Need advice? Ask 'Someone In Chicago'

Chicago needs an advice column.
Someone In Chicago is here to help.

In 1955, Eppie Lederer became the Sun-Times’ third “Ann Landers,” bringing the advice column national prominence. This is an advice column for today. Send in your questions.

By Ismael Perez

The Sun-Times is launching a new advice column — for a new generation.

Are you getting anxious thinking your partner might propose too soon? Or worry your relationship isn’t going anywhere? Write in. Having trouble with an older co-worker who doesn’t take you seriously? Vent with me. Wondering about good places to meet new people? Ask Someone in Chicago.

If columnist Ismael Pérez doesn’t have the answers, chances are another Chicagoan will.

With this column — through every insecurity we overcome, gems we discover throughout our city, new passions we find within ourselves — you’ll leave feeling connected to someone in Chicago.

Need advice?

Tell us your story and Ismael will share his thoughts, tips, lessons learned and more in a weekly column launching this fall.

Submit

Meet Ismael Pérez

I came to Chicago unprepared and not knowing what to expect, but used learned lessons from past mistakes to help me find myself in the city.

My life can be described as one where I take chances, deal with the punches and learn as I go.

Situations fellow Chicagoans might be familiar with and could use some advice about.

Columnists

My parents ran from Border Patrol agents. My brother wanted to be one

We are privileged middle-class Mexicans. But there’s something that always brings us back to a subject we can never get away from — immigration.

By Ismael Perez

Columnists

Living with an addict during the pandemic

I don’t know if it was the stress of the pandemic or his alcoholism wanting more from him, but my dad had been drunk for months.

By Ismael Perez

Ismael Pérez’s late uncle Fausto Cruz Reyes, also known as Tito.

Columnists

Life lessons my brave gay uncle taught me

When Tito died last weekend surrounded by his sisters and my dad, I couldn’t help but reflect on how much of a mystery he was to a Mexican gay kid like me.

By Ismael Perez

Columnists

Talking openly about sex is important for finding support, healing trauma, as I learned from Brooke Shields

I learned about how people dissociate to detach themselves from trauma by watching the “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields” documentary on Hulu. It was a revelation.

By Ismael Perez

Columnists

120 pounds down: A summer body five years in the making

If a certain pant size can be a goal, a state of mind can be one, too.

By Ismael Perez