Story Therapy

  How a Gen Z investor lost everything—and sparked a digital reckoning. Story: S A Spencer Author of Popular Fictions :  The Pink Mutiny ,  The Black Waters ,  Dream In Shackles 🎬 The Burn Begins Zoya’s fingers trembled as she hit “Post.” The video was raw, unedited, and furious. Her voice cracked halfway through, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t here to be polished. She was here to burn. “I followed @CryptoQueenie’s advice. I invested $3,000 in a coin she said was ‘about to explode.’ It exploded alright—into dust. I lost everything. And I’m not the only one.” The video was barely 90 seconds long. But within an hour, it had 12,000 views. By sunset, it was trending. Zoya hadn’t planned to become a whistleblower. She was a freelance graphic designer from Melbourne, 23 years old, with a knack for colour theory and a weakness for TikTok rabbit holes. She’d stumbled onto FinTok during lockdown—those bite-sized clips where influencers promised financial freedom wit...

  From LOL to 💀 : How texting became the new generational battlefield. Story: S A Spencer Author of Popular Fictions :  The Pink Mutiny ,  The Black Waters ,  Dream In Shackles When Three Letters Spark a Culture War I sent a quick “LOL” to my niece last week. Her reply? A groan and an eye-roll emoji. Apparently, my three letters were enough to make her blood boil. That’s when I realized: texting isn’t just communication anymore—it’s culture, identity, and sometimes, a battlefield. On TikTok, entire skits are dedicated to mocking older people’s texting habits. One viral video shows a Millennial typing “LOL” after a joke, only to be met with a Gen Z friend replying with the skull emoji 💀 . The caption reads: “Nobody actually laughs out loud anymore.” It’s funny, but it also reveals something deeper: the way we text has become a generational marker, as telling as fashion or music. This isn’t just about words. It’s about authenticity, belonging, and the eternal cycle ...

  Story: S A Spencer Author of Popular Fictions :  The Pink Mutiny ,  The Black Waters ,  Dream In Shackles I never imagined that the most pivotal moment of my life would begin with a stranger sitting on my bed. It was a quiet weekday morning in Jordan Bay, a sleepy coastal town on Australia’s eastern edge. I had just returned from the supermarket, arms full of groceries, deliberately choosing a time when most locals would be at work. I wanted solitude. I wanted silence. I wanted to write. Instead, I unlocked the door to my rented studio apartment and found a teenage boy—no older than eighteen—perched calmly on my bed. I froze. He looked up, startled but not afraid. I, on the other hand, was gripped by panic. I dropped my grocery bags and bolted out the door, heart racing. Who was he? How did he get in? Was I in danger? I reached for my phone, ready to dial triple zero. But before I could press the call button, the boy stepped out and raised his hands in ap...

  A School Reunion, A Whispered Secret, and a Marriage on the Edge. Story: S A Spencer Author of Popular Fictions :  The Pink Mutiny ,  The Black Waters ,  Dream In Shackles Have you ever made a life-altering decision based on a misunderstanding? I did. And it cost me my marriage. I’m Chloe Bennett, a schoolteacher from Sydney. I was married to Ethan Bennett for 21 years. He’s a successful businessman, charming, generous, and deeply loyal — or so I believed. What happened at his school reunion in Albury last year changed everything. Or rather, what I thought happened. This is not just a story about betrayal. It’s about assumptions, silence, and the stories we tell ourselves when we’re afraid to ask the truth.     Ethan and I met through mutual friends in Sydney. I was recovering from a painful divorce — my first husband left me when we discovered I couldn’t have children. Ethan was kind, patient, and never made me feel incomplete. He had his own p...