Girls will survive abuse, heartbreak, grief, and unspeakable tragedies and still navigate through the world with kindness and compassion, but one minor inconvenience in a man's childhood and he spends the rest of his life terrorizing and poisoning everyone around him
And please bless me with the resources required to become that woman, and when I finally become that woman, do not let me lose myself or fumble the blessings that came with her.
I’m a materialistic woman. I like the nicest things, and I want to be able to afford whatever I want at any time without flinching. ‘I want it, I get it.’
A 17-year-old in Iowa boiled beets in her chemistry class and turned them into stitches that change color when your wound gets infected. Her name is Dasia Taylor. It started as a science fair project.
She wanted a low-tech version of the "smart stitches" Tufts researchers built in 2016. Those used thread wired up with sensors and a tiny chip that pinged your phone if something went wrong. Cool, but useless without a phone or a hospital that can afford it.
Her version doesn't need any of that. Healthy skin is slightly acidic, like lemon juice but much milder. When bacteria grow in a wound, the chemistry flips and turns more like soap or baking soda.
Beet juice has a quirk. The same red pigment that stains your fingers when you cook it shifts color based on what it touches. Bright red on healthy skin. Dark purple on infected skin. The switch lines up with infection almost exactly.
She tested ten threads before finding a cotton-polyester blend that soaked up the dye and changed color within five minutes. That was the prototype.
Around 1 in 40 American surgeries end in an infection at the cut, costing hospitals more than $3 billion a year. In poorer countries the rate is closer to 1 in 9. In parts of Africa it's 1 in 6. In some Ethiopian hospitals, up to a quarter of surgery patients leave with an infection.
The whole game is catching it early. Spot it in time and antibiotics handle it. Miss the window and the patient is back on the operating table.
Dasia filed a patent in 2021 and started a medical device company called VariegateHealth in 2022. The stitches haven't been tested on real patients yet. New medical device patents can take a decade. She's also looking into a side benefit: the beet pigment kills bugs like E. coli and Klebsiella in lab tests.
Smart stitches need a phone to read them. Hers just need eyes.
this is for Candyman! this is for Blade! this is for Eve’s Bayou! this is for Get Out! this is for US! this is for MA! this is for Nope! this is for Love & Basketball!!
I don’t want a soft life because I’m lazy ! I want a soft life because I’ve spent most of my life in survival mode ! My nervous system has been in fight or flight since childhood & now I’m choosing peace, softness & stability !
Her house burned down, the man she loved for over a decade cheated on her, she lost her voice, and her own father walked away when she needed him most. And through it all, she kept going, holding herself together. My heart aches for her. This song was meant for her