• Reconnecting with My Mother Tongue

  by Anonymous

  “What are your classes this year?” my mom asked in Mandarin, a few weeks before 9th grade started.  I showed her my schedule and told her I had biology, one of my favorite science classes. “What is that?”  “It’s.. It’s like a class where you study animals,” I explained in a mix of Mandarin and English.

• Out of My Room and Into the World

  by Aster McNulty

  I have always been a homebody, even in elementary school. I went to the park after class with my friends, and to birthday parties. But I felt safest and happiest and most myself at home—the tiny, messy apartment I share with my parents.

• From Group Chat to Real Friends

  by Zi Qi Li

  Names have been changed. In 5th grade, I was diagnosed with selective mutism. Though I could speak comfortably at home with my parents and my twin sister Ada, at school I was completely mute. We were in different classes, but I’d stick by Ada at lunch. 

• ‘Grief Is Like the Ocean’

  by Anonymous

  My father died of cancer in June of 2020, a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic. At first he was diagnosed with a chronic, but not fatal, inflammatory arthritis that affects the spine and large joints. But after his condition continued to deteriorate, a trip back to the hospital revealed that he had metastatic brain cancer.

• In Four, Hold Seven, Out Eight

  by Ava Wong

  As I stood in front of my 9th grade math classmates, I wished to be anywhere else. My teacher had cold-called on me to answer the question on the board. As I stood there my heart pounded, and it was so hard to breathe that it felt like a mountain had fallen on top of me.

• Beautiful Now

  by Jaya Arellano

  I’ve always thought that I was too fat, in part because my parents told me I was. My sister was also “chubby,” and my mom encouraged me to get her to diet with me. She’d say, “Let’s get our summer bodies ready!”