As a child, I had what some might describe as a religious fervour, writes Louise O’Neill

Every month without fail, I turn my phone off for 24 hours, writes Louise O’Neill.

Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl.

It’s 2018 and The Future isn’t quite as exciting as I thought it would be, writes Louise O’Neill.

Are we all in agreement that New Year’s Eve is the worst night of the year? There’s too much pressure to have a good time, you can’t get a drink at the bar (oh, the humanity!), you have to pretend you know the words to Auld Lang Syne, and to add insult to injury, you are subjected to countless videos on Facebook of the ‘My Year in Ten Million Photos’ variety. No one cares, Aunty Maureen, get off social media.

Some of my fondest childhood memories revolve around the evening that my sister and I would sit down to write our Santa letters.

While I may not agree with every woman I meet, or even like them, I am still committed to using my voice, such as it is, to amplifying the voices of the women around me, writes Louise O’Neill

Last month, I was given the James Joyce award by the Literary and Historical Society of UCD. It is the highest award that an Irish University can bestow upon an individual, and is reserved for those who ‘have achieved outstanding success in their given field’. 

"What is this?” my father asked in a bemused tone when he turned on the TV and found a couple kissing in an extremely chaste fashion, a picturesque snow-capped log cabin in the background. 

‘It’s easy to fall into a habit of dissatisfaction, culminating in a sense of uneasiness about our lives. Is this it? Is this all there is? writes Louise O'Neill