• My Fantastic Fandom

  by Anonymous

  Around the time I started high school, I decided that I wanted to grow my hair out beyond the short bog I was forced to maintain on my head. When it was time for me to get a haircut, I playfully asked my mother, “Why do you want to make my hair ugly again?

• ‘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.

• More Than Just a Game

  by Ayah Al-Masyabi

  When I was 5 or 6, I played soccer for the first time. In a school playground, I found a soccer ball lying on a patch of dirt and started kicking it away from me, then running to retrieve it. I thought I was alone, but a few minutes later an older boy with ginger hair walked over and asked if he could play with me.

• Taylor Swift: Vulnerability and Power

  by Jaya Arellano

  One of my first memories is watching Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” music video on MTV. I was 4 and my sister was 3. On the screen, a blonde girl wrote notes to her friend in her bedroom window and sang, “She wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts…”   The reserved girl who doesn’t wear fancy clothes and isn’t popular reminded me of myself.

• Making Joy

  by Dani J.

  When I walk into the printmaking studio, the creaky wood-paneled floors give away my entrance. The studio appears dilapidated, with pipes exposed from an open ceiling, and I hear every other person’s footsteps and children screaming in the distance, but at this point it’s like a second home to me.

• Frame by Frame: Love in Motion

  by Hadiatou Barry

  I sat at the kitchen table with my hand planted on a flower print cloth as my aunt, Tanti Sadjo, prepared couscous, my favorite meal, for my birthday party. I watched in awe as she mixed the grains in a large silver bowl, ensuring that each grain was coated with the perfect amount of sauce.