the filming location in rural Louisiana, where dining options were apparently limited, as a practical reason why she didn't plan on losing weight for the movie. "I’m eating fried chicken and McDonald’s before work," she said. "So I’m like, 'We have no options! I’m sorry I can’t lose weight for this role.'"

Whether or not it was okay for Coppola to ask her star to lose weight is obviously a concern, but what's great here is how open the two women are about it — and, mostly, how Dunst didn't think twice about telling her friend and director, "hell no, girlfriend." You go, Kirsten.

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Television's latest reboot craze has brought us a lot of nostalgia we never really expected to see in 2017. In the last week alone, we gotten more details on the upcoming Roseanne revival and Will & Grace 's big return. While those shows are beloved '90s comedies, we're also getting some much weirder nostalgia from the decade in the form of Showtime's Twin Peaks revival.

The series will return on Sunday, May 21, almost exactly 25 years after it was canceled by ABC in 1991. The original Twin Peaks followed the aftermath of the murder of Laura Palmer in the tiny, titular Washington town. Season 3 will pick up two-and-a-half decades later, with mastermind David Lynch still at the helm.

Although there's tons of secrecy surrounding the mysterious revival, we do know tons of stars have signed to Twin Peaks. Some of them are obvious — like original star Kyle MacLachlan — and some are brand new to the series, and totally not getting the fanfare they deserve. Scroll through the gallery to find out all the famous faces you'll see on Peaks, they'll surprise you almost as much as the identity of Laura Palmer's killer.

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The best conversations aren’t about what you say, they are about what you hear.

Yet, as much as we hate to admit it, we love to talk about ourselves. In fact, humans dedicate 30 to 40% of their verbal output solely to self-disclosure. This number balloons to 80% on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. And when people talk about themselves, it pays to be interested. Not just feigning interest, mind you — genuinely interested.

Harvard neuroscientists Diana Tamir and Jason Mitchell found that something changes in our brain when we talk about ourselves. Activity increases in the brain regions that form the mesolimbic dopamine system. Keyword: dopamine. Talking about ourselves gives us pleasure.

So to leave a positive impression, does this mean we should all go around being mostly silent during our interactions? Definitely no. Being interested is only the first piece of the puzzle.

As a human behaviour investigator, I study the hidden forces that drive our behaviour patterns in my lab – the Science of People. Over the past decade, I’ve developed shortcuts, formulas, and blueprints for getting along with anyone.

Below are the three skills I’ve found that will have you leaving any social interaction as the most memorable person in the room.

SKILL #1: BE A HIGHLIGHTER

I have a moderate obsession with office supplies. Nothing gets me going like a fresh pack of snazzy pens, a bunch of little notebooks, and a colourful array of sticky tabs. I remember inheriting my first bright yellow highlighter from my older brother – and by inherited, I do mean stolen from his backpack.

It was such a game-changer! That little stick of brightness helped me learn faster, remember more and emphasise important points. The best communicators do the exact same thing – they serve as conversational highlighters. They listen to learn more about a person, to remember what was said and then find the important points to act upon.

It’s time to hack the art – and science – of listening. You can do this by being a highlighter: Bring out the best in people by highlighting their strengths. When you know what to listen for, you know exactly how to respond.

Highlighting is also a way of practising more refreshing and honest interactions. Highlighting is not about sugar-coating, it’s not about brown-nosing, and it’s not about sucking up. It’s about honouring what you truly find noteworthy and getting real conversations started.

Emily McDowell has made an entire business out of speaking truth by highlighting people. And it happened by accident. In 2012, Emily had an idea for a different kind of Valentine’s Day card. She wanted to help the people on Valentine’s Day who are dating but not officially in a relationship.

So she printed up 100 copies of this card at a local printer and put it up on Etsy in late January 2013. She called it “The Awkward Dating Card ”.

Talk about a conversation-sparker! Her card’s raw honesty and humour took the internet by storm. Three months later, she got an order from Urban Outfitters for 96,000 cards. Emily started creating more honest posters, pins, tote bags, and paper products that help highlight anyone who receives them.

She has ridiculously candid birthday cards that say, “Thinking about you is like remembering I have ice cream in the freezer.”

I was turned onto Emily’s amazing highlighting approach when someone handed me a card that said, “I notice how awesome you are.” It made my day! I then got myself a pack of McDowell’s cards to hand out that say, “I love the shit out of you” and “You don’t suck.”

McDowell’s cards are powerful because they give both compliments and truth. Anyone can be a Hallmark card – doling out bland flattery and boring cliches. But highlighting is about more than just giving regular praise. Like Emily McDowell does with her cards, it is about truly expecting the best from people and helping everyone in your life perform, act, and show up as the best, most honest version of themselves.

The Pygmalion Effect

There is a famous Greek myth about the sculptor Pygmalion. According to legend, Pygmalion used a large piece of ivory to carve his vision of the ideal woman. His statue was so beautiful and realistic that he fell in love with it. Embarrassed and ashamed to admit his desires, Pygmalion made offerings to the love goddess Aphrodite. At her altar, he secretly prayed to meet a woman who would be “the living likeness of my ivory girl.”

When Pygmalion got back to his studio, he planted a soft kiss on the statue. To his surprise, he found the ivory lips warm. When he kissed her again, the statue came to life. Pygmalion then married the woman of his own creation.

The Pygmalion myth is about the self-fulfilling power of expectation. Pygmalion created a blueprint of what he wanted and then it came to life.

In other words, great expectations are met with greatness. Psychologists have found that this idea is no myth. This phenomenon is called the Pygmalion effect.

One study found that when voters were told they were more “politically active” than their peers (even if they were actually chosen at random), they had a 15% higher turnout rate than the control group. When donors are told that they are above-average givers (even if they are not), they in turn donate more to become above-average givers. When hotel maids are told that they have a high-intensity, calorie-burning job, they in turn burn more calories. When a computer gives automated compliments to students, those students perform better on tasks – even when students know those compliments are automated.

Positive Labels

Humans love to be given positive labels. They improve our self-image and gently push us to be better versions of ourselves. So as you use conversation-sparkers and see what unexpected directions they lead you in, allow yourself to be impressed by the person across from you. Listen for their eloquent ideas. Find ways to emphasise their strengths. Celebrate their excitement.

Take the rather silly example of the Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter series. At the beginning of each school year, Hogwarts students are sorted into different houses by a magical hat that reads their minds, taking full measure of their hidden skills. Each house is known for different strengths, and as they move to the higher grades, students’ defining characteristics become more and more pronounced. Students in Slytherin tend to be sly, savvy, and interested in the dark arts, whereas those in Hufflepuff often end up in care-taking magical jobs like herbology and care of magical creatures. For better or for worse, the clearer the labels we’re given, the more we embody them.

Here are some examples you could use:

“You know everyone – you must be a great networker!”
“I’m amazed by your dedication to this organisation – they are lucky to have you.”
“You are so knowledgeable in this subject – thank goodness you are here.”

Exponential Excitement

Another way of highlighting is to celebrate the victories of others as if they were your own. Good feelings multiply around other good feelings, and divide when they are not matched. When you see someone who is proud, excited or passionate, mirror and match it. This associates you with their feelings of pleasure.

You can say something simple:

“I am so thrilled for you!”
“How wonderful that must be!”
“That is just the best news, congrats!”

When I see something – anything – that’s awesome, I always take the opportunity to highlight. I tell my barista his latte art is gorgeous. I gush over my friends’ new haircuts. I send out postcards telling people they’re ballers. Yes, really.

SKILL #2: BE A RAVER

Want to know one of the biggest missed opportunities in social situations? Introductions. I get some version of this email multiple times per week:

Hey Vanessa – I wanted to intro you to Dave. Dave, here is that intro you were asking for. Hope you two connect.

Boring! I have no idea who he is or why I should know him. The same thing happens at networking events, client meetings, and conferences. I am almost always introduced to someone in the most boring, generic way possible:

Vanessa, meet John; John, meet Vanessa.

This is a waste of an opportunity! Seize introductions as the perfect way to highlight people. Even if you have only known them for a few minutes, you can find something to rave about.

“Vanessa, meet Dave. He is killing it in the software industry and just had a hugely successful launch.”

“Joe, meet Sue. She is an incredible painter and one of the most talented artists I know.”

“Kirk, let me introduce you to Annie. We just met and she is telling me the most fascinating story of her trip to South Africa.”

You can even do this when you’re the one introducing yourself:

“It’s so nice to meet you! I have heard that you have an incredible blog. Please tell me all about how you got all of your success.”

“Great to know you, a friend of John is a friend of mine. He always knows the most interesting people.”

“It’s a pleasure! Your name tag says you work at Ken’s Bakery – they are my favourite pizza in town! Have you always been a pizza aficionado?”

Why are raving introductions so powerful? First, you give people positive labels right at the start. Second, you tee up a great conversation and possible discussion topics for the people involved. Third, you get people talking about themselves – what they do and who they are, which produces dopamine. Yes, a raving introduction is ALSO a conversational spark. Boom: win-win-win.

SKILL #3: DON’T BE A GOLEM

Do you know what the opposite of the Pygmalion effect is? The Golem effect.

The Golem effect is when low expectations lead to poor performance. Major Wilburn Schrank decided to test the Golem effect on incoming United States Air Force freshmen. Schrank randomly assigned labels to a group of 100 enlisted airmen at the US Air Force Academy Preparatory School. They were given one of five different made-up “ability levels”. The US military is all about labels, rank and position, so Schrank wanted to know if these labels have any effect on academic performance. Sure enough, for all of the data sets, the airmen who received the worst labels also performed the worst.

The Golem effect can have devastating consequences across the board. Dr. Brian McNatt found that the Golem effect is especially prevalent in the workplace. Think of bosses who pick favourites. Here’s what happens:

Jeff is the boss. He hires a new sales associate from his alma mater, XYZ University. He takes her under his wing, they grab lunch more often, he gives her the best assignments. After all, Jeff thinks anyone from his alma mater has the best possible education, and he wants his fellow alumni to succeed. She benefits from the Pygmalion effect. Jeff expects the best from her and she performs at her best. Other employees see this favouritism and feel left out. One particular manager, Ken, went to ABC University, XYZ’s rival. Jeff is constantly ribbing Ken – jokingly, of course. Ken doesn’t get invited to watch games at the boss’s house on weekends. Jeff teases Ken for not being able to get into XYZ – Ken knows he’s kidding, but feels the sting anyway.

Hallway chit-chat and water-cooler conversations matter. Expecting the best is not just important for new people, but also to build up the existing people in your life. What are you saying about and to your colleagues?

Being a highlighter is about constantly searching for the good in people. When you tell people they are good, they become better. When you search for what’s good, you feel great.

We remember people who make us feel good and who make us want to be the best version of ourselves. You can optimise an interaction by expecting optimal outcomes. Elevate people by hacking listening, highlighting, and expecting the best in those around you. Being a highlighter helps you be the highlight.

Vanessa Van Edwards is Lead Investigator at theScience of People – a human behaviour research lab. As a published author and speaker she runs original research experiments on topics such as the science of attraction, human lie detection, body language hacks, and other people skills at ScienceofPeople.com. Her latest book, Captivate: The Science of Succeeding With People (published by Portfolio Penguin) was chosen as one of Apple’s Most Anticipated Books of 2017.

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Welcome to Money Diaries, where we're tackling what might be the last taboo facing modern working women: money. We're asking a cross-section of women how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period – and we're tracking every last penny.

This week we're with an 18-year-old who is an apprentice for the Education Service at the Houses of Parliament. She loves working in London and didn't think it was something she'd be able to do for another couple of years. Luckily, she is still able to live with her family in Essex, which makes things a bit easier.

Industry: Administration
Age: 18
Location: Working in London, living in Essex
Salary: Around £15-16,000
Paycheque amount per month: I get paid every two weeks – if I got paid monthly it would be around £1,300 after tax
Number of housemates: Three – my family!

Monthly Expenses

Housing costs: £80 a month to my mum. I am very lucky that my parents do not charge me a lot for rent. So £80 basically covers everything for me, including food and living, etc.
Loan payments: I haven’t been to uni so don’t have anything to pay off or have a credit card yet!
Utilities: £0 as I am still living at home, this is down to my parents to deal with.
Transportation: £16.55 for my train return so £82.75 a week (thank GOD for the 16-25 railcard!). I pay roughly £25/30 a month for petrol as I do not drive a lot.
Phone bill: Thankfully my parents still pay for my phone bill – until my upgrade in December, then it’s all down to me.
Health insurance: £0? I don’t think I pay for health insurance, my parents probably do though.
Savings: I transfer £100 to a savings account for car insurance, which I pay annually, and £50 a month into a savings account for holiday funds. I also transfer £50 a month into my ISA for when I want to move out in a couple of years.
Other: £4.99 for Spotify, £41 gym membership.

Total: £686.99

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This article was first published December 5, 2016.

Your Face or Mine was the relationship-ruining 2002 TV show presented by Jimmy Carr and June Sarpong that was a bit like a live-action Tinder for people in relationships to play – with their partners present.

In the first round, the fame-hungry, cash-poor couples were shown two celebrities and asked to decide who they thought was more physically attractive. At the same time, the audience would vote for who they thought was more attractive and, if the answers matched, the couple would win cash. Audience voting was the lifeblood of Your Face or Mine – like a very shallow Family Fortunes.

In round two, the couples were shown photos of members of the general public and asked who they thought was more attractive: themselves or the person in the photo. Again, the audience’s decision would determine who was truly more attractive. This would lead to some delightfully painful scenes of contestants insisting that they were better-looking than the stranger in the photo, only to have their ego smashed into tiny pieces right before your eyes as 96% of the audience voted for the stranger. Further embarrassment would usually come as June and Jimmy goaded them into being rude about the people in the photos – "What do you think of her nose? Do you think yours is nicer? How about her skin?" – only to reveal that the person was right there in the audience.

Then came everyone’s favourite round, which really put our couples' relationships to the test. As they sat on the sofa, they would be joined by people from their past lives whose physical attractiveness they would also have to assess. These secret guests could be anyone from ex-girlfriends and boyfriends, to siblings, to a previous adulterous fling... Seriously.

He’s just said on national television that his ex-girlfriend is better looking than his current girlfriend so he can win some money

The show's only shortcoming was that you weren’t able to watch the contestants on their silent car journeys home, after he’s just said on national television that his ex-girlfriend is better looking than his current girlfriend so he can win some money, only to have the audience disagree with him. The atmosphere in that studio by the end of each episode was frostier than the garden at the end of the new John Lewis ad.

It’s easy to see why producers think we’re ready for a fresh helping of Your Face or Mine, as Comedy Central announce the show’s return for 2017, with June and Jimmy in tow. The format of the show basically predicted Tinder 10 years before it was released. In our fast-paced culture, people don’t have time for frivolous luxuries like getting to know someone’s personality. We need to know only two things from our dates: are they bang-able, and does everyone else agree with me?

Yes, there will be a lot of hurt feelings; yes, relationships will be torn to pieces like a piñata at a children’s birthday party, but if this year has taught us anything, it’s that no one cares about anyone’s feelings anymore. All I care about is me and mine and if you don’t agree then you’re probably some liberal crybaby with an agenda to take away my civil liberties. Your Face or Mine is TV for the swipe-left, swipe-right generation; it’s Trump calling Clinton a nasty woman for half an hour, every week, for 22 weeks. Most people spend most of the time they’re watching TV on Tinder anyway, so this will just cut out the middleman.

A show where all you have to do is say whether or not you think someone is fit is exactly what people need now. In a post-fact world, where annoying things like the truth are confined to the past and opinions and gut feelings determine the shape of the world, a quiz show with no actual facts, only opinions, couldn’t be more perfect. Each episode will give us several mini-referendums, the results of which will determine once and for all who is more attractive. The will of the electorate – the studio audience – is final. We don’t have to wait months for the triggering of the attractiveness Article 50, there’s no hard or soft option, the decision and its implications are immediate: this person is a minger or a fitty. Then we all move on.

So put it in your diaries, folks. This is what we’ve asked for. Decency, love, facts and David Bowie are dead. Judgement, nastiness, gut feelings and Nigel Farage live on. Your Face or Mine is coming back and we will be watching it, biting our hands from the awkwardness and loving every minute.

The new series of Your Face or Mine starts tonight at 8pm on Comedy Central,

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Environmentalists and scientists have long struggled with getting people to see climate change as something that impacts their everyday lives, rather than a distant threat. With sales of cosmetic and personal care products marketed as ‘anti-pollution’, ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘natural’ rocketing in recent years, it would seem that, on the surface, the beauty industry has cracked this particular conundrum.

But given the beauty industry is itself a large polluter, are the companies selling products that promise to protect our skin and hair from pollution doing enough to address their role in creating it? Or are they simply cashing in on climate change?

“The problem with ‘anti-pollution’ beauty products is that they are intervening at the wrong place in the system,” says Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA.

“At best, individual consumer products that claim to protect us from pollution may mislead us with marketing claims; at worst they may actually deter the real solutions when consumers feel like they have protected themselves, so are less inspired to work with others for the regulatory and business solutions that could protect everyone,” she says.

As with fashion, sustainable beauty is a complex issue that spans the entire supply chain, from the raw ingredients to manufacturing processes, delivery, packaging and waste disposal.

Looking at the cycle of water through the beauty supply chain illustrates this issue well. Water – or aqua, as it is often listed – is the main ingredient in a lot of beauty products. Large quantities of it are required to manufacture many of the synthetic chemicals used in them and deal with waste by-products. Because most beauty products are liquid chemicals, they need packaging that doesn’t disintegrate, such as plastic, which is also water- and energy-intensive to make. After manufacturing, the products are shipped to retailers, meaning more energy is used to transport what is mostly water.

The problem with ‘anti-pollution’ beauty products is that they are intervening at the wrong place in the system

Once in the home, products like shampoo and face wash need more water to rinse them off. The waste chemicals from these products – some of which are toxic – end up going down the drain and into our waterways. Then, even more water is required to wash the packaging so it can be recycled (although the majority of bathroom waste doesn’t even get recycled). Unrecycled plastic packaging that doesn’t end up in landfill finds its way into our seas and litters our beaches, harming marine life and getting into food chains.

Several beauty brands are already making progress in reducing their water footprint, with ‘waterless beauty ’ – which includes pastes, powders and no-rinse cleansers – set to be a big beauty trend. For example, Pits and Bits has created a ‘towel off’ shampoo that doesn’t require rinsing, while Korean beauty brand Whamisa has brought out a range that uses botanical extracts instead of water.

The quest for sustainable beauty has led to a rise in brands touting their natural ingredients, with oils and extracts such as aloe, avocado, almond and coconut. In a similar way to food, 'clean beauty' has emerged as a concept, propelled by the rise of beauty bloggers and the Gwyneths and Ellas of the world.

While greater awareness of the harmful chemicals – like parabens – used in many of our beauty products is undoubtedly a good thing, we should not assume that natural ingredients are necessarily better than synthetics for our health and the environment. In fact, doing so is “dangerous” says Dr. Richard Blackburn, a sustainability expert and chemist at the University of Leeds. “Nature makes plenty of toxic things,” he says. “There is nowhere near the level of scrutiny from a regulatory perspective on natural products than there is for synthetic chemicals.”

Blackburn argues that with land and water in scarce supply, it is plain wrong to grow crops that can be used as food for beauty products instead. As a solution, his company, Keracol, has been developing sustainable beauty products that use food waste combined with synthetic chemicals – like its range for Marks and Spencer made from waste grape skins from wine production. Romilly Wilde is another beauty brand that combines chemistry and nature, using raw materials like algae from the sea with ‘bio identical’ synthetic chemicals which mimic natural ingredients.

With land and water in scarce supply, it is plain wrong to grow crops that can be used as food for beauty products instead

With the exception of Aveda and Neal’s Yard Remedies, there are very few beauty brands thinking about the whole sustainability picture, says Blackburn.

As consumers become increasingly careful about the ingredients in beauty products, this “has led to more and more brands jumping on the natural and organic ‘trend’,” says Helen Cooper, managing director of Neal’s Yard Remedies. "So for us it is now more important than ever to help our customers understand how to cut through the greenwash to make well-informed, healthy choices,” she says.

Ultimately, the best way to deal with this complex issue is simply to use less. This doesn’t necessarily mean joining the ranks of the no ‘poo evangelists, using lemon slices instead of deodorant or extolling the magical powers of baking soda. But it does mean thinking about whether we really need such a vast array of cosmetic and beauty products in our lives; from the tiny free samples and sachets cluttering our bathroom cabinets, to the day/night/male/female version of the same face cream.

Can we switch off our shower some days in favour of a quick rinse in the sink? Do we need to buy another red lipstick when we already own most shades on the spectrum? Can we buy our products in bulk or support retailers that allow us to reuse packaging?

None of this is easy, of course. Getting clean, having a bath, putting on a face pack or makeup feels good. And the beauty industry drives us to over-consume with its marketing; the raison d'être of big beauty companies and retailers is to sell us more stuff – that’s why they segment us into categories like gender or age. That’s why they bombard us with endless new innovations and ‘must-buys’.

Leonard says there is one great sustainable beauty product that we all should get on board with: activism. “It’s a lot more fun and emotionally rewarding than spending £75 for a small bottle of face cream.”

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A BBC presenter was slapped by a woman whose breast he appeared to touch as he tried to stop her from interrupting a live interview.

Ben Brown was interviewing the BBC’s assistant political editor, Norman Lamb, about Labour’s manifesto launch in Bradford on Tuesday when the awkward encounter took place, reported The Guardian.

A woman wearing sunglasses wandered into shot, gave a thumbs up while looking to camera and said: “Absolutely fantastic.”

At this point, Brown reached out and pushed her away with his hand on her breast as he continued the interview. The woman, clearly shocked, slapped him on the arm and walked off.

Watch the clip for yourself.

Brown addressed the "unfortunate interruption" on Twitter afterwards, calling his actions “completely unintentional”.

Unfortunate interruption of broadcast in Bradford - just tried to minimise disruption but v tricky live on air - completely unintentional

— Ben Brown (@BenBrownBBC) May 16, 2017

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Our sexual habits and lives aren’t static things. Sometimes we have a stable sexual partner, sometimes we don’t. Sometimes our libido is through the roof, sometimes we’re just not feeling it: we’re stressed, we're tired and the lure of the pillow is too damn strong. All of which is fine – we’re only human.

While none of this matters and there’s no “correct” frequency for sex, it does matter whether or not we’re satisfied. But, sadly, new research suggests a lot of women are unsatisfied with their current sexual situation.

A fifth of women aged 30 to 80 are unhappy with their sex lives and just 17% claim to be very satisfied, according to a survey of 2,002 women by Ipsos Mori, commissioned by the Daily Mail . ( The sexuality of the women surveyed is unclear.)

When it comes to how often they’re having sex, just 10% said they had sex at least once a week. Half said they did it once a month or less and a further 10% said they had sex once a year, if that. Over a quarter (27%), most of whom were divorced, single or widowed, said they never had sex.

When asked why they sometimes avoided sex, a quarter said they did so because they were too tired. Others attributed it to feeling anxious (13%), a lack of intimacy with their partner (11%), and their partner’s issues, such as erectile dysfunction (6%).

A further 11% said they avoided sex because it was painful, a condition known as dyspareunia, which a separate study recently suggested could affect as many as 7.5% of women.

The youngest group surveyed (30 to 44-year-olds) were the least satisfied with their sex lives, despite having the most sex, suggesting there’s a lot more to sexual satisfaction than frequency. A quarter of this cohort were dissatisfied, and 11% were very dissatisfied.

Peter Saddington, a Nottingham-based sex therapist for Relate, said a lack of time and energy, and feeling under pressure were some of the the most common reasons for not having sex. "Actually being in a relaxed enough state to have sex just doesn’t happen. You go through a period of time of squeezing sex in, then it becomes dissatisfying so you end up not doing it at all," he told the Mail.

"It can become a chore, it can become boring if it’s repetitive, uninteresting and there’s no involvement or enjoyment."

Natika Halil, chief executive of the Family Planning Association, a sexual health charity, recommended open communication for improving sexual satisfaction in a relationship. "By sharing your sexual likes and dislikes, ideas about what you’d like to try, or speaking up about things you don’t want, it’s much easier to find pleasure with each other," she told the Mail.

"It also means you don’t have to act as a mind reader and play a guessing game of what works."

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Hopefully we don’t need to remind you of the importance of sleep. “Clean sleeping” was dubbed the biggest health trend of 2017 and lifestyle blogs and newspaper supplements have published a forest’s worth of articles about its benefits recently, so you probably know them by now.

But if you weren’t already convinced by the idea of a decent night’s kip, maybe the results of a new study will make you change your nocturnal ways by appealing to your vanity.

It turns out that “beauty sleep” – sleep that leaves us feeling healthy and attractive – is actually real, according to the research by Stockholm University, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Just two nights of bad sleep is enough to make you look “significantly” more ugly and those who get less sleep are perceived as less appealing to hang out with, the study found.

To test the beauty sleep hypothesis, researchers asked 25 male and female university students to track the amount of sleep they were getting and had strangers rate photos of the participants afterwards.

The students were asked to get two nights of good sleep, followed by just four hours' sleep for two consecutive nights the week after. The researchers took makeup-free photos of them after each of the sleep sessions.

Another group of volunteers – 122 men and women living in Stockholm, Sweden – were then asked to rate the photos on attractiveness, health, sleepiness and trustworthiness. They were also asked: "How much would you like to socialise with this person in the picture?"

The volunteers were good at deciphering tiredness from the images, and those who were considered sleepy in their photos were deemed less attractive.

Tiredness could also make you less appealing to hang out with, the study suggested, with the volunteers saying they would be less willing to socialise with the tired students and perceiving them to be less healthy.

“Having an unhealthy-looking face, whether due to sleep deprivation or otherwise, might activate disease-avoidance mechanisms in others,” the researchers said. Basically, we don’t want to spend time with people who might be ill (charming!), which the team said makes evolutionary sense.

“Since sleep-deprived faces are both less attractive and less healthy-looking than their well-rested counterparts, they contain at least two perceptible features possibly impacting others' willingness to socialise with them.”

However, Dr. Tina Sundelin, who led the research, said she didn’t want to make people lose sleep over the findings. "Most people can cope just fine if they miss out on a bit of sleep now and again,” she told the BBC. The question is: is it worth the risk?

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In public, President Obama has been careful not to undermine his successor. The peaceful transition of power, as he said over and over again, is a long standing tradition of our democracy. However, in private, the former president has been quite candid about his feelings on President Trump.

"He’s nothing but a bullshitter," Obama told two friends last November, according to a new report by People, describing his phone call with then President-elect Trump on the night of the election. During their conversation, Trump said he had "respect" and "admiration" for Obama. That probably would have come across as sincere if Trump hadn't championed the birther theory for years and openly talked about his despise for the former president — especially his alleged golfing and vacationing habits. (Which looking back, seems quite rich.)

Of course, the identity of Obama's "friends" aren't known, so you can take all of this with a grain of salt. But it is entertaining to imagine Obama bad-mouthing the current president.

The two sources also talked to People about how the Obamas are adjusting to their post-presidency life. When asked if Obama's opinion of Trump has changed since he assumed office, one said, "Well, it hasn’t gotten any better."

That's not too surprising. In just 118 days in office, Trump has done all of the following: accused Obama of leaking information and wiretapping, championed the dismantling of Obamacare and many other Obama-era policies, fired the FBI director, asked said FBI director to stop the investigation into Michael Flynn, shared classified information with top Russian officials, and the list goes on.

But if there's one thing Obama has continued to do, it's keep quiet about the decisions President Trump makes. Whether or not he agrees with some of the Trump administration's policies, that's something he will discuss in private. Or at least until he feels compelled to share his thoughts.

"He’s very respectful of the appropriate role of a former president and that ex-presidents should not be looking over the shoulder of their successors and commenting on every decision,” David Axelrod, the director of the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics who has been a friend of Obama for a long time, told People. " President Obama’s predecessor didn’t do that. Obviously, this now is a unique set of circumstances, but my sense is that he’s going to try and respect that tradition while reserving the right to speak out in given moments when things rise to that level."

Former First Lady Michelle Obama has done the same as her husband. She openly campaigned against President Trump during the election, but once he assumed office, she kept quiet. But that doesn't mean she hasn't discussed him in private.

According to People, she joked last December with some visitors that she would wear mourning attire called the "black series."

She said, "I’m going all black for the next couple of years."

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Any beauty company worth its weight in face cream does its best to pay it forward. Some use lipstick to fight the patriarchy; others advocate social responsibility with the help of a little product packaging. And plenty of forward-thinking brands donate a portion of its proceeds in sales to a worthy cause — like Mary Kay, for instance.

MK just launched two limited-edition Beauty That Counts Baked Powders that are just as good for your cheekbones as they are for your conscience. For every purchase, the cosmetics company will donate $1 (78p) toward the Mary Kay Foundation which supports women's shelters and survivors of domestic abuse. (That dollar number will go toward the $53 (£41) million raised to date — in case you needed another reason to feel good about the choice.)

The two heart-shaped highlighter-blush hybrids include Kind Heart (a coral hue with the just-right amount of shimmer) and Giving Heart (a rosy pink). It has the kind of velvety texture that melts over skin. When we tried it ourselves, it only took one swipe along our cheekbones to look instantly awake, despite it being 9:30 a.m. and before our morning coffee. That, my friends, is impressive.

If you're interested in picking up your own, you can get the brand's Limited-Edition Beauty That Counts Baked Cheek Powder for $18 (£14) at Mary Kay now through August 15. After all, pretty is as pretty does.

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Who hasn’t wished they could travel back in time to give their younger selves a little insight or advice about the road ahead?

In an emotional cover story for Teen Vogue, singer and visionary Solange Knowles penned a letter to her teenage self. “There will be fear. A lot of it,” she begins, before delving into a number of challenges and surprises the 30-year-old has come to reckon with. The most heartbreaking part comes when she candidly opens up about a major, coming-of-age time in her life at 17.

“Seventeen will be the hardest year of your life. It will grow you up almost immediately,” she writes. “You will lose your best friend whom you love so much to gun violence in a single moment, and give birth to a new one within a year.” Knowles lost her friend Marsai Song in a drive-by shooting, according to People, and gave birth to her son, Daniel Julez, with ex-husband Daniel Smith Jr.

“You will be terrified, and it’s ok that you don’t know what the future holds,” she continued. “Some people will count you out because of the decision you’ve made to bring another life into the world so young, but you made the decision out of love and will live with the decision in love. Soon enough you will learn how to love and how to exist with love in ways that you never knew. You will learn how to love yourself and how to empathise with and forgive those who may have taken a bit of that pure love away from you.”

Wrote a letter to my teenage self for @teenvogue . I couldn't write for days, until I said fuck it...let's get real and honest baby solo, lol. Thank you so so much @thelmagolden for your wonderful forward. It touched me deeply.

A post shared by Solange (@saintrecords) on May 17, 2017 at 6:36am PDT

The letter covers many aspects of Knowles’ life, and the many challenges she’s had to conquer, including being labeled a “weirdo.”

“...Young folks will call you names and grown folks will call you names. It’s ok. one day you will name yourself, and that name will belong to you. It will not be the ones they ordained: ‘crazy, ugly, attention-seeking, weirdo.’ I really hate to tell you this, but sometimes you will still get called these things as an adult, except you will actually embrace some of them. You will learn that these are just words. Words that only have power if you choose to give them power. Every once in awhile they will hurt, but you will choose to turn those words into a symbol of beauty.”

Be sure to check out her inspiring read and a heartfelt forward from the iconic Thelma Golden here.

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First Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and now French President Emmanuel Macron — it seems like foreign leaders are realising how valuable women really are.

The newly elected president, who defeated alt-right opponent Marine Le Pen earlier this month, rolled out the members of his cabinet on Tuesday, and according to The Huffington Post, 11 out of the 22 people listed are women.

Among the women on the list are Olympian Laura Flessel, who was appointed Minister of Sports, and Murielle Pénicaud, who was tasked with overseeing labour.

Bravo @FlesselLaura pour ta nomination. Très heureux de voir une championne olympique & porte-drapeau au Ministère des Sports ! pic.twitter.com/8ffiadrEyl

— Tony ESTANGUET (@TonyESTANGUET) May 17, 2017

Above, Olympic champion Tony Estanguet celebrates Flessel's appointment.

As The Huffington Post notes, Macron also recently unveiled his picks for candidates in France's upcoming parliamentary elections, of which "half of them were women."

Many, including The Huffington Post, are praising the move as a sign that Macron is taking his campaign promises, such as fighting for gender equality in and out of the workplace, seriously.

In January, Macron said, "women currently represent 53 percent of the electoral body, so it's unacceptable that they make up less than 30 percent of those elected to the National Assembly...unlike other political parties, we plan to respect gender parity."

This message seemed to resonate with French women, who showed more support for Macron than for Le Pen at the polls. Despite the desire to see a woman in office, The Washington Post reported that women "were deeply concerned about Le Pen’s anti-immigrant, antiglobalist views and her party’s conservative views on reproductive rights."

Of course, there's still work to be done about gender parity in France. According to the World Economic Forum, the country’s gender gap ranks 17th out of 144 countries, with a parity score of 0.755.

Still, France is doing a marginally better job than the UK, which ranks 20th out of 144 with a 0.752 parity score.

We can only hope that Macron's latest moves are just the beginning for change in the country and that other leaders will follow suit.

Keep it up, Macron. The world is watching.

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Model. Chanel brand ambassador. Love magazine columnist. The star of two (!) swoon-worthy weddings back in 2014. London socialite. A regular on the MailOnline sidebar. Cara's elder sister. Poppy Delevingne is already a lot of things – and now she's adding another to her CV: actor.

The 31-year-old may be best known as a model, having been scouted by Storm Models founder Sarah Doukas at 15 and posed for the likes of Burberry, Anya Hindmarch and Louis Vuitton, but now she's scaling back the modelling and following her younger sister into the film industry. Delevingne stars in the new Guy Ritchie film, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword as the young protagonist's mum, and has another film coming out later this year. We caught up with her to talk acting, famous siblings and that Tory Burch controversy.

Hi Poppy, so how did you prepare for the role?
You know, just wandering around the house in a crown [laughs]. No, obviously, the character is Arthur’s mother – she’s very strong, brave, but above all she loves her son more than anything, so I just worked at being regal and having that maternal instinct. It was really helpful that the boy that played my son – there were two boys, identical twins – was sensational to work with. He was divine and Eric [Bana] was also such a dream to work with.

What did you learn from filming? Did you get any tips from your fellow actors?
It was my first film so I had a lot to learn. It started as really nerve-wracking but everyone was so wonderful and supportive. Guy [Ritchie] is a great director – he knows exactly what he wants and he’s really direct, but also encouraging, which was wonderful.

What I learned is to be calm – when you’re acting and the nerves are getting to you, you can feel quite uppity, but the more relaxed I was, the more I felt like I melted into it. Deep breathing is key.

What do you make of theflak David Beckham has received in the press for his acting in the film?
The great thing about Guy is that he loves cameos – he always has genius cameos in his movies. He’s even in King Arthur himself, playing a shop owner. It’s a fun movie and it’s tongue in cheek, so why not? Why not have David Beckham be in it. I thought it was kind of great. It’s meant to be a fun movie, so why not?

When did you realise you wanted to try acting in the first place?
Probably when I was at school and did Hamlet. I was Queen Gertrude. I loved it so much and completely fell in love with that play. At that point I realised it was really what I wanted to do.

🇺🇸🎬🇺🇸 @kingarthurmovie @chloebartoli @katesynnottmakeup @serrrgggio @kimkimnails @cartier @ctilburymakeup #KingArthur

A post shared by Poppy Delevingne (@poppydelevingne) on May 15, 2017 at 6:59am PDT

More so than modelling?
Well, at that time yeah, and then I kind of fell into the modelling thing and I guess I got carried away with it. I love modelling, it’s been wonderful and I’m really grateful for the time I had doing it, but always at the back of my mind… I moved to New York to go to Lee Strasberg, the acting school, and just kept getting distracted. I’m easily distracted.

It’s probably been five years [since I first tried to start getting roles], when I first went out to LA and I did pilot season, so it’s been a long slog. We started filming King Arthur two years ago, but yeah, it’s really tough.

You lived with Sienna Miller in New York in your early 20s, right? Has she given you any acting tips or advice about the roles you should be going for?
Sienna’s always been very supportive and nurturing on the acting front. She’s always like, “You need to be doing it”. She always thinks I need to be doing comedy, which is hilarious because I don’t really see it.

Are you the funny one in the friendship then?
No, but she’s always laughing and telling me I need to do comedy. She’s extremely supportive of it and was very sweet. I was so lucky to have seen her in Cabaret and After Miss Julie. She’s such a beautiful actor and she’s so good at it. You can learn a lot just by watching really brilliant actors.

Which other actors do you admire? Is there anyone in particular whose skill you’d like to emulate?
Meryl Streep is just ridiculous – she can play anything and anyone and I think she’s kind of spectacular. Julianne Moore is really wonderful. I thought Alan Rickman was incredible. That voice. I always remember when I was a kid watching Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and thinking how mad Maid Marian was for not wanting to be with him.

Is there anyone whose career trajectory you find inspiring in terms of the roles they’ve done?
I really love Naomi Watts. Because I’ve started acting quite late her story gives me a bit of confidence. I believe she got her first role in Mulholland Drive when she was 30. I read somewhere that she lived in LA for eight or so years and nothing big happened, and I think that was her first. I always think that story’s really inspiring, that there’s still a chance for me out there yet, you know what I mean?

What would be your dream role or dream director to work with?
I love Baz Luhrmann. He’s a really bonkers director and I love what he does. I love all the singing and dancing. That kind of thing really appeals to me, but I’d really like to sort of do something quite challenging next, maybe a character role where you have to become someone completely different. Like Charlize Theron in Monster.

Obviously Cara’s justshaved her head for her latest role – would you be up for doing something similarly transformative for a part?
I would totally do that [laughs], but I don’t think I’d look like Cara with a shaved head. It would be an absolute disaster. But if the role is there and the role is right… you know, Cara’s done it for all the right reasons. I think it helps you go to that place and go into that headspace, so yeah I think I would do that.

Do you ever get bored of being asked about Cara and having people comparing your careers (sorry!)?
No I don’t get bored at all, she’s my sister so I can wax lyrical about her all day. We’re six years apart, we’ve had very different careers, and we’re just very supportive of each other.

🎁🎂Happy birthday Poppy🎂🎁 I LOVE YOU🎁🎂thank you for constantly inspiring and supporting me. You are the funniest, most charming and fiercely intelligent pop dog that will ever live 🎁🎂

A post shared by Cara Delevingne (@caradelevingne) on May 3, 2017 at 7:32am PDT

Would you be up for working with her in a film or on another kind of project, like writing together?
Yeah definitely. There was one point we almost did and unfortunately the movie fell through. I don’t know if I can go into detail about what the film was but it was really cute; Cara called me up and was like ‘so you know I’m doing this movie’ and said they were looking for a big sister, so she put me in touch with the director, we did tapes and it was all great, and it was all her idea. One day I’d love to do that, that would be a dream come true.

At 31, you’re by no means “old”, but would you say it’s trickier to get certain kinds of roles at your age than it would be if you were younger?
I think so, unfortunately. I think it is a little bit tougher, but I also think now that there’s so much scope and that people are slightly broadening their horizons. My voice is ridiculously deep so sometimes when you’re having to play someone who’s quite young or vulnerable, that’s quite hard. People say my voice is worldly [laughs].

Would you say your voice has ever counted against you at auditions?
I’m sure it probably has. Once I was quite close to getting a role and I was meant to be playing a 21-year-old who was moving from Cornwall to London and they were like, “Your voice is very knowing, you don’t seem innocent enough”.

Are you satisfied with the range of roles out there for women? A lot of actresses say they’re sick of there being so many "pretty girl" parts and not enough meaty roles.
Yeah. I do think change is coming – there are so many more women directors and writers now. There should be more movies where women are the main characters and protagonists, but I do think change is happening, which is really exciting. There should be more diversity.

Actors these days are expected to put themselves out there on social media, but you’ve managed to maintain some privacy and your relationship isn’t in the press all the time. How do you manage to maintain that separation between your work and private life?
Things like Instagram and Twitter I see purely as work. I also love photography, though, so I love taking pictures. It’s just a fine line between how much you want to put out there and talk about, and my husband [James Cook, 35] is a very private person. It’s very grounding.

How difficult are you finding it maintaining a long-distance relationship?
We’ve been together nine years now and when we first got together I’d just moved to New York, so we’re good at being independent at the same time, which is good because it’s a wonderful feeling to miss someone. It means you argue less because there’s nothing to argue about and it’s always exciting.

Did you get any backlash on social media for theTory Burch controversy earlier this year? (The brand pulled an ad starring Delevingne in March after it was criticised for cultural appropriation.)
I don’t think so because I hope people understand that I was a model booked on a job and I’m not in charge of art direction or the casting. That’s not up to me, so for me it was being booked on a job and doing the job. So I didn’t actually get any backlash personally, which I’m relieved about.

I’ve had a few trolls before though, it’s pretty horrible. If anyone does comment negatively, I just get rid of it because I don’t want it to be a negative forum. It’s weird when you get people in the comments who argue with each other, I’m like, "Guys, calm down". It’s really crazy.

You once said you admired Caitlin Moran and were interested in writing one day, is that still something you’d like to do?
I love writing. I have a column with Love magazine and I’ve always loved writing. When I was growing up I used to write little books and was obsessed with it. Right now I really want to focus wholeheartedly on the acting but one day I’d love to write something, maybe a script. I’ve had a few film ideas and I jot them all down in a massive notebook. They’re a little bit fantasy-like, a little bit out there. A little bit kooky.

What’s next on the acting front?
Just working hard at trying to get the next role. I’ve got Kingsman: The Golden Circle coming out in September, which is exciting. In the meantime I’m spending quite a bit of time in LA. There are so many auditions happening now that there are so many TV shows, with Netflix and that kind of thing. It would be a dream to book something like that. I have a fantastic acting coach, so I do classes with her whenever I can, and accent training. I’m just trying to learn as much as possible and better myself as much as possible.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is in UK cinemas from 19th May.

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We’re one year shy of celebrating the centennial anniversary of voting rights for women in the UK. In the past 99 years, significant steps have been taken to bring men and women towards a state of greater equality. But despite all the steps forward, there have also been a few back (hello, Trump), and we have a long way to go.

The reality is that, for all the sustained and meaningful efforts of so many, gender bias remains very real today. And like most things in 2017, this bias, in its many guises, plays out pretty well on the internet.

Enter Wikipedia: the internet’s largest source of free information. An egalitarian platform edited and controlled by its users, it is a veritable research mecca for university students, curious Joes and (shhh) politicians and journalists alike.

It is also deeply, deeply biased towards men – specifically white, Western men – with fewer than 16% female editors and contributors.

In fact, the gender bias is so substantial, and so widely recognised, it even has its own Wikipedia page: Gender Bias on Wikipedia.

Now, Wikipedia is “the largest and most popular general reference work on the internet”, with more than 40 million articles in more than 250 different languages (source: Wikipedia, of course). The English Wikipedia is the biggest, with almost 5.5 million articles and more than 30 million users. It is quoted, referenced and often directly lifted (without source acknowledgement) in news and features, both online and in print.

So consider for a moment the fact that 84% of the people writing this information are men.

When we go to Wikipedia for information, ideas or knowledge, we quite possibly (or probably) don’t even notice the bias. We don’t notice that there are more articles written about men, nor that these articles, as well as articles about subjects traditionally considered ‘of more interest’ to men, are more detailed, more extensive. (Try searching ‘lists of female scientists’ followed by ‘lists of pornographic actresses’ and you’ll see what I mean.)

The consequences of this particular strand of gender bias are far-reaching and dangerous in their imperceptibility. It is ingrained bias such as this that makes equality a seemingly unobtainable goal.

The gender gap on Wikipedia was first brought to the public’s attention in 2011, following a survey conducted by the Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia’s owners) and a subsequent article in The New York Times. The Wikimedia Foundation then announced their goal to raise the share of female contributors to 25% by 2015.

It didn't work. In fact, in 2014, Wikipedia’s cofounder Jimmy Wales admitted that they had “completely failed” to fix the platform’s gender imbalance. For a number of reasons – many of which are offered up here by Sue Gardner, ex-executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation – fighting the gap is proving difficult. And while Wales and the Wikimedia Foundation have taken measures to help, top-down initiatives don’t quite seem to work.

Which is where grassroots organisations come in. Last month saw the fourth annual Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon. More than 200 events were held across the globe, with in excess of 2,500 participants working to improve existing content on women in art. As well as encouraging more women to join the site themselves as editors, 6,500 female artists now have new or expanded Wikipedia entries.

In December last year, BBC 100 Women launched a one-day edit-a-thon after discovering some “startling” statistics. “In the developing world nearly 25% fewer women than men have access to the internet, and recent figures show women are 27 times more likely to be abused online,” explains editor Fiona Crack. “As an organisation dedicated to improving the visibility of women across the globe we wanted to do something to draw attention to this imbalance.” The initiative saw the highest number of entries about women added to Wikipedia in a single event, with more than 400 new or updated profiles.

The aim of Art+Feminism, set out by its cofounders – Siân Evans, Jacqueline Mabey, McKensie Mack and Michael Mandiberg – is to “create space for a larger conversation about representation, both in the art world and online.” Wikipedia is the fifth most-visited site on the internet, so it’s a good place to start.

Indeed, as McKensie says: “Because of its Creative Commons licensing, content moves beyond the pages of Wikipedia. Google search pulls its biographical sidebar information from Wikipedia, MoMA’s website pulls the article lead for artist’s bios. Absences on Wikipedia echo across the internet.”

“Imagine if a young person's first port of call for research presented lots of women?” asks Crack. “Suddenly these women enter school projects, class presentations, and you potentially start a chain reaction.”

But it’s not only about visibility and the coverage of women’s issues. “We wanted to show women globally that Wikipedia was theirs to edit, too,” explains Crack. “It’s empowering for women to be part of a change.”

A quick survey of 10 of my female friends – all of whom I would call whip-smart – reveals that not one of them has meaningfully created or edited a Wikipedia article. And nor have I. (Except once in my early 20s, as a joke with friends, while drunk, and it was swiftly removed.)

WikiProject Women is a collaborative project that works on a more permanent, year-round editing basis. A collective of men and women from across the globe, its stated aim is to improve coverage of women on the platform. As well as encouraging new female editors to join, the team has created the Women in Red initiative, the objective of which is to turn "red links" (i.e. with no linked content or information) into blue links. There is also the Gender Gap Task Force, WikiDonne, WikiProject Gender Studies and Women’s History, plus a host of other subject-specific WikiProjects dedicated to narrowing the gap.

Of course, what we see on Wikipedia is simply an online reflection of systemic societal issues surrounding gender. And this is not new. “It is now clear that until recently most accounts of women in biographies and historical works are related to the achievements of their husbands or other male relationships,” says Ian Pigott from WikiProject Women. “The fact that many of the most popular sectors of Wikipedia are centred on mainly male achievements (military history, computer science, business) continues to encourage the creation of far more biographies about men than about women.”

“Children learn from Wikipedia,” says Roger Bamkin, also from WikiProject Women. “Girls (and boys) 'learn' that notable people are blokes. We can minimise that. The problem is too huge to be fixed by the 13-23% of women editors. Rosie [cofounder of WikiProject Women] and I agreed that we needed help. It wasn't important where the help was, what language they spoke or what gender they were. Women in Red asks everyone to help... even blokes.”

So the next time you have 10 minutes to spare, consider pressing that edit button. “You’re contributing if you correct spelling, too, so change mistakes as you see them,” says Crack. “Start new articles that don't exist. Get your friends around to do it together. Translate something that's missing in another language. Run your own edit-a-thons.”

I know I will.

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Like eating and bleeding, touching is a fundamental part of being human. And yet, within prudish Western culture, physical intimacy can get sidelined. Us Brits in particular are known for our devotion to personal space and hatred of public displays of affection. But having our skin brush against another human’s (in both sexual and non-sexual ways) is tantamount to survival and wellbeing.

There are other types of intimacy, of course. But touch “is the most immediate way to feel closeness to someone,” Dr. Anik Debrot of the University of Lausanne's Institute of Psychology tells me. “We have nerves that are especially receptive to the intensity and velocity of caressing – humans are wired for being touched, cuddled and caressed.”

The positive effects of touching are well documented: after-sex affection improves relationship satisfaction, regular touching of other people promotes emotional wellbeing in everyone from kids to OAPs, and hugging can reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol. But in our increasingly digitised world – where we are connecting online more but touching each other less often – the effects of a lack of physical contact are everywhere. Without this healing practice, Debrot says, we feel more alone, experience a drop in mood, have more difficulty unwinding and maintain higher levels of stress.

Not everybody consciously enjoys touching, of course – many are unable to touch or are actively averse to touch, be it for self-preservation or through a fear of intimacy, a trauma, sensory disorder or asexuality. I, on the other hand, am guilty of being instinctively hungry for skin, maintaining an aching desire for physical touch night and day.

In order to fully experience the physical and mental impacts of an isolated body in the internet age, I tested the limits of my skin hunger and abstained from my favourite sense for a week. Here's what happened.

Day One: Monday

When the test begins at midnight I’m on my way back from the pub, battling with my housemate Sam over whether to start the experiment on Tuesday instead – I’m regretting ever acting on this idea now that the klaxon’s sounded. I think back to reading that, of all the senses, touch is considered the first we acquire. Given that our skin is our largest sensory organ, avoiding embrace for the next week terrifies me. While prosecco flows on this bank holiday eve, whenever I accidentally go to touch anyone, everyone around gasps as if someone just said the C word in front of a grandparent. I sleep next to my boyfriend with a barricade of pillows between us and, surprisingly, it works – we wake up, skin still untouched. Full points to me so far.

At around midday I’m pathetic and hungover, which isn’t helped by the fact my boyfriend is tormenting me; whenever anything regarding the experiment happens he sarcastically asks, “Is this going in the article?” while I roll my eyes with frustration and self-pity. He blows on me and wraps me up like a burrito in the duvet at around 3pm, 15 hours in. Post-burrito, we’re lying down and his trousers unzip. Still not touching, we’re talking about how horrible it is we can’t have sex, which makes us both want to do it even more. (They say you’re either really anti-sensuality, or hornier than ever when you’re hungover. I’m in the latter category.) I really try not to touch him, but my lust speaks louder than my discipline... My self-control is skipping into the horizon, but my senses are satisfied. I’ll try harder tomorrow.

Day Two: Tuesday

Back to work and I unwittingly brushed the arm of the dude in the coffee shop, only the tiny hairs on our hands coming into contact. In between dodging my colleagues in meetings and people in the street (which is really hard in London), I’m rejecting handshakes and hugs and explaining to people that I can’t touch anyone, which is actually really awkward and embarrassing. My driving instructor looks highly puzzled but respects my wishes and takes the rejection pretty well. I’m doing a whole lot better today at forgoing skin-to-skin and am impressed at my self-control. However, I’m still skin hungry.

Day Three: Wednesday

I’ve been busy as hell at work, so haven’t had many chances to smother people with my hands. And yet I nearly touched my work babe, Trudy twice during lunch. Feeling more stressed than usual, I think I’d ordinarily be able to transfer the stress into productivity, but today it just isn’t happening.

Debrot’s recent research on sex and touch reveals that post-coital affection is the reason we feel better about ourselves after sex – not the lovin’ itself. And this physical closeness can dictate life satisfaction and positive emotions.

I’m definitely deficient in both things right now.

Day Four: Thursday

I’ve been so tired today. Careful not to change any factors of my life other than touch, just in case anything else interfered, it’s proving mega hard to be aware of every thought and feeling I have for accurate self-analysis. Even harder is surveilling my body’s every move when it’s needy.

Even after a bloody amazing night’s sleep, I am genuinely finding it hard not to yawn every 30 seconds. Does skin starvation = all-round debilitation for the skin hungry? I'm now completely avoiding situations where anyone would expect to touch me. This sucks.

Day Five: Friday

Today I'm feeling quite melancholy despite getting a fat night's sleep. Had some fucked-up dreams about my boyfriend cheating, which has engulfed me in anxiety. My lack of touch is invading my dreams now? I think back to what Debrot told me days before beginning the test – am I exhibiting early symptoms of loneliness?

Fundamentally, it is so hard to not touch anyone. I have to consciously watch my arms to make sure they don’t slither over to my co-workers like little snakes with hands on the end. It’s especially hard not to touch Trudy as today she’s hungover and we’re being silly and it feels natural to go for a little cuddle during lunch. I accidentally poke her on the butt-cheek, not realising I’ve done it ‘til afterwards. Thank god it’s Friday: only two days left of this perverse experiment I’ve forced on myself.

Day Six: Saturday

I’m at the Tate with my boyfriend and he's resorted to blowing on my neck to get my attention and show affection. His mum and stepdad are visiting and approach me with caution, respecting my experiment after prior warning from my boyfriend. They definitely think it’s weird when we air-hug.

We see this really intense dystopian play in the evening. I’m finding it hard to breathe and honestly I feel like I'm having an anxiety attack in the crowd and have to calm myself down with deep breaths. I haven’t been this anxious in years. Is this the climax of stroke-starvation? I start to feel as dark as the play, feeling totally exhausted afterwards. I'm well up for this pointless pain to end now and I know some snugs would save my mental state.

I’m only six days in but I give up. I just can’t endure any more touch-free minutes. If it’s because I’ve been hyper-aware of my limbs’ movements all week or because I’m a fully fledged contact junkie, squeezing my boyfriend’s face and wrapping my arms and legs around him is all I want to do. So I do, forfeiting the last 24 hours of the damn study for the sake of my own sanity.

It’s actually ridiculous how much better I feel being back to my normal self, touching whoever I want to touch – within reason, of course. Lying in bed looking back at the last week, I see with clarity what just happened.

I don’t know if being a touch addict is diagnosable, but maybe I am one. The last time I felt this distant from myself was when I was cliché angsty teen Lydia who felt misunderstood by everyone. Perhaps this dissociation was spurred on by the fact I was rejecting the natural reflexes of my body and mind, while simultaneously hushing this segment of my identity. I also had to be constantly concerned about touching anyone, thus ensuring I always had something to be vaguely anxious about. But this just inspired further anxieties. If it’s possible to remove your personality (or at least part of it) by rejecting your own needs, I think I just did it.

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from this vexing test it’s that, for better or for worse, we shouldn’t deprive ourselves of our physical or psychological identities. Whether you’re a toucher or not, a hermit or a socialite, an intimacy addict or a nun, forcing ourselves into situations we’re uncomfortable with is regressive. Unless hurting people is your forte, you should be free to act out your every desire and affirm your needs day in, day out. There’s already too much to think about in life – too many little worries. Why make more?

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A post shared by Wendy Rowe (@wendyrowe) on Jul 18, 2016 at 2:23am PDT

In terms of beauty, the number one goal on most women's wish list is glowing, flawless skin. Whether you suffer from dehydration, pigmentation, acne, oiliness, redness or large pores, the quest for a more radiant, even and clear complexion unites us all.

So who better to ask for skincare tips than international makeup artist, Burberry Beauty artistic consultant, wellness author and Decléor's latest ambassador, Wendy Rowe. Rowe is the makeup mastermind behind the beauty looks of everyone from Sienna Miller and Victoria Beckham to Iris Law and Ruby Rose.

Having joined the Decléor family at the end of last year as their very own beauty expert, we asked Wendy to share her tips for getting a glowing complexion, from skincare and prepping products to the makeup to use and radiance-boosting foods to eat.

What's the best way to prep skin before foundation to ensure a flawless finish? Before you apply makeup, it’s super-important to prep your skin properly to get it in the best place possible. I always start by massaging a cream cleanser like Decléor’s Aroma Cleanse Milk into the skin to remove any dry bits of skin, to boost lymphatic drainage and to remove any fluid build-up in the face. After cleansing, I tone using a mist and remove any excess moisture with a sheet of tissue. I always apply a moisturiser – that’s a total must for me – and the one I like best for this time of year is Hydra Floral Light. I always apply the Aroma Lisse eye cream to smooth out any fine lines around the eye and lip area, and then I finish with some lip balm. You could just do that on its own if you wanted to go makeup-free, spending a bit of time getting that right really makes a difference to the way the skin looks.

Do you switch up your own skincare routine?
In the morning, I wash my face with water, then I tone and moisturise and apply an eye cream, but in the evening, I spend more time and I use richer products to help repair and nourish overnight. I cleanse using a cream cleanser, then I tone and moisturise with a richer cream and the evening is the time that I might apply a night balm or a mask depending on how my skin is feeling and the time of year.

One thing I never forget is my body – it’s super-important not to just stop with your face, so I always make time for my body, including my feet, which a lot of people forget.

What's your best secret skincare tip?
Always take off your makeup at night, and never work out in your makeup! It’s so simple, but it is so important!

Which are the five products you'd use to create a glowing complexion?
1. I love Burberry’s Fresh Glow Fluid, it gives a gorgeous glow to the skin but it’s water-based and looks so natural and fresh on the skin.
2. I also love Burberry Fresh Glow Foundation, it gives a really glowy, flawless feel but it still looks like real skin.
3. Decléor’s Aurabsolu Refreshing Mist is especially good for restoring glow throughout the day to refresh your makeup.
4. RMS Living Luminizer is a beautiful, organic cream highlighter.
5. Oily fish! Fish like sardines and mackerel are packed with skin-boosting Omega oils that are great for achieving glowing skin. If you don’t like the taste of fish, then try a natural supplement like Skinade instead to ensure you get all of the nutrients you need.

Which other skin radiance-boosting foods do you recommend?
There are lots of ingredients that you can include in your diet to help boost radiance – look for ingredients that are rich in vitamin A, C and Omega oils – but don’t expect to notice a change overnight. You have to regularly include these sorts of fresh, seasonal ingredients in your diet, and you need to avoid processed foods – try to prepare your meals from scratch instead. I have provided lots of recipe ideas in my book, Eat Beautiful, to help you include glow-boosting foods into your diet at all times of the year, but for the current season, try my Salmon, Asparagus and Fennel recipe, it’s so delicious, simple to cook and great for boosting radiance from the inside out.

Do you have a special way to apply base that prolongs the stay and provides the best coverage, particularly in summer?
The most important thing is making sure you use the right makeup products and the right skincare. Burberry’s BB cream is a great option as it provides good coverage, but it really lasts well on the skin and always looks fresh and glowing. I like to apply it like you would a moisturiser, with my hands, working from the centre of the face outwards, really working it into the skin and taking it down the neck so that it’s seamlessly blended. The skincare you use underneath your makeup plays a big part in how well your base lasts, too. Don’t make it too complicated or use too many layers of products, but remember that skin changes seasonally and it needs different skincare products in summer months compared to winter. Just as you might change your coat seasonally, you need something warmer and thicker in winter and something more lightweight in summer – and the same goes for your moisturiser. If you use something too rich in summer as a base for makeup, it will slide around too much. Equally, something too light in winter will leave your skin looking too dry and dehydrated.

Where are the best places to apply highlighter without making you look shiny?
The best places to apply highlight onto the skin are the high points of the cheekbones and across the bridge of the nose. You don’t want to apply it all over or it can be unflattering, and make sure it’s really well blended so that it’s undetectable and natural-looking.

Any tips for those with oilier skin types?
If you have oilier skin, then look for natural ingredients in your skincare that will help to balance the skin. Ylang Ylang is a key ingredient to look out for and you could use something like Decléor’s Aroma Pureté range – their Velvet Mattifying Fluid works especially well underneath foundation to help prevent unwanted shine. Also make sure you drink plenty of water and eat a well-balanced diet, avoiding too much caffeine and sugar as these things can lead the skin to overproduce oil. When it comes to foundation and concealer, I recommend Burberry’s Cashmere foundation and concealers. They have a flattering velvet matte finish and they last well on oilier skin types.

Any recommendations for removing makeup at the end of the day and products that help the skin overnight?
Remove your makeup first with a micellar water and use an oil-based eye makeup remover like Aroma Cleanse to gently remove any eye makeup. That isn’t enough in itself, so be sure to use a proper cleanser afterwards to really get your skin properly clean and apply a richer moisturiser if your skin feels dry or dehydrated. A product I swear by for healing the skin and drawing impurities is Decléor’s Neroli Night Balm – I call it my healing balm. It’s great to help repair and heal any areas of redness or breakouts and it’s 100% natural so it’s suitable for even the most natural skin types.

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A millionaire buy-to-let landlord who banned “battered wives”, single mothers and people of colour from renting his homes has got his comeuppance, as the country’s equality watchdog has begun formal legal action against him.

Fergus Wilson, who owns a £250 million property empire of around 1,000 homes in Kent, is one of the UK’s biggest buy-to-let investors and in March it emerged that he had sent an email to his letting agency banning “coloured” people from renting his homes “because of the curry smell”, a policy he defended on economic grounds.

"Battered wives" aka survivors of domestic violence, single mothers, low-income earners, people on zero-hour contracts and plumbers are also banned from renting his properties, according to his letting criteria, which came to public attention earlier in the year.

Thankfully, Wilson is now being taken to task for his jaw-dropping behaviour. After an investigation, the equality watchdog, The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), has applied for an injunction against him, the BBC reported.

If the Central London County Court grants the injunction and Wilson complies, nothing more would happen, but if he breaches it and continues to discriminate against the aforementioned groups, it could be contempt of court and result in a fine, the EHRC said.

"We have asked the court if it agrees with us that Mr Wilson's lettings policy contains unlawful criteria and, if so, to issue an injunction," said the EHRC’s chief executive, Rebecca Hilsenrath.

However, Wilson remains unrepentant, saying he stands by his ban on Indian and Pakistani tenants and will fight the injunction. This is despite him having to call in the police after receiving abuse online. "I personally find Indian and Pakistani people, and also coloured people in general to be extremely intelligent people. And I know quite a number," he told the Guardian.

“We had a problem with a tenant who had dogs, which fouled the carpet. I say no pets and no smoking, and no one gets upset about that. I tacked on to the email ‘no coloured people because of curry smells’. When you rent a property, no one is going to take it if it smells of curry,” Wilson added, which he claimed wasn't racist.

The EHRC, however, said the criterion of “no coloured people” was direct discrimination on the grounds of race and a breach of section 13 of the Equality Act 2010.

Wilson claims his motivation was avoiding financial risk, telling the BBC: "Like any business we are consistently fine-tuning to best advantage." Let's hope the severity of legal proceedings makes him take a long, hard look at himself and reassess his views.

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Women are bombarded with all manner of “advice” as soon as they announce they’re pregnant. Whether it’s overly cautious warnings to avoid certain foods, prenatal exercises they absolutely must be doing or even the genre of music they should be playing to their unborn child, many women are sick of having people sticking their noses into their pregnancies.

One thing women generally do adhere to without complaint, however, is avoiding alcohol while pregnant. But according to experts, warnings over the dangers of drinking during pregnancy are “sexist”, overblown and may even lead women to have abortions, reported The Guardian.

Since January 2016, official guidelines have advised women “not to drink at all while [they are] expecting”. Previously, it was long assumed fine for women to drink one or two units of alcohol once or twice a week.

But now a group of academics, maternal rights campaigners and doctors from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) argue the “overtly precautionary” advice isn’t based on reliable evidence and could lead to unnecessary anxiety.

“We need to think hard about how risk is communicated to women on issues relating to pregnancy,” said Clare Murphy, director of external affairs at BPAS. “There can be real consequences to overstating evidence or implying certainty when there isn’t any.

“Doing so can cause women needless anxiety and alarm, sometimes to the point that they consider ending an unplanned but not unwanted pregnancy because of fears they have caused irreparable harm.”

The advice is sexist because it means many pregnant women unnecessarily avoid socialising, said Ellie Lee, director of Kent University’s centre for parenting culture studies. “As proving ‘complete safety’ [of drinking in pregnancy] is entirely impossible, where does this leave pregnant women?” she said.

“The scrutiny and oversight of their behaviour the official approach invites is not benign. It creates anxiety and impairs ordinary social interaction. And the exclusion of women from an ordinary activity on the basis of ‘precaution’ can more properly be called sexist than benign,” Lee continued.

However, the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) maintains its belief that women who are pregnant or trying to conceive should shun alcohol completely. “This advice is not about policing pregnant women’s behaviour, it is about giving them unbiased information and enabling them to make the choice that is right for them,” said Janet Fyle, the RCM's professional policy advisor.

“Cumulative and regular alcohol consumption in pregnancy could have an impact on the health and well-being of mother and baby.”

Drinking heavily and consistently during pregnancy – as opposed to small amounts occasionally – has been linked to foetal alcohol syndrome, which can lead children to be born with mental and physical defects, including poor growth, learning difficulties, cerebral palsy and ADHD.

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