A Letter to Sulli
Hey APC, it’s Esther Park. I started writing this a few days after Sulli’s passing, and now with the saddening news of her friend, Goo Hara’s death, I thought it would be timely to finally share my thoughts on the subject. Sulli, a member of the K-pop group f(x) was found dead in her home on October 14th. This was a young woman of 25 who had been facing online bullying and harassment for a good part of the last decade. When she was photographed with her older boyfriend, they said she was not dedicated to her music and her fans, promiscuous and troublesome. When she uploaded braless pictures, they…
Make a Statement
Hi my name is Amaya Santiago. I am 17-years-old and I was born and raised in the Bronx, NY. I am African American and my family is from the British Virgin Islands as well as other Caribbean islands. The piece I submitted started off as a fun edit that was simply done out of boredom. However, it soon turned into a commentary on how magazine publishers, as well as most companies in the beauty industry, rely on degrading female consumers in order to sell their own products. At first, I was making an innocent, light-hearted and fun edit of me on the cover of Haper’s Bazarr and it was going…
Not Your Stereotype
Hi! I am Raina Pahade and I am a senior in a high school from Princeton, New Jersey! I am Indian, specifically Gujarati, and Marathi but I was born and raised in America. The piece I submitted is an acrylic painting on several wood panels titled “A Response”. It is basically a response to American society and the traditional Indian culture. All statements depicted in this piece are real statements that have been said to me or I have heard! Some of the statements are responses to those claims. I chose to paint two Indian women; the one on the left side is supposed to represent what Indian and American…
Drawing Lines, Forming Borders
Hello Afro Puff Chronicles, my name is Mariana Benitez Arreola. I am a Mexican-American female from Eastside San Jose in California. I am currently a senior at William C. Overfelt high school in California. These two pieces were inspired by my experience of living in a lower-income area of San Jose, in which the majority of people are minorities and are greatly affected by immigration. My neighborhood is often misjudged and has false pretences. Due to its reputation as a lower-income community, a lot of stereotypes are used against the individuals that are apart of the community. These skewed views cause a divide which is why San Jose is a…
Literature Therapy
Hey APC fam! My name is Genesis Johnson and I am nineteen years old from Miami, Florida. My heritage is Jamaican, Bahamian and African American. As a woman of color, highlighting the emotional and radical journeys of young and old people of color propels my work to a level I can’t even describe. Literature Therapy was published in February of 2018 and an experimental movement show based on the book was produced during the same year. Literature Therapy is an empathy practice I created which involves active listening and creating a poem based off of another person’s experience. After publishing my first book, I realized that true art is an…
Growing Up Adopted
Hi APC, my name is Jasmine Rose Martin & I’m a junior at West Orange High school. I was adopted at a young age by a Caucasian gay couple. My family also consists of my un-biological sister. My godparents are lesbian, and they also have two children three years apart from one another. Living with too males has its ups and downs. For example, the fashion talk and fun gossip talk is so fun, but when it comes down to female needs it’s not all that fun; however, my fathers do a good job at understanding. I personally would like to have a female figure in my life to talk…
Vibrant Colors
Q xopa mi gente! My name is Saray Bedoya and I am an 18-year-old Afro-Latina from Omaha, Nebraska. This fall I will be a freshman at Stanford University with the desire to major in public policy (specifically in the immigration field) and minor in Portuguese. My goal is to help those who have been barred and deprived of the rights and opportunities this very country was founded on, as well as study race relations in Brazil and in the Dominican Republic. I am a daughter of Mexican and Panamanian immigrant parents. Hopefully, that brings light to everything I just said. So what do I bring to the table you may…
A Unique Combination
Hello APC! My name is Myrthe Nymph and I’m a Dutch filmmaker and writer of Chinese origin. At the moment, I am 21 years old and study at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Filmmaking and psychology. I often get questioned about this odd combination. I was born April 1st 1998 into a musical family. My dad and mom love making music and even used to be in a music band before they became social workers. I had the privilege to learn as many musical instruments, dance styles and other art forms as I wished to. I was just 12 years old when my passion for filmmaking and photography…
High up in the Ivory Tower
Hi APC! I’m Francesca, and I live on College Confidential. You laugh, but it’s true: the uncharted wilderness of this website is like when the ruthless contributors of Reddit meet a Wikipedia wormhole. Specifically, I find myself drawn to the terrifying, mesmerizing, and strangely addictive world of the Ivy Leagues. I am awed by how videos of Harvard acceptance letters go viral on YouTube, how celebrities pay small fortunes to ensure their childrens’ admission, and how those infamous single-digit acceptance rates haunt thousands of high schoolers every year. Now, let me first make a disclaimer. I neither love nor despise the Ivies; I’m just… fascinated by them. If the college…
Who I Learned to Be
What’s up, APC! My name is Chelsie Nacelus, a rising junior at Kent Place School, and I am thrilled to be a part of this amazingly inclusive family! I have been dancing since I was about nine years old, and despite how annoyed I was that one summer day to have to sign up for dance classes when my mom and I could have been devouring cold sundaes and comparing creamy mustaches, I am forever grateful to her and have loved doing it ever since. I’ll be the first to admit, however, that the road has not always been smooth. The late-night dance studio sessions where I learned to embrace…
The Cycle
Hey APC! I’m Isabella Calix and I am a staff writer for APC; I’m actually responsible for translating all the articles on APC to Spanish! I’m a first-year at Smith College, a women’s college in Northampton, Massachusetts and I’m 17 years old. I hope to study public health, biology, sociology, and Latin American Studies in college (I’m undecided on majors). I’m a New Yorker and Latina. My ethnicities, more specifically, is Honduran and Italian. Writing is my favorite hobby. I grew up bilingual and speak both English and Spanish. I spent high school writing and translating my own pieces for my newspaper. Also, I am excited to translate more APC…
Across the Sea
Hi APC! My name is Ariella Delapena. Most of the time I just go by Ari. I’m 17 and Filipino. I’m Christian and I’m a military child, so obviously I move around often. With that being said, it’s kind of hard for me to explain where I’m from. I was born in Bremerton, Washington and soon after my family and I moved to Temecula, California. I stayed there for half of 3rd grade. For the rest of elementary school, I moved to San Diego, California. I spent my middle school years in Guam. Essentially, I really feel like I grew as a person on that island. Even though it was…
