Do I Have To Tell You?

I was so stupid when I found out I was pregnant. I had no idea. I was 14 years old.

That I didn’t know missing my period meant pregnancy. Do I need to be ashamed? Do I have to tell you how many pills I swallowed to hide my shame? Do I have to tell you how it felt to have tubes shoved up my nose as they pumped my stomach at 15 years old?

Shareen Mansfield

Shareen Ayoub Mansfield is a veritable font of information, compassion, and attitude. She is a first generation, American of Arab descent. Widely known as both an airhead and genius. She is a Jill-of-all-trades resulting from her Lebanese heritage plus compulsion to learn everything once and learn it correctly. She has a soft side. It's her back side. If she's facing you and you've ignited the wrath of her inner dragon, duck or burn. Your choice. Aside from balancing ferocity with kindness, Shareen has been trained for Red Cross Disaster. She has helped train dogs for emotional support and Search and Rescue. She's studied Nursing, Dietetics, Journalism, Kickboxing, cooks better than your mom, is active in her children's school, is a runner and has a third-degree black belt in the creative use of "fuck" and putting megalomaniacal narcissists in their place. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook or connect by emailing her at Shareen.Mansfield(at)me.com Shareen is a Social Butterfly choosing to connect with her favorite authors on all platforms. Consider her your biggest fan. You can find her poem Compromised Field listed in The Writes Of Women. Read her on Raising MothersHer personal poem of her journey into the inferno of Hell & addiction and how it impacts the lives of those you love featured on OTV's Team Wizard Raymond Baxter's site The Relationship Blogger. Her raw & unfiltered experience with An Eating Disorder featured Nourish Your Soul published by the prolific author of Hush by Nicole Lyons on TheLithiumChronicles.com. Shareen is a Publisher, Author, Social Media Whisperer on: OTVMAGAZINE.Com Twitter : @ShareenM Website: OTVMagazine.Com

My Non-Television Mother and Me: The Interview

Read Part 1 here.  Part 2 of a 3 part series In an attempt to understand my mother a little better, I asked her a couple of questions that remained unanswered to myself. My mother has come so far in life, but she appears to be stuck. I want to Read more

Richard DeFino

Ricky De Fino grew up in New York City and currently resides in Buffalo NY. When he isn’t writing about his anxiety and his crazy Bronx upbringing, he enjoys watching countless hours of television with his wife Andrea, cat Bebe and dog Zeke. Two years sober, good coffee and veganism keeps him sane. His work can be found in Two Cities Review, tNY Press, Purple Pig Lit, Dialougal and Cycatrix Press.