Blog Posts by Alice Gomstyn

  • Before the Niagara Walk: Nik Wallenda's Biggest Challenge

    By Alice Gomstyn | ABC News Blogs – Mon, Jun 11, 2012

    (Ida Mae Astute/ABC)This Friday, Nik Wallenda will attempt what's never been done before: He will walk across a cable suspended 173 feet over Niagara Falls under the dark of night on live television.

    But the veteran daredevil - a seventh-generation member of the Great Wallendas, the legendary travelling family circus troupe - said the greatest challenge facing him isn't physical. It's mental.

    During his practice sessions for his landmark June 15 walk across Niagra Falls, while Wallenda's feet are busy taking careful, measured steps, his mind is juggling obligations: With a stunt as big as this one - taking place across a transnational border, no less - Wallenda must make sure he's dotted his i's and crossed his t's with a host of government agencies, both American and Canadian. Then, of course, there are the logistics: Wallenda and his tiny company - it's just him, his father and an uncle - are involved in elements as basic as confirming the deliveries of fencing needed to hold back

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  • Prince William Tells Katie Couric He's Eager for Kids

    By Alice Gomstyn | ABC News Blogs – Tue, May 29, 2012

    One year after their marriage, Prince William said that he and wife, Catherine Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, are eager to have children. What he didn't say was exactly when the world could expect to meet the next British royal heir.

    "I'm just very keen to have a family and both Catherine and I, you know, are looking forward to having a family in the future," the Duke of Cambridge, 29, said in an interview with ABC News' Katie Couric. Asked by Couric if there was anything else he wanted to share, he answered with a laugh, "You won't get anything out of me. Tight lipped."

    To mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, celebrating her 60 years on the throne, Couric conducted several rare interviews with members of the royal family, including TRH Prince Harry, The Duke of Cambridge Prince William and The Duke of York Prince Andrew, which aired in an ABC News special called "The Jubilee Queen With Katie Couric."

    Speculation about whether Kate Middleton is

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  • Author ReShonda Tate Billingsley had her daughter post this picture to Instagram. (Courtesy ReShonda Tate Billingsley)

    At first, it might seem like your typical case of modern parental discipline: A Texas mom has prohibited her 12-year-old daughter from using the photo-sharing site Instagram after she caught the girl posting a photo of herself holding an unopened bottle of vodka with a caption that read "I sure wish I could drink this."

    But it's what ReShonda Tate Billingsley did next that has people buzzing: Billinglsey, a prominent Houston-area author, had her daughter post a new picture of herself to Instagram earlier this month holding a sign reading, "Since I want to post photos of me holding liquor, I am obviously not ready for social media and will be taking a hiatus until I learn what I should (and) should not post. Bye-bye."

    Billingsley then posted the same photo - in which only the lower half of her daughter's face was visible - to her own personal Facebook page and it has since gone viral. It has seen 11,000 shares from Facebook alone, not to mention attention from

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  • Breast-Feeding Time Cover Mom Responds to Critics

    By Alice Gomstyn | ABC News Blogs – Fri, May 11, 2012

    This week's cover of Time magazine shows a mother nursing her 3-year-old son.

    The California mom at the center of the Time magazine cover controversy knew there would be backlash, but she posed for photographs while nursing her 3-year-old son anyway.

    "Out of all families, I really feel like somebody has … to start the dialogue and I feel like our family is confident enough to be the ones to do it," Jamie Lynne Grumet, 26, told "Nightline" correspondent Juju Chang.

    PHOTOS: See more controversial magazine covers here.

    If Grumet was looking to start a dialogue, she succeeded. The image of the thin, blonde Grumet and her son, who stood on a chair to reach her left breast, went viral and attracted both admiration and derision, with critics questioning whether Time's photo was overly sexualized and, more broadly, whether Grumet and moms like her were harming their children through what's known as extended breast-feeding - nursing a child after he or she is 1 year

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  • Time Cover Shows 3-Year-Old Breast-Feeding

    By Alice Gomstyn | ABC News Blogs – Thu, May 10, 2012

    This week's cover of Time Magazine shows a mother nursing her 3-year-old son.

    Should a mom continue nursing her child even after he's too big to be held in her arms? For mothers who practice what's known as "attachment parenting," the answer is an emphatic "yes" - and some are more than happy to demonstrate.

    This week's cover of Time Magazine shows Los Angeles mother Jamie Lynne Grumet nursing her 3-year-old son, who reaches her breast with the help of a step stool.

    "When you think of breast-feeding, you think of mothers holding their children, which was impossible with some of these older kids," photographer Martin Schoeller said in a Time Magazine online story explaining the cover photo. "I liked the idea of having the kids standing up to underline the point that this was an uncommon situation."

    The cover story illustrated by the photo takes a look at the philosophy of attachment parenting today - which, in addition to extended breastfeeding, also promotes co-sleeping and

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  • Nearly a year after Lady Gaga released her hit single "Born This Way," Madonna is finally offering her take on the song  … and it's not exactly enthusiastic.

    Gaga has long expressed her admiration for Madonna, calling the pop icon an inspiration. Comparisons between the two divas have been inevitable, from their dance-hall beats to their risque musical treatment of sex and religion. The two even teamed up for a "catfight" skit on "Saturday Night Live" in 2010.

    But last February's release of "Born This Way" had many questioning whether the Mama Monster had gone too far in emulating her idol. The song, critics charged, was stunningly similar to Madonna's 1989 chart-topper, "Express Yourself."

    Gaga would go on to say that she got an e-mail from Madonna's "people" saying they supported the song, but a representative for Madonna later said she was unaware of any such e-mail.

    When ABC News asked viewers to contribute questions for Cynthia McFadden's interview with Madonna, the

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  • New Peanut Butter Cheerios Worry Parents of Allergic Kids

    By Alice Gomstyn | ABC News Blogs – Wed, Jan 11, 2012


    Jodi Loftis, of Albuquerque, N.M., already warns her daughter of certain candies and granola bars that may contain peanut ingredients. Now she can add another food to her watch list: Cheerios.

    General Mills has recently introduced MultiGrain Peanut Butter Cheerios cereal, which the manufacturer touts as allowing consumers to  "(i)ndulge in real peanut butter taste without derailing your diet."

    But Loftis and other parents with children who have peanut allergies worry that the new product could, in fact, derail their kids' peanut-free diets if playmates share their snacks with them.

    "Even as a 9 year-old, you can continue to tell her everyday, every week,  make sure you don't share any foods with anybody," Loftis said, "but sometimes it's hard for a 9 year-old to remember that."

    Other parents have voiced concerns of cross-contamination at facilities manufacturing both traditional Cheerios, a long-favored snack among toddlers, and peanut butter cheerios.

    In a statement,

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