TREND S/S 19 - The Shift

the shift SS19

02 | Staff List

Editors-in-Chief

Marlon Gamez, Kimiko Okumura

External

Andrea Baltodano, Fisayo Osilaja, Ming Ming Liu

Stylists

Rachel Lee, Swappi Mittal

Graphic Designers

Bailee Hunter, Scott Liu, Vianey Twyford, Vanessa Wong, Cyndia Zhou, Lulu Zhu

Photographers

Sravya Balasa, Isabella Jeturian, Raymond Kao, Cris Madla, Dat Nguyen

Writers

Tatiana DĂ­az de LeĂłn, Justin Kim, Sonya Mohammed, Nicole Ng, Annika Olives, Alondra Pena, Chelsea Santos

As we approach the end of the decade, we wanted to use this issue as an opportunity to document the past ten years.

We were faced with this enormous challenge to understand what the past ten years have felt like for the people that have experienced it in so many different ways.

To understand what it feels like to carry around pain and self-doubt and heartbreak.

To comprehend what it means to be empowered and strong and resilient.

To embrace the in-betweens and what-ifs.

To recognize the stagnation and growth in our lives and to be okay with both.

To capture the shift.

Inward, we’ve taken a look at how we’ve grown as individuals. How have our interests, hobbies, and goals changed?

Around us, we found that our communities were also witnessing change and growth.The breakdown and buildup of these communities continue to shape and impact the way we navigate and view the world.

Looking at the phones in our pockets and the screens in front of us, we felt firsthand how media can make thousands of miles feel like nothing and a hashtag feel like a crowd behind you chanting, “You’re not alone.”

To everyone in Trend, we are both so proud of you all for the time and energy you bring to every meeting and event. We are always in awe of the talent you all bring to Trend, and we are so grateful to work with such wonderful friends.

To anyone who has stopped by our events, read an issue, or supported us on social media, thank you for the love you’ve given us. Trend has become a very special place for us both because of you. If not in this decade, then in the next, we hope you find something special too.

From our hearts to yours, we hope you continue to shift toward something great.

All our best,

Marlon and Kimiko

Letter from the Editors | 03

Photographer Dat Nguyen

02

letter from the editors

03

staff list

COMMUNITY

10

retro is always “in�

14

music evolution

PERSONAL

22

body and soul

24

building a boat

28

feminism

T E C H N O LO G Y

32

twenty-tens through a digital lens

36

unique in media

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Photographer Dat Nguyen Models Justin Bascos, Felix Park, Ian Miguel Raguine

RETRO IS ALWAYS “IN”

In today’s day and age, I’m happy I own a couple pairs of loose cargo pants and culotte pants, both for the literal flare they give to an otherwise basic outfit and for the level of comfort and movement they provide. Not everyone will agree, but I think they pair great with both low and high top shoes-- any sneakers and any boots. It’s taken the entire decade for everyone to hop on board, but to each their own personal fashion journey.

By Tatiana Díaz de León

T

he 2010s have been a time of rebirth- and by rebirth I mean they literally tried to “re-birth” trends that had already been popular at some other decade in the last century. Sure, it has definitely been a uniquely inventive decade in and of itself, but we the people of these new generations have been inspired by the power and attitude of the last few ones.

We feel almighty and powerful to be styling the freshest outfits these days according to each of our personal styles, but we don’t usually stop to think that the combination of trendy clothes that are popular today are not really as new as you’d think. You’re not the first one to enjoy these cool pieces.

SLIP DRESSES

LOOSE PANTS

Photographers Sravya Balasa, Raymond Kao Models Santana Gutierrez, Obinne Onyeador, Natalie Palmberg

10 | Community

appreciation for bell bottom-like pants of the 60s and 70s as well as for the looserfitting hip-hop styles of the late 90s and early 2000s. In their earliest form, bell bottom pants were functional for the Navy during WWII. From flared trousers to looser cargo pants, I guess you can say that people these days are inspired by military fashion.

It’s safe to say the colored skinny jeans fad was uniquely an early 2010s fashion statement, but with the presentation of recurring fashion that I’m about to unleash on you, there’s no telling whether we’ll end up loving them again sometime in the near future.

Nonetheless, as the 2010s went on, pants’ colors were toned down and the shift from low rise to high rise was fortified. In the last years of this decade, we’ve seen the comeback of 90s highwaisted jeans (mom or boyfriend jeans).

With that re-emerged a newfound love for 90s grunge-style plaid and striped pants. At the same time came a gradual

Something that has been popular since the 90s and has risen to the spotlight once again are variations of slip dresses. Mini, midi, or floor length, slip dresses have become a prominent fashion statement within the last decade. People especially like them if they’re a silky material. The key features are the spaghetti straps and the long and lean silhouette designed to fall on the body in a flattering way. Back in the 1930s, dresses like these were known as “bias-cut gowns” and were popularized by film stars.

In the past few years, I’ve seen them both dressed up with heeled shoes and dressed down, layered over tees and worn with sneakers. They can still make quite possibly one of the classiest and sexiest statements at fancier occasions because of the visual appeal of the fabrics, but in the last decade these dresses have become everyday commodities to be worn on even a lazy day in the casualest of ways. That’s one big indicator of the evolution of fashion up until now: a lot of it has evolved into a prioritizing ease and comfort. What’s easier than throwing on a dress with sneakers early in the morning in the middle of a rough work week?

ATHLEISURE We’re not blind to the fact that retro sportswear brands were all the rage in the fashion world within the last decade-Champion, FILA, Adidas, Nike. These are names that anyone would feel cool owning and wearing. But remember when we could just buy Champion hoodies and sports bras at Target and Walmart in the early 2000s? In the last 10 years it’s become a full-on fashion statement to wear sweats, tracks suits, and other kinds of athletic wear in a way that’s meant to be a fashion statement, and not just an outfit that you might wear after a hard gym sesh.

PLATFORM SHOES

BLAZERS

Usually once you see wider-fitting pants, it’s not long until you see some sort of chunky shoe follow close behind. In the 70s, a variety of platform shoes was popularized by both sides of popular culture. On one side, there were disco trends where platform shoes were the party shoe-- glittery, dramatic, and infamously paired with bell-bottoms. On the other hand, musicians like David Bowie wore spiked platforms and established the trend within glam rock style. Once again in the 90s and early 2000s, platform shoes were back with chunky FILA sneakers and knee length Sketchers boots.

Lots of people are still unsure of blazers as a frequented piece of a wardrobe unless you’re someone who works in an office setting. When it comes to a sick wardrobe, you can’t necessarily afford to think like this. The first thing you should imagine instead is a groovy 80s club, with guys and girls rocking oversized blazers in the latest and coolest fashion (i.e. huge shoulder pads). In the past decade, though, I’ve seen more and more casual takes on blazers for an anyday kind of look. For one, we’ve lost the shoulder pads. Even more so though, is that we’re simulating the same big and oversized 80s silhouettes in a more relaxed way.

And here we are again. In the past decade, we’ve seen Nike Air Force 1’s and Nike Air Max’s make a comeback with their subtle chunky soles. We’ve seen the expensive Balenciaga Triple S and more toned down versions of “dad shoes” re-emerge with platformlike soles. And more recently, we’ve seen platform Doc Marten Jadon boots become popular. Nevermind the fact that Doc Martens by themselves were already a smaller version of a platform shoe, and that Doc Martens have stayed relatively popular since their birth in the 60s. Platform shoes have always fueled the people who wear them with a powerful and badass energy that even I feel today when I slip on my Docs.

I like to think of blazers as smarter looking jackets-- comfy and second-nature to throw on, but nothing you can’t wear to spice up your normal outfit. Corduroy, velvet, cotton, belted and double-breasted, plaid and vibrant. Here’s the image you have to conjure in your mind: a comfy t-shirt, jeans and sneakers combo, paired with an oversized blazer-- and this is just a toned-down version of what I have in mind. Blazers exude a structured and responsible disposition, but when worn oversized, they look less constrictive and actually more casual and effortless, crossing the line towards a badass, androgynous look. They are the coolest kinds of statement wardrobe pieces.

The 90s were the original era for sporting athleisure in everyday fashion and performance, not just for athletic functionality. Track suits, colorful windbreakers, and sports bras-- each have become sought after pieces for an on-trend wardrobe. These days sports bras are worn as sort of variations on crop tops for layering with pieces like statement oversized jackets or pants. An even cooler spin on athleisure are trouser and slack style pants designed to look like tracksuit pants, imitating the wide hems and side stripes of track pants. Similarly, there’s the trick of wearing fancier boots with actual track pants. Athleisure plays with both dressing up athletic wear and dressing down more lavish accessories.

These days in all of our attempts to save money, be sustainable, and find the most unique pieces, thrifting is all the rage.

Maybe that’s part of the reason so many trends are re-emerging from the back of dusty closets. Of course there is a newer twist in all this “old” fashion. Maybe our actual pieces of clothing are not a new invention, and maybe some of our outfits are inspired by a particular decade that’s passed-- but we can take all the credit for arranging and styling pieces in new and revolutionary ways. We can mix decades, clash colors and patterns, and cross borders of fashion that no one in the past has dared to do. We can create our own futuristic and techy style that our descendants will look back on and try to take for themselves.

Retro is Always “In” | 11

Photographers Sravya Balasa, Dat Nguyen Models Justin Bascos, Felix Park, Ian Miguel Raguine

12 | Community

Technology | 02

♩

♬ ♩

MUS IC EVO LUT ION

Aiko’s Souled Out. Now, I find myself open to all types of music I never would have expected to be listening to, and it feels like I discover someone new almost every day (shoutout to Spotify for my Release Radar). It’s interesting to look back at the music that I used to be obsessed with and compare them to what I listen to now.

Who would’ve thought the same person who listened to “Your Love Is My Drug”

by Kesha every morning on the way to school now listens to sad songs like “Ivy”

by Frank Ocean when they drive?

ICONS

By Justin Kim

I

n recent times, music has become an artform which has developed into one of the most dominating industries in modern entertainment. Many people hold sentimental value to music, whether it’s you and your bestie’s go-to song or a song that reminds you of your childhood, we can all trace back specific songs that hold precious memories and emotions to us. Specifically in the past decade, music has evolved tremendously, not only from the way it sounds, but how it has become accessible and reaches different audiences that it did not before. We’ve also begun to see shifts in the way our culture interacts and connects with music, from viral memes to stan culture on social media, music has truly developed in terms of the way the public perceives it. The evolution of music in the past decade is truly something to marvel at, and at the rate it’s going who knows what the music industry will look like in the upcoming decade.

STREAMING

♩

Thinking back to how you were listening to music ten years ago, you’ll probably imagine your old iPod Nano filled with songs that you probably downloaded from iTunes. Back in the beginning of the decade, iTunes was the motst common way people found music. The introduction of more modern MP3 players like the iPod allowed for convenient access to the songs people wanted to hear. Now, the most common outlet for music has become streaming services such as Spotify, Apple

14 | Community

Music, Tidal, etc. These streaming outlets have truly revolutionized accessibility to music, offering paid subscriptions to their seemingly endless library of music. So now, instead of having to pay $1.29 every time there’s a new song you like, users can choose to either pay a flat monthly fee or listen to advertisements between songs to access the music libraries of these streaming services. With accessibility to these streaming services, people now have the ability to listen to all types of music at their own convenience, allowing them to explore artists and genres they never had before. With the implementation of streaming, listening a wide variety of music is now way more accessible and convenient than it has ever been before.

PERSONAL GROWTH

♫

Compared to ten years ago, you’ll probably see a difference in the types of music you listen to. Personally, ten years ago I was in the fifth grade, and I honestly don’t even really remember listening to anything other than whatever happened to be on the radio when I was in the car with my mom. However, with time, I found the types of music that spoke to me. I began the decade off listening to mainly Top 40 hits like Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” and Avril Lavigne’s “What the Hell” (but I mean who wasn’t listening to Avril Lavigne?).

Eventually, I learned to immerse myself into artists’ full bodies of work rather than just individual singles, captured by albums such as Lorde’s Pure Heroine and Jhené

♪

It’s also amazing to note the artists who were at the top of their game at the beginning of the decade (and even before) who have continued to maintain their relevancy as we enter a new decade and era of music. For example, Nicki Minaj has truly solidified her place as one of the biggest figures in not only hip-hop, but music and pop culture as a whole.

Since her debut album Pink Friday was released in 2010, Minaj has claimed her throne by breaking multiple records, such as becoming the first female artist in history to have one-hundred entries on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. She is also the first female rapper to ever sell onehundred million certified units between her albums, singles, and features. With accomplishments such as these, it is easy to see how she is hailed by many as the queen of rap. Another artist who has consistently been at the top of the charts is none other than Drake. Drake has become a titan in the music industry, dominating streaming services and breaking records left and right. His music has influenced the hip-hop genre by incorporating elements of R&B, pushing other hip-hop artists to do the same. His songs are nearly inescapable, whether it be a summer turnup jam or songs that you to simp to (we’ve all had lonely nights listening to Marvin’s Room), Drake has without a doubt changed the game in the music industry. Last but certainly not least, Beyoncé has held the throne as the Queen B, upping her game with each project she releases. Her latest endeavor was a self-directed film, titled Homecoming, in which she documented her legendary Coachella performance. This is her second

film, following 2016’s Lemonade, a piece which tackled issues such as infidelity, feminism, and black empowerment. It’s icons like these who have truly been able to pave the way for many artists to follow, setting the bar higher and higher with each project they release, setting a standard of excellence for many to draw inspiration and influence from.

NEW FACES

♭

In addition to those who have held their status as prominent figures in the music industry, we’ve also seen the emergence of artists who are bringing something new to the scene. Pop-folk singer Maggie Rogers rose to prominence in 2016, after a video of music and fashion icon Pharrell reacting to her song “Alaska” went viral, and since her discovery she has released a string of singles and an EP, which led up to the 2019 release of her criticallyacclaimed debut album Heard It In A Past Life, which blends the genres of folk with pop and dance. Growing up as a guitar player in Canada, singer-songwriter Goody Grace learned to blend the sounds of his acoustic guitar with influences drawn from his love of R&B and hip-hop. Mixing trap beats with his acoustic guitar serves as an interesting dichotomy as evidenced on songs like “Two Shots” featuring gnash and “Too High” featuring Jesse Rutherford, and they serve as the perfect soundtrack for moments that seem straight out of a coming-of-age movie.

Another new face who has been receiving attention is rapper Rico Nasty. With her distinct look and sound, Rico Nasty blends together hip-hop with punk and heavy metal into what she coins as “sugar trap.”

Her music is meant to serve as a release of emotion, as evidenced by the title of her latest mixtape Anger Management.

As evidenced on tracks such as “Countin’ Up” and “Hatin,” Rico Nasty is not afraid to speak her mind and establish her dominance as an unapologetic rockstar in the rap game. It’s artists like these who are bringing something new to the table and providing us with music that hasn’t really been created before. With bright minds like these, the new faces in the music industry are only getting less predictable, yet more exciting.

CROSSOVERS

♯

Another thing to marvel at is the way that mainstream music is evolving to incorporate a more diverse group of genres.

The Billboard Hot 100 chart ranks the top 100 songs in the United States, and has grown from containing mainly pop songs to including songs from genres from all stretches of the world. Country music has recently been a growth in popularity, which has coined the phrase “yee-haw culture.”

This yee-haw culture has seen stimulated growth in 2019, thanks to songs such as “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus (which is currently the #1 song in America), as well as albums such as Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves, which received the Grammy award for “Album of the Year.”

Another genre which has seen increasing popularity and crossovers is Spanish music.

Artists such as Bad Bunny, Luis Fonsi, Rosalía, J Balvin, and many more have released songs sung primarily in Spanish which have become smash hits, such as “MIA,” “Despacito,” and “Con Altura.” The emergence of K-Pop into western culture has also been something which has amazingly impacted the music industry in recent years. In April 2019, Korean girl group BLACKPINK made history as they became the first Korean girl group to perform a set at Coachella in 2019, becoming one of the most-talked about performances of the entire festival. K-Pop group BTS also made history as the first K-Pop act to ever perform on Saturday Night Live, as well as breaking the record for most watched music video in 24 hours with their video “Boy With Luv” featuring Halsey, which amassed 74.6 million views in its first day of release.

With crossovers from genres and languages like the ones above, the diversity of the songs which are popular in the mainstream is changing faster than ever, and creating a variety of different sounding songs that more people can connect to.

GOING VIRAL

♬

Social media is more of a recent development within the past decade, and has heavily contributed to how we perceive music. “Stan culture” is something that has surfaced in recent years. Referencing the song by Eminem, “stan” refers to someone who is an intense fan of an artist.

Undoubtedly, this newfound stan culture has exponentially increased the intensity of the connection and devotion fans can have with their favorite artists as they interact with each other on social media. Another aspect of social media which has impacted music is the birth of the “viral video.” For most of us, we can think back to viral videos that made us laugh and remember the music attached to them. Who could forget the legendary video for “Gangnam Style” by Psy, which was nearly impossible to escape on the Internet? And who doesn’t remember being in middle school, loving (but also hating) Rebecca Black’s song “Friday,” because you just couldn’t get it out of your head no matter what. you. tried. The emergence of these “viral videos” can make something seemingly strange or obscure an overnight sensation.

And last but surely not least, we cannot forget the songs that became popularized by none other than memes. To seeing people quote “All Star” by Smash Mouth in their senior yearbooks to being rick-rolled by “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley while watching what you thought was an important video, memes have also added to our enjoyment of certain songs (I totally would’ve rick-rolled you if I could, but you’re reading this in a magazine). With social media, our enjoyment (or hatred) of songs that have gone viral is something pretty unique to this decade.

Now more than ever, the music industry is growing at an extremely fast rate. With a new song or artist popping up seemingly every day, the variety of music that we have in our hands just doesn’t seem to stop. Reflecting on the past decade in music is pretty overwhelming when you look at it, and trying to imagine the music landscape in the decade approaching us is honestly unimaginable to me.

It’s extremely exciting to see where the direction of music is headed. Will classical instruments like the violin and cello become popular? Will there be an artist that combines K-pop and country?

Will One Direction ever have a reunion (if the Jonas Brothers can do it, I know they can too)? These questions all remain to be decided, and all we can do in the meantime is make good playlists and wait.

Music Evolution | 15

C Photographer Sravya Balasa Models Justin Bascos, Felix Park, Ian Miguel Raguine

THINK

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“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.“ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photographers Isabella Jeturian, Raymond Kao Models Santana Gutierrez, David Nguyen

hearts heavy and stomachs empty Photographer Raymond Kao Model Santana Gutierrez

22 | Personal

body and soul.

By Alondra Peña

two-thousands. can you remember when we were young? when we ran along the sides of houses flitting fast with feathered arms outstretched and fingers gripping the sky, splashes of dirty feet and muddy hands and toothy smiles singing out playground protests of recess ending too soon. it was the only time in our lives when we were truly weightless. twenty-tens. when did it change? the heaviness and emptiness, and wanting that number to be less and less, with hearts heavy and stomachs empty on purpose. what’s our purpose? we’d ask ourselves and wait for the answer that never came, rhyming blame and shame with your name, trying to fill the spots that stayed empty. twenty-somethings. here we are with the years we live in mirroring the numbers on our birthday cakes, mirroring time passed and past selves and past due realizations of how fast you’ve let us move, how far you’ve let us come. have you carried us all this way?

twenty-tomorrows. like faces on the flip sides of coins whose value is easy to forget, we’ve been born together, never separate, but at times feeling far and seeing different. you of us, us of you. bodies. somebodies with bodies electric, bodies neglected, bodies of water and lies and truths, bodies of knowledge, bodies of evidence and bodies of opinion, with a burning heat and a hidden language no matter its mass index. body and soul. body and soul. a body and a soul together.

Body and Soul | 23

24 | Personal

Building a Boat

By Sonya Mohammed sail.with.me.to.the.moon we’ll. go. swimming. amongst. the. stars do you ever think about sailing away? leaving everything except a lil knapsack of keepsakes? when I’m in a new place I don’t fear what people may think of me. at least I try not to. I’m working on that. into making ucsd into a home. our whole lives, school has been helping us build our boat so that they can launch us into this vast abyss: the open skies, the murky waters, the neverending galaxies. with nothing but our own moral compass and dreams to guide us through. it’s scary. the world is full of unknown. but still we push our boats the direction we see fit; paddling with our hearts, setting the sails with our limbs. and then we wait-- our boats sway and float slowly toward our dreams, our moon. plans are made and expectations grow as we set our sails for the long drive. but the winds are strong. the winds are mighty strong my dear. they blow us toward success at times but other times they get us spinning. they bring us back. they tempt us with new lights, new loves. they show us new moons. and it’s all okay. it’s much too easy to feel alone in this monstrous hustlin n bustlin world. we all spin, lose focus. we all get a little lost. but it’s about the journey. about the friends you make along the way. ucsd is this moon we’ve sailed to and I’m currently covered up swimming with floaties in these unknown stars trying to find myself so I can go skinny dipping in them. skinny dipping in the stars, oh how glorious. finding our place in life is scary because life is stormy. but I hope the sun has been shiny and the winds have been strongly blowing toward your sail to success. sail safely, sail beautifully.

I’ll see you there.

Photographer Raymond Kao Models Santana Gutierrez, David Nguyen Building a Boat | 25

Photographers Isabella Jeturian, Raymond Kao Models Santana Gutierrez, David Nguyen

26 | Personal

WHEN DID IT SUDDENLY BECOME ALL ABOUT

WOMEN?

By Alondra Peña

L

ooking ahead towards 2020, and the infinite possibilities that wait in the years yet to be lived, we here at TREND felt it important to remind ourselves and our readers of the inherently persisting journey that women have made within this last decade, and the sense of restlessness that arises in knowing this journey is far from being over.

Girls: Lena Dunham’s controversial HBO show debuts, following four young women at the start of their lives in New York City. The show opens conversations about sex, privilege, and how the public views and responds to imperfect female bodies. It is one of the first shows produced by a prominent entertainment studio that presents realistic portrayals of female life experiences.

For some, eyes will be rolled and soft scoffs made at the backs of throats. Like the man in a seat across from me on the bus just last week, some may ask themselves:

The London Olympics: For the very first time in Olympic history, every participating country sends female athletes to compete in the games.

Within team U.S.A., women Olympians win more gold medals than men (29 to 17) and more medals overall (58 to 45).

“When did it suddenly become all about women?”

As we look back on the last 10 years, we celebrate some of the most meaningful moments that prove to us that it didn’t just “suddenly become all about women”, but-- rather simply-- it’s just that they have refused to be ignored any longer: Periods: For the first time ever in marketing history, a red dot it used as a visual symbol for menstruation in a femiminine hygiene commercial instead of the censored clear blue liquid, taking small steps in moving away from the stigmatization of menstruation.

The Pentagon: The U.S military removes the ban against women serving in combat positions on the front lines, a small step for awarding servicewomen for their acts of heroism and courage.

The Morning After Pill: FDA approved Plan B One-Step is approved for overthe-counter sale without age restrictions, making it easier for women all over the country to have access to emergency contraception and claim control of their bodies.

Nobel Peace Prize: At just 17 years of age, Malala Yousafzai becomes the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her incredible work and activism in fighting for girls’ educational rights around the world.

The Vote: Saudi Arabian women vote for the very first time in history, electing 17 women into office right off the bat. In facing many repressive restrictions such as being required to have a male escort during outings and covering themselves in public, the vote proved to be a major win in giving women voice and power.

Hashtag Activism: #ShoutYourAbortion encourages women to speak out against the oppressive stigma and misogyny that they face when trying to talk about their abortions. As one of the most sensitive topics drawing heated debates on both sides of the spectrum, honest conversations about abortion open up opportunities for women to connect with one another and fight for their reproductive rights.

“Nasty Woman”: The derogatory phrase used by Donald Trump to describe Hilary Clinton becomes a worldwide uniting mantra feminists use to reclaim their power. Just one day after the comment is made, Nasty Woman T-shirts are produced, with 50% of their proceeds donated to Planned Parenthood.

The Future is Female: Hilary Clinton becomes the first woman to receive a presidential nomination from a major political party. Although she does not end up as our nation’s first female president, Clinton manages to shatter perhaps the highest glass ceiling yet, reaching a major milestone in winning the popular vote with 65,756,948—over 2.8 million more votes than President Elect Trump.

Women’s March: The day following Donald Trump’s inauguration, millions of women across the country, in various states, cities, and towns, participate in hundreds of marches to form the largest single day protest within U.S history.

“Nevertheless, She Persisted”: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell utters the phrase on the Senate floor when

commenting on a recent speech by Senator Elizabeth Warren. McConnell’s backhanded comment quickly turns the phrase against him as feminists use it as a battle cry on protest signs and T-shirts to convey their relentless struggle for equality and agency.

Wonder Woman: Making more than 100 million during its opening weekend, the film marks the biggest box office opening by a female director, Patty Jenkins, and becomes the biggest live-action box office ever by a woman director. The film is praised for fighting against the over sexualization of females in film.

“Me Too” Reignited: Originally started

by Tarana Burke more than 10 years ago, the movement is reignited in the wake of the Weinstein scandal, encouraging hundreds of thousands of replies to #MeToo within 24 hours.

The Handmaid’s Tale: Alongside of achieving widespread critical acclaim and winning several Emmy and Golden Globe Awards, the web television series receives worldwide attention for sparking conversation about the reproductive rights of women and for rawly displaying the terrifying and all-tooreal possibilities of having those rights stripped away.

Times Up: Reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of the New York Times win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for exposing the severe extent of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood, leading an astounding number of women to come forward with their stories.

Coming Forward: Christine Blasey Ford, Ph.D., testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh for sexually assaulting her during a party in 1982. Kavanaugh goes on to become Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh, inciting mass protests and

demonstrations. In the days after the hearings, the National Sexual Assault Hotline has a historic 338% increase in calls from sexual assault survivors, many sharing their story for the first time.

Women’s Wall: On the first day of the year in Kerala, India, approximately five million women form a human chain stretching 385 miles to protest the centuries-old ban on women of menstruating age (defined as between 10-50) from entering the Sabarimala shrine. Openly resisting gender injustice, this is the only ‘wall’ we’re willing to support.

Attack on Abortion: Several conservative states including Georgia, Alabama, Ohio, Missouri and Indiana move to enact legislation that will restrict womens’ access to abortion. Varying from banning the procedure after just 6 weeks or banning it all together, states seeking to enact these oppressive forms of legislation do so in hopes of directly challenging Roe v. Wade, stripping women of their bodily agency and autonomy. Incredible backlash is incited nation-wide, as women gear up to fight (again and again) for their basic reproductive rights.

If memory lane is a charmingly cobbled path trimmed with manicured green grass and the white picket fence of highlight reels from years past, then the persisting history of women’s struggles and achievements runs like a thick crack in the pavement. It’s not pretty, and it’s been there since anyone can remember.

Service requests have been made, but more still needs to be done. Ignore it and you’ll trip, the fault will be your own.

Step on it and you’ll break your mother’sgrandmother’s-sister’s-daughter’sfriend’s-lover’s backs, what will you tell them?

Personal | 29

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twenty-tens through a digital lens

By Annika Olives

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t’s the first day of sixth grade, and everyone is crowding around the new kid. Your friend spots you from across the lot and runs over to give you a hug, but before you can show off your new lunchbag, she drags you over to the mass of eleven-year-olds oohing and aahing. It’s not until you’re right in front of the new kid that you realize he’s holding the newest iPhone 4. It has a shiny lime green case and he’s swiping away on the screen, showing off games and apps and features your classmates are awed by. You can feel your flip phone in your pocket getting heavier by the second.

You’re twelve when you first perform in your school’s talent show. You’re currently in the middle of a rendition of If I Ain’t Got You, and people are nodding along even though you all know you don’t have Alicia’s range. You’re trying to ignore your dad squatting in the aisle, holding a Flip camera, recording a moment that would later be uploaded to Youtube and known to your high school friends as “the video.”

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Your mom eagerly printed the photo at the nearest Walgreens and it now sits in a frame on the shelf next to your bed. You’ve just gotten up to open the window to let in the breeze of a cool summer night, and the grinning faces of you and your five best friends catch your eye as you lie back down. Adorned in caps and gowns and balancing in heels, the moment’s bittersweet, because you’re all going to different schools in the fall and you can feel that this is the last time you’ll all be together like this. To your thirteen-year-old brain, this is the worst thing imaginable.

Getting your first laptop is like opening up a new world. Once school ends, you race to check the forum boards and your nights turn into Awkward marathons.

Your freshman year of high school isn’t going too well; you’re new to the neighborhood and you have one friend, the daughter of some woman your mother met at the grocery store. But the community you’ve created online makes you feel less alone, and you’re grateful that someone’s there to listen as you type.

0 2 Sophomore and junior year are defined

by Snapchat fires. Meaningless selfies are exchanged, the word “streak,” occasionally accompanied by emojis, written across the bottom. You’ve started making more friends and exchanging social media usernames, and before you know it, a red heart pops up next to your crush’s Snapchat username. Your friends start calling it a “thing” at the two pink hearts mark.

Before you know it, it’s college application season, and fake names have started popping up in your newsfeed from your Facebook friends who are trying to hide from admissions officers. You’ve been following the College Confidential threads like mad and it’s finally paid off, because you find out that your dream school has started to release decisions. You check your email every chance you get, because it feels like you’ve worked your whole life toward this moment and you just want it to pay off. Your classmates’ tweets are all about the places they’ve just been accepted to, which makes you even more anxious. The message finally comes at around five, and your fingers are shaking as you open the email and sign into your application portal.

Waitlisted. It’s like a jab to the stomach, worse than a rejection — it’s like the school is holding you on a string, keeping you at bay, you were almost good enough but not quite. “That’s okay!” everyone around you is saying.

“You still have a chance!” It takes a lot of convincing and reminding yourself to believe that the schools you get into don’t define your worth.

Your parents have just said goodbye and you’re alone in your dorm room.

You start recording a video to document the moment for yourself — your bed is made with the mattress protector, mattress cover, duvets, and matching pillows, your desk has your favorite

blue pens sitting in a mason jar, and your clothes are up on hangers in your wardrobe. Sitting down in your chair, you open up Instagram, where the people you follow from high school have already started posting pictures with all their new college friends. A feeling of fear settles over you — what if nobody likes you? What if you can’t make friends? There’s a knock at the door and the girl from the room next door asks if you want to go to the dining hall with her. You relax a little bit, smile, and get up.

In your second year of college, you go on your first social media cleanse. You delete Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook off your phone for an entire month when you start realizing that social media is controlling you more than you’re controlling it. You’ve forgotten how good it feels to be completely disconnected, to not have conversations interrupted by notifications, to be more present in the moment. You almost don’t want to redownload them, but the fomo always brings you back. You compromise by only redownloading the apps you actually want to keep and by purging your follower list to only keep the people that make you happy.

It’s 2020, and predictions abound about what this new decade will bring for tech. Perhaps this is the year artificial intelligence takes over the world, smart homes will know our every need, or algorithms will control all our actions. In a less dystopian world, perhaps policymakers will begin to take real action to prevent more negative consequences of new technologies.

Perhaps we will use technologies to battle climate change, cure more diseases, and advance knowledge past anything we thought we could ever know.

Only time can tell.

It’s a race to get internships for the summer after junior year. Everyone you know has been busy updating resumes and revamping their LinkedIn profiles to maintain that “professional but still friendly!” image. People you’ve hardly spoken to suddenly remember you exist when they invite you to connect with them. Your heart drops a little every time you get a rejection email with those canned responses that sound artificially compassionate, but you find renewed hope in your abilities when you get that first interview with a company you really love.

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Photographer Sravya Balasa Models Obinne Onyeador, Natalie Palmberg

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The Truth About Your Uniqueness According to the Internet

By Tatiana Díaz de León

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t’s difficult to fully comprehend how many people are truly connected through the internet. We can only really comprehend the amount of people we see through our own eyes on a daily basis- the community around us on school campus, at the store, at the beach, at a concert. We know there’s much more made possible by the internet and the digital sphere, but that’s only as real as our imagination lets us envision in our minds within a single thought and image.

much easier to set ourselves apart from others. Sure, we might have played the same sports or participated in the same activities as some of the other kids, but we screamed out our own stories. We were proud (or ashamed) of these storiesbut we screamed them, confident that we were special in our little societies. We screamed them hesitantly, hoping that someone in our little worlds was in the same exact boat. What were the odds?

Not that great.

Living in communities and not as an isolated human on a secluded island means we inevitably compare ourselves to other people around us, whether it’s harsh or gentle. When we were kids before we knew what the internet was - all we had to compare ourselves to were the people we saw everyday, in our classes and in our neighborhoods. In our tiny storybook societies (as compared to a much larger scale now), it was

And when I refer to stories, I don’t just mean your family situation or the hobbies you shared with some friends. I mean the stories we might not have even come face yet. The stories we were only able to discover via the internet and the stories that our tiny physical societies limited and sheltered us from, dormant parts of ourselves only awakened by the magical tool of being able to broaden your worldly perspectives through a screen. Diverse

knowledge and new understanding of fashion, culture, food, travel, religions, philosophies, art, music, love.

But now we’re in a whole new predicament. We are so exposed to it all, so exposed to so many kinds of people. There are bound to be overlaps of information, stories, and interests. People excelling in their lives, against all odds, with brilliant minds and ideas. It’s almost like tuning into the digital community that is the internet just makes you realize how mediocre you are.

The thought could push us to try harder, and it could push us over the edge.

Now we’re stuck in the dark vortex of constantly comparing ourselves to others, trying to prove our worth in a world of consistently remarkable and unique humans.

Thanks to the internet you now know when someone is (or many other people are) in the same trying situation as yourself, struggling to succeed under seemingly impossible circumstances of fate — and they do it, they succeed!

Now you’re amazed...and you get this nagging feeling of self-doubt, of failure because you didn’t do it. Maybe you think: that person did it, but they’re just the better version of me. Or maybe it’s not necessarily about trying situations, but rather a matter of personal identity.

Stuck in your little childhood bubble you were the smartest, the most athletic, the most fashionable, the most unique of something. Thanks to the internet there’s always someone more! There’s always someone better?

But here’s the thing: if you feel so mediocre compared to everyone else, then that’s it! There’s your individual spunk.

You’re mediocre! So you are unique…?

In today’s day and (digital) age, our parents and the adults of previous generations love to point out how “antisocial” and unequipped for reality our generation is because of how entrenched our lives are in the digital sphere of communication.

We’re trapped in this digital sphere and supposedly struggle to make real and intimate connections, and - as I’ve just explained- we’ve blurred our sense of self within the literal foggy “cloud” of information and media.

From some perspectives this might be so, but what is not completely grasped is that the internet hasn’t really destroyed human connection, but rather enhanced it. We have reached a level of connectedness in which we can now find people who we can relate to more than we ever could when we were kids.

What comes with beginning to grasp the size of our humanity is the feeling of not being unique. But is this a bad thing if our similarities with others helps us to feel less alone? Would you rather suffer alone or suffer together? Would you rather be happy alone or be happy together?

Thinking that we are all gradually becoming so similar and that you are not a unique human is really an oversimplification. Scientifically, there is no way that any one person that has ever existed could ever be exactly the same (mind and body) as someone else, even identical twins. Besides that, I think the

moment in time when we are really so connected that we actually share such similar thoughts and ideas as others without a doubt of everyone’s sincerity — that’s when there will be no war and no hate. It can’t be said that technology has caused a disconnectedness among us that has spurred on conflict, because humans have been at war since the dawn of our time! The unification of everyone through the internet; that is the seemingly eternal journey to world peace.

That is when we all might literally be on the same (web)page.

But clearly, judging by the state of our current world, I’d say we are not even as connected and similar as we have exaggerated to be so in our minds.

You are unique, otherwise you would agree with every opinion in the world.

Otherwise you’d actually feel more at peace, having no one to argue or disagree with. We fail to realize that we thrive off of each other; we are always inspired and influenced by one another. The internet has allowed us to become better versions of ourselves. So maybe you and I should learn to embrace our own qualities as unique ones just because you are the one who possesses yours, and I am the one who possesses mine. At the same time, maybe we should embrace the qualities we do share with others. Maybe we should make peace with ourselves on both ends of the spectrum.

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