Forgotten Island feels like a return to when animated films were truly special, with something extra layered on top. While Pixar has been slowly going downhill a bit (remember when every single Pixar film hit?), this family movie is joyful, hilarious and will bring many people to tears. It follows best friends Jo (H.E.R) and Raissa (Liza Soberano) as they find themselves stuck in the mysterious world of Nakali. Based on Filipino folklore, the pair encounter different monsters, creatures and animals along the way.

In a sort of mashup of The Hangover and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Jo and Raissa can’t remember what happened the night before. Soon, they face a harsh truth: if they don’t return home, they may forget the most important memory of all… their friendship.

Entertainment writers Bernice Corral and Rachel Choy sat down to discuss Forgotten Island, including what made it so memorable (we won’t be forgetting Forgotten Island!), how meaningful it was to see the Philippines portrayed in a positive light, and whether it’s going to be the next big hit.

Rachel Choy: Did you know much about Forgotten Island before going to watch it?

Bernice Corral: When the announcement that Liza Soberano was going to be part of it, I was very excited for that. I’ve been following her for so long, and I knew she had been trying to make it in Hollywood from the Philippines. And then, obviously, seeing so many Filipinos involved like H.E.R, Lea Salonga, Dolly de Leon, and Manny Jacinto, I was very excited.

RC: What were your initial thoughts when watching?

BC: I love the animation style! I’m such an animation lover, and it reminded me a lot of SpiderVerse. Also, side note: whenever Southeast Asia is portrayed in any Hollywood film, they put this yellow filter over it to show that it’s a poor country. So to see the Philippines in such a vibrant way, was amazing.

RC: There’s racism to that, with the yellow filter and how SE Asia is portrayed, for sure.

BC: To see a powerful and actual reflection of the Philippines was very heartwarming.

RC: The animation was so cool, and the color scheme as well; the neon and bright colors! It was so saturated. I also loved the mix of 3D animation and back to 2D. And the flashback to cartoons we watched growing up like Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon.

BC: It was so nostalgic.

RC: It honestly was. I was sitting there thinking, am I watching him transform into a Super Saiyan right now? What’s going on! There are also so many Filipino references and the odd Tagalog words or phrases, but there aren’t English subtitles. It’s not dumbed down for the audience. I thought it was really awesome. I can’t speak the language, but I got the gist of those parts. I may have missed out on little things that are Easter eggs just for Filipino people, but I still loved it.

BC: There were still the context clues and the inflections of how lines were delivered. I could understand it, but I agree. I think the voice acting as well was so good and helped to keep those moments universal.

RC: There’s also the little things that are universal across different cultures. Like when Lola throws her sandal at the neighbor.

BC: It’s called the tsinelas. They released a clip of the party scene, and I’m seeing a lot of the Latin communities being like, oh my God, like we’re cousins with the Philippines. It’s obviously transcending Filipino culture. It’s resonating with the Asian community, but also with every other country that Spain colonized.

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RC: I was gonna say, I think we know why. Can we talk about the Jesus picture?

BC: That was one of my favorite parts. As someone who has a painting of the Last Supper hanging in their dining room right now, the use of the Jesus picture itself was so Filipino, but also Jo’s character, where she looks at it and goes, “Sup Jesus”. I feel like it’s such a funny way to portray some Filipinos’ relationships with religion. In the Philippines, Catholicism is so intertwined with our culture, and it’s more part of the culture than actually spiritual. Also loved how the Jesus was in front of the lechon (suckling pig).

RC: I guess because religion came with the colonizers, so it’s a very complicated history. Maybe that’s why it was so cool that the film went into Filipino folklore, which would have been more of the stories that were told before the colonizers came.

BC: I loved it because I don’t actually know much about Filipino folklore aside from specific monsters. They used folklore from different regions. So it’s not just one animal that represents the entire country. I read that Batiba’s folklore is from the Ilocos region, which is where my mum is from. I think it’s also that there are so many subcultures in the Philippines. We’re a whole archipelago, so it’s not just one Filipino story, and they were very self-aware about that. Seeing them do that, along with the other little traits and quirks, was a good way to address that. The Philippines isn’t just one culture.

RC: But aside from the celebration of Filipino culture, it’s also just a really good movie.

BC: Exactly! The themes of friendship and moving abroad can also resonate with a lot of people. And for a lot of people, especially immigrants, it’s about not wanting to forget where you came from. But as time passes by, you can’t remember everything.

RC: Also! It’s a kids’ movie which puts friendship at the centre, and they’re not chasing a man.

BC: They’re chasing each other.

RC: So many movies are always about finding validation from a man.

BC: Not only was it like an exploration of love through friendship, but the flashbacks to Jo and her Lola were so special. I feel like those familial bonds are so important in Filipino culture as well. So it was an exploration of familial love.

RC: I feel like in Asian culture, you have stronger bonds with your grandparents. You’re more likely to have them living with you when you’re growing up, compared to white people.

BC: Yeah, my grandparents took care of me when my parents were at work.

RC: And then on a deeper level, you didn’t have anything like this growing up as a Filipino kid. I had Mulan, which also came with some problematic things, but I still had something.

BC: I would look to Mulan; I would look to Pocahontas and Jasmine because of the brown skin. Even Snow White, because she had black hair. That’s how desperate I was for any representation as a child.

RC: Do you think this film will become important for young Filipino kids?

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BC: I hope my goddaughter likes this, because her favorite movie is Frozen and I’m like, girl, no, you gotta get around Forgotten Island. I hope she enjoys it and sees herself in it as well.

RC: The other thing is that the creative team are mostly Filipino.

BC: What I loved about it is they employed a Manila-based animation studio, which I think is so cool, because I feel like the arts aren’t taken seriously in the Philippines in the same way, with like a lot of Asian culture. They’d rather you be a doctor or a lawyer or a dentist. So the fact that they’re supporting the arts in the Philippines makes me really happy. And then the score, the composer is Filipino, and he used all Filipino musicians for the score as well. So BINI and SB19 are P-pop groups in the Philippines, and then Sophia from KATSEYE is Filipino, and H.E.R and Liza did the theme song for the movie as well. It’s Filipino in all aspects, and throughout the project, which I love. It translates so well with the movie because you can tell how much love was put into it, and it also speaks to what happens when you actually tap into the people behind the culture when you’re telling a cultural story.

RC: Yeah, because if you have white people telling a cultural story, they’re basically colonising it, and it happens all the time. That can be, like, in a publication, a book, or in movies or whatever. It’s their version of it, which is not real.

BC: I read the production notes, and Januel and Joel said they wrote the characters based on people in their lives.

RC: The only thing is, I don’t think the trailer does it justice. I hope people get past that and go and watch it. It’s such a good movie. I think it could stand the test of time.

BC: I’m hoping it becomes kind of (not to compare Asian movies, but…) K-Pop Demon Hunters, where the popularity grows through word of mouth.

RC: Yes, and it blows up! This is refreshing. Pixar has had a few flops, so it’s time for DreamWorks to come in. I’m a How To Train Your Dragon truther.

BC: Yes, it’s Forgotten Island and then Shrek 5! Please, everyone, support this film if you want to support Asian culture. If you found yourself at a very Asian time in your life this year, and you actually want to support Asian culture, you’ll watch it, and not just use us for clout.

RC: If you don’t watch Forgotten Island, it means you hate Filipinos. So go watch it. Cameron Diaz wants you to watch it.

BC: She grew up with a lot of Filipinos. Lumpia. Adobo.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Forgotten Island is in theaters now.

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“I don’t really know why they chose which scenes [would make it in], but I think it’s just the ones that kind of jump off the page that feel the most cinematic as well,” Reinhart tells Refinery29. “You can’t put every single thing in there because sometimes it just wouldn’t work in a movie; it just wouldn’t make sense or flow in the right way that it does when you’re reading something.”

Bateman admits he hadn’t read the book before he read the script, but believes viewers will appreciate how it stands on its own. “I remember thinking I didn’t feel like there were any holes in the script. The script was such a wonderful page turner. I thought there was everything there that you’d want from a romantic comedy film,” he says. “When I then went and read the book, I thought, yeah, you could have put those moments in, but to be honest, I can see why they didn’t.”

Book purists shouldn’t panic, though, as Reinhart is chronically online and pushed for certain book moments to be added to the script after she joined the project. “I was [for] research purposes seeing sort of the scenes and the lines that people really wanted, and I would push for those. They were mostly already actually in there, but maybe a few lines here and there I pushed for,” she adds. “I was able to give my input and notes on Olive and certain things that maybe I felt lines-wise from the book that people would really want.”

The pair know immense criticism will come from those who love the book, but there’s no such thing as a 100% faithful adaptation, especially when everyone interprets the source text differently. “You can hate the movie if you want. Totally fine,” Reinhart says. “It’s par for the course when you do an adaptation. You genuinely know that some people are not going to like it, and not approve of you as this character that they have been thinking about in their head.” She notes that fans can still go back and read the book, so they can keep loving whatever version they please. The idea of being crucified online for an adaptation doesn’t bother her, either, because as an actor, nothing will stop her from doing her best to play Olive in the way she believes works.

Bateman agrees, saying: “Ultimately, you can’t please everyone. You never will be able to. There’s never been any piece of thing created that was universally loved… but you[‘ve] just got to keep true to yourself.”

One much-loved moment that did make it into The Love Hypothesis movie was Fluchella, where Olive forces Dr Carlsen to get a flu shot. It helps expose Adam’s vulnerabilities and takes their relationship to the next level. “It does so many things in that one moment. Olive gets to see a side of him that he’s still trying to protect,” Bateman muses. “There’s a playfulness there that comes out, but you’ve still got the rigidity of who these characters are.”

The actor thinks that a good book-to-screen adaptation comes down to “energy”. While not all book scenes work on camera, creative teams and actors can channel the same type of feeling, keeping the adaptation feeling faithful but with the ability to be told in a different medium. “I thought they did a really smart job of blending moments [together],” he says. “It’s all to do with character development and story arc.”

The Love Hypothesis will be released on Prime Video on September 23, 2026.

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As the first Black male Summer House castmate, KJ had to learn to navigate the new world of reality television with millions of eyes watching. Ever graceful, he’s taking the lessons and carrying them into another season. In our conversation, we talk about what it means to give yourself grace when you live and date in the public eye, and how he manages the pressure of being “the first.” KJ models the kind of transparency he hopes inspires other men to open up and share more deeply about what they’re feeling. He opened up about his childhood experiences with living with undiagnosed ADHD and having to live with his grandmother. KJ shares that his love for skateboarding has never left him and now serves as a space for self-care. We also cover his return to music and how excited he is to try a new genre and sound. As is his nature, KJ is turning back to the creative outlets that brought him joy as a kid, except now he’s sharing them with the world.

Watch the full episode below:

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During the conversation, Tabitha and host Brooke DeVard discussed the importance of strong faith and a strong work ethic. Tabitha explained that she decided she wouldn’t just have a viral moment, but would build on her skills and experience to create a sustainable career. She walked through her decision to move to L.A. twice, both times to pursue her creative dreams, and how she prepared for success while doing so. They dove deep into her business acumen and how she’s found success across many industries while staying true to her vision and sense of purpose. She shared her entire hair journey, the many big chops, working with her husband, and how to handle online negativity. When Tabitha says, everything must be aligned, she means it. Every aspect of her business reflects who she is and what she loves; whether that’s her commitment to a vegan lifestyle, her love of children, or her lifelong love of haircare. Tabitha gave us full access to the dietary, beauty, and haircare choices that make up the woman we all admire.

Watch full episode below:

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There’s a trending shoe category competing for space in your fall wardrobes, and it can’t quite decide what it wants to be. Sneakerinas combine the slim, delicate shape of a ballet flat with sportier details traditionally found on sneakers. The result is a shoe that looks slightly strange at first and then suddenly makes perfect sense.

The hybrid is quickly becoming more than a niche runway experiment. Brands across the fashion spectrum, from Nike to Chloé and Louis Vuitton, have released their own interpretations, making a strong case for sneakerinas as one of fall’s biggest footwear trends. But among the growing number of options, VIVAIA’s Carol Sneakerinas are emerging as an early It-girl favorite.

Bella Hadid recently wore the latest black tone pair with knee-high socks, a little black dress, and an oversized tan jacket. It’s exactly the kind of off-duty outfit she does particularly well: seemingly thrown together, slightly unexpected, and somehow cooler because nothing looks overly styled.

According to VIVAIA, the outing marked Hadid’s fourth time stepping out in the brand’s shoes. And she isn’t the only one making a case for the Carol. Lola Tung was photographed wearing VIVAIA’s white Christina Sneakerinas, proving that the brand’s take on the trend works just as well with a lighter, flirtier outfit. Seeing both women reach for VIVAIA’s relatively under-the-radar sneakerinas (in different styles and with their own distinct approaches to getting dressed) makes the trend feel less like a fleeting celebrity moment and more like one worth investing in.

Celebrity sightings alone aren’t enough to make me pull the trigger, but these are the types of shoes that could do double duty in almost any closet. The beauty of the sneakerina trend is that it combines the barely-there silhouette of a ballet flat with the tread and practicality of an actual sneaker. Categorizing it might be confusing, but figuring out what to wear with it isn’t. Try a black pair with jeans and your favorite fall sweater, ortake a cue from Hadid and Tung and style them with a mini dress.

After several seasons dominated by ballet flats, Mary Janes, retro sneakers, and increasingly unconventional shoe hybrids, the line between “pretty” shoes and our practical ones has essentially disappeared. And I’m not mad at it. Sneakerinas land right in the middle, and that’s exactly why they work.

Ahead, shop VIVAIA’s It-girl-approved Carol Sneakerinas along with more of the best options to wear this fall.

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One of my most viral moments on the Internet began while I was sitting on my sofa trying to relax. Of all the genres I listen to, I had put on some bossa nova when suddenly a Toyota Corolla flew past my house blasting something completely different. It was loud, fast, full of bass, the kind of song I’d also have in my music library, but in that moment the contrast felt so dramatic. I couldn’t stop thinking about how funny it was. I started imagining what two songs could capture that feeling and, eventually, cut together Lisa Ono’s rendition of the bolero “Bésame Mucho,” the sound of a car speeding by, and Tokischa’s “Delincuente.” I filmed myself looking out of the window and wrote on screen, “Me trying to romanticize my life but a Corolla full of girls passes by.”

The sound had a slow start. Nothing that made me sit there refreshing my phone or obsessing over the numbers. Then my followers started tagging me in videos of other creators using it. Then celebrities started using it: Shay Mitchell, Snooki, Young Miko. Eventually, Tokischa, the Dominican star of the audio herself, used it, too. The audio had somehow traveled all the way around the Internet and returned to one of the people who made the joke possible in the first place. My audio had entered the Internet machine. I could watch it cycle and spread, but no longer really control where it went or what it became.

@vanessacsirias #POV me trying to romanticize the sunset when my past self passes by #comedy #latinasbelike ♬ original sound – Vanessa Sirias

There’s something strange about watching the Internet take something out of your hands and turn it into something much bigger than what you originally made. The Internet is supposed to be this massive hub of connection, but it’s grown so vast that the things we create can become completely disconnected from where, or who, they came from. Something I made on my sofa reached corners of the Internet I never could have imagined. All the while, I remained its quiet originator.

That distance between how far something travels and how deeply the person behind it is understood is important. Dr. Narolyn Mendez, a New York City-based clinical psychologist specializing in Latine psychology, racial identity, and culturally responsive mental health care, says the distinction between visibility and actually being seen is easy to lose online. “There’s a difference between being viral and being seen,” she says. “Being seen means that you’re really being understood.” 

Mendez describes that kind of understanding as something mutual: You open yourself up to another person, they sit with you in that vulnerability, and there is a relationship being built on both sides. The Internet can imitate pieces of that intimacy, especially when audiences feel like they know someone because they watch them every day, but it can’t necessarily recreate it. 

My audio has been used in more than 785,000 TikTok posts, and most of the people who have encountered it have probably never even heard my name. I’ve never really been upset by that. The sound was never explicitly about me. The original post was already presented in the language of a meme, almost inviting someone else to place their own experience inside of it. That is also the nature of the Internet. Things are constantly being shared, remixed, repurposed, stripped from one context and dropped into another. I don’t expect the average person scrolling TikTok to stop and investigate who originated every joke, format, sound, or trend that passes across their screen. What interested me more was watching this very small moment from my own life become almost anonymous while still somehow remaining recognizable to hundreds of thousands people online.

That is where another kind of connection begins. The people using my audio certainly didn’t suddenly know me. They understood something much smaller, but maybe also much more transferable: the shared feeling. Again and again, people placed completely different lives inside the same joke. Some used it for their neighborhoods, others for their families, relationships, travel, or whatever contrast in their own life made sense to them. It had nothing to do with the original Corolla outside my house, but I still immediately understood why the sound worked. The context changed while the emotional logic remained intact.

That kind of recognition is not the same thing as intimacy. Mendez points out that visibility itself doesn’t protect someone from feeling isolated; you can have thousands or millions of people looking at you without having anyone truly beside you. But I also don’t think connection has to be deeply personal to matter. Sometimes being seen online is as simple as encountering something that makes you think. 

I know exactly what that feels like. On an Internet this big, that recognition can happen between people who know almost nothing about one another. As a creator, that kind of recognition has been especially meaningful to me when it comes to culture. So much of the content I make is rooted in Latine experiences and, even more specifically, my own context as a Nicaraguan American. When I started creating content seriously in 2020, while I was still living in Miami, I found an audience through TikTok by talking about those experiences. About a year later, BuzzFeed contacted me about moving to Los Angeles to work full time creating Latine-focused content for their channel Pero Like, where I became its first Nicaraguan-American creator. I felt incredibly proud of that because, growing up, I didn’t see very much Central American representation online or in entertainment. 

As much as I love having become that person I needed for others online and in media, I’ve been careful not to equate my virality with a sense of self or personal understanding. What matters more to me is making something that lets someone recognize something specific about their culture or their own life. When I think about being seen on the Internet, that is the experience I care about creating. It is less about millions of strangers seeing my face and more about one person seeing a detail of their own life reflected somewhere they didn’t expect to find it.

Growing up, I was often the person searching for that recognition myself. My earliest relationship with the Internet was through music. I would spend hours on YouTube looking for performances, backstage clips, old interviews, or strange little videos of Beyoncé, Paramore, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Selena, and especially Shakira. One of the first CDs I ever bought was by Shakira. I was a singer, too, so in high school I even uploaded covers from my bedroom, which thankfully are no longer online. Long before I had any concept of being a creator professionally, I was using the Internet to search for people who made me feel like there was somewhere for the things I loved.

Creating online also changes your relationship with the Internet. Once social media became my job, I stopped scrolling the same way. I’m still a person looking for entertainment, but I’m also analyzing everything. I’m thinking, Why did this video work? What is the hook? What are people responding to? What is changing in the culture?

The comments can affect me, too. I think it would be naive for me, or probably any creator, to pretend otherwise. If someone walked past you on the street and said something cruel directly to your face, you would probably feel something. The fact that the comment is coming through a screen doesn’t make you stop being human. I try to remember that negativity can be a very loud minority. There can be hundreds or thousands of people who enjoy what you make and say nothing, while the handful of people who dislike you are the ones determined to make sure you know it.

Mendez says that one of the psychological challenges of becoming highly visible is learning where your public identity ends and your private one begins. “You have to figure out, ‘How do I give to my audience and become viral, and what do I keep for myself?’” she says. “That can become a reckoning with your identity.” The Internet rewards access. The more someone shares, the more an audience can feel like it knows them, and the easier it can become for strangers to feel entitled to parts of a person that were never actually offered to them. According to Mendez, this is why it’s so important to have people who knew you before the visibility and can remind you who you are outside of followers, views, comments, and whatever version of yourself performs best online.

I’ve been lucky to have both kinds of people in my life. When I moved from Miami to Los Angeles, I found a community of Latine creators who understood the very specific changes I was going through. I had never lived away from my family before, and suddenly I was across the country, working in content full time, navigating a new city and a career that was happening in public. At the same time, some of the people who ground me most are completely outside of that world. My husband and my mom are not creators. When the Internet feels enormous, they remind me, without even trying to, that it isn’t the (or even my) entire world.

That is part of why I have never wanted to tie my sense of self too closely to virality. The “Bésame Mucho”-and-“Delincuente” sound is the most viral thing I have ever made, but it did not transform my life in the way people sometimes assume a viral moment will. There wasn’t some enormous financial payoff, and I didn’t wake up the next day with a completely different career. And that didn’t disappoint me. I didn’t create the sound expecting any of these things. Mostly, I thought it was incredible to watch something I made become part of Internet culture and see how creatively other people interpreted it.

@vanessacsirias Grabamos el video musical de Si me ves en León, Nicaragua #latinas #nicaragua #latinosbelike 🎥@Fotograma ♬ original sound – Vanessa Sirias

There is, however, a disconnect between how visible a piece of content can become and what happens to the creator behind it. It reveals something about the way the Internet values creative work. There is a missed opportunity when the industries benefiting from Internet culture don’t look more closely at the people creating it. Creators shape music, fashion, language, humor, beauty, and the way brands themselves learn to communicate online. We aren’t only “influencers.” If a creator repeatedly makes things that people want to imitate, remix, quote, or participate in, there is intelligence behind that, even when the original idea looks effortless. Maybe industry recognition should not simply mean putting that creator’s username in the caption after something goes viral. Maybe it means asking who made the thing, what they understood about culture that allowed it to travel so far, and whether that person belongs in the room when you’re deciding how to reach the same audience. Brands, media companies, music labels, and other institutions have the resources to pay attention to who is actually shaping the culture they are constantly trying to participate in.

Recently, I was invited to walk with Shakira in Miami, and I brought my mom with me. I cried, obviously. I kept thinking about the younger version of myself obsessively searching YouTube for every Shakira clip I could find and about how strange it was that my life had somehow circled back to that person. I’ve also started creating and sharing my own music, which feels like another kind of homecoming because that was what first made me want to put myself on the Internet at all.

After all these years online, I don’t think virality and being seen have to be complete opposites, but I also know they don’t mean the same thing. Going viral tells you that something connected. It does not tell you what kind of connection it created. Sometimes people are connecting with you. Sometimes they are connecting with a version of themselves they found inside something you made.

I spent so much of my younger life searching the Internet for pieces of myself, my interests, my culture, and the person I wanted to become. Now I get to make things that might give somebody else that feeling. If I make something specifically Nicaraguan and another Nicaraguan recognizes their family in it, or I make a joke from my sofa that somehow gives hundreds of thousands of people a way to describe something in their own lives, there is a kind of recognition happening there that matters to me. They may not fully know me, but for a moment, something I created tells them, I know that feeling, too. And maybe, on an Internet this big, that is its own way of being seen.

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Over this past summer, bikinis became the new going-out tops. And next, we predict that bras and bralettes will replace traditional tops.

From Off Campus — in which Hannah (played by Ella Bright) regularly wears push-up bras and has thick bra straps peeking out from under her tops — to New York Fashion Week’s Spring/Summer 2027 runways — where many designers notably presented models in statement bralettes — the bra is so back.

Bralettes worn as crop tops, padded balconette bras peeking out of button-downs, and bra straps falling down shoulders: NYFW cemented this fashion trend in one way or another. Brands and designers like Sandy Liang, Khaite, Ella Mae, and 7 For All Mankind particularly opted for flirty lingerie on the runway.

So, whether you’re feeling bold enough to wear a bra as a top for a night out or have just been reminded to refresh your bra drawer with new fashionable styles, read on for outfit inspo, styling suggestions, and our shopping picks.

Bra Straps & Peekaboo Bras

Over 15 NYFW runways showcased bras in one form or another, so here are the highlights and popular styling tips to note. Both Aknvas and 7 For All Mankind presented colorful triangle bralettes under lace dresses or loose layers and skinny scarves. Meanwhile, Altuzarra, Grace Ling, Vettese, and more decided on balconette bras or bandeaus under outerwear. And Ella Mae had a whimsical mix of pink bras with fallen straps worn under and over tops.

Layering is perhaps the safest way to wear an exposed bra out and about. Consider adding a lace bralette under a low-neck blouse or oversized blazer, a bold padded bra beneath sheer mesh or crocheted materials, or colorful bra straps peeking from tank tops. Regardless of the bra silhouette, padding level, fabric, or color you opt for, you can make it as noticeable or obscure as you want with the help of layers.

Bralettes & Bras Worn As Tops

Even bolder, many designers styled bralettes and bras as the focal point of their looks. Kaia Gerber opened the Khaite show with a bang in a white padded bra and high-waisted leather skirt. Sandy Liang, Jane Wade, and Aisling Camps presented several models in torso-baring looks with lightly lined bralettes paired with matching low-rise pants or skirts.

If you too want to follow this simple-yet-bold outfit formula too (especially when the weather gets warmer in the spring), deep V-neck bras and longline bralettes are easy silhouettes to transform into faux crop tops. You can also opt for statement prints or extra-strappy designs for something more dramatic and intentional than a basic, plain push-up or T-shirt bra. Just be sure that, no matter which bra you choose, you wear it with the most important thing: confidence.

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What did the tree say to autumn? Leaf me alone! This joke is going to feel real in the upcoming weeks. Welcome to Libra season — a time of justice and fairness. The sun’s movement on September 22nd kicks off the Fall Equinox, which happens simultaneously, starting a new season. This year, the four-week Libra journey feels like it’s straight out of a melodramatic YA novel with a choose-your-own-adventure finish. 

September 25th is a day to notice and be aware of. The sun in Libra juxtaposes Neptune retrograde in Aries. The unrealistic expectations we may hold apply not only to others but to ourselves. It’s vital to comprehend that while our egos may be inflated or deflated, on September 25th, we embrace love in any form. Being sympathetic to everyone’s causes will be easy because it’ll be hard to resist their charms. We could easily fall head over heels and form enchanting entanglements that lead to whimsical trysts. Although these romantic rendezvous and interludes are met with the best intentions, the upcoming Venus retrograde may bring a fizzle to the sizzle. 

Saturn retrograde in Aries opposes the sun in Libra on October 4th. This transit matters because it can bring workplace issues to the surface. Frustrations with bosses, colleagues, or schedules may set us off, or vice versa. To overcome the obstacles of this astrological aspect, we must focus on the game and not dwell on the minimal consequences that ensue. We might be overly critical and cynical, particularly about how we are progressing compared to others. Instead of being judgmental, we should be understanding and offer kindness — especially to ourselves. The lesson is to embrace our imperfections and the messiness of life. 

Venus’s moonwalk in Scorpio lasts for over 40 days this time around (from October 3rd to November 13th). What makes it particularly pungent is that Venus is the planetary ruler of Libra, so when it’s retrograde during its moment to thrive and shine, it can have immense effects on us earthlings. Venus retrograde in Scorpio is going to make us question who is in our life, especially their value. If they aren’t adding anything positive to our aura or existence, then we might want to put them on ice for a hot minute while we work through our feelings. We may choose to stand back from situations, rather than be 100% in them. 

Mercury dives into Scorpio on September 30th, but the pre-shadow period of its impending retrograde commences on October 4th. Now we will begin to see the story unfold, and it will intensify during Mercury retrograde in Scorpio, which runs from October 24th to November 13th. There will be a lot of confusion and ambiguity about how we want to partner and commit because the Scorpio energy is going to be deep at this moment in Libra season. It’s a warning to slow down and take every moment in stride — even though the cosmos are pressuring us to speed up our decisions — and not push boundaries. Remember, haste makes waste, and stay in your lane. 

As you can see, Libra season isn’t the time to start new projects; it’s a month of reflection and contemplation as we map out our next steps and develop a strategy to move our plans forward. To benefit from the vibe, lean into major self-care, call out personal days that are due, and try to unwind. The energy will bring out the highs and lows of situations, so maintain an equilibrium. IKYK, no matter how the planets are playing and clowning around, Libra season asks us to find balance, and we shall! 

Important Dates for Libra Season:

September 22nd: The sun enters Libra, initiating the Fall Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.

September 26th: The Harvest Full Moon in Aries is a magical lunation to initiate change. 

September 27th: Mars moves into Leo, making us roar for power.

September 30th: Mercury swims into Scorpio, magnifying our intuition. 

October 3rd: Venus retrograde in Scorpio urges us to re-evaluate our romances and liaisons. 

October 10th: The New Moon in Libra defines who we spend our time with and how.

October 15th: Pluto turns direct, completing the retrograde cycle that began on May 6th. Growth is possible now more than ever. 

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