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    Tonic

    Tonic

  • Teen Creates Safe Place for Girls and Makes Millions

    At 10 years old Juliette Brindak was too old for Barbie, but too young for Britney, so she compromised and came up with Miss O and Friends. The "by girls for girls" website allows 8- to 12-year olds from all walks of life to play games and shop, share advice, music, movies and more. Today, the coll

  • Rebecca Harrell Tickell is 'Hot, Rich & Green'

    What do you do when you're a newly-minted author, and you're about 30 percent finished filming interviews for a film version of your maiden effort, all the while serving as America's leading expert on women in green business? Well, if you're environmental activist-author-producer Rebecca Harrell Tic

  • One Random Act of Kindness Turned $93 Into $100,000!

    Let's say you were at Trader Joe's Menlo Park, Calif., and you saw a woman standing at the checkout counter who couldn't find her wallet. Would you pick up the tab? Well, that's what Carolee Hazard did last summer. When she saw that Jenni Ware wasn't able to pay the bill because her wallet was missi

  • 9 Ways Self-Esteem Affects Your Relationship

    I often say that from the most hardened criminal to the gentle elderly woman who lives next door, the one thing we all want is love. Frequently, the women who come to me for guidance and support are struggling with their relationships. Some got married before they really knew themselves and are now

  • The Awesome Foundation Rocks the World's Largest Portable Hammock

    Last summer architect professor Hansy Better Barraza, 34, had an awesome idea. She noticed her neighbor's hammock and had a moment of hammock-envy. "I said: 'Oh my God, you know what's needed? A public hammock, a communal hammock for everyone to come together,'" she said. In a synchronous moment la

  • One Man, One Bike, One Continent

    After dodging bullets, bandits and escaping several near death experiences across nearly 40,000 miles, Spencer Conway lives to tell the tale of his successful solo circumnavigation of Africa by motorbike - something that no one has ever been able to achieve - until now. In pursuing his love of moto

  • YMCA New York Offers Cabins of Hope for Haitian Kids

    In the days and weeks following the catastrophe that rocked Haiti to its core - taking down entire villages, robbing families of loved ones and changing lives forever - individuals and organizations, small and large, set out to lend a hand in whatever way possible. The YMCA of Greater New York was n

  • Break Your Bad Money Habit

    What's your bad habit? Twirling your hair? Cracking your knuckles? What about your bad financial habit? Maybe something that is less noticeable from the outside, but is just as hard to break as, say, biting your nails? We all have bad financial habits. The purchases we make that make us cringe beca

  • From Farm-to-Table in the Big Apple

    Jack Algiere shrugs off the more sensational aspects of the restaurant overlooking his fields. Blue Hill at Stone Barns served as a culinary battlefield during season five of Top Chef, and last year, Barack and Michelle Obama dined at Blue Hill's Manhattan location as helicopters whirred overhead. E

  • 60 Year Old Surfer to Ride 365 Waves in 365 Days

    Surf at least one wave, every day, for 365 consecutive days in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New Hampshire, through all seasons, all kinds of weather, despite injuries or illness. Impossible, you say?

  • Twelve-Year-Old Marches 2,500 Miles for Charity

    While his peers are saving up for a Wii, hanging out at the mall, or maybe texting their friends, Zachary Bonner is drawing the attention of Presidents, rock stars and Hollywood - by making a difference for the 1.3 million homeless children living in the US. By Anne Driscoll

  • Beating Cancer Beautifully

    Patricia Brett speaks to Tonic about her new swimwear line for breast cancer survivors, inspired by her own risk-reducing surgery and a history of cancer in her family. By Sarah Jenks-Daly

  • At 80, the 'Iron Nun' Prepares for Her Next Triathlon

    How divine! Sister Madonna Buder is already the oldest woman ever to complete an Ironman triathlon - a record she's looking to smash at the upcoming Ironman Canada: "The only failure is not to try." By Marc HertzThere is a certain type of athlete, a certain type of person, even, who competes in tria

  • Salad Spinner Centrifuge: A Cheap, Ingenious Health Care Tool

    We already know that we need to eat plenty of leafy greens to stay healthy, but who knew that a salad spinner itself could help save lives? As we learn from EurekAlert, Rice University undergraduates Lila Kerr and Lauren Theis were presented with an assignment in their Introduction to Bioengineerin

  • Ryan Sutter Doesn't Have Cancer ...

    ... But he's running, biking and swimming his heart out for those who do.The former Bachelorette suitor (who married Trista Rehn in the only successful relationship to actually be spawned by the ABC reality series) is smack in the middle of what he's calling the 10-10-10 Challenge: He's competing in

  • 8-Year-Old Son Carries On "Last Lecture" Author's Cancer Fight

    You know Randy Pausch. The terminally ill Carnegie Mellon professor's "Last Lecture" might be both the most heart-breaking and soul-mending life lesson of the YouTube era - having spread from viral video to best-selling book before he succumbed to cancer two years ago. (See the video that started it

  • Terminally Ill Boy Becomes an Art Sensation

    Suffering from Cerebral Palsy and terminal pulmonary vein stenosis, Leo Haines was so sickly when he was born that he spent the first year of his life in the hospital. Not only did the brave little boy survive but he discovered such a talent for painting that he's just celebrated his first art exhib

  • Chris Lomen: Rollerblading 4,000 Miles to Help Haiti

    It's a road trip like no other: On Tuesday, Chris Lomen, 22, launched a three-month, 4,000-mile Rollerblading adventure that will take him from his home state of Minnesota all the way up to Maine, then south along the Eastern seaboard and down to Key West - relying on the kindness of strangers most

  • From Model to Model Citizen

    Original story by KC Baker appeared on Tonic June 29, 2010.

  • Raising Millions for Cancer Research? Kids' Stuff!

    BY ANNE DRISCOLLThe year was 1998. Ryan Wilkinson's grandmother was sick with cancer and the then 7-year-old wanted to do something - anything - to help. Even at that tender age, he had heard about the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge(PMC), an annual 190-mile bike trek from Provincetown to Boston that ra