How one Muslim woman reconciles faith and coming of age — “Do you ever feel like life is just a movie?” Whiskey Sour, business pants. July, 10:15 p.m., Friday.” This is a note I wrote to myself. It’s my handwriting, my spiral blue notepad, so I know it’s me. I can even picture the guy, but I don’t know why I…

Starting an underground yearbook in Saudi Arabia — I attend an all-girls conservative high school in Saudi Arabia. Our uniform is gray, grazes the ankles, and resembles something Queen Victoria would wear at bedtime. All we do is dream about boys, read contraband American teen magazines, and hide from our principal at prayer time. In the twelfth grade…

From the start, there is something unknowable about her. Jawaher arrives, zero fanfare, in the middle of the school year. At recess, we stare at her from across the courtyard: her coral lips, legs for miles that end in Doc Marten’s, untied. The first among us to approach her is…

The day we get The Sex Talk in fifth grade I am out, sick with the flu. I spend the morning home on the couch, watching the Jetsons while eating unnaturally large quantities of instant Jello. After school, my best friend Patti arrives to deliver my homework and the big…

The exciting new eatery that’s literally inside my fridge. — MY FRIDGE offers an “eclectic” menu with “wide-appeal.” The interior is “abundantly lit,” with tasteful appliance-lightbulbs designed to withstand “extreme” temperatures. There is no dress code, but diners are advised to bring a “sweater” or a “shawl” along to prevent “frostbite” or possible “death by hypothermia.” An “adventurous” mix of…

I am eight years old and afraid of everything, including: large spiders, honey bees, okra, Gregorian chants, fat Turkish ladies, cemeteries, ghosts, train tracks, old people, reptiles, heights, the Fraggle Rock muppets, creaky stairs, nighttime, the BFG, and death. I’m deathly afraid of dying. I’m enrolled in a kiddie swimming…

It gets cold in Canada, especially in Calgary where one night, my dad’s friend walks outside without a hat on and his ear falls off. …

I met Mindy in college. We were in the same major, born exactly one month apart. Mindy’s big dream was to someday become a podiatrist, a doctor of feet, and she was obsessed with my toes. At the time, I was working nights as a bartender at a place in…

One day, I start writing a book. I open up a blank page on the computer, and I just begin typing whatever the hell pops into my head. The year is 2008. “I’m writing a book,” I announce cheerfully to my family and friends and to total strangers I encounter…