• 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?

• A Curly Korean Complex

  by Oscar Scribner

  The moment I had been dreading had arrived. What was usually a mundane part of the day I’d sleep through was now a moment of palpable tension. The inquisitor was making her way down the list and was approaching…  “Oscar Scr-binder?”

• Reintroducing Myself to the World

  by Marlin Xie

  As the first semester of my sophomore year of high school came to an end, I stared into my bathroom mirror, and a speck of doubt began to devour every thought I had about who I was. A fog swallowed my mind, and I realized I couldn’t recognize my reflection.

• More Than a Stereotype  

  by Justin Sosa

  Growing up as a Mexican-American, I’ve grown used to people reducing me to a stereotype (one teacher confidently called me “Jose”). I’ve even experienced people assuming that, because my family is Mexican, we’re criminals—that we’re a harm to the economy and to society and that we leech off of the US government.

• Questioning Gender, Finding Answers

  by A.W.

  It happened when I paused outside the girls bathroom during a normal 9th grade math class. For the first time, I began to feel awkward and fearful that I was somehow in the wrong place. I wasn’t sure why I was feeling this way.

• For You Are With Me

  by Josh Lancman

  “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for You are with me.” –Psalm 23 Names have been changed. Nestled in the Conservative Jewish part of northeastern Pennsylvania, Camp R in the Poconos is a place many of us who have passed through its wooden bunks call home.