By Amanda Castro-Crist When we were kids, my cousins and I would raid my mom’s closet and star in our own fashion shows. The dresses were all silk and lace and shine, fancier than anything I’d ever seen anywhere else in my real life, stuff the women in “Days of Our Lives” or “As The […]
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Girls Just Want To Have Fun (Till It Ends)
April 28, 2017 by
By Shane Longoria This review contains spoilers for the final season of “Girls.” Over the course of its six-season run, Lena Dunham’s critically acclaimed HBO series, “Girls,” has generated think piece after think piece, challenging our conventional understanding of young adulthood—particularly that of young womanhood. For better or for worse, “Girls” has forced us to reevaluate our social […]
Be Impolite Or Be a Statistic?
March 30, 2017 by
By Amanda Castro-Crist My brother’s room is dark. The only brightness spills through the open door from the hallway in a narrow slice that gives just enough light for me to see the outline of my mother’s cousin lying in the bed. At 10 years old, it was the first time I’d met Angelo*. He was […]
Playing Pretend in Suburbia
March 29, 2017 by
By Eden Vander Zee As I sit swaddled in my pink-and-white Barbie blankie on the brown wrinkled couch in the sun room of my suburban home, there seems to be nothing but a perfect world that surrounds me. I see my mother singing in the kitchen, the sun warms my skin as it gleams in […]
Healing Slowly—and Then All at Once
March 26, 2017 by
By Amanda Castro-Crist The last thing I can remember before the cast came off several weeks later is running across the cushions of our brown-and-orange couch. It’s weird how the time between the two points – broken and healed – is a blank. I can list a million details about the house we lived in. […]
I’ve Learned to Love Myself, Even if She Doesn’t
March 23, 2017 by
By Jean Reese When I was little, I would run to the one place I knew was safe. To you, to anyone, it was just a closet. In it was a small white chest—nothing fancy or decorative. The only markings on it were the ones I had put there. It was filled with bits of broken […]
My Life’s Most Meaningful Moment
March 23, 2017 by
By Jack Browne* The night started like any other. We were sitting on her couch, watching Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix, when I was struck with an idea. I asked her if she wanted to go outside and look at the stars. At first, she said it was too cold. It took some convincing, and about […]
Billboard Dad
March 23, 2017 by
By Olivia Daniels* His scent was reminiscent of peppermints and Axe body spray. The kind of smell that lingered long after he left a room, making its presence known. I begged him to sleep in my twin bed when my mother reluctantly allowed him to crash in our home. Not because I wanted to sleep beside […]
How Dancing Set Me Free
March 23, 2017 by
By Jennifer Hicks Most of my life was spent in a box with minimal windows and doors. Not a bad box, though. The purple color of the exterior made the metallic silver letters that said “Earle Cobb Dance Studio” stand out. Purple was the favorite color of Dena, the owner. The front wall was covered in mirrors, with […]
