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Rachel Thompson

Features Editor

Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Based in the UK, Rachel writes about sex, relationships, and online culture. She has been a sex and dating writer for a decade and she is the author of Rough (Penguin Random House, 2021). She is currently working on her second non-fiction book.

Rachel's first book Rough – a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence and systems of oppression – was published by Penguin Random House in 2021. Stylist magazine called Rough "2021’s most important book about sex" and you can read an extract of the book on Mashable. Rachel contributed an essay titled "Choosing Myself" to Unattached, an anthology of 30 essays about singlehood, published by Penguin Random House in 2022. You can read an extract from "Choosing Myself" on Mashable.

Rachel has also written for The Guardian, GQ, The Sunday Times, British Glamour, ELLE, Stylist, The Daily Telegraph, CNN, HuffPost, The Face and many more. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram.


By Rachel Thompson
Why I'm celebrating female friendship this Valentine's Day
Two female friends looking happy together.

How to survive Valentine's Day when you're heartbroken
Pink hearts on a black background

Bumble launches AI tool to weed out scams and fake profiles
Bumble dating app logo on the App Store is seen displayed on a phone screen

How to stop caring what people think about you
Illustration of a cliquey group of people looking at a self-conscious looking person.

How to work on your self-esteem with these helpful tips
Illustration of a woman blowing herself a kiss in a mirror.


I've never had a boyfriend at Christmas and I couldn't be happier
Illustration of a woman kissing a gingerbread person.

How to cope with heartbreak during the holidays
A person holds a paper heart with a rip down the middle, with a Christmas tree in the background.


Stop asking 'who's your friend?' on dating apps
Illustration of a man and woman both holding up half of an oversized pink heart, shaped like a jigsaw puzzle piece.

'Colin from Accounts' is a messy, funny as hell rom-com
Gordon (PATRICK BRAMMALL), Ashley (HARRIET DYER) lie on a sofa next to a dog named Colin.

How to break up with someone in the digital age
An Illustration that shows a sad woman crying while hugging a human-sized phone.

'Orlando, My Political Biography' trailer tells trans people's stories through Virginia Woolf
A genderfluid person wears a ruff to resemble Orlando, the hero/heroine from Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel of the same name.

I haven't had a boyfriend for a decade. Here's what I've learned.
Illustration of a woman who is single by choice.

How to separate romantic rejection from your self-worth
Illustration of a person with a broken heart.

How to block your ex on Tinder
a triptych of screenshots showing the blocking process on the Tinder app

My Hinge match invited me to dinner and blocked me as I waited for our table
An illustration of a standing woman looking at a smartphone.


The lonely state of getting over someone you never dated
A couple kisses on a subway train while the man reaches his hand out to a stranger nearby

How to pause notifications on Threads
A person holds a smart phone with the Threads app page open, in the background Twitter is open on a desktop computer.

Instagram censors #VaginalCancer hashtag, allows #VaginalSteaming
The Instagram app logo on a black blurred background

The cherry emoji and 14 other emoji you can use to sext
Various emoji, including the eggplant and peach emojis.

Sharing deepfake porn criminalised in England and Wales
A person holds a smart phone in their hand, the words "deep fake" are superimposed over the image

What to do when body image is affecting your sex life
A semi-naked woman with a curvaceous body covers part of her body with a bed sheet, her hips and side-boob visible.

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