Simone Scully

Loneliness has increased during the pandemic, but it’s never too late to make friends. Here are our tips for making friends during COVID-19. When you were young, it’s possible making friends felt easier. All it took was a fun game, a shared interest,…

It’s important to talk to kids about difficult issues, like the coronavirus. Here are some tips for discussion. As a parent, there are certain topics, such as sex, drugs, death, or upsetting events in the news, that you’ll have to discuss with your…

Doomscrolling is easy to do but it can have real mental health impacts. Here’s what to know about it. It’s 11:30 p.m. and you know you should go to bed. But you think, what’s the harm of checking my phone quickly? As you do, a news notification pops…

Our phones kept a detailed track of in-quarantine data: our experiences, our “history.” It was our lifeline to the world outside. So, how can we detach ourselves? We strive to share insights based on diverse experiences without stigma or shame. This…

Since March 2020, when the pandemic shut down offices and schools across the country, many parents have worried about their children getting sick. And despite some progress, we’re still dealing with these fears more than a year later. Part of why…

While I was interviewing for jobs during the pandemic, the very first question I asked was: “What are your plans for going back to the office?” The answer was always: “We don’t know.” As vaccines have rolled out and infection numbers dropped, I’ve…

I’ve been craving alone time during the pandemic. Turns out, I’m not the only one. Since the pandemic lockdowns were first announced, I haven’t been alone once. My husband and I started working from home on the exact same day. Our son’s daycare…

Keeping masks on your kids all day can be a struggle, but it's so much harder if they're not feeling well. After all, the last thing they want to do is keep a mask over their face when their nose is itchy or runny. Unfortunately, while spring might…

Since March of 2020, over 29 million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to the CDC. Over 540,000 have died in the United States as this unprecedented pandemic has swept the globe. And yet, by the end of 2020, it looked like…

For better or worse, some behaviors just don’t want to quit — and we’ve picked up plenty of “new normals” during quarantine. We strive to share insights based on diverse experiences without stigma or shame. These are two powerful voices. We did a…

Overcoming obstacles in the past helps you better cope in the present. Last June, I lost my full-time job in a large-scale pandemic layoff. I was surprised I didn’t cry while getting the news over a video call. Instead, I had a fierce desire to “do…

In 1918, it is estimated that about 500 million people — or about one third of the world’s population — caught influenza, otherwise known at the time as the “Spanish Flu." It was the deadliest flu outbreak in recorded history, with between 50 million…

We are living in a new age of widespread remote, online learning. Even before COVID-19 forced the shutdown of schools all over the world, investment in EDtech (education technology) had reached $18.66 billion in 2019 and the market of online…

As the pandemic drags on, we need empathy more than ever. When my husband and I received emails from our employers telling us they were shutting down our offices, the pandemic suddenly felt very real and very scary. I was flooded with a desire to…

“They found a way to create community, even though we had to be apart.” It was a Thursday morning in 2009 when Shani A. Moore woke up and realized that she couldn’t see a thing out of her left eye. “It was like a thick black ink had been poured over…

There’s no denying it: Thanksgiving — like many things this year — is going to look different. We’ve spent months social distancing, working from home, wearing masks every time we go outside in public… and now, we’ve got some difficult decisions…

In 1945, the world had just endured the bloodiest war in history. World leaders were determined to not repeat the mistakes of the past. They wanted to build a better future, one free from the "scourge of war" so they signed the UN Charter — creating…

My husband and I made it about a month into quarantine before having a blowout argument, complete with door-slamming, cruel comments, and no apologies made for several hours. It shouldn’t have happened that way, though, considering that the whole…

When non-essential businesses in NYC were ordered to close in March, restaurants across the five boroughs were tasked to pivot fast or risk shuttering their doors for good. The impact on the city's once vibrant restaurant scene was immediate and…

Try not to beat yourself up if you’re struggling. When the shelter-in-place orders were issued in New York City in March and my office shut down, I didn’t initially sweat the idea of working from home. After all, I’d successfully worked from home…