Introspection
Paraphernalia of Love
This year, I’ve found that my relationship with the past has gradually changed; that its pull, while still tender, has become primarily sharp and painful. I’ve found myself not just indulging in these trips down memory lane, but wishing I could stay in them forever.
Teenage Dream
When I was a preteen, Rookie fueled the daydreams that I had about my incoming teenage years. I imagined warm parties, memorable misadventures, my picture-worthy prom dress. Not something perfect, but something precious that I could only access in the years between 12 and 20.
Teenage Dream Rookie Magazine
The girl on my computer screen is an unnamed high schooler, only a few years older than I am, but I idolize her as if she were a supermodel on the cover of Vogue.
memories of a city i've never known
We thought too much in Johannesburg, about Johannesburg. I wanted quiet.
DSY Friend
There’s a bright side to hardship, the way shared grief makes room for new friendships that quickly turn to family.
DYS seasons
I daydreamed of a winter of snowmen on the sidewalk and cozy movie nights, and a spring that left me begging to stay.
Dear Sophomore Year Cover
One year after publishing “Dear Freshman Year,” MG returns to write a letter to her sophomore year.
DSY Mug
What’s left after loss is not nothing. What’s left after loss is love. (And his favorite mug.)
Paraphernalia Flowers
A flower stand at the farmer's market back home in California that the author frequents in the summer.
Paraphernalia FM
The author with her fellow FM execs and former managing editor Jasper G. Goodman '23 at the end of their last meeting in November.
In Defense Of Running Late
By procrastinating my own future, I’ve saved myself from making the most fatal mistake: embarking on adulthood without really considering what I want from it.
ice cream store
I had been weeding out such slights of comparison my whole life. But that Machiavellian ice cream store was where competition poisonously thrived.
On Solid Ground
I had witnessed the magic some people found in this sport. I learned something entirely new that day; I hadn’t learned something so new in a long time.
Twins in an Ice Cream Shop
With my twin, I feel like it’s us against the world. The world, on the other hand, seems that it would prefer us against each other. Over our 19 years, we’ve received comments such as, “Wow, your sister’s gorgeous! You look nothing alike,” “Oh, so you’re the disappointment, then?” and “How does it feel to have a sister so much smarter than you?” And my personal favorite: “You’re just so… different” (Ambiguity only baits the imagination.)
Direct Flash
I can’t shake the fact that my love for Los Angeles Apparel opposes my self-professed feminist politics. When I add another tennis skirt to my shopping cart, I line the pockets of a man who built his career on the degradation of women.
Yasmeen Endpaper Collage
Still, I can’t shake the fact that my love for Los Angeles Apparel opposes my self-professed feminist politics. When I add another tennis skirt to my shopping cart, I line the pockets of a man who built his career on the degradation of women.
Curb
What I do expect is that an effort is made: For my friends to offer help stepping up giant sidewalk curbs (even with a reminder).
Putting Society’s Ableism into Perspective
I remember how much I struggled to find the right words to write — staring at the computer screen for hours, refusing to write the word “disabled.”
Lost on a Run and Finding Home
I realized, in what felt like the middle of nowhere, on this expedition to prove to myself that I could find security in my new environment, that I was alone in being responsible for myself.
Kyle's Grandma Ruth
Kyle's grandma, Ruth, worked as a sewing instructor at the Henry Street Settlement — a social service organization in Manhattan’s Lower East Side — for over 50 years.