Priscilla Blossom

As a child growing up in a Spanish-speaking, immigrant household, I had limited resources available to teach me English. My parents came to this country out of necessity in the 1980s from war-torn Nicaragua. My father worked in construction and only picked up enough English words to get by. Being a former teacher, my mother did her best to teach me to read and write in Spanish. And while my older brother picked up more of the language from playing with neighborhood kids, it wasn’t exactly eno...

From Downtown to Girlstown to the West Side, and back again, we’re exploring the unofficial capital of the Midwest.
Featured Image: Photo by Dawid S Swierczek via Getty Images.
What do you think of first when someone mentions Chicago? Deep-dish pizzas and mustard-free hot dogs? Tall buildings? Frigid winters? What about the fact that Chicago has been a pioneer in LGBTQIA+ rights for over a century now? In the early 1920s, the nation’s first gay rights organization, the Society for Human Right...

In 2011, citizen journalist Lee Roy Chapman wrote a scathing exposé in This Land Press about Tulsa founder W. Tate Brady’s ties to the Ku Klux Klan and his participation in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. The story made waves across Tulsa and beyond. It even prompted their city council to change the name of their arts district — then named after Brady. Chapman himself was a self-taught historian, a seeker of deep buried truths, including those which harmed Black and Indigenous communities. He w...

Comedian Cristela Alonzo has been killing it for years. In 2011, she had audiences roaring with her segment in Legally Brown, a comedy special showcasing non-white comedians in which she was the only woman. Three years later, she became the first Latina to create, produce, write, and star in her own primetime sitcom, Cristela. And in 2017, she got her first Netflix special, Lower Classy, while also becoming the beloved voice of Cruz Ramirez in Pixar’s Cars 3. Since then, she’s had a second Ne...

Exhibits feature medical curiosities to gruesome histories
Published on Oct. 13, 2025
— Our editors and readers independently select what you see on USA TODAY 10BEST. When you buy through a link on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
There are plenty of ways to get into the spirit of the spooky season, from pumpkin patches to haunted houses and costume parties. But what about a trip to a museum? While museums are often places to see priceless works of art or to learn some history, ...

Saya — who goes by the gaming handle Legi0n and asked us not to use her last name — is a gamer and a mom. Those aren't mutually exclusive, as the world found out when Saya made headlines last month after winning a Mortal Kombat XL tournament just five days after giving birth to her daughter Cereza through C-section. Saya cradled the newborn in her lap as she played the video game.
While the early postpartum period can be an overwhelming time for most new moms, the 3D artist in Central Florida...

Best places to soak in the vibes of La Isla del Encanto
Published on Sep. 24, 2025
— Our editors and readers independently select what you see on USA TODAY 10BEST. When you buy through a link on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
There’s no doubt that this past summer belonged to Bad Bunny. Instead of touring the U.S., the Puerto Rican music superstar put on one of the most unbelievable residencies ever in Puerto Rico, playing a whopping 31 shows and pumping millions of tourism do...

The start of kindergarten is a wonderful milestone that brings up a lot of emotions. You might feel excited to see your little one finally joining a classroom of their peers. You might also have a lot of questions around what’s expected of them. One question, in particular, might be running through your mind as you prepare for your kiddo’s next transition: Can a child go to kindergarten not potty trained?
“In most classrooms — including mine — it’s expected that kids entering Kindergarten are...

Engage with Denver’s rich Latine heritage and culture during your visit.
By Priscilla Blossom

Nearly a decade ago, I booked a couple of flights to Denver for an anniversary trip with my spouse. At 5,280 feet in altitude, landlocked, with proximity to mountains, breweries galore, and legalized cannabis, it felt like the antithesis of my hometown of Miami. We loved it so much that just two months later, we packed up our belongings into my Subaru (the unofficial car of Colorado) and drove cross-...

Periods are a part of life for many, but talking about them — and the challenges of working while pushing through painful cramps and energy-sucking fatigue — remains largely taboo. In a 2023 UVA Health study, 45.2% of women using the Flo app reported needing to take time off due to period symptoms, but most felt they lacked workplace support to address these concerns.
Tori Dunlap, founder of Her First $100K, wants to change that. In a recent LinkedIn post, Dunlap shared her company’s new poli...

Why wait until June for Pride? Oregon’s Winter Pride is kicking off March 6.
I was at a vision boarding party last year at a lesbian-owned bookstore (shoutout to Denver’s Petals & Pages) when I realized one of my goals for 2024 was to attend more queer events—especially for Pride. As Pride is generally in June, though, I figured I’d have to wait a while. That is, until I got an email inviting me to check out Winter PrideFest in Bend, Oregon.
What’s Winter Pride Fest, you ask? Just another gay...

Be a gracious guest by avoiding these missteps on your loved one’s special day.
Attending a wedding is always exciting, whether you're a guest or you're part of the wedding party. Weddings are considered the happiest day in many people’s lives, after all, and the happy couple wants to share it with you. However, weddings also require a lot of careful planning and expense. This means a wedding invitation also comes with a silent agreement that all will be on their best behavior for the event. ...

Jessica Gee on raising her internet-famous kids without social media — and the family's latest adventure.
It's been 10 years since Garrett and Jessica Gee sold off all their belongings to wander the world with their children — they now have three: Dorothy, 12, Manilla, 10, and Calihan, 7 —in tow. Over the years, they've visited nearly 100 countries and become social media stars known as the Bucket List Family, sharing their adventures (camping in Botswana, scuba-diving with sharks) with milli...

In my younger years, I dreamt of hitting Sin City for a hedonistic weekend that could only be remembered via poorly scribbled notes written in an inebriated haze.

Like many would-be writers, I longed to recreate Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing" firsthand. Las Vegas has a reputation, after all, for being the sort of place one goes to make endless mistakes in, hopefully, enjoyable ways.

As a lower-income lush in my 20s, the trip never happened. Back then, it felt most important to invok...

Ube season is in full swing at Trader Joe’s, and that, of course, means the return of none other than their Ube Ice Cream. This purple yam-based frozen concoction is a traditionally Filipino food item that TJ’s has capitalized on and mass marketed fairly well in recent years. It’s been great for folks who want to expand their palate. But it begs the question: Is it any good?