Picture of Amanda Freebairn
Amanda Freebairn is an associate editor and the editorial production coordinator at Public Square Magazine, and a contributor to Deseret News. She holds an M.Ed. from Arizona State University. She and her husband live with their 3 children in Bluffdale, Utah.
A mother and two teenage daughters walk to their cars after visiting the temple with temple bags, representing temple garment devotion, family preparation, and sacred continuity.
Women in the Public Square

The Trouble with Garment Talk

Women’s experiences with garments are diverse—shaped by faith, family culture, and life stage rather than one simple story.

A woman alone after celebration conveys the emptiness behind performance and false liberation in The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
Pop Culture

The Unraveling of #MomTok

Discarded boundaries do not produce freedom when children, marriage, and human dignity are treated as content.

A behind-the-scenes moment of melancholy intimacy on a film set, showing the sad state of marriage in movies.
Pop Culture

A New Marriage Story

We’ve mastered cynicism about marriage; it’s time to recover the drama of reconciliation.

A young latter-day saint mom sits in her kitchen reads an article reflecting anti-mormon media bias on her phone.
Covering the Coverage

The Ethics of Contempt

A reported feature on “Mormon aesthetics” trades curiosity for sneer—and faith for folklore.

In a modern Relief Society circle, a single question disrupts spiritual peace, revealing the cost of unchecked doubt on faith and mental health.
Gospel Fare

The Hidden Cost of Normalizing Doubt

What makes faith so difficult today? Cultural pathologizing has distorted doubt and weakened spiritual growth.

Photoshoot of a Trad Wife Influencer Wearing a Black Dress w/ a Homestead Backdrop | Trad Wife Influencer Controversy
Family Matters

In Defense of the Trad Wife Influencer

A social media influencer finds fulfillment the way most women choose to. One journalist can’t let that stand.