During 2003 I was working towards my Bachelors degree in Psychology at SFU and I wanted to gain some volunteer experience by helping those in my community. At that time I had already met my boyfriend (now husband of eight years) and I felt pretty comfortable with expressing my own sexuality. As such, I wanted to make a difference in the lives of others who had gone through similar hardships as me. This is where my search for a volunteer opportunity led me to The Centre - now known as QMUNITY . I was young and somewhat inexperienced but I still felt empowered to share my own experiences with others and therefore I got the wonderful opportunity to co-facilitate a men's drop in group with one of my best friends. During this weekly group meetings my friend and I would encourage discussion around a specific topic by asking the participants to answer targeted questions. The group started small but after a few months it grew to twelve regular attendees. It was empowering to see ...

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love kawaii accessories and Hello Kitty. Because of this I have decided to spread the joy and pay it forward this year by running a Twitter contest. The seepstakes I am running will have an official Sanrio iPhone6 Plus wallet case as a prize. The case is black and it has slots on the inside to keep your cards safe. Perfect for a night out in town so you can just bring your phone and your main cards and leave your bag at home! Simply use Twitter tool embedded below to retweet and enter the contest automatically :) Good luck! Follow @angelfclemente & RT for a chance 2 #win a #kawaii #HelloKitty #iPhone6Plus wallet case http://t.co/BL0lR2wOjM http://t.co/btHS3HNwHN — Angel Clemente (@angelfclemente) March 18, 2015 UPDATE: @sesquius Congrats! You won my #hellokitty iPhone case contest. Please send me an email with your address. angelfclemente@gmail.com 😊 — Angel Clemente (@angelfclemente) May 29, 2015

As most of you know by now I am one of the four organizers for the first ever Canadian BlytheCon to be held in Vancouver at the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel on Sunday August 9, 2015. We are all extremely excited to welcome all of you to our beautiful city. Here's a video of our venue: Our theme will be "Always The Bridesmaid Never The Bride" and we have lots of surprises, workshops, contests and giveaways planned to make of your visit a truly unforgettable one. Let's just say that a little bird told me that we have over twenty custom dolls to give away the day of the event - and we are not talking about unknown customisers either - we are talking about some of the most respected customisers in the industry. Our featured doll will be Nicky Lad (RBL) and you can see her featured as our ‘main girl’ in our illustrations made by the amazingly talented Chun Fu (puppy52). We’re very excited to invite everyone to bring their Nicky Lads to BlytheCon Vancouver for a c...

I am HUGE music fan. I have been one all my life. I own approximately 750 CDs and last time I checked I had over 5000 mp3s. You get the drift. I used to buy a lot of music instead of streaming it as services like Songza weren't really available until a few years ago. Since Spotify and Pandora were not able to operate in Canada due to copyright constraints, I first started streaming through Last.FM and I made the switch to Deezer's Premium+ Plan ($4.99 per month) a few months back. If you are interested in trying Deezer now is the time to do it. You can either choose to join with their free "discovery" mode (ads are present) or to get the Premium+ plan at 50% off which is quite a bargain compared to their competitors' prices. Another advantage of choosing the premium plan is that you get access to higher quality audio and unlimited streaming on your web browser and mobile. If you haven't streamed music before I recommend that you give it a try as it wi...

When you come across something really special you feel the need to shout about it at the top of your lungs so the rest of the world can also know about it - that's exactly how I feel about Blythe dolls. Most of you have probably come across one of these dolls without even realizing it as they have been featured in several major advertisement campaigns. Bottega Veneta window displays featuring life-size Blythe dolls Target campaign featuring Blythe dolls The dolls themselves are of course special but the story behind them is even more so. Take a look at the interview below with Allison Katzman - the toy designer who originally conceived Blythe. Junko Wong is the person who was responsible for bringing Blythe back almost thirty years later - a truly unbelievable story. As I have mentioned in my previous article , my love for dolls is not recent. I have always admired their beauty and since I have a strong passion for fashion (rhyme is coincidental I swear!) I love bei...

Those who know me in person know that I really enjoy riding my cruiser bike around the Vancouver seawall and the downtown core - our city is filled with beauty and it is truly designed for the ultimate comfort of bicycle fanatics like me. Riding brings back memories of the freedom I  used to experience in my childhood while exploring my neighbourhood in my bike along with my friends. We live in a society in which we spend progressively less time communing with nature and biking is a great alternative to let go of our tech filled lives (besides the occasional Instagram post as we ride of course) - plus, can you think of a better feeling than the warm ocean breeze caressing your face? As we grow older we need to be aware of the benefits but also of the potential side effects any activity we choose to engage in so we can protect our bodies. Biking is no exception. I have a very small testicular cyst and as such riding had been uncomfortable for me over the last couple of years. R...

I am a very happy man as I type this as today is Christmas day and I have just finished opening my gifts. Santa must have read my mind this year as I got exactly what I wanted! I won't show you what I got quite yet - I want to finish this story first :) My mother in law has always been a fan of charm bracelets . I must admit that ever since I saw her Pandora one I fell in love with the endless design possibilities and the hundreds of charms one can buy to make each jewellery piece unique and timeless. At first I (like the rest of you I'm sure) assumed that only women could wear charm bracelets. I have been known to push the boundaries when it comes to wearing things that are sometimes labelled as "females only". This was the case when I bought my first bomber jacket with faux fur on the hoodie - at the time only girls were wearing this - fast forward three years and you now see men wearing them everywhere. Another good example is my previous obsession wit...