My piece depicts the strikes nurses went on in order to protest a shortage of workers in the healthcare industry and the dangers faced by patients as a result of being treated by underpaid, overworked professionals. Strikes can serve as crucial tools for securing fair wages and hours.
Something I wish my parents knew is that I often felt isolated and alienated during middle school. I wish my parents understood how difficult it was to fit in and adjust to a new school.
Every day almost feels the same, especially when you are supposed to be a top student and feel obligated to get everything done perfectly. When I’m working endlessly until the day is over, my window serves as a reminder of how much I miss those days when I had time to go outside, go biking, and hang out with family instead of being in my room constantly.
When teenagers have issues and difficult problems, they are often scared to share. They can have feelings of stress or depression and feel like giving up, even when an adult sees them as ‘happy.’
Being strapped down by the depression of my daily life interrupts everything I do. My worst fear is disappointing my parents and not being able to meet the most simple expectations. […] The hardest thing for me to tell my parents is that I TRIED to get up but couldn’t.
Silencing your child anytime they are trying to express something to you is a drastic setback for them; over time, it affects their capability to communicate and express their emotions to you. Don’t limit their voice and listen to them.
I wish my parents understood the complexity of emotions and mental health in their children. It’s easy for parents to get caught up in the chaos of raising a family, but it’s essential to pause and acknowledge that children have very real emotions that shouldn’t be overlooked just because they’re young.
My submission is a ‘collaborative’ poster. I gathered thoughts, ideas, feelings, and emotions from all the people I know. I wanted to do something that really shows how stressful and difficult situations are affecting children, teenagers, and adults.
The piece I created called “recreating me” is about living life with a different body image than what is percieved through social media and other social norms. My piece illustrates both the harshness and hateful discrimination from social media and social norms based around stretch marks and belly rolls. While i also integrate the softer accepting hand holding the figure accepting the imperfections. My piece is about breaking apart and ripping off the social norms and hateful words people will claim about you and reveal the true you underneath.
Kintsugi (meaning “golden joinery”) is the Japanese method of mending broken pottery with gold. […] I based my piece around the earthquake in March 2011 that I experienced when I lived in Japan. Many lives were lost, towns were destroyed by tsunamis, and the radiation plant disaster that followed left the country terrified of its potential effects. However, through all that, I watched the citizens uplift each other and find ways to cheer everyone up.