It’s been 25 years since Elle Woods got into Harvard, introduced the world to the bend and snap and taught us all to never judge a book by its cover.

Legally Blonde premiered in 2001, becoming an instant hit with fans, inspiring viewers all around the globe and catapulting Reese Witherspoon to the A-list.

After Elle first donned her pink courtsuit, Legally Blonde became a global phenomenon, spawning a 2003 sequel, a Broadway musical and countless memes.

Now, the iconic character is back on our screens in the new prequel series Elle, which explores the iconic character’s life as a 16-year-old in Seattle in the 1990s.

To commemorate 25 years since the release of Legally Blonde, and the premiere of Elle on Prime Video, here are 21 behind-the-scenes facts you might not have known about the cult classic…

The Reese Witherspoon film is based on a 2001 novel by Amanda Brown – also called Legally Blonde – which itself was inspired by her own life at Stanford.

The author shares more than a passing resemblance to Elle, admitting to the San Francisco Chronicle: “I wanted to go to Stanford when I saw the mall.”

During her first week at Stanford Law, she realised how difficult it was to find another woman who shared her interests in fashion and shopping. So, she started writing letters home, lampooning her lecturers and students. These 300 pages became the basis of her book.

“I was sitting in tort class when the novel popped into my head,” recalled Amanda Brown to Stanford Magazine. “I wanted to do a parody of law school.”

“I wrote it all on pink paper, with my pink furry pen,” Amanda told the SF Gate in 2003, claiming she “finally found an agent” when they picked out of a pile of manuscripts solely “because it was on pink paper”.

Amanda self-published her book, but it soon found its way onto the desks of a production company, who then sent it to the team who would go on to write the Legally Blonde film.

“It immediately struck us as one of the greatest movie ideas ever, and we pitched it as ‘Clueless meets The Paper Chase’, one of those law school movies from the 1970s. I might have worn a lot of pink in the meeting,” writer Kirsten Smith said, as reported by The News Daily in an oral history article.

Legally Blonde has become known as a modern-day feminist classic, addressing topics like misogyny, sexual harassment in the workplace and power dynamics between men and women. But, the original script was much raunchier and had far less of a positive female-empowerment message.

“The first script was very raunchy, to be honest, in the vein of American Pie,” Jessica Cauffiel, who plays Margot, told The New York Post in 2021.

“What we know now as Legally Blonde, and what it began as are two completely different films. It transformed from nonstop zingers that were very adult in nature to this universal story of overcoming adversity by being oneself.”

The writers also explained there were a few other differences between the original manuscript and the final product.

“It wasn’t a murder trial, and she ended up with a professor, so we made some changes. It was a matter of finessing the details and adding a few characters, like Paulette and her friendship,” screenwriter Karen McCullah explained in that same interview.

In the Legally Blonde book, Elle attended Stanford, like its author. However, this was changed in the film adaptation, for the simple reason that the university wouldn’t let filming take place there.

The university has long implemented a no-filming rule due to “year-round campus activity” and in order to protect “the privacy and safety of its students, faculty and staff.”

After being turned down by Stanford – where, ironically, Reese Witherspoon also studied – the producers approached USC, which rejected the offer, telling Vulture that there was “too much stereotyping going on” in the script for their liking. The team then reached out to UCLA, Yale, and the University of Chicago — all of whom also wanted nothing to do with Elle Woods.

Finally, Harvard agreed to being mentioned in the film, although they didn’t want the movie filmed there.

If you think the film’s campus looks sunny for Massachusetts, where Harvard is actually situated, that’s because the movie they filmed at institutes in California.

While USC and UCLA didn’t want to be associated with Elle, they were happy for the filming to take place on their campuses all the same.

“We [talked] an entire sorority into going out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Reese offered to buy them free margaritas all night,” Jessica recalled to the New York Post.

“She leans over to me as the drinks are on the way and goes, ‘We’re not drinking anything. We’re drinking water’. We stayed sober as they got tanked, and we took notes.”

In a 2001 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Reese called her time with the sorority girls “an anthropological study”.

“You learn what they eat, how they behave, how they take care of their young, that sort of thing,” she quipped. “Seriously, though, I’ve learned that people don’t know what their worst characteristics are.”

She added: “It’s inherent to our nature that we don’t know what, in ourselves, is abhorrent to other people. So it’s really easy to infiltrate people’s lives. They showed all sides of themselves. Sometimes I’m shocked, like, I can’t believe they just said that to me!”

Jennifer Coolidge co-starred in the movie as Elle’s manicurist turned BFF Paulette.

In one of the decade’s most iconic film moments, she tries the infamous “bend and snap”, a move which “has a 98 percent success rate of getting a man’s attention”, according to her trainee lawyer friend.

Legally Blonde’s writing team have revealed to Entertainment Weekly that they invented the famous move at the L’ermitage Hotel bar in Beverly Hills over some drinks.

“We were in between meetings and working on the script,” writer Karen McCullah recalled. “And we were trying to come up with a B-plot that happened in the nail salon and we were working in weird directions. Like, maybe it gets robbed, all sorts of crazy stuff.”

The writing duo then realised that they were overthinking the moment, which is when the “bend and snap” was invented.

“Kirsten jumped off her barstool and was like, ‘Like this?’ And then she did that move,” Karen said, revealing that the team came up with the “bend and snap” name the spot.

“It just cracks us up that that’s become such a lasting thing that people remember. It’s literally the silliest thing in the movie,” Karen added.

The now-iconic move was choreographed by 80s icon and Mickey singer Toni Basil.

“I choreographed iconic things for David Bowie and Tina Turner,” Toni told The New York Times in 2021. “People interview me and they go, ‘You did the bend and snap?’ It’s like, ‘what, a one-and-a-half-minute number in the movie?’. But it was such an integral part.”

The original idea was for the bend and snap to be a full-length musical number, but this was eventually shortened for the final cut.

Ultimately, Reese explained, “it just felt odd” to have a full bend and snap number, “because there was just one musical sequence”.

Screenwriters Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith didn’t picture any specific star in mind when adapting Amanda Brown’s book.

However, they were delighted when Reese Witherspoon signed on to play the lead, as she was a rising star at the time, having already appeared in Election and Cruel Intentions.

“We loved her in Freeway. She had so much moxie in that,” Kirsten told Business Insider. “She had the perfect balance of comedic ability, the intellectual vibes, and the real dramatic chops, too. She’s the entire package.”

Reese doesn’t look back too fondly on her Legally Blonde audition, explaining to The Hollywood Reporter in 2019 that her manager told her to dress sexy, to differentiate her from her “shrew” character from Election.

After a string of failed auditions and missed roles, her team had an idea.

“My manager finally called and said: ‘You’ve got to go meet with the studio head because he will not approve you. He thinks you really are your character from Election and that you’re repellent,’” she explained.

During the audition process to play Elle, Reese had to speak to studio execs while in full glam.

“I remember a room full of men who were asking me questions about being a coed and being in a sorority, even though I had dropped out of college four years earlier and I have never been inside a sorority house,” she recalled.

Dead To Me star Christina Applegate admitted she rejected the lead role in Legally Blonde, calling the decision a “big fucking mistake”.

In a 2023 interview with Vanity Fair, Christina said she turned it down as the role was too similar to her famous sitcom character in Married With… Children.

“I wouldn’t toy with the idea of Legally Blonde because it felt too fresh getting out of Married…With Children,” she explained, referring to her dumb blonde character Kelly Bundy in the family comedy. “It was very similar on paper.”

She joked that she would have “Witherspoon money” now if she had signed on to the role, but conceded: “You can’t imagine anyone playing Elle Woods other than Reese Witherspoon? I would have completely screwed it up.”

Interestingly, both Christina and Reese went on to play sisters of Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel in Friends, although they never shared the screen in the award-winning sitcom.

Producer Marc Platt put Britney Spears’ name forward as a suggestion when Christina Applegate turned down the part.

“Marc once [mentioned] Britney Spears, and I was like, ‘No, that’s not a good idea’,” writer Kirsten Smith revealed. “I think she hosted SNL the night before, and his kids were into her, so he threw her name out there.”

While Britney writes about being offered roles in Chicago and The Notebook in her autobiography, The Woman In Me, she never mentions Legally Blonde, so it could be that the pop diva was unaware her name was ever on the table.

Selma Blair’s performance as the “frigid bitch” Vivian Kensington is now considered iconic, but another actor almost wore those infamous pearls.

“I remember talk about getting Chloë Sevigny to play Vivian,” screenwriter Kirsten recalled to The New York Times. “That didn’t work out, and we ended up with our queen Selma Blair.”

She noted that “Selma and Reese were close, because they had done Cruel Intentions together”, meaning their friendship served as a “great anchor for everything” on screen.

“I was the last person cast, and I remember Chloe Sevigny passed,” Selma also told Entertainment Weekly.

“Her fingers are much too elegant; they needed someone with a bony little finger,” the actor joked.

Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Coolidge recently reunited for a 25th anniversary catch-up, where they shared their experiences of working on the film.

During this chat, they spilled some gossip, including why Jennifer auditioned for the movie.

“I thought this was the funniest thing. I was so lucky to get cast in this movie, and it is one of my favourite jobs of all time,” she recalled, joking: “But I stupidly thought that when I was auditioning, I thought I was gonna be Elle.”

Jennifer Coolidge’s gives an iconic performance as Elle’s beautician, but she wasn’t their first choice.

In The New York Times’ piece on Legally Blonde, Jennifer shared some of the other actors she’d heard were in the line-up to play Paulette.

“I don’t know if they’re true [but I heard] that Courtney Love was up for [my] role,” she claimed. “I heard Kathy Najimy was up for it, [too].”

Future Euphoria star Alanna Ubach used an unusual tactic to land the role of Elle’s sorority sister.

Jessica Cauffiel had already been cast as fellow Delta Nu Margot when she met Alanna in the bathroom during a chemistry read.

“She’s like, ‘Hey, hey, are you in this movie?’” Jessica recalled during the virtual 20th anniversary reunion.

Jessica then claimed that Alanna begged for help booking the job, telling her: “I don’t have any money, I need to make rent, will you help me make rent?”

“She was so funny and so ballsy, I said, ‘Okay’,” Jessica continued.

From there, the two put their heads together and “choreographed simultaneous moves”, which Jessica made the casting directors think they were naturally in sync.

“We spent a lot of time faxing the casting director, like ′Luke Wilson, Luke Wilson!’” Kristen explained.

“And then, finally, after the table read where a different actor played Emmett, we were like ‘Luke Wilson, Luke Wilson!’. And he was like, ‘That’s a really good idea.’ We were like, ‘We’ve been telling you!’”

Luke was subsequently offered the role without even needing to audition.

While the Legally Blonde script didn’t leave a lot of room for improvisation, the screenwriters recalled to Business Insider that the cat still found room to add a personal touch to their characters.

During rehearsals, Jason Christopher came up with the line “you bitch!” – which his character shouts after his boyfriend Enrique denies their relationship in his testimony.

The screenwriters also revealed that it was Alanna Ubach’s idea to speak fluent Vietnamese at the nail salon.

“I thought, ‘How funny would it be if we frequent this nail salon so much that I’ve been immersed in Vietnamese and I’ve picked up the language?’” the actor said.

Reese took on the role of Elle Woods just months after welcoming her daughter Ava in September 1999. As a result, while she looked fresh and bright on camera, she didn’t always feel that way.

“Some nights Ava would wake up screaming because she had the flu, and I would spend most of the night trying to rock her back to sleep and then have to be on the set at seven in the morning for make-up!” she explained to Cinema.com in 2001.

“And then you throw in the fact that I’m supposed to be playing a very bubbly and energetic California preppy who is smiling all the time!”

“I kept thinking, ‘I’m going to kill myself! I’m never going to make it!’” she joked.

While putting Legally Blonde together, screenwriter Kirsten had read an article which said that video applications were the done thing when trying to impress professors at places like Harvard – and they wanted Elle’s to be extra special.

“We wanted to shoot [Elle, Serena and Margot] chasing Judge Judy wherever she tapes her show and them being like, ‘Judge Judy! Judge Judy! Can we get an autograph?’ Kirsten said. Unfortunately, the team couldn’t get the real-life judge on board, so the idea was ditched.

Alanna Ubach’s alternative idea was also cut.

“I thought, ‘Reese, what if Ryan Phillippe played a really famous judge who had his own show, and we have him on billboards’,” the actor said of Reese’s then-husband.

Reese wasn’t keen on the idea of adding her partner to the film, though, reportedly telling her: “Alanna, no one’s going to believe that my husband’s a judge. Are you kidding me?”

In a 2001 interview with Movieline, Matthew admitted he acted like a “bumbling idiot” around his co-star because of his crush – despite her being married to Ryan Phillippe at the time.

“At first I was such a bumbling idiot with her, the producers pulled me aside one day to see if I was OK,” he revealed.

When the actor later confessed his feelings to the Election star, she let him down gently.

“She was like, ‘That’s so sweet!’,” he explained. “OK, let’s work on the scene…’.”

In hindsight, Matthew admits his behaviour on the set of Legally Blonde wasn’t always the most professional.

“I felt starstruck by all this because it happened so quickly and I hadn’t adjusted,” he told Teen Vogue in 2017. “I definitely wasn’t cool. At the first table read, I just kept going on and on about how much I loved her work, fawning all over her.”

Matthew told News.com.au that he also “adored” his on-screen girlfriend, Selma Blair, during filming.

“I developed a crush on her at the time but she was with someone else — I think she was dating the guy from Rushmore [actor Jason Schwartzman] but he was coming around and I was kind of like ‘who is this guy?!’” Matthew shared.

Legally Blonde famously ends with Elle freeing her client, graduating at the top of her class, becoming best friends with her former nemesis and staying with doting boyfriend Emmett.

However, the cast told The New York Times that the ending in the script was markedly different.

“The first ending was Elle and Vivian in Hawaii in beach chairs, drinking margaritas and holding hands,” said Jessica Cauffiel. “The insinuation was either they were best friends or they had gotten together romantically.”

At the 2015 Vulture Festival, the screenwriters revealed that their original script wrapped at the courthouse right after Elle won the case, with her and Emmett kissing on the steps.

“It was just kind of a weak ending,” Karen McCullah admitted. “The kiss didn’t feel right because it’s not a rom-com — it wasn’t about their relationship.

“So test audiences were saying, ‘We want to see what happens – we want to see her succeed.’ So that’s why we rewrote for graduation.”

“We screened the movie two or three times, and every time people didn’t want to end it with a kiss,” she also explained to the New York Times.

“They thought it wasn’t a story about [Elle] getting a boyfriend, which was really cool to have people say that.”

An interesting part of this axed ending would have fast-forwarded to a year later, with Elle and a now-blonde Vivian starting their own Blonde Legal Defence Club at Harvard Law School.

“There was an ending that Vivian was blonde, and I did [go blonde],” Selma admitted to the podcast Shut Up Evan. “I have the Polaroids. I looked just like Faye Dunaway in Bonnie And Clyde – the beret was on and the blonde.”

Legally Blonde is now streaming on Prime Video, as are the first episodes of Elle.

You probably already know that exercise can help us to live longer.

Research has shown that walking 7,000 steps a day can lead to a 47% risk reduction in all-cause mortality, while strength training has been linked to up to four years of extra life.

In fact, the Mayo Clinic stated that strength training could “slow and, in many cases, reverse the changes in muscle fibres associated with ageing”.

But why exactly does that happen? And what do we mean when we talk about exercise “reversing” or “slowing” ageing?

A paper published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science said: “Current evidence suggests that exercise favorably modulates all 14 hallmarks of ageing.”

Here’s what those markers are, as well as how exercise improves them:

As we get older, our DNA is more likely to mutate, sustain damage, and lose the ability to repair itself.

This amounts to “genome instability”, which has been described in some research as the main driver of physical ageing.

But, the paper reads, regular physical activity “appears capable of promoting genome stability by reducing DNA damage and enhancing DNA damage repair”.

Our telomeres – DNA structures that humans have at the ends of our chromosomes, and which keep our cells working better for longer – tend to shrink when we age.

Telomeres have been compared to “the protective plastic caps at the end of shoelaces”. Shorter telomeres are associated with a shorter life.

Thankfully, the review said: “Exercise can also activate telomerase [a special enzyme that maintains telomere length] and increase telomere length and thus decrease telomere attrition”.

Epigenetic factors are those that seem to be able to switch certain genes on or off without changing a person’s actual DNA. Those genes could be beneficial or harmful to someone’s health.

“Remarkably, recent evidence suggests that changes in epigenetic information are not merely consequences but also potential drivers of mammalian ageing,” the paper said.

Exercise could help our bodies to express our genes in a more beneficial way, they added.

“Accumulating evidence indicates that exercise-induced epigenetic modifications contribute to improved health outcomes in older adults” by regulating things like our DNA “off switches” (DNA methylation).

Proteostasis is the short term for “protein homeostasis”. It refers to the “delicate balance between protein synthesis, folding, trafficking, and degradation, which is essential for cellular function and organismal health”.

As we age, that network of processes can fall out of whack, increasing our risk of disease and, possibly, brain degeneration.

But “Increasing evidence indicates that exercise can restore proteostatic mechanisms disrupted by ageing”, the review said.

Ageing well isn’t just about keeping the things we want going for longer. It’s also about getting rid of the stuff we don’t want and preventing unwanted buildups – which is where autophagy, sometimes called the body’s “cellular recycling system”, comes in.

Autophagy can help your cells to work more efficiently. But it slows down when we get older, giving e.g. cancer and other diseases better odds of taking hold.

“Several studies have shown that exercise can reverse ageing- and diet-induced impairments in autophagy across various tissues,” this study stated.

Our nutrient-sensing network helps us to recognise the nutrients in our body and tells our cells how to respond appropriately.

A faulty nutrient-sensing network “has emerged as a key mechanism that contributes to ageing and age-related disease,” the review said.

“Importantly, exercise is capable of modulating multiple nutrient-sensing pathways, and thus exerting anti-ageing effects and promoting healthy ageing.”

You probably learned in secondary school that mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell. More specifically, they generate a lot of the energy our cells need to do their jobs.

And – you guessed it – ageing doesn’t exactly help our mitochondria to excel.

Yet “In elderly individuals, regular exercise is associated with improved mitochondrial health and enhanced physiological outcomes, including greater insulin sensitivity, superior muscle function, and elevated exercise capacity and efficiency, even when compared to older adults who engage in recommended daily [physical activity] levels but lack structured training,” the paper reads.

Older people have more senescent cells, sometimes called “zombie” cells, which stop dividing and build up over time. As they accumulate in larger and larger amounts, our bodies are at greater risk of ageing-related diseases.

A process called senolysis usually clears these “zombie cells” away, but when we get older, that cleaning system becomes less efficient.

Regular exercise seems to help lessen the burden of senescent cells.

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is the non-cellular part of our body that supports and maintains our tissues and organs. When it’s not working well, issues like arthritis and organ fibrosis can appear.

“ECM remodelling is a prominent feature of ageing tissues,” said the paper.

But “increasing evidence indicates that regular exercise can counteract these detrimental ECM alterations and preserve tissue structure and function”.

A decline in the regenerative power of our stem cells – very adaptable cells which are considered the building blocks of the body, and which can renew themselves – is considered “one of the defining hallmarks of ageing… resulting in impaired tissue maintenance and repair”.

However, regular “exercise has positive effects on the function of multiple types of stem cells and can promote tissue regeneration in aged organisms”.

Our cells have to communicate with one another to make our body function. Changes to this communication form yet another “hallmark” of ageing.

But exercise seems to improve it. In fact, “exerkines”, which are secreted by tissues when we exercise, “mediate many of the systemic adaptations to exercise and play crucial roles in mitigating aging-related decline”.

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about “inflammaging” – a term GP Dr Suzanne Wylie told us refers to “the low-grade, chronic inflammation that develops as we age, even in the absence of obvious infection or illness”.

It can increase our risk of age-related disease.

Luckily, per the research, “An increasing body of epidemiological research indicates that engaging in regular physical activity or exercise can reduce aging-related chronic inflammation”.

Dysbiosis – a disruption to or imbalance in your gut’s microbiome, or community of microorganisms – could become more likely as we age.

And, the review found, that might “contribute to frailty and the development of age-related conditions”.

Once again, though, regular exercise might make dysbiosis less likely.

“As individuals age, they often face a gradual contraction in the size and quality of their social network, increasing their vulnerability to social isolation and loneliness,” the review said.

That’s a shame, as isolation and related mental health struggles are linked to a higher risk of dementia and even a shorter lifespan.

“Increasing evidence suggests that the mental health of the elderly can be improved through exercise,” though, the paper ended.

The Atlantic used the Fourth of July as an opportunity to republish a 10-year-old op-ed that sharply criticized then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, comparing him and and his MAGA politics to heroin.

“We are republishing it on the occasion of its tenth anniversary, so that our readers can judge for themselves how well his assessment of the man he now serves as vice president has stood the test of time,” read an editor’s note from the publication.

Vance’s July 4, 2016, op-ed, titled “Opioid of the Masses,” argued that Trump was offering the public an “easy escape” from their pain.

“He never offers details for how these plans will work, because he can’t,” Vance wrote. “Trump’s promises are the needle in America’s collective vein.”

The editor’s note stated that the piece was published not long after Vance published his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” The book deals, among other topics, with the opioid crisis in rural America. In his op-ed, he wrote that “many Americans have reached” for a “new” pain reliever.

“It enters minds, not through lungs or veins, but through eyes and ears, and its name is Donald Trump,” he wrote.

Read the 2016 op-ed here.

Vance, of course, went on to become Trump’s vice president in his second term. He has repeatedly addressed his once fierce criticism of the president — including reportedly musing that Trump could be “America’s Hitler.”

“I don’t hide from that,” Vance told Sean Hannity in 2024. “I was certainly sceptical of Donald Trump in 2016, but President Trump was a great president, and he changed my mind. I think he changed the minds of a lot of Americans.”

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

President Donald Trump evoked the threat of a “communist menace in our land” on Friday to push Republican lawmakers to pass his SAVE America Act and end the filibuster, promising them election wins for the next century if they do.

“America will never be a communist country. We can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms, if we are foolish, stupid and unwise,” Trump said in front of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. “But if we terminate the filibuster as we should do and immediately vote for the SAVE America Act, then we will not lose an election for 100 years.”

The president has been urging Republicans to end the filibuster for months, causing a greater divide in the party. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has said, “The votes aren’t there, one, to nuke the filibuster, and the votes aren’t there for a talking filibuster.”

In addition to the filibuster’s termination, Trump demanded Congress pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, more commonly known as the SAVE Act, legislation that would require voters to provide in-person proof of citizenship to register to vote.

“We do that, we’re not going to lose an election for 100 years,” Trump said before going on an anti-communist tangent.

The president’s pressure on Republicans comes amid right-wing fear-mongering about democratic socialists following their recent primary victories, mislabeling them as “communist,” which is a distinctly different ideology.

“The Communist Party is made up of illegal immigrants, criminals, and everybody that doesn’t want to work. Communism is a loser. It always was, and it is right now,” Trump said. “It’s a big loser. Look at the people that are promoting it. They are not the people you’re going to follow.”

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

For some neurodivergent women, birth trauma is not just about one terrifying moment in a delivery room.

It can begin during pregnancy, build through months of feeling unseen or unsupported, and follow women into the earliest days of motherhood.

As a midwife, I have supported many of these women through pregnancy, birth and early parenthood, and have seen first-hand how much additional pressure these experiences can place on those whose brains process the world differently.

Autism and ADHD do not disappear when someone becomes pregnant, yet maternity care still often assumes that every woman experiences these life-changing transitions in broadly the same way.

For some neurodivergent women, pregnancy can bring an overwhelming loss of certainty. Their body is changing, routines disappear, decisions come quickly and uncertainty becomes part of daily life.

Many have spent years developing routines and coping strategies that help them navigate the world, only to find pregnancy disrupts them completely. Busy waiting rooms, unfamiliar clinicians, rushed appointments and changing plans can unintentionally add to that sense of overwhelm, particularly for women who are already carrying previous trauma, fertility struggles or baby loss.

I have also cared for women who found group antenatal classes so overwhelming that they simply stopped attending because they felt there was nowhere they truly belonged.

Once the baby arrives, attention quite naturally shifts towards the newborn, but that can leave mothers feeling invisible at exactly the point they most need support.

A neurodivergent woman may be processing a difficult birth while navigating sensory overload, sleep deprivation, feeding challenges, physical recovery and the relentless demands of caring for a newborn.

At the same time, many feel under pressure to appear grateful and happy because everyone around them is focused on the baby.

Trauma does not always look dramatic from the outside, it may be the mother who cannot stop replaying her birth experience, becomes overwhelmed by constant noise or touch, panics when plans change or feels consumed by anxiety about getting everything right.

Sometimes it is the woman who simply needs a few quiet minutes after giving birth before she feels ready to hold her baby because her nervous system is completely overwhelmed, but worries she will be judged for not responding in the way people expect.

Many neurodivergent women have spent years learning to mask distress, meaning they can appear calm while internally feeling exhausted, frightened and unable to process everything that has happened.

Through my previous work in the NHS, and now at Cocoon Healthcare, where we support women through pregnancy and early parenthood, I have learned that understanding the mother in front of me is every bit as important as understanding her pregnancy.

Often the biggest improvements come from remarkably simple changes: allowing more time during appointments, offering clearer communication, reducing unnecessary sensory overload where possible, improving continuity of care and recognising that every woman will experience pregnancy differently.

Birth is never experienced in isolation, it is shaped by previous experiences, mental health, communication preferences, sensory needs and the support women receive before, during and after.

When we talk about birth trauma, we need to think beyond labour itself. We should be asking how safe women felt throughout pregnancy, whether they felt listened to, and whether the support they received reflected who they were as individuals.

Neurodivergent mothers do not need special treatment, but they do deserve maternity care that recognises there is no single, universal way to experience pregnancy, birth or early parenthood.

When women feel understood from the very beginning, they are far more likely to enter motherhood feeling confident and supported, and that benefits babies and families too.

Kate Mortimer is lead midwife at Cocoon Healthcare, a Yorkshire-based pregnancy and women’s wellbeing clinic.

With record-breaking heat sweeping across the country and around the world, people are increasingly seeking ways to stay cool and turning to all kinds of tips, tricks and folk remedies to do it.

But how many of those heat-beating hacks are actually grounded in science?

HuffPost asked experts to weigh in on some of the most common old wives’ tales about surviving the heat, from damp sheets to cabbage leaves to yoghurt on windows.

The verdict? Some have truth to them, others don’t hold up to scrutiny, and a few could actually backfire depending on the conditions.

“The ‘Egyptian method’ involves sleeping under a damp sheet to cool down,” Dr. Swapnil Patel, vice chair of the department of medicine at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center, told HuffPost. “A damp towel can be used as an alternative.”

The cooling effect is the result of a simple evaporation process.

“A lightly damp sheet or cloth can cool through evaporation,” said Dr. Anthony T. Lagina, an associate professor in the department of emergency medicine at Wayne State University, Detroit Medical Center. “As water evaporates from the fabric, it pulls heat away from the skin. This works best in dry, well-ventilated conditions.”

Thus, the effectiveness of sleeping under a damp sheet is limited based on environment. And, the technique can in fact have the opposite effect in the wrong conditions.

“It works poorly in high humidity because water and sweat do not evaporate efficiently,” Lagina explained. “In humid conditions, a damp sheet may feel clammy, disrupt sleep or irritate skin.”

There are other ways to make your sleep environment safe in hot conditions, however.

“To deliver true peace of mind and comfort, I recommend focusing on proven environmental controls such as keeping your bedroom well-ventilated, utilizing lightweight, breathable bedding, taking a cool shower before bed and prioritizing consistent fluid replenishment throughout the day,” said Dr. Scott Braunstein, chief medical officer at Sollis Health.

The idea behind putting yoghurt on windows – a tip that has circulated in the UK – is that the light-coloured yoghurt forms a thin film on the glass that reflects incoming solar radiation, so less heat passes through the window.

“Putting something reflective on your windows will help keep the sun out and cool your home,” said Anna Bershteyn, an associate professor in the department of population health at NYU Langone Health. “I would suggest a reflective window film, metallic foil or shades rather than yoghurt – that would be more effective and less messy.”

Lagina also advised against putting yoghurt on your windows to keep heat out in favour of more practical options. “It is not a reliable cooling strategy and creates sanitation concerns, including odor, bacterial or mold growth, insects and potential surface damage,” he said.

He also weighed in on a similar hack – putting wet towels or cloths on your windows.

“A wet towel or damp cloth over a window can provide only mild cooling if the air passing through it evaporates,” Lagina explained.

“In humid weather, this may simply add moisture indoors, making sweating less effective. Better home-cooling approaches include blocking direct sunlight with curtains or reflective shades, opening windows only when the outside air is cooler and using fans to move air across the skin.”

“Some studies have found that hot drinks and spicy foods increase sweating, which could be helpful in dry heat,” Bershteyn said. “Think deserts – where your sweat evaporates so fast that your skin is dry. If your sweat is dripping off of you – as it does in muggy, humid heat – more sweat won’t cool you any faster.”

When sweat evaporates, heat is removed from your body, but in humid conditions, drinking a hot beverage will instead probably just be uncomfortable and add heat initially.

“During heat stress, cool water or an electrolyte-containing drink is usually more practical,” Lagina said. “Moderate caffeine is generally acceptable for many adults, but excessive caffeine and alcohol should be avoided during extreme heat. Alcohol reduces judgment and can worsen dehydration and heat illness risk.”

Indeed, the type of beverage – hot or cold – that you consume makes a big difference.

“Cold water or targeted electrolyte solutions are consistently the better choice because they are refreshing, encourage people to consume a higher volume of fluids, and provide immediate physical relief from the heat,” Braunstein said.

“Also keep in mind that many hot drinks, such as coffee or tea, are caffeinated, and the caffeine both speeds up your metabolism increasing heat production, and acts as a diuretic contributing to fluid losses and dehydration.”

“Cooling the neck, armpits, groin, wrists and the backs of the knees can help, as major blood vessels are near the skin surface,” Lagina said. “Cool packs or wet towels can remove heat from blood and skin.”

Basically, you can quickly cool the body by cooling the parts where blood flows close to the skin.

“Applying cold can briefly cool circulating blood locally, which produces a perception of relief,” said dermatologist Dr. Brendan Camp. “However, this effect is modest and does not significantly lower overall core body temperature on its own. It is best understood as a sensory or comfort-based strategy rather than a true systemic cooling method. It works best when combined with airflow or general body cooling.”

Lagina similarly noted that this trick is “not magic,” as some situations require cooling across the fuller surface of the body.

“For serious overheating, broader cooling is better – a cool shower or bath; misting with a fan; cold, wet sheets; or cold-water immersion when safe and appropriate,” he said.

Pay attention to potential heatstroke symptoms, which require urgent medical attention.

“If you begin to experience symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, heavy sweating, muscle cramps or unusual fatigue, it is critically important to immediately seek medical care, most often at an urgent care or ER,” Braunstein said. “Heat-related illness is a spectrum that ranges from very mild to life-threatening, so time is truly of the essence.”

“Using cabbage leaves is a real folk remedy, for their cooling properties,” Patel said. “While more commonly studied for reducing pain and swelling in conditions like osteoarthritis, the cooling effect of the leaves, with their water content, is real.”

In the context of heat, cabbage leaves can provide a brief, localised cooling sensation, but experts say don’t get too excited about it.

“My mother has tried to treat quite a few of my childhood illnesses with cabbage leaves,” Bershteyn said. “Sadly, I’m not aware of any special cooling powers of cabbage leaves. But anything cold and wet on your head can feel nice.”

The effect is not long lasting, however. “It warms quickly, does not maintain consistent heat transfer and does not meaningfully affect core temperature,” Camp said. “It is not an effective or reliable cooling strategy from a physiologic standpoint.”

The cabbage leaf trick has historical precedent. Baseball legend Babe Ruth was known to place a cold cabbage leaf under his cap during games to stay cool in the sweltering summer heat.

“A cold cabbage leaf can cool by contact and moisture, just like any cold wet object,” Lagina said. “There is no special heat-related medical property in cabbage. A clean, damp cloth, a cooling towel, a chilled bandana or an ice pack wrapped in cloth is more practical and hygienic. Folk remedies should not delay standard cooling or emergency care.”

Placing a bowl of ice in front of a fan is a popular TikTok hack for cooling down a room, but experts say the effect is more limited than most people expect.

“This can create a small area of cooler air for someone sitting close by, but it is not an effective way to cool an entire room,” Lagina said. “The ice absorbs heat as it melts, and then the effect stops. It may be useful for short-term personal comfort, especially with good airflow, but it should be paired with hydration, reduced activity, shade and access to air conditioning when possible.”

Bershteyn also noted that a bowl of ice in front of a fan probably won’t meaningfully cool a room.

“In fact, if the ice was made in a freezer in the same room, the heat coming from the back of the freezer would offset the cooling from the ice,” she said. “But if you sit directly in front of the ice, you might get a personal, chilled breeze.”

“Many folk cooling methods work only when they improve evaporation, conduction, shade or airflow,” Lagina said. “They are not substitutes for air conditioning, hydration, rest and urgent medical care when heat illness is suspected.”

There are other important facts and precautions to keep in mind as you try to stay safe and cool in extreme heat.

“It takes several weeks for a body to adjust to heat, which is why the U.S. sees more heat-related deaths in the spring than in the summer,” Bershteyn said. “While scientists don’t yet know the exact best way to condition yourself for heat, one thing is clear: Being in good physical shape is a huge benefit.”

She recommended trying to stay physically fit in the springtime and all year-round to make those heatwave days easier to get through. Still, don’t assume that healthy athletes can’t fall victim to heat-related illness.

“Fitness does not eliminate risk,” Lagina said. “Athletes, outdoor workers, children, older adults, pregnant people and people with chronic health conditions are all vulnerable.”

The wrong combination of conditions and exertion can affect even the healthiest people. “We see healthy young adults and children develop heat exhaustion after prolonged sun exposure, strenuous activity or dehydration,” Braunstein said.

He noted that the best prevention is much simpler than those interesting at-home remedies.

“Stay hydrated before you feel thirsty, wear lightweight clothing, seek shade during the hottest part of the day and take breaks in air-conditioned spaces whenever possible,” Braunstein said.

Loose, thin, light-coloured clothing and hats can provide helpful protection, as can periodic cool showers and baths, misting fans, ice packs and damp cloths.

When you reach the peak heat of the day, take advantage of air conditioning and avoid strenuous activity. Drink plenty of water and keep your electrolytes replenished if you’re exercising or otherwise sweating a lot.

“Never leave children, older adults, vulnerable people or pets in parked cars,” Lagina said. “Check on older adults, children, outdoor workers, people living alone and anyone with chronic medical conditions. High humidity, poor airflow, dehydration and prolonged heat exposure all increase risk.”

Knowing how to recognize heat illness and act quickly is also incredibly important. Signs of heat exhaustion include heavy sweating, weakness, dizziness, headache, nausea, muscle cramps, cool or clammy skin and feeling faint.

“If these occur, move to shade or air conditioning, stop activity, loosen clothing, sip cool fluids if alert, and use cool, wet cloths, misting, fanning or a cool shower,” Lagina said.

Heatstroke is a more serious medical emergency with warning signs that include confusion, altered behavior, fainting, seizure, slurred speech, severe weakness, a very hot body or an inability to cool down.

If you suspect heatstroke, immediately call 999 and begin cooling while waiting for help by moving to a cooler place, removing excess clothing and applying cool water, fan mist, ice packs and/or cold, wet towels to your neck, armpits and groin.

“If symptoms like dizziness, vomiting, confusion, fainting or difficulty breathing develop or don’t quickly improve after cooling down and rehydrating, don’t rely on home remedies,” said Braunstein. “Early treatment can prevent progression to the life-threatening conditions that are on the far end of the clinical spectrum.”