1st Place, Human Interest Feature
2022-23, Division 4, News Writing
By Fina Kutcher & Sofi Maranda
The Communicator Magazine
Ann Arbor Community HS
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During the pandemic, most of CHS Sophomore Maia Genisio’s social life occurred on the internet and through screens.
“It did really feel like a barrier was up,” Genisio said. “None of it felt really real or authentic, I felt like tech- nology kind of encompassed everything.”
Looking for a way to connect with other people, Geni- sio moved to art. She found success in this method, even starting a small sticker business with one of her friends.
Genisio started with physical art, trying mediums such as wash acrylic and markers. But as the pandem- ic evolved, so did her preferred art style. As the world went online, she moved to digital art, doing fan art and character drawings, which helped relieve the loneliness Genisio felt during quarantine. Genisio was able to con- nect with friends over characters and stories they built together, and her art gave that a physical presence when she was alone.
Feeling more isolated than ever due to the pandemic, Genisio took a step back to explore her thoughts.
“I was in my own head a lot,” Genisio said. “Drawing gave me an outlet to bring some of that to life.”
Through this self-reflection, she was able to express a part of herself she hadn’t thought to question before: her gender and sexual identity.
“When I was questioning my gender, I would draw a lot with gender queer characters,” Genisio said. “It was a way for me to figure out who I was as a person.”
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CHS senior, Ella Glass, pulls a stack of papers from her backpack and offers sheets to fellow students in her ceramics class. They’re copies of the eighth edition of her zine series “mas o menos,” waiting to be folded into their proper form. A zine is typically a self-published miniature magazine, free to be filled with whatever the creator wants. Glass likes to fill her zines with collages of short pieces of writing, small drawings, images and text.
Glass’s zines start with images she stumbles upon in big books left out in cardboard donation boxes, then she adds to the collage as thoughts flow. She uses this medium as an outlet for self-expression, and a place for release. Glass finds that she can best find the inspiration and motivation to create when her thoughts are most intense; she uses zines to see those thoughts on paper, organized and better processed.
“I started to dislike the look of a white piece of paper and I wanted to fill it up,” Glass said. “Drawing has nev- er been the best way to do that for me.”
Since childhood, Glass has wished she could draw, and has carried the frustration of not meeting her own standards. Always feeling that she lacked the technical ability to draw, Glass searched for a different creative outlet. The collages in her zines gave her a way to get around that feeling; she could rearrange her thoughts visually without the pressure of needing to be “good” at drawing.
When she couldn’t find what she wanted in the books
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and magazines she pulled from, Glass found herself sim- ply drawing what she thought and putting it into her col- lages. Making collages led her back to where she started, in a “weird, full circle [way],” Glass explained.
Several issues of “mas o menos” include photos of Glass’s younger self. In bold, silver lettering across one of the photos, Glass asks, “how would she feel?” Through zines like this, Glass reflects on how she has changed over time. Taking feelings of suffocation and being stuck in one place, pulling them from her thoughts and mak- ing something with them helps her to transform those emotions.
“You’ve got this physical thing in front of you, and it’s doing something new, it’s doing something else,” Glass said. “You can always just grow from there. It’s like a way of not keeping your life stagnant. It’s growth. You can look at yourself and see how you’ve changed through what you’ve made. And that feels like healing.”
Using art as their outlets, Genisio was able to understand her self-image as well as her identity and Glass was able to use her zines to expand her thoughts into a physical presence. Both Genisio and Glass release their feelings through their art—Genisio through her sticker shop and Glass passing out her zines. Sharing their art allows them a chance to say what they’re thinking with- out having to truly say it; it allows the to connect with their peers on a deeper level.
NW-13. Human Interest Feature
Human interest features appeal to the emotions of the reader with inspiration, motivation, pathos or humor and often make effective use of quotes. Enter descriptive, personal experience or accomplishment, or humor in this category. These are generally shorter stories. Submit a PDF of the print page(s) on which the story was published or the URL to the story on an online news site.
JUDGING CRITERIA
- Lead captures attention, arouses curiosity
- Emphasizes new element, fresh angle
- Colorful, lively presentation; effective form/style
- Reflects adequate research, sound interviewing techniques
- Avoids summaries of published materials
- Effective use of facts/quotes
- Interesting; appeals to the emotions
- Proper diction/grammar