A coroner has heard that no aspects of care from a doctor contributed to their premature deaths.

Swimwear can be one of the most intimidating and anxiety-inducing garments that we own. On the flip side, it can also be one of our biggest sources of confidence. For many of us that grew up loathing our bodies, particularly if they did not at all resemble what was being marketed in swimsuit ads, swimsuit season comes with a lot of feelings.

As an adult, I have decided to reclaim the term “fat” as a personal identifier. It is just simply a descriptor of how I identify—fat, Black, femme, queer. Those are all descriptors for how I navigate the world. Identifying as fat or plus-size is important for me because it represents how I have to navigate the fashion industry in particular. Fashion is not at a point where they “don’t see size,” and it continues to prove incredibly challenging for fat or plus-size folks to shop for clothes that actually fit, both online and in-store.

RELATED: Women Are Still Grooming Their Bikini Lines—But Why?

The swimwear industry is notorious for being fatphobic and having a lack of options available for anyone over a size large. Not so fun fact: According to Dr. Deborah Christel, apparel design researcher and founder of size inclusive intimates brand Kade & Vos, only 10% of swimwear sold online is available in plus-sizes. Once the temperatures begin rising as summer months draw nearer, you begin hearing the phrases “beach body” and “bikini body,” and though no one may outright say that fat bodies are not included in those categories, it certainly has always felt implied. So if you are a fat or plus-size person who does not make drastic changes to your body during swimwear season, where do you go if you are not trying to put on a suit that makes you look like Aunt Carol going to water aerobics (no shade Aunt Carol, get your swim on, girl)? Where can you find a suit meant for the beach babe you were born to be?

RELATED: Ashley Graham Opens Up About Why She's Not Afraid to Show Her Stretch Marks on Social Media

Meet Kitty and Vibe, a swimwear brand that’s intentional about body positivity and size inclusivity. The brand created a new sizing metric that uses hip and inseam measurements to create the perfect fit. Each swimsuit bottom size comes in two size options for smaller booties and bigger booties. This eliminates the issue of sagging, bunching, or not enough coverage.

RELATED: Tess Holliday Just Rocked the Cutest Colorblock One-Piece Swimsuit—and It’s Perfect for Summer

In late July, the brand hosted a pool party that was like the real life version of the body pos pool party in Shrill. Kitty and Vibe aptly called their event “A Party for EveryBOOTY.”

RELATED: Chrissy Teigen Responds to Body Shaming Tweet: I 'Never Can Win'

When I arrived at the party, which was hosted at a swanky rooftop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I found myself experiencing the same feelings as Aidy Bryant’s character Annie, thinking to myself, “I should have the confidence of a journalist with press access to this rooftop party, but I’m a little nervous, shy, and hopefully I can get away with standing by the snack table for the night.”

This is typically how I feel attending bougie press events as a plus-size person. However, when I entered the party and saw the diversity (pardon the buzzword) around me, I immediately felt at ease. Stretch marks, wrinkles, melanin, and all body shapes were in attendance to celebrate this brand that too was celebrating them. It was incredible.

I chatted with 25-year-old founder Cameron Armstrong about the ethos of Kitty and Vibe, body positivity, and “A Party for EveryBOOTY.”

RELATED: The 15 Most Flattering One-Piece Swimsuits

HelloGiggles (HG): Was this the first event for the brand?

Cameron Armstrong (CA): Yes, it was. We’ve done a couple in-person markets, but this was really the first full on Kitty and Vibe brand event. It was really special because obviously Kitty and Vibe is all about inclusivity and diversity, celebrating each and every person exactly as they are. But it’s one thing to preach that message, and it’s another thing for people to actually buy into it and respond to it and love it and live it. And so when everybody showed up—and it was the exact kind of demographic of everything that we preach—it was so fulfilling.

HG: It was really cool for me to witness that myself, too. It’s like you said—it’s one thing to see it as a consumer or even read about it as a journalist. But to actually experience it is really nice. It’s great to see brands that actually hold up their end of the bargain.

CA: I was so giggly the whole night, just talking to everybody and saying, “I’m Cameron, I started it. This is crazy.” It was just the most authentic night. It was really special. I had some people tell me, “I came here alone and I was a little nervous, but I’ve made about six friends since being here.” I think that’s very telling.

RELATED: The Workout That Demi Lovato Says Makes Her Feel Sexy in Bikini Photo

HG: That’s awesome. So I have to ask, what is the story behind the name Kitty and Vibe?

CA: Yes, very unique name. So for me, when I created this mission for myself to fix all of the pains within swimwear, I really saw the biggest issue for women and swimwear being that, for a lot of women, nobody could ever find the perfect fitting bottom. It would either sag too much or be too skimpy. And then, also, the experience was so degrading and triggering for so many women. So it was these two issues that I was really focusing on finding solutions for: the fit and the experience. For me, I’ve always had a very small booty. And so whenever I would swim in the ocean, the water would pool [my bikini bottoms] and it would be so uncomfortable. So I took this real life experience with me being a woman in a swimsuit, and I started measuring anybody that would let me measure them. I found that the biggest differentiator across all these women was actually the inseam size, so belly button through the legs to the top of the tailbone. Which is why it’s called Kitty, because I couldn’t call it crotch. And from there, I developed these sizing metrics. In standardized swimwear, you have the small, medium, large, but in Kitty swimwear, within each of those hip sizes, there are two different inseam size options. That’s translated to the customer as S1 and S2. Then we ask, do you have a smaller booty or bigger booty? A smaller inseam or longer inseam? The simple questions really seem to work for the customer because our return rate is insanely low for e-comm fashion. It’s just giving her double the options; we’re not these one dimensional figures that can bucket into three size options. So that’s where Kitty comes from.

Vibe is taking a product [swimsuits] that’s been so historically worrying and depression-triggering, and flipping it on its head to make it something actually enjoyable. I wanted this product to no longer be an enemy of a woman, but a friend. I refer to each of the prints as vibes. So the way our business model works is we drop a new vibe. And when a vibe comes out, it’s available in every single size and every single style. So she can choose the perfect top that will fit her chest in her size and then the perfect bottom with the right coverage in her size, and then get it in that print. Whereas [for other brands], a print will come out that’s maybe only available in a triangle top, which is not supportive enough for someone with an E-size breast. So this really gives her the flexibility to curate the perfect suit for her. Then the suit’s delivered to your doorstep with a curated playlist that matches the vibe of your suit. …It really just personifies the product and it makes you so much closer to it, and it makes it less intimidating. So that’s Kitty and Vibe.

RELATED: Why I Stopped Cropping My Body Out of My Photos for Dating Sites

RELATED: Influencer Who Was Body-Shamed After Sexy Photo Shoot Responds With  Empowering Advice

HG: What does the design process look like?

CA: I’m so glad you brought that up. Because I have no experience in design, I do all of the design decisions on Instagram polls. So if you go on our Instagram, you’ll see a highlight called “Your Vote.” And any time that we are creating new prints or new shapes, new styles, new upgrades to the suits, the decision is made through majority vote. So I throw it up on a poll and I say, “Do you want this or this?” I think it was a no brainer, especially since I’m really not the expert, and who better to ask than the people that are going to buy it… It’s important to note that it’s the highest engagement we get on social media. It’s a really fun way to engage and get the customer hooked at early stages because she’s designing it herself. She’s choosing it.

HG: What exactly does the term body positivity mean to you?

CA: I think it’s tough because obviously it’s a buzzword, for sure… I think body positivity is important to look at it as not so black and white, where it’s like you have it or you don’t. It’s a never ending process of accepting who you are… I really think that the Kitty customer is someone who is on that journey of accepting themselves, but I don’t think she’s dwelling in self pity or self doubt. I think she’s seeing the glass half full and is very encouraged to support other women on the same journey. And it’s really about about sisterhood and lifting other people up along the way. I think the most important thing to me is that it is a process. It’s a journey, it’s not you have it or you don’t.

RELATED: Plus-Size Influencer Nabela Noor Opens Up About Her First Bikini Pic and How She Deals With Hateful Trolls

HG: What does diversity mean to you and especially in fashion?

CA: For all of my campaigns that I’ve done thus far, I have never hired professional models. The people that are in the campaigns are friends of friends or people that have reached out to the brand to say, “I love your message; I would love to be involved.” …I think diversity just means “real.” It’s not photoshopped. It’s not perfectly curated. And something that I really want to be mindful of is avoiding any type of exploitation. I think we’re walking a fine line now where, it’s amazing that the representation is so insisted upon, but I think it needs to be done in the most organic and tasteful way possible. Luckily, within Kitty and Vibe, the people who love the brand are diverse. That’s something I am so proud of because I think it’s rare to be able to create a movement that has such a wide spectrum of souls in love with what you’re putting out there. That’s probably what I’m most proud of; the authentic diversity that is seen when you look at the Kitty and Vibe community.

HG: That actually leads me to my next question. As a straight-sized person yourself—meaning someone who isn’t plus-size or fat—what inspired you to create a brand that is size inclusive, body positive, and diverse—especially when it would be really easy for you to just create small, medium and large? Or, on the opposite end, you could have just tapped into the tokenization of the body positive and diversity movements in fashion. What inspired the movement behind the brand for you?

CA: I’m so glad you asked this because it’s something that I think about really often. To be totally transparent with you, it’s also my biggest insecurity… and when I close my eyes and put myself back at the beginning stages of developing this company, and why I was so fired up about doing it, it was really about the conversations that I had in my past with so many women. Everything that I’ve ever encountered where a woman feels less than because of the way she looks. When I developed the company, I was only two years out of college. I remembered so many conversations with friends where they would just be in tears because they didn’t want to go out that night or they didn’t want to go to the beach—simply because they didn’t like the way they looked. And it was heartbreaking. The one thing that I personally have struggled with in my life is acne on my back, so when I’m in a fitting room with the light beaming down on me, the acne scars on my back are what hinders me from feeling beautiful… And I thought to myself, “I need to give these women armor. I need to give them a suit that really just makes them feel beautiful, and that allows them to get out of their head and really realize that what matters is her confidence.” And so I think it was getting a taste of that triggering feeling. And I just decided that I had to do something about it.

RELATED: Amazon Shoppers Are Convinced This $26 Swimsuit Flatters Every Figure

RELATED: This Body-Positive Activist Rebuilt Her Confidence on Her Own Terms. Here’s How

HG: Would you say more of your larger sizes are being bought than your smaller sizes?

CA: You know, it’s really across the board. I am glad you’re asking me that because I would want to refresh the data and take another look at it. Definitely the most popular sizes were around an M2 or L2—which would be between a size 8 to 14. So it’s really in the middle—it’s not your size zero or the super stick thin that you see so often in advertising. But [the most bought sizes are] not only the highest sizes I offer. That’s why I really don’t ever use the term plus-size to refer to Kitty and Vibe. Because for me, [being inclusive] means every single size on both ends of the spectrum. And as I’m able to grow and as I’m able to hopefully start fundraising and really turn this machine, I have every intention of expanding sizes on both ends of the spectrum. I think we won’t settle until there’s a Kitty that makes every woman feel comfortable.

HG: When you first launched, did Kitty and Vibe always sell the range of sizes available now? Or did it start out smaller and then expand?

CA: At the very, very beginning, it went up to a size 16. Then, within 60 days, I was able to use the sales from the first batch to jump up to a size 20 and give another top size. And then this spring, with our one pieces, those go up to size 24. So it’s kind of like, as soon as I have the sales under my belt, we churn out more sizes.

HG: What do you see next for Kitty and Vibe?

CA: The possibilities are endless. The sizing is at the forefront—it’s just going to keep [expanding] on both ends. And then, also, I’ve had a lot of people say that the sizing metrics—your hips and your inseam—is so brilliant… So okay, where else can we take it? And I think there could be really great potential within intimates. Imagine if you had underwear that could do this, or you had leggings that could do this, or even jeans?! It really keeps me up at night… So I’m not sure what will be next, but I can’t wait to find out myself!

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Can Tess Holliday post anything braver or bolder than what she put on Instagram last week? On September 25, Holliday shared a close-up photo of herself, displaying her body rolls in all their glory. But it was the fierce, self-affirming caption to her photo that prompted thousands of responses from fans. 

RELATED: Tess Holliday Just Revealed What She Really Thinks About Pubic Hair, and It’s so Relatable

“It’s not easy to choose love towards a body that so many find ‘disgusting’, & sometimes I wonder if that’s why so many of us spend so much time hating ourselves,” wrote Holliday. “To radically love yourself is hard work, but my god it’s worth it. My body has served me well, it’s taught me things about myself, and others, that I didn’t think were possible.”

“This beautiful body has carried two kids, survived so much abuse from others and from myself, and yet I’m still here… Still in awe of what we’ve created together," continued Holliday. "I’m fortunate to be able to use my body as a tool to connect with others on a more intimate level (& no I’m not talking about sexual intimacy). To be able to share my stories and to keep going despite so many obstacles in my way, to be able to see beauty where others see none, that’s my gift. I chose myself, and I hope whoever is reading this can do the same.”

RELATED: Tess Holliday’s Son Hopped in Her Bathtub While She Was Trying to Get Some Self-Care Time—and Her Reaction Is Priceless

With more than 84K likes and 2K comments, the post had no shortage of support. 

“Seeing your body on social media changed my life. I remember seeing a bold, tattooed, plus size woman who reminded me so much of myself,” wrote one commenter. “I thought to myself ‘if i think she’s beautiful, and i see so many of my qualities in her, why do i see myself so differently’ and from then on, i learned how to look at myself the way i look at you. I now embrace all my soft, curvy bits and love the way i look.”

Holliday wants her fans to know that the constant criticism she gets for showing her body and promoting self-acceptance isn’t as easy as it looks. She’s received body shaming comments that have “tested” her mental health. In September 2018, she was featured as Cosmopolitan UK’s cover girl, which was met with tons of criticism.

But despite the blowback, Holliday continues to promote her message—and she's inspiring others along the way. 

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Last week, Jessica Simpson made headlines when she announced she'd lost 100 pounds in the six months since giving birth to her daughter Birdie Mae. Now, Amy Schumer's making a similar announcement—and putting an extremely "Amy Schumer" spin on it. 

On Monday, Amy shared a photo of herself on the beach with her sister Kim while wearing a two-piece swimsuit: a black crop-top with matching high-waisted bottoms. Amy gave a shout-out to Jessica in her caption: "Ok Simpson," she wrote. "I've lost 10 pounds and 100 dollars to my sister playing poker. #norush #givememymoneybackkim."

RELATED: Amy Schumer Goes Off on Troll Who Asks How She'll 'Cope' if Her Son Has Autism

Just a reminder: Amy gave birth to her son Gene Attell Fischer nearly five months ago after a particularly tough pregnancy, dealing with a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum, or severe nausea and vomiting.

Amy, of course, didn't hold back when it came to that news, either, posting from her hospital bed to ler her fans know what was up. "I have hyperemesis and it blows," Amy wrote in the Instagram caption, shared nearly a year ago. "Very lucky to be pregnant but this is some bullshit!"

RELATED: Amy Schumer Jokes She's 'Sorry' for Hospital-Underwear Photos—and Shows Off C-Section Scar

She continued her Instagram sharing when she posted photos of herself five weeks after giving birth in a pair of hospital underwear. "Hospital underwear for life," Amy wrote in the caption. (She also took to Instagram days later to say "sorry, not sorry" to those who criticized her postnatal hospital underwear look.)

As for her most recent Instagram share, it's clear that fans are loving her honesty about her postnatal body and "no rush" sentiments. "You look incredible. Plus your body created another human. You rock" wrote one commenter, while another shared, "You are so real and that’s what we love about you most!!!" Even more thanked Amy for showing that post-pregnancy weight loss isn't immediate—and that that's totally ok. 

To get our top stories delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Healthy Living newsletter.

Many of us don’t get through a morning unscathed without a good cup of coffee.

For others, it’s what sustains them through the day.

But the beloved cup of coffee continues to be the source of research to determine it’s effects on the body – here’s what we know from recent studies.

The good:

Drinking more than 6 cups a day? Well there’s an unexpected health benefit

To the many ways in which coffee seems to confer unexpected health benefits, add a lowered risk of painful gallstones.

After tracking nearly 105 000 Danes for an average of eight years, researchers found that those who downed more than six cups per day of the world’s most popular beverage saw their gallstone risk drop by 23%.

But not everybody is convinced…

Worried about coffee keeping you awake? You can relax – but alcohol and nicotine are the enemies of a good night’s rest

If your love for coffee runs deep, but you’re worried about you favourite beverage keeping you awake at night, life is about to get better.

A new study has found that nicotine and alcohol use within four hours of bedtime was negatively associated with the quality and quantity of subjects’ sleep, while coffee and other caffeinated beverages didn’t significantly affect their chances of catching a good night’s sleep – in most cases anyway.

The researchers do warn, however, that some individuals are more sensitive to caffeine than others, and that caffeine can still make a difference to some people’s sleeping patterns.

Why coffee could be great for your workout

Coffee has long been the go-to beverage of the bleary-eyed early morning crowd – but could the jolt of energy that comes with all that caffeine be put to even better use in the gym?

For some people, the answer to that question is a resounding yes.

While your local supplement store is likely to have shelves upon shelves of fancy pre-workout powders that get your heart rate buzzing, you could get the same type of benefit with a simple cup of coffee.

But there’s also some bad:

You might want to think twice before that second cup of coffee – it may be fuelling your anxiety

If you struggle with anxiety, you might want to skip that second cup of coffee, new research suggests.

“Caffeine is not the enemy” – for some people, caffeine may help with concentration and provide an energy boost, but it can cause problems for those with general anxiety disorder, said Dr Julie Radico, a clinical psychologist with Penn State Health.

Suffering from migraines? You might want to curb the coffee

Love your coffee but prone to migraines? New research published in The American Journal of Medicine has some bad news if two cups of coffee are not nearly enough for you.

The recent study shows that drinking three or more servings of caffeinated beverages a day is associated with the onset of a migraine headache the same day or the following day.And for good measure, here’s some extra reading:

Is coffee good for you?

Here’s what happens to your body when you drink coffee

SEE: The dangers lurking in your cup of coffee

If you just drank way too much coffee, here’s what you should do

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Health24

As doctors race to determine what is causing sudden and severe lung illnesses among some vapers, new research discovers dangerously high levels of a known carcinogen in menthol-flavoured electronic cigarettes.

The chemical (pulegone) is used as a menthol and mint flavouring, even though it was recently banned in foods, the researchers said.

Lung and liver cancer

“If pulegone is not allowed in food, there’s no reason why it should be allowed in e-cigarettes,” said lead researcher Sven-Eric Jordt. He’s an associate professor of anaesthesiology at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.

Because pulegone is known to cause lung and liver cancer in animals, the US Food and Drug Administration banned its use in foods in 2018 after pressure from consumer groups, Jordt explained.

But the FDA does not regulate pulegone’s use in e-cigarettes or smokeless tobacco, which are touted as safer than tobacco cigarettes, he added.

Jordt said that tobacco companies began removing pulegone from cigarettes in the 1960s and 1970s because it was an irritant and consumers didn’t like it.

That same strategy didn’t transfer to e-cigarette companies, which use pulegone because it’s a lot less expensive than other menthol and mint flavourings, Jordt explained.

“Many are small companies that likely buy some cheap compound, maybe even a skin oil or an oil for lamps or something,” he said. “They’re just buying the least expensive thing they can add to get the flavour.”

Ban on all flavoured cigarettes

Reacting to a spate of severe lung infections tied to vaping and the soaring popularity of e-cigarettes among teens, the Trump administration announced last week that it would move to ban flavoured e-cigarettes.

On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said he would use an executive order to ban most flavoured e-cigarettes in that state, with the notable exception of menthol flavour. Cuomo said he was not banning that flavour because it might help menthol cigarette smokers quit, but he added that might change in the future. On 4 September Michigan became the first state to ban all flavoured e-cigarettes.

According to Erika Sward, an assistant vice president for national advocacy at the American Lung Association, “We have a fundamental failure to protect the public from dangerous chemicals. And that is why FDA needs to step it up and why the public should not use e-cigarettes.”

Sward also noted that e-cigarettes have only been on the market for about a decade, so the long-term effects of vaping aren’t fully known yet.

“That’s what the American Lung Association has been sounding the alarm bell about,” she said. “The Wild West has been allowed to exist for too long. We’re going to see the consequences of that for decades to come. So, don’t use e-cigarettes.”

For the study, Jordt and his colleague, Sairam Jabba, a Duke senior research associate, analysed several brands of regular menthol cigarettes, three e-cigarette brands and one smokeless tobacco brand, all of which contained pulegone.

A troubling study

The researchers compared levels of pulegone in these products with the level of pulegone known to cause cancer in animals.

E-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco contained levels of pulegone higher than what the FDA considers safe. In regular menthol cigarettes, the level of pulegone was below the danger level, the researchers found.

Stanton Glantz is a professor of medicine at the Center for Tobacco Control, Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco. He said, “This is a troubling study that highlights the fact that the FDA’s continuing refusal to remove menthol from cigarettes and other tobacco products is harming people.”

Glantz added that the FDA has announced that it will be suspending the sale of menthol e-cigarettes, but the official policy has not yet been released.

The research letter was published online in JAMA Internal Medicine.

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HealthDay

They are 250-million-year-old “evolutionary remnants” most lose before birth, scientists say.

Parents can relax a little about how much time their kids spend in front of screens, new research suggests.

A large review of the scientific evidence on the topic concluded that media time overall is not associated with the academic performance of children or teens.

Pervasive in modern society

But the more time kids spend watching TV or playing video games, the more likely their grades will suffer, the international team of scientists led by Mireia Adelantado-Renau, from the University Jaume I in Castellon, Spain, found.

It makes a funny sort of sense, once you take a step back and realise how pervasive TVs, smartphones and laptops have become in modern society, said Dr Victor Fornari, vice chair of child and adolescent psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York.

“This study just clarifies for me that life in the 21st century is so vastly different than it was 50 years ago. Tasks we used to do unrelated to a screen now involve a screen,” Fornari said. “Reading a book is on a tablet now, and reading a magazine in on your laptop, and playing a game is a video game, and connecting with friends means you’re on social media.”

This evidence should prove reassuring to parents, said Fornari, who was not involved in the review.

“It’s important for parents to know there’s no real data to suggest that a large amount of screen time interferes with function,” Fornari said. “These studies show it’s really not the amount of the screen time, but the quality of the screen time.

Not total time that matters

“If you watch more television, then you’re not studying or reading,” Fornari said. “We know many kids find themselves addicted to video games and are playing hours and hours a day and not devoting their time to reading a book or studying for an exam.”

For this new report, Adelantado-Renau and colleagues reviewed 58 studies on screen time from 23 countries, involving more than 480 000 kids aged four to 18. They also combined the results of 30 studies involving 106 000 children to delve deeper into the potential effects of screen time on learning.

It turns out that it’s not the total screen time that matters, but what the kid does with the screen.

Television viewing was linked to lower academic scores as well as math and language skills, the researchers found, while video gaming was linked to poorer grades. The researchers did say the study only found an association – it didn’t prove one causes the other.

The new review was published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

In the future, researchers will need to do a better job breaking down exactly what kids are doing with their screens, said Janis Whitlock, a research scientist with the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

A major ‘time suck’

Passive screen activities appear to be more harmful to grades, as well as activities like video gaming that can prove a powerful distraction, said Whitlock, who wrote an editorial accompanying the review.

“I also suspect we’re talking about a lot of TV,” Whitlock added. “We’re not talking about a couple of shows a night, I don’t think. These are kids who are spending huge amounts of time passively watching television.”

The same goes for video games. “Video games can become a really major time suck,” Whitlock said. “Gamers have a really hard time stopping. You can go on for hours and hours.”

Parents should monitor their kids’ screen use to make sure they use the devices in beneficial ways and keep distractions to a minimum, she said.

“Don’t assume your child can self-regulate,” Whitlock said. “They can’t. They really can’t. It’s a rare young person who can do that. Parents need to be aware and they need to provide pretty strong guidelines about when and where and how devices will be used, and for what.”

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HealthDay

Most people can continue to eat red and processed meat as they do now. A major study led by researchers at McMaster and Dalhousie universities has found cutting back has little impact on health.