usatoday:

This is the full op-ed from Angelina Jolie on her double mastectomy. 

“My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.”

Unlike many other kidnapping cases, Berry’s story has a happy ending, but the road to recovery will be a long one.

In an effort to provide abused children with a safe way to reach out for help, a Spanish organization called the Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk Foundation, or ANAR for short, created an ad that displays a different message for adults and children at the same time. (via Gizmodo)

ourpresidents:

Happy May!

May Day in 1929 was Child Health Day.  Here’s First Lady Lou Hoover receiving a basket of flowers at the annual May Day festivities held at the White House.

-from the Hoover Library

(via todaysdocument)

I used to not cry about things like this.

The big tragedies. The ones that kill and kill and kill.

usagov:

About 1 in 6 children in the U.S. has one or more developmental disabilities, such as autism spectrum disorders, cerebral palsy, fragile x syndrome, and others. Some conditions can be identified before a baby is even born while others may be identified in early childhood.

If you’ve noticed…

For more news & advice for parents of children with special needs, check out our blog, The 504. 

One in three babies in the U.S. are overweight by nine months of age. Yet one in five American children are “food insecure,” meaning that they must skip meals, cut back on the quality or quantity of food they eat, or rely on emergency food from charities.

We are living in a country with record numbers of obesity, and food related disease like diabetes, yet it’s also home to an almost equal number of kids who aren’t sure where their next meal is coming from. But here’s the real paradox: These are the very same children.

1 in 50 school-age children in America has autism.

The mother of two surviving children has written an open letter about her daughters’ post-traumatic stress as parents of victims have released an ad pleading for tougher gun laws.

The country’s leading organization of pediatricians today reaffirmed its support of same-sex marriage, calling marriage “the basic building block for family structure and child-rearing,” and recognizing that “today’s families are diverse complex and changing.”

What a new study found about children who avoided scary situations

Incredible: Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti’s project Toy Stories compiles photos of children from around the world with their prized possesions—their toys.

As a result of a groundbreaking new study, researchers conclude that ADHD should no longer be viewed as a disorder primarily affecting the behavior and learning of children, but as a major health condition with lifelong implications and need for effective treatment.

Is there treatment for childhood traumatic stress?

life:

“Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome. “

On what would have been Rosa Parks 100th birthday, we revisit a portrait of the civil rights activist by LIFE’s Paul Schutzer.

See related: LIFE and Civil Rights: Anatomy of a Protest, Virginia, 1960 

Well said, Ms. Parks.