Your drink order says more about your holiday personality than any personality test ever could. So sit back, pick your fave cocktail and get ready to book that trip the second you’re done reading.

There are two kinds of people in September: the ones who wait for the leaves to turn, and the ones who accept Starbucks' fall menu launch as the official start of the season. Dunkin dropped its lineup on August 19 this year. Starbucks followed on August 25. Neither date has anything to do with the equinox, and nobody cares.

Take it back to the beginning and there was something genuinely lovely about whimsy in everyday life. It meant a cute charm on your bag, mismatched socks, a strange painting you thrifted, or wearing something ridiculous simply because you liked it. I collect wine bottles and turn them into bangle stands. Whimsy at its best was about seeing what you already had a little differently. It was never about having more.

It was the first UK beauty brand to sell a million pounds in a day on TikTok. I bought it. Here is what actually happened.

You’ve finished the thing you were watching. You don’t want to start a series. You want someone clever to talk at you for a while about something you didn’t know you cared about: the history of the corset, why every girl on your feed now has the same slicked-back bun, what actually happened to the it-girl.

Every September the same photograph appears about four hundred times. A girl, a pumpkin, a plaid scarf, a caption with a pun in it. It’s fine. It’s also the visual equivalent of a chain coffee shop: perfectly pleasant, entirely forgettable, and located in the exact same spot as everyone else’s.

We all have that one show. The one we put on when reality becomes mildly offensive. The one we watch curled up in a dressing gown with a cup of tea, demolishing aggressively spicy ramen like it’s a form of self-harm, procrastinating when we’re meant to be revising, or (most dangerously) waiting for him to text back.

The mornings have quietly darkened, the evenings have folded in, and the loose, generous rhythm of August has become a problem to be solved before nine o'clock. Most of us solve it badly, by announcing a total reinvention on the first Monday of the month and abandoning it somewhere around half term.

Nobody has experienced real chaos until you arrive at the student kitchen on move-in day. Six people arrive within a few hours of each other, all clutching bags for life, and by the evening the flat owns four toasters, three colanders and not one tin opener. Someone has bought a candle. Someone else has brought an iron they will use precisely once.

“Ask a child to draw a car and he will certainly draw it red.” That quote from Enzo Ferrari has always resonated with me, especially after former F1 driver Sebastian Vettel’s claim that “everyone is a Ferrari fan” even if they “say they aren’t”. I hate to admit it, but he’s right. I’ve never outwardly called myself a Ferrari fan- choosing to support RedBull and Williams instead- but something Ferrari’s two wins this year have made me jump out of my seat with joy.

Somewhere in the last few years, reading quietly became cool again. Actual, physical, dog-eared-paperback reading, not just the Kindle-in-secret kind. Bookshops that were meant to be dying out are opening in record numbers, teenagers are picking Colleen Hoover over their phones (well, sometimes both at once), and “what are you reading” has become a genuine icebreaker rather than something only your English teacher asked.

Somewhere between the sourdough starter and the perfectly ironed apron, a quiet revolution has been taking place on your For You Page. Women in florals, baking bread from scratch, folding laundry with a smile, and declaring, camera rolling, that their husband’s needs come first. Welcome to the world of the tradwife.

It’s 11.47pm and you’re three minutes into a scroll that was supposed to last thirty seconds. Someone from sixth form just got engaged. Someone else has posted a mortgage offer letter with a party popper emoji. A third person, who you’re fairly sure once failed a driving test in a Tesco car park, is now Head of Something at a company you’ve never heard of but sounds important.

as cancer season washes back out with the tide and makes way for the fiery energy of leo, you may be wondering what the rest of summer has in store for you. should you plan that beach trip with your besties? is that situationship worth hanging onto any longer? fear not, for i’m officially branding myself as adolescence’s astro girlie.

i’m intrigued by the clean girl aesthetic and its prominence over the past few years. that is, i can’t stop thinking about how it strips away any semblance of individuality.

Most people remember Sylvia Plath's fig tree as a metaphor about indecision. But beneath it lies a quieter and more painful idea: every choice creates a ghost. The life you didn't live doesn't disappear, it lingers in the imagination, tempting you with what might have been.

On 3 July 2026, Taylor Swift married Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden in front of roughly a thousand guests. Adam Sandler officiated, and Paul McCartney performed a Beatles song he reportedly hadn’t sung live since 1964. It was, by any measure, an extraordinary event. Whether it succeeded as a wedding rather than a production is a different question entirely.

Everyone has seen the whole ‘eurosummer’ trend on tiktok. It’s not necessarily a trend, as many of us live this life every summer, but now everyone wants to live this life. I get it! Eurosummer is the peak summer experience. Outside all the time, having fun, looking good- why wouldn't you want a eurosummer?

After doomscrolling for hours and finally jolting awake in the middle of the night, I get this sudden urge to scrap my entire identity and become a new flower. A better me. Someone who's heaps more disciplined than the lazy, procrastinating, mildly gluttonous person currently lying in bed at 2 a.m. scrolling TikTok.

London attracts over 30 million visitors each year, both international and domestic. It’s a convenient city break for many. It’s in Europe (although not in the European Union anymore…but visas can be as cheap as €20), it’s in an English-speaking country, and flights are oftentimes very cheap. I’m just back from a weekend city break to London with my friend, so here is how I would recommend spending two nights in England’s lovely capital city.