Love, Stella - Edition 1 2024

LOVE, STELLA

Edition 1- Aleph

‘ A point where within all points of the universe can be viewed simultaneous’

A Letter from Stella 2

The Stella Society, is a literary group inspired by The Stella Literature Prize, an award which was established with the intention of celebrating female and non-binary Australia authors Since I´ve been at the school, The Stella Society has been a centre for critical thinking, beautiful writing, esteemed literature, good conversation, laughter and genuine passion for novels of all kinds. Each year, the society undertakes the reading of many books, and sees beloved authors come and speak about their novels and journeys, inspiring the journalists and readers of tomorrow. However, The Stella Society is far more than just a club but rather it’s a genuine commitment, every year students complete many reading and writing workshops; the standard of which, is evidently high as, despite being older than most members myself, unfailingly at every literary event I feel more and more energised by the students around me

Our newest project, ´Love Stella´, is first defined by its edition name ´Aleph´ or ‘ a point where within all points of the universe can be viewed simultaneous’ Upon Alice Chois suggestion of the edition name, The Stella Society most feverently agreed that it encapuslates what The Stella Zine, fondly known as ‘Love Stella’, is for- to capture the diversity of our small yet beloved world at Melbourne Girls Grammar. Worked tireslessly (and passionately) on, by The Stella Socities staff and student body, this magazine includes writing from all kinds of origins and minds, the zine itself including recipes, poetry, short stories, articles, expositions, and literature of the most honest, and hence best, kind. The idea of the Stella Zine, first sprung, when as a group we decided that Stella was too cut off, too exclusive, serving only the students who were already well versed in Dickenson and Dostoevsky. Instead, we wanted the club to serve all kinds of readers (from lovers of Collen Hoover to Donna Tartt), however, in welcoming all kinds of new students we quickly found that whilst Stella inhabited a magnitude of avid readers, as is normally the case, the society was stocked full of brilliant and eager writers The beauty of this magazine, is that it serves everyone- topics alternating between language, art, labour, loss and life (and of course by life, I’m referring to Taylor Swift) I am so so proud of all the students, and staff, who contributed to the zine and I cannot wait to see how it further accelerates the schools student voice and love for the arts.

Love,

MY BIG BEAUTIFUL BROTHER

My big beautiful brother holds him. Holds him, in his worked, soft arms. His touch careful. He is silent as the two of them walk together; the cicadas wailing at the moon.

It shines back at him - a clouded blue.

My big beautiful brother is solid as the waterfall, as he walks. The water c a s c a d i n g

down the rock-face but the rock itself- is stillThe water puddles and overflows in the crevices between his nose and lips.

My brother, sobs now, his shyness excavated, as his cries echo through the garden, The trees whistle.

The cicadas wail.

Their bodies are limp, as they walk - but- my brother doesn’t stop, only holding Sam tighter now.

Holding him the way a man only ever does when what they're holding is already gone.

I picture the two of them, alone amongst the night, inextricably linked in a way in which a man only ever is with his dog. The cicadas are silent now, the whole garden is, the world is.

I picture my big beautiful brother holding Sam between his arms, his tired legs shaking, as he carries him, dense and luke-warm, out beyond our cast iron gate. The rocks crush beneath the shovel as my brother ploughs at the ground- his vision impaired by thick wet black. He is alone.

Alone as he lays Sam deep into the ground, covering him in dirt, his knees digging deep into the soil like a prayer.

But, before he leaves, in almost -a whisper- my brother, leans down toward the soil, his lips gently grazing the dirt, and utters one final inside joke between the two of them. Then, as he walks away, my gentle brother.

my gentle gentle brother, cries softly into the night and the cicadas wail for his dog, who lays silent amongst the earth.

By Anonymous

“I’ve always felt like Kuala Lumpur looked like a post-apocalyptic city. Europe was all vineyards and rolling hills; however here it was lush jungle and untamed vine, curling around windowpanes, running down the terracotta roofs, slowly taking back what it was owed It was quite beautiful I would’ve liked to paint it, if I had the skill. My grandmother’s house was no exception to this. In fact, it was especially prone to this natural renaissance as she was absolutely hopeless at managing anything - including the garden - however this, I don’t think she minded; she loved nature. But, despite the striking life that surrounded the house, the house itself was most unpleasant and I felt quite upset when I was forced to stay. Albeit old, there was nothing wrong with the house per se…it was big - “too big for one woman to live in alone”, my uncle often said - all mahogany, red silk, white orchids and cerise peonies; but there was an air of heavy sadness, of all the things that had been but no longer were.

“Everything loses its colour in that house It all turns yellow Everything rots ”

By Xuan Valmorbida

And looking out at the field, one saw that it had been gloriously frosted over, all pale green and tangerine. At once, some triumphant fanfare began to play flutes, drums, trumpets and we, divided into factions, and enamoured by the brilliance of our nation, ran in unison, steps and hearts in time with the drumming… There was something awfully comical about the whole thing the Chinese flag was high in the sky, and I felt as if we were all little tin soldiers, the only sign of our autonomy being our breath, which plumed in the cold; small puffs of white which appeared before us, dancing, teasing, before disappearing like a slip of silk in the wind, engulfed by the blistering cold.

By Xuan Valmorbida

Of course, nothing is ever easy with words.

Words are finicky, pernickety little things that seem to change meanings if one ever looks at them for too long. ‘Cool’, ‘cold’, ‘chilly’: all of those carry slightly different, almost imperceptible connotations that make them suitable for different occasions. Saying that somebody is nonplussed provides no information whatsoever - are they utterly confused or unperturbed? What on earth is rizz and why suddenly did it pop out of nowhere?

Considering that this is all within the same language, imagine having to contend with translating between multiple languages. There are many difficulties with translation - you have to capture every single nuance, complexity, context, and content. But bringing anything from one culture to another is an arduous task in itself - by entering that foreign culture, any historical, cultural, and social context that was previously assumed knowledge is lost or either relegated to a copious amount of footnotes. The line ‘She was as fair as Helen’, when spoken in (most) other languages, would probably be questioned immediately as to who this Helen is. Unless the translator was certain that the audience was familiar enough with Greek mythology, that line would have to be modified in translation. Allusions are lost like this: references to historical, philosophical, and religious literary works are erased, modified to fit the new culture, or kept in with a page ’ s worth of footnotes.

Then, those difficulties are only amplified by more sets of rigid rules and requirementsthe most challenging of which is poetry.

Poetry! Like a terrifyingly elegant glass sculpture that’s been blown too thin, poetry is often both beautiful and fragile, prone to breakage when words are swapped, or heavens forbid, something amiss with the punctuation. Entire metaphors could be missed, the overall melody of a stanza disrupted, any substituted word discordant with the rest of the line other than that one, perfect, word. Reliant on both auditory and visual appeal, as well as the carefully sculpted content put into it.

Translation in poetry means many things. Different information densities (how much information is contained in one word, like how tu signifies informality and closeness whilst ‘ you ’ doesn’t tell you much) between languages result in different line lengths and broken meters, whilst phonological differences between languages is also many a murderer of pleasant-to-hear poems.

“As with sausages and laws, it’s better not to know the techniques through which translations are made” - Tony Barnstone

Take Li Shanyin’s Sent North on a Rainy Night for example. Featuring a rigid 7-character structure to emphasise its modular structure and a strict rhyme scheme, it’s practically impossible to translate both the semantic meaning and preserve the structure. Even just by looking at it, without knowing a single lick of Chinese, the poem is visually appealing.

Clement Marot’s To a Sick Damsel also features a strict 3-syllable and rhyme scheme, but translating it literally also breaks the rhyme, the flow, and the light-hearted tone of the poem

君问归期未有期 ,

巴⼭夜⾬涨秋池。

何当共剪西窗烛 ,

却话巴⼭夜⾬时。

There are many English translations available online (and in the case of Clement Marot’s To a Sick Damsel, an entire book filled with failed translations), and each one ends up sacrificing at least something, whether it be the rhyme, a word, or the flow of the poem. In translating, something is bound to be lost - the ‘misery’ of translation.

Every translator then asks themself: is it better to be a taxidermist, or a creator?

Ma mignonne, Je vous donne

Le bon jour;

Le séjour

C’est prison.

Guérison

Recouvrez, Puis ouvrez

Votre porte

Et qu ’ on sorte

Vitement, Cat Clément

Le vous mande.

Va, friande

De ta bouche,

Qui se couche

En danger

Pour manger Confitures; Si tu dures

Trop malade, Couleur fade

Tu prendras, Et perdras

L’embonpoint.

Dieu te doint

Santé bonne, Ma mignonne.

Each translation is bound to be a transformative work - no translation is perfect and wholly faithful to the original, because even interpreting the work can be seen as a translation in the same language. But would it be better to destroy a little, in order to create, or stuff and stitch the poem up? Is the content more important than the style, or the other way around?;

To end on this, two clashing philosophies will be laid out:

Pablo Neruda once wrote that “The clumsiest literal translation is a thousand times more useful than the prettiest paraphrase”. Neruda believed in reflecting all of the semantic content, rather than imitating the rhyme and rhythm of the work. He wanted to capture every nuance and every bit of relevant context, to translate a text with ‘absolute exactitude’, and preserve the content as it was in the original text, without any additions or interruptions and compromise, or context lost, so that the translation could be as useful as possible.

On the contrary, Jorge Luis Borges encouraged the exact opposite. Believing that the act of translation was creation, and that ‘translation [was] a more advanced stage of writing’, he actively encouraged embellishing and improving the original through translation. The most important goal for him, in translation, was preservation of the writer’s style; believing that it is the writing that makes prose good, and the writing which draws a reader to choose the text in the first place, not the content, he sought to separate the aesthetic surface of the work from the fabric of the work itself, then work them in tandem together.

SOFIA’S CREPES

Ingredients:

1 cup of room at temperature water

1 cup of milk

4 eggs at temperature water

½ tsp of salt

60 grams of butter

1 ½ cups of flour

Instructions:

Use a blender for the following steps:

Step 1: Add the water, milk and eggs

Step 2: Melt the 60 grams of butter in a separate bowl for 30s or until melted

Step 3: In the meantime, add salt to mix

Step 4: Sift flour into separate bowl

Step 5: Add butter and flour into blender

Step 6: Blend for 1minute and 30 seconds

Step 7: Scrape the side for the remaining excess

Step 8: Pour blended mix into medium sized bowl

Step 9: Wrap bowl with plastic glad wrap

Step 10: Put bowl into fridge for 1 – 2 hours before cooking

Cooking instructions:

Grab two pans and heat up on oven stove

Place some butter on the pans so that the batter doesn’t stick

Fill a ladle up ¾ of the way into the pans and move pan in circle motion to cover all areas of the pan with batter

Cook on one side until the sides curl up then flip

Eating instructions:

Well, this is completely up to you what you put on your crepes, but my favorite is: Nutella spread with chopped up strawberries

Last but not least, ENJOY!!!!

Love, Sof

Summers Melt

(in 4 haikus)

The sun is beaming, ocean water soothes me, Ice cream covers me.

Towels and goggles.

Guards protect the ocean ’ s blue, Icey slushie drinks.

Kids play together, The sky picture perfect, blue.

Tourists take selfies

The moon awakes now, The stars shine brighter than gems.

Good night, summer fun

By Alexia Chatfield

There are a few moments, where contrary to nature, water flows unchanging. You were watching the water run rivulets down the tap, yesterday, and you said Because it was beautiful, but: haven’t I told you I hate it the way you want me to love it?

Nothing lasts, and that is why it is beautiful. So learn to live and let it flowwrong wrong

I tell you, it is pain found in the stead of what you call beauty, that perfect laminar flow will break (and you laughed)

I wrung my hands then, out of frustration, irked by an idea that should not exist.

Come inside. Turn the tap off. Cold are my wet cupped hands.

dully beautiful, unclear frost. once clear and sharp it up to the light,

You hand me sea glass, soft and like rounded edges with through that now clouded lens. Hold and see the sea beyond. You can’t.

Thats the whole point.

The rats are in a situation against which they have no defence. Scarcely seems one demanding fight or flight. Forces are at play. Forces are always at play.

A rat placed in a jar of water will die.

A rat given hope then again placed in a jar of water will still die (and the universe is).

Would you call it hope, if it only turns into a question of when?

Eliminate hopelessness, and you find an infinity, but an infinity is as finite as the rat who dreams it to be real.

The rat dies, anyhow. And the universe is. And the universe is.

By Anonymous

Deaf

Today, the breeze is raw, whispering secrets into the ears of the trees- and the grass. The grass. A soft mesh of green, sways- but to the untrained eye stands still, stoic in its salute. It whistles along to the bump of the car, tumbling across dirt roads, and swinging past peeled letterboxes. Then it stops. Looking around the corner, hesitant in its pursuit. The wind told me yesterday you still loved me. Is he lying? I never know, as he fills my eyes with hair, impairing me, blinding me, lying to me- is the wind lying? Tell me his lying and I won’t say another word. But if the wind, if the wind, if the wind listened to your secret and whispered it, sweet and sour, right down the back of my neck, you have to tell me. Are you still there? hello?

By Anonymous

ArtandArchitecture

(fromthe2023MGGSLatintour)

Rome is a city so ancient that, if you cleaved through its cobblestone-paved roads – sliced the city cleanly in half – you could expose the cross section of layers and layers of history, forgotten times buried under new paving. In fact, it is estimated that Rome’s street-level has risen by around six or seven metres since ancient times. Some older buildings saw their ceilings ripped off, and their interiors filled with dirt, before a new building was constructed right over top of its predecessor’s grave. Others crumbled over time and returned to the dust from which they were created.

Fourteen days of travel on the 2023 MGGS Latin tour showed me enough beautiful things to bring my phone storage to the point of no return. Below are some of my favourite photos from the trip.

TheTreviFountain

Upon arrival in Rome, our first destination was the Trevi Fountain, a mere two-minute walk from our hotel. The cobblestone road that leads to the Trevi is surrounded on all sides by colourful but plain modern architecture, so that when the ornate, curling ivory of the Trevi Fountain comes into view, you are hit with a sense of whiplash. The facade of the fountain is breathtaking, made from intricately-carved travertine (meaning ‘from the tiber river’) stone, which is inundated by water from the Vergine Aqueduct.

The trevi fountain on our first night (left) and our last morning (right) in Rome.

TheColosseum

ThePantheon

The Pantheon is an enormous structure with a domed ceiling, including a perfectly circular oculus (eye-like hole in the roof) which lets in floods of natural sunlight. Notably, the Pantheon was constructed on earth far lower than modern street-level – while ancient Romans had to ascend a stairway to reach the elevated temple, the street level has risen so that visitors nowadays need only walk directly in through the portico. Walking around the back of the Pantheon, one can peer over the trench in between the temple and the street, and discover just how drastically the rest of Rome has risen while the Pantheon has remained unmoving on its original grounds.

As its name implies, the Colosseum is unfathomably large. Though we explored the inside of the amphitheatre, the Colosseum is so enormous that attempting to view it in its entirety is impossible from too short a distance.

As such, the best view of the colosseum and its surroundings (including many triumphal arches) is from the Palatine Hill, traditionally believed to be the site of Rome’s foundations.

The exterior (left) and the interior (right) of the Pantheon

The Colosseum, photographed from Palatine Hill

Florence

Florence, birthplace of the Renaissance, is a fine contender for the most beautiful city in the world. While some students visited Venice on the 9th of December, the rest of us visited sunshiney Florence, led by Ms. Ashenden and Mr. Francis. The Uffizi Gallery, famous for housing the works of Botticelli and Michelangelo, is bustling with awestruck tourists and artwork in the vibrant Renaissance style. The Accademia Gallery, similarly busy, is most notably home to Michelangelo’s ‘David’.

TheChurchofSaintIgnatiusofLoyola

Named ‘Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola’ in Italian, the church has a ceiling covered in the breathtaking frescoes painted by Andrea Pozzo. From around 1965 Pozzo used trompe-l’œil (deceivethe-eye) painting techniques, taking advantage of light, shade, and perspective to trick visitors into believing an illusion. The ceiling appears to encompass a hollow dome in the centre of the church, as well as marble statues that protrude from the nave ceiling, when in actuality the ceiling is perfectly smooth and flat.

TheSistineChapel

To me, looking up at the ceiling of the Vatican City’s Sistine Chapel is a bit like looking up at fireworks on a dark night, on account of both experiences providing the illusion of a sky falling onto you. In the Sistine Chapel, painted figures appear so solidly real that my brain believes they should be affected by gravity, falling from the ceiling instead of frozen into painted plaster. Michelangelo’s frescoes are so lifelike that a painted bent knee, or a jutted-out chin seem to protrude from the ceiling, entirely three-dimensional. In the centre of the ceiling is ‘The Creation of Adam’, an illustration of a scene from the Book of Genesis wherein God extends a hand to Adam to grant him the gift of life.

Of the images below, the first (not taken by me) pictures the entire ceiling while the second (a photo of my own), pictures a ceramic plate painted with a section of The Creation of Adam, specifically the divine hand of God as it touches Adam, the first man on Earth. As a souvenir (and a Christmas present for my mother), I purchased this plate while in Rome, and it now sits proudly on a high shelf in my home.

By Lucy Fary

By Lucy Fary

Say a Swift ‘NO’ to Vaping

Take note of the facts

Taylor Swift’s introspective lyrics are celebrated for their quest for genuine self-awareness. This article directs those who are currently vaping to reconsider their attraction to vaping, see and admit to their own lapses of good judgement, and finally be prepared to resist this dangerous habit. It also aims to convince the rest of you that even experimenting is dangerous.

In her song ‘Happiness’, Swift admits, ‘Sorry, I can’t see the facts through all my fury.’ Swift’s appeal is broad because most of us can identify with not wanting to fess up to making poor choices, and to reacting angrily when being chastised. One can interpret Swift’s confessional lyric in this context, as ideally the risks to our own respiratory health posed by vaping should outweigh the very normal need to assert adolescent independence and desire to follow teen trends. But many factors cause us to act irrationally. Some of you may have been influenced by surreptitious social media promotion making vaping appear like a sophisticated and harmless alternative to smoking. But be aware that this is a dangerous re-normalisation of smoking, which took decades of public health advocacy and law making to address. Vaping also increases the likelihood of users to progress to smoking tobacco and marijuana. This is even more alarming to those older than you who have witnessed friends and family suffer and perish with emphysema lung cancer resulting from smoking addiction, and others suffer from poor mental health from smoking ‘weed’.

Studies show that the vast proportion of teenagers in Australia who have begun vaping in the last few years have very little idea of the health risks they are running. As we live in a country often described as a ‘ nanny state’, there is an assumption that what can be bought in a shop is surely safe for use. But where vapes are concerned this is NOT the case. The photo here was taken on Chapel Street in South Yarra. You can see the ice-creams and confectionary sold as companion products to vapes and cigarettes. The sweet things are sold to attract young people into the shop, but vapes themselves are ersatz desserts, marketed as tropical fruits, mint and a myriad of enticing flavours. This is a deliberate tactic by manufacturers to sell to children and teenagers, as 90% of all adult smokers began smoking as adolescents, and it is the most opportune time to both develop peer group habits and addictive behaviour. Unfortunately, this cliched and rather basic linkage of sugar and vapes has successfully doubled the number of 14–18-year-old vapers between 2016 and 2019 from 1.2 to 2.5 %. More alarmingly by 2024, the Australian Drug and Alcohol Foundation estimates that 14% of 12–17-yearolds have tried vaping. Clearly, while health authorities were coping with the COVID -19 epidemic, another epidemic was taking hold… that of vaping.

The Lung Foundation fact sheet * details that even vapes without nicotine still contain harmful chemicals like formaldehyde and polypropylene glycerol, that can both cause irreversible damage to your lungs. The same raft of these and other chemicals are found in nail polish removers, cleaning products, weed killers and pesticides. I sat next to a thoracic surgeon at a dinner recently who shared his grave concerns for the impact of lung diseases even nastier than lung cancer. His concerns are echoed by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons who describe surgeons seeing increasing rates of scarring and pock marked lungs in young vapers with one 17-year-old boy needing a double lung transplant #. Vaping has also been linked to impairment of memory and executive function and to increases in hyperactivity and impulsivity. Can any of us afford to take these risks?

Currently vapes containing nicotine are NOT illegal in Australia, and many vapes still contain nicotine, even if they do not state this on their packaging. From January 1st this year, there is a new federal ban on the import of disposable vapes, and from March 1st, 2024, import of ‘ non- therapeutic’ vapes is prohibited. But these restrictions are ‘too little too late’, as even admitting that vapes may be used to successfully wean long term smokers risking cancer and lung disease off tobacco, all health professionals concur that there is no such thing as a safe or ‘therapeutic’ vape, especially for those taking up the habit. Healthy lungs will be damaged by the inhalation of toxins contained in all vapes.

Without more thoughtful regulation of the retail vape shops, reducing the supply, availability, and demand for vapes will depend on the resources given to border and freight checks for these perilous cargos. Criminalisation is not an answer either, as this has unfortunately not lessened the consumption of illegal opiates and pills. There is every likelihood that a ‘black-market’ trade in vapes will be even more dangerous to young people already addicted. Organised crime is already profiting from both the legal and illegal trade in vapes, and this must stop. So far, the only regulation of shops like the one pictured above, has been by criminal gangs mounting arson attacks on ‘legitimate’ businesses that are not under their control. But whether owned by gangs or hard-working battlers, these shops are selling products dangerous to human health, and big companies manufacturing the vapes mostly offshore in developing economies are profiting the most. Tragically the largest number of ‘tobacconists’ are concentrated in lower socio-economic communities taking advantage of the most vulnerable. Don’t become a victim of their products.

Our best defence against this habit so harmful to human health is awareness, education and promoting good choices. It is up to young people being targeted to buy and start vaping, to say ‘NO’ to vapes. Put away any defensiveness. Consider the facts. Talk your trusted adults and seek guidance if you have been vaping and experience any dizziness, nausea, or discomfort due to withdrawal. Don’t be sucked in by the perceived ‘hype’ and ‘cool’ of vaping and look after your lungs. You only get one pair, and they are very useful for breathing. Instead join a choir, take up dancing as exercise, and use those lungs to rekindle some Taylor Swift magic.

*https://lungfoundation com au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Factsheet-Vaping-andYoung-People For-Educators-Jul2021.pdf

#https://ctsurgerypatients.org/think-twice-about-vaping

By Alexandra Grimwade

How Media Saturation has Impacted Our Experience of The Eras Tour

With the long and anticipated lead up to the Australian leg of The Eras Tour, many of us have attempted to satiate our excitement by delving (repeatedly) into the abundance of Eras Tour content online.

Some of the most memorable moments of The Eras Tour, such as the bridge of ‘Don’t Blame Me’ have been repeatedly watched on social media, sometimes hundreds of times, by individual fans. Even the most spectacular moments like these, if rewatched enough, can become part of our subconscious awareness, and we run the risk of losing the magic of the live moment.

Having been lucky enough to attend both Taylor’s 2018 Reputation Tour and The Eras Tour, I found my experience of each was vastly different. Reputation was during a time before TikTok was prevalent, and I remember conversations with other fans about deliberately avoiding spoilers. Back then, that seemed to be the norm.

The release of The Eras Tour movie in cinemas, before many countries had seen the tour, enabled fans to live the experience before seeing it in person. The familiarity of all aspects of the tour, including the setlist, the final song and the impressive stage set up, such as the simulated swimming scene, can take away from the magic of these moments; moments which can only truly be experienced in their full glory, one time. When I saw my very first video clip from The Eras Tour, the swimming scene astounded me and many others as it became a viral moment. A quote from People Magazine eleven months ago when the concert first began expressed that Taylor “surprised concertgoers when she dove into the stage […] disappearing into the floor”. I can only imagine how it would have been to see that moment for the first time, live.

The element of surprise at the Reputation Tour enhanced my experience of it SO much. Like many other fans my focus was held intently, not wanting to miss a beat and being filled with excitement from not knowing what was about to happen or which song was going to be the closer.

With the surprise songs in The Eras Tour, where Taylor plays songs that are not on the setlist, being such a cherished moment of each show, as well as the personalised banter she has with each city, livestreaming every night of The Eras Tour became very popular. This means that some very keen fans have watched entire run-throughs of the tour, numerous times. Perhaps the reason the surprise songs are so keenly anticipated and have such impact is because they are riddled with suspense.

This high level of content engagement, to the point where we can know every aspect of a concert from our screens, is a new phenomenon. A popular Melbourne youtuber and Swiftie, Ally Sheehan spoke about how “ we ’ re experiencing concerts in a way that they’re really not meant to be experienced”. Moreover, in response to comments from two viewers, one of whom said The Eras Tour was “repetitive” and the other said the setlist is “getting boring”, Ally pointed out that “Concerts are designed to be repetitive” claiming “it’s the same thing with a Broadway show or a play ... concerts are not designed for us to go ten times over [and] watch it on our phones every weekend, they’re designed to be a live experience.”

Saturating oneself with Eras Tour content online is a choice, but a very hard one to give up. This is in part because of the exciting announcements Taylor has made on her tour, such as the rerelease of her albums, Speak Now and 1989, and what fans call ‘easter egging’ where Taylor hints as to what is to come in her music career, through clues like switching up the colours of her tour outfits. The impossibility of resisting this influx of media is also due to the unprecedented levels of social media engagement and the algorithms widespread promotion of Taylor Swift content, to everyone, not just Swifties.

Following along with The Eras Tour online for the past year has been so much fun, giving me such a buzz of excitement everyday for months. Attending the tour was truly marvellous, and in spite of the (many) hours I had spent prior, accustoming itself to its ifi i d l id h i f h b nights of my ation is not poilers. erience of a w much I

By Nina Chang

Acknowledgements

Now, there's only one art left to acknowledge, the art of hard work and commitment- traits shown by all the wonderful people who have made this zine possible.So, without father ado, here are the people who have joined ‘Love Stella’ at various stages in the long (yet incredibly rewarding), journey it has been curating this magazine. Many of these students, could tell you our very first ideas for what the Stella zine would be, our first colour schemes, titles, doubts, excitements, how long their first draft was (a personal horror of mine), and how much work and LOVE went into this.

To begin, I think it's prevalent that we thank YOU, our beloved readers You are what makes magazines like this thrive and continue If you haven't been told yet, your support means everything to the students and teachers who have worked so hard at creating this magazine Whether you ’ re the mother of an entrant, a teacher, a father, brother, cousin, school member or student, your support is one which encourages Stella members to continue in their reading and writing . Particularly, I encourage you to reach out to Stella members and the wider community more generally- talk about the pieces you loved, ones that provoked thoughts, or laughter or tears, because when things like this thrive- we, as a school thrive.

More specifically, I wouldn’t truly be acknowledging the effort that went into this Zine without thanking and congratulating our Stella Society. The Stella Society, as I’ll perhaps too excitedly tell anyone who’ll listen, is a true testament to commitment and determination. The people that contributed to this zine, spent hours editing, creating, and condensing their work and because of this I feel both incredibly proud and invigorated Particularly, I think a few students are especially deserving of praise, firstly Isabella Hunt- Issy was Stella capitan before me, and is someone who (not soley in Stella) has inspired me, and the Stella community SO much Issy, aside from being a beautiful writer herself, is also a beautiful person and a great friend She has provided so much support and enthustasm regarding the zine, and although not always able to attend (as she's well-known for being a bit of a busy body around the school), has always been a keen contributor of ideas and an appreciative listener. Secondly, I think it's crucial that I thank both Alice Choi and Alexia Chatfield. Alice Choi, an intelligent and eloquent writer, has worked so hard this year not only toward the zine but also in the Society more generally; her comments are thought proving, her ideas nuanced and her character curious and driven. Similarly, Alexia has also contributed significantly to Stella in both her consistent zeal and her commitment to the club, rarely ever missing a meeting As the youngest member of The Stella Society, Alexia provides us with diversity as a club, always briging with her an energy and positivity that is impossible to ignore Last but certainly not least, I want to make a more personal acknowledgement, to one of my closest friends Sofia Brew, who, despite being in year 12 herself and having a million extra curricular commitments, always comes to Stella To have a friend that supports you is something really really special, and Sofia is at every meeting cheering me on and is the first person to put their hand up when something needs doing.

Finally, although so many of our Melbourne Girls Grammar teachers helped with the zine, there are two staff members in particular who have been consistently devoted to the Stella community, and thus, the creation of Love, Stella- Alexandra Grimwade and Alice Sibley Ms Sibley is currently head of The Stella Society, and hence attends every meeting with a palpable eagerness Despite, already being a Year 12 English teacher, Ms Sibley is nonetheless willing to edit the work of any student who asks, and is such an amazing mentor to work alongside.Ms. Grimwade, to the great disappointment of me and anyone else who has had the pleasure of being taught by her, is currently on leave yet nevertheles still finds ways to provide me with not only support but also with genuine passion. Ms. Grimwade, last years head of Stella, helped iniate the very first actions regarding the zine, and, there when the idea of the zine was born, has even contributed her very own piece

So, in turn, thank you!

I can’t wait to see what the next edition brings, as I am already so thrilled with what we ’ ve achieved. Love,

Your proud Stella Capitan

Emelia Koop