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“I have worn a lot of labels, by choice and otherwise. Here, I consider the ones I’ve picked up, rejected, lost, had stuck to my back like a ‘kick me’ poster in the schoolyard at lunch time, worn for a while and lost connection to. In its way, each one makes a discrete claim on who I am, as the labels you bear do for you. Each one is a means of translating who we are to the world and, when seen as the most important or truest element of who we are, shrinking and flattening us. Each one is part of our story, nothing more.”
A thought-provoking exploration of identity, Some of Our Parts casts a philosophical eye over the labels that shape our lives, considering how they can both help us to communicate our values and how they have the potential to trap us. A memoir explored through a life in labels inherited, accrued and cast off, Some of Our Parts considers the power in reclaiming our own story and challenges readers to question how we define ourselves in a world that is so ready to decide for us.
Laura Kennedy is an Irish writer. She writes a weekly column on Substack called Peak Notions, a thought-provoking exploration of the questions we’re not supposed to ask. She has a PhD in the philosophy of psychology and has contributed to titles including The Irish Times, The Sunday Times Style, Grazia and Vogue. Her writing spans culture, lifestyle and politics. In Some of Our Parts, Kennedy explores the complexity of identity labels through memoir with warmth, insight and signature humour, considering how we might figure out who the hell we are in a world so eager to tell us.