For fourteen years, I was a compulsive nail biter. I hated my nails. I hated my destroyed nail beds. I hated my ragged cuticles. I hated my nubby fingers. But most of all, I was convinced that those nail beds, those cuticles, those fingers were forever. That there was no hope.

And yet here I am. I now take close-up photos of my hands, nails, and cuticles, and I post them on the internet for the world to see.

I want to believe in the small miracles. In mundane magic. Sometimes, this hope is all I have.

Nail polish is a magic we can all have at the ends of our fingertips.

I’m Alice. Welcome to my little corner of magic and hope.