By: Tricia Callahan

The time of women’s oppression is far from behind us, and the person who knows this more than anyone is Widener University graduate, Melissa Fabello.

Working as an editor and writer for the widely respected publication Everyday Feminism, Fabello has reached her way to the ears of thousands. Her wide audience is due in part to her informative, factual, and at times shocking, videos and her attendance at numerous universities and conventions around the globe. Proving the age-old adage that if you want to be heard, say something.

Working for Everyday Feminism has afforded Fabello with profound learning experiences. “It’s shaped my feminism,” she says, “to be more application-based and solutions-focused, as well as intersectional. Working with the writers and the staff…I’d be lying if I said that hasn’t been the biggest highlight.”

“But those day-to-day interactions,” she adds, “when someone writes to me to let me know that I’ve helped them in their journey are really what keep me going, and make me proud of the work that I do.”

The VLOGS (or video blogs) that Fabello posts on a regular basis hold nothing back. In a recent VLOG titled Why I’m a Body Image Activist, Fabello rattles off a number of telling facts: “I am a body activist because the average American woman is five-foot-four and 165 pounds, while the average Miss America winner is five-foot-seven and 121 pounds.” The facts she presents are endless and thought-provoking.

“It’s hard to argue with someone when they have studies to back up their statistics,” comments Fabello on the video.

In a world where feminism is still seen as a taboo subject, Fabello addresses the misconceptions, saying that “the media spins a really terrible story about feminism and feminists, and my key bullet point would be to stop believing everything that people tell you and go out and see for yourself.”

Fabello’s advice is simple: do your research before you jump to wild and sometimes flat-out wrong assumptions.

A Few Random Queries: 

What’s your cat’s name?

My cat’s name is Halley, like the comet, and he is the most perfect cat that ever lived. He has a middle name, too, actually. Halley Amadeus Fabello.

 

What is your favorite album? Band? Song?

God, this is so hard, and I don’t want to cop out by saying The Beatles’ Abbey Road or something. But I think that an album that holds a lot of sentimental meaning for me is Damone’s Out Here All Night (my favorite song on that album being “On Your Speakers”) because my college roommate and I spent most of our college nights at their shows or listening to that album, and there are just so many memories there for me.

Who was your most inspirational professor?

I think that actually my most inspirational teachers were in high school, no offense to the amazing professors that I’ve had in my academic career. It’s just that I decided to be an educator early on (by the eighth grade, it was settled), so the teachers that I had in high school really shaped the way I thought about education in a way that’s profound. I had one teacher in particular – Ms. Nancy Oliver-Gruen – who meant a great deal to me growing up and who saw a spark in me that made me believe in myself. I feel like I owe a lot to her.

Final thoughts?

I would just like to reiterate the value that No Apologies Magazine stands for – that living unapologetically and being proud of your authentic self is vital to social change, so keep being who you are and doing what you do.