Sonya Taylor Journalist Profile

Articles

Is Everything a Diet?

3 weeks ago | virginiasolesmith.substack.com | Sonya Taylor |Virginia Sole-Smith

Today’s essay is a response to a question I’ve been asked repeatedly, and have been pondering, for awhile. It’s also, essentially, the mission statement of Burnt Toast. If this resonates with you, please consider supporting our work with a paid subscription. A heart or restack is also a huge help! Thanks so much for being here. One thing about me: I can make anything a diet. I’m programmed to achieve and excel, to crave gold stars and high grades.
Orthorexia: When Healthy Eating Becomes an Obsession

1 month ago | experiencelife.lifetime.life | Pilar Gerasimo |Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl |Pamela Weintraub |Sonya Taylor

A few years ago, I gave a presentation to an audience of physicians and hospital administrators based on my book, The Healthy Deviant: A Rule Breaker’s Guide to Being Healthy in an Unhealthy World. During my talk, I noted how deviating from the typical American diet — or just not eating what everybody else is eating — can lead to social awkwardness and stigmatization. A doctor approached me afterward to seek my advice.
PRH Community Reading List

2 months ago | prh.org | Octavia E. Butler |Joy Harjo |Derecka Purnell |Sonya Taylor

With the new year in full swing, PRH is thinking about the texts that build our foundations and sustain our spirit as we do this work at this time under increasing political duress. Reading keeps us grounded in what people before us and around us know to be true and know to be possible. Please find a few books that are currently on our shelves across the PRH Staff and Board of Directors.
Embracing Intuitive Movement

Sep 10, 2024 | experiencelife.lifetime.life | Maggie Fazeli Fard |Brian Johnson |Sonya Taylor |Gina Wagner

The first time I tried moving intuitively — that is, exercising in a way that honors my physical and psychological needs rather than as a way to control my body and mind — it didn’t feel intuitive at all. I’d spent so long believing that exercise was a tool to manipulate and fix a body I understood to be imperfect, to shrink it down to a size that fit the world I lived in.
Ode to Body Joy!

Nov 16, 2023 | experiencelife.lifetime.life | Maggie Fazeli Fard |Jill Metzler Patton |Elizabeth Millard |Sonya Taylor

My first memories of feeling a certain (not-good) way about my body date back to when I was 8 or 9 years old: A doctor pointing to a graph and expressing concern that I was in the 95th percentile for my weight. A friend assigning me the role in one of our backyard sketches of a doughnut-obsessed character whose physique resembled a “meatball with a mushroom on top.” A classmate pointing out that I had “alien” legs because my blue veins were visible.
Positively Plus Sized

May 10, 2023 | powells.com | Casey McQuiston |Sonya Taylor |Mari Costa |McCall Smith

"One of the really great things about making this display was finding how much diversity there is in books with plus-size main characters. There is a lot of queer and BIPOC representation because authors from those communities, especially black women, have been writing with body diversity long before a mainstream body positive movement happened. I'm incredibly grateful to those writers for not just their work, but everything that followed because of it." — Bookseller Kathleen F.
Primary Local Listings Checklist for Hotels

Mar 28, 2023 | hospitalitynet.org | Sonya Taylor

It is imperative to tell a consistent story about your hotel across all channels. Storytelling can be told through content and images, but it is also about ensuring accurate amenities and offerings across all channels. To ensure higher guest satisfaction and higher conversion rates online, you should regularly audit your local listings as a part of auditing your hotel’s entire online presence. Here are the top local listings you should regularly audit.
Three Books: Samara Bay ’02 on Power and Purpose

Mar 27, 2023 | paw.princeton.edu | Priya Parker |Elizabeth Lesser |Sonya Taylor

Speech coach Samara Bay ’02 says the sound of power is changing. In her new book, Permission to Speak: How to Change What Power Sounds Like, Starting with You, Bay offers a toolkit for how to approach your own speaking opportunities without all the “shoulds” we’ve picked up. It’s especially for women, immigrants, people of color, and anyone who’s felt different because of how they speak, or who’s felt stuck chasing an impossible standard of how to sound authoritative.
Marketing a Dual Branded Hotel

Feb 14, 2023 | hospitalitynet.org | Sonya Taylor

Congratulations! Not only are you opening up brand-spanking new hotel, you’re opening up two, at the same time, with the same address. Woah, what did you get yourself into?!Your dual brand hotel already offers separate public areas and room design, has separate budgets and maybe sales departments. But now you need separate addresses, phone numbers, websites and you guessed it, marketing plans.