Editor's Note

Dear Reader, Another day, another dollar; another issue, another closeout. As the academic year is coming quickly to a close, it’s hard not to feel excited as well as sad (and a little scared … the finals season scaries are fast upon us). But change is inevitable, and it’s something we should be excited about. With that, we introduce FM’s first (!) scrutling cover story: "Lena Chen’s Intimate Internet." The ever-remarkable YAK profiles Lena Chen ’09 on her performance art, which examines the intersections between the internet, sex work, and intimacy. Chen shares how she got her start as the writer of Sex and the Ivy, a blog that documented her sex life while at Harvard. Yet, her relationship with the internet is complicated; as a victim of revenge porn, Chen knows well the dark side of internet-mediated intimacy. In her conversations with Chen, YAK is set on exploring the question of how we can navigate desire in an increasingly-online world. RYZ reports on the Boston Lung Cancer Study’s innovative use of AI to diagnose and analyze cancer cells. CL heads to Adams to attend TransQuinceañera, an event hosted by the GSAS Latinx Student Association and the LGBTQ@GSAS Association in collaboration with Lía García, an artist, activist, and educator who performs at quinceañeras to spread awareness of trans issues and explore the intersections of gender and heritage. NDC and MMN talk to Harvard epidemiologist Tamarra James-Todd about her work studying the effects of chemical exposures from hair products used by Black women, and, more generally, about the intersections of health equity, environmental health, and reproductive justice. YSG writes a levity bringing us to the depths of health-guru-hell: Life Alive (luckily, she does escape, in fact, alive). STB and YAK ask author Valeria Luiselli 15 Questions, touching on topics from the best novel that has ever been written to her friend crush to the perils of the MFA. In this issue’s endpaper, YAK (for the third time!) shares her love-hate relationship with Los Angeles Apparel’s tennis skirts. Folded into her criticism of the implicit misogyny of the indie sleaze aesthetic, she asks: Why is desirability so desirable? A big thank you to SET, SS, MHS, and SCS for the amazing designs and beautiful layouts for glossy number two, coming soon to a dhall near you! (Thank you also to CVL for budgeting and being so accommodating of our mistakes …) And, as always, thank you MQ, JJG, JH for the lovely photos. Thank you to BLK for always being available to answer burning questions and for the pitches! Thank you to MX for being the queen you always are and for proofing at hours no one should ever be proofing. And, of course, thank you to editor-proofer-chair-assassin extraordinaire IYG. Even in the darkest of times, even when we are “holding on for dear life” as you put so eloquently, you handle it all as deftly as if it was all just the X-Step level of Geometry Dash. FM Love, AHL & IYG