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In the fight against the spread of the coronavirus, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, has been providing the public with straight-forward updates on the deadly virus. Due to conflicting statements about COVID-19 by the president of the United States, which critics say are misleading, Dr. Fauci has countered some of President Donald Trump’s points and it has been frustrating the president, according to The New York Times.

President Trump understands that the general public and the media know that Dr. Fauci is deemed credible with the information he tells everyone. With that being the case, Trump has given him more leeway to contradict him than he has with any other officials in his camp. But the president doesn’t want the public to feel the threat is as serious as some public health experts have been saying.

In an interview recently published by Science Magazine, Dr. Fauci responds to questions about ‘surviving’ Trump’s contradictions at White House press conferences in response to the coronavirus outbreak. “Well, that’s pretty interesting because to [Trump’s] credit, even though we disagree on some things, he listens. He goes his own way. He has his own style. But on substantive issues, he does listen to what I say.”

Some reporters have questioned if the White House is encouraging people to practice “social distancing”, why is the stage at the press conferences showing the opposite? Dr. Fauci responds, “The situation on stage [for the press briefings] is a bit more problematic. I keep saying, “Is there any way we can get a virtual press conference?” Thus far, no. But when you’re dealing with the White House, sometimes you have to say things one, two, three, four times, and then it happens. So, I’m going to keep pushing.”

For the past two days, Dr. Fauci has been absent from the press conferences and the public has taken notice. When Monday’s news conference began, Twitter started trending with the #WhereIsFauci hashtag, and reporters started questioning his absence.

According to USA Today, Trump said Fauci was at a task force meeting during the press briefing. “He’s a good man. I like Dr. Fauci,” Trump said. “He’s not here because we weren’t discussing” issues that he is best at addressing, the president said.

Source: Barancsi Dóra / EyeEm / Getty

A Texas family showed how you can still celebrate important milestone birthdays even if it falls during “The Great Quarantine of 2020.”

Brittney Bush-Rudd, a resident of Mansfield, a suburb outside of Dallas,Texas, tweeted a photo of her daughter Jacey “Cece” Rudd having the time of her life during her recent fifth birthday on March 19.

“It’s her birthday! And we are making it the best we can by staying positive, hopeful and happy!” Bush-Rudd wrote. “We’re practicing #socialdistancing but all other imaginary friends are here to turn up!!!”

Jacey can be seen surrounded by her pink party decor with a huge smile on her face as she holds a can of lysol.

Her originally party consisted of a bowling and arcade outing, made complete with a weekend trip to Legoland and a few Barbie doll purchases. Bush-Rudd told the New York Post that she was forced to call off the celebration with Jacey’s friends due to the fact that across the globe families are self-quarantining because of the coronavirus.

Bush-Rudd shared the decision to cancel was hard for a variety of reasons.

“This year has been very big for her because she has a speech disability. She has made a lot more sounds in school and is learning to speak better,” she said. “We’re just so happy that she enjoys school and has a lot of friends there.”

But although the party would be small, she decided to go forth with celebrating her baby girl. Jacey’s guest list included her imaginary friend “Wendy,” which is also the name of one of her friends at school.

“She and the imaginary Wendy watch ‘The Wendy Williams Show’ before going on the bus to school to see the real Wendy,” Bush-Rudd said. “But I think the invisible Wendy is named after the show because she tries saying her ‘How you doing’ catchphrase.”

In the VIP section along with Jacey and Wendy, was her mom and older sister Jillian. The group enjoyed a Sara Lee cake from the grocery store, and Jacey’s grandmother cooked chicken. The experience made Bush-Harris appreciative of the moment.

“It really made our whole family realize that life is about the small stuff,” Bush-Rudd continued. “Everything we did wasn’t much, but she liked it anyway. A kid is thanking you for Lysol and a doll!”

Clean beauty lover Brooke DeVard is a true ingredients junkie. So much so, she even makes many of her own products at home. The host of the award-nominated Naked Beauty podcast stopped by The Color Files to talk all things skincare, makeup, hair, and hacks. She let us in on a few of her favorite products, and even shared how her hair has become a bit of a joint venture between her and her dear husband.

“My husband is so funny. He has such strong opinions about my hair to the point where it kind of annoys me,” she told ESSENCE. “He loves my natural hair. When I’m wearing my hair out in a big Afro, he’s like, ‘This is how I love your hair. I wish you could be like this every day.’ And I’m like, ‘I love it too. I’m not doing protective styles because I don’t love my hair. It’s just a lot of work.’ I think when he met me, I was wearing a curly ‘fro hawk. On Valentine’s day he’ll request it.”

Many of us would give anything for that level of attention and appreciation for our beauty routines. That’s real couple goals. But when she’s not collaborating on styling with her hubby, DeVard is figuring out ways to hack her hair to its best form. As an expert in trial and error DIY beauty, she’s figured out some interesting ways to take her products to the next level.

“Before it even goes into my shower, for every single conditioner I own I open the bottle and I add some of my own oils at home,” she said. “I’ll add castor oil or avocado oil into the conditioner bottle because I just want that extra moisture and slip. So that’s a good beauty hack.”

Noted. And DeVard goes hard for customizing when it comes to her skincare too.

Navy Liner + Pink Gloss . Hair // old #washandgo I >A post shared by Naked Beauty Planet (@nakedbeautyplanet) on Jan 13, 2019 at 7:51am PST

“If you’re making eggs for yourself, you know exactly how you want them cooked. When you start to make, let’s take body scrub for example, you can be like, ‘I want to add more avocado oil because I like when I rinse it off how it feels on my skin. Or I want to add more tangerine essential oil because I want that fresh citrusy scent.’ You know, everyone has their own things that they like. And when you learn how to make your own products, you can get into making your dream product,” she added.

But don’t expect her to take on launching a brand anytime soon. Her career at Instagram and her popular podcast keep her busy enough. She is, however, still chock full of ideas for anyone who thinks they can execute them.

“I love a good beat. But I also love clean beauty and I love clean ingredients. I think the person who figures out how to make a really great cosmetic that has the right pigments and shows up on our [melanin-rich] skin, but it’s clean is going to make a killing,” she finished. “For now, I’m just trying to focus on doing my main job and doing the podcast.”

To find out more about DeVard’s beauty routines, favorite products and personal beauty story check out the latest episode of The Color Files.

The post Naked Beauty Host Brooke DeVard Has A Great Hack For Your Hair appeared first on Essence.

Source: FilippoBacci / Getty

I don’t mean to sound like a baby boomer hating on millennials when I am actually a millennial myself (though I often don’t relate to the younger end of that spectrum), but, I think social media might be turning us into garbage humans. Just a little bit. Absolutely any and every personality or behavioral flaw you have—social media almost makes it so you can just stop working on it. You get to curate everything about your image online. Every time you “interact” with the world on there, tons of behind-the-scenes thoughts, editing, re-writing, re-drafting, and calculating was done. Nothing is raw. Almost nothing is authentic. Who cares if I suck in-person if I’m great online, right? That’s what it seems like. In fact, I know of a lot of people who are, to be honest, pretty crappy humans, but appear so tremendous online.

We also interact differently online, using “Likes”, memes, GIPHS, and emojis to communicate and express ourselves. Sometimes, I stop and realize that I think I know someone—like really have a full idea of their personality—all because of the rare and short comments they’ve made on some of my posts, and their go-to emojis. I’ve already created this entire person in my head, just based on that. Something tells me I don’t actually have any idea what that person would be like in real life.

The anonymity and the praise for keeping things brief, keeping things funny, or always being the person who is controversial or always being the person who is posting uplifting memes is really making us all dwindle each other down to these slivers of ourselves. And, maybe we like that. It’s easier than having to be a dynamic, complex, ever-evolving human in real life who braves showing flaws through human interaction. But, really, is being good at social media making us bad people in these ways?

via GIPHY

General social IQ

I wonder if the art of reading the room, and generally picking up on what others are feeling, is dying off. My friend’s sibling is an influencer on Instagram who is often praised for being “so relatable” online. And, I gotta tell you, I cannot stand in-person interactions with this woman. She never picks up on tone, or subliminal messages, or really any of those more subtle exchanges. We don’t really need to learn how to read the room on social media. We post in a vacuum.