Arriving, Finally, As My Chosen Name
I had recently cut my hair short for the first time. At school, a male friend saw me and said, “You look like a boy,” and it felt validating, especially coming from a boy. Then, it started to click that maybe I wasn’t the girl I thought I was. A few nights later, I sat […]
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Coming Home to Harlem
Names have been changed. It was 6th grade recess, and a couple of girls were complaining about how far away they lived from school. I stared off into space, kicking at the fake grass beneath my feet, hoping they wouldn’t ask me where I lived. To the mostly White, wealthy students at my public school […]
Read MoreWriting contest winners winter 2023
Four times a year, we ask our readers to write about the impact recent stories have had on teens around the country. In Winter 2022-23, we had a range of responses from writers connecting to stories about family, race, online culture, self image, and the importance of a name. Congratulations to our winners and be […]
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Gaming While Female
Names have been changed. The first video game I played, when I was nine, was Call Of Duty: Black Ops III, a first-person shooter game. The player experiences the action through the eyes of the protagonist in a three-dimensional space. I loved the adrenaline rush that it and other games gave me. They provided an […]
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