An old woman sat behind the camera of the most watched news network in the country, holding a deck of cards. Beside her, Fox News host Jesse Watters explained the segment. The old woman, Paula Roberts,...

Growing up, I always had representation. My friends and I would sit looking at magazines of Marsai Martin and Beyoncé wishing we would become them one day. We would share a laugh while going to the beauty...

My eighth grade self stood quietly as I struggled to find the answer to my parents’ question: “Why do you have anxiety?” I didn’t know what response would be correct or acceptable. A thousand words...

The room was blurry. My mind was spinning. The projector board was a series of indecipherable tasks  to accomplish. My eighth grade self sat awkwardly at my desk, palms sweating, legs shaking.The counselors...

Growing up, my family and I would take evening trips to the playground and  duck pond behind Timber Creek Elementary. Over the years, these places have lost their allure, but now I get to watch my brother...

Change: a six-letter word I despised.  My whole life, I’ve hated change. The smallest amount of change would send me into a panic. I could never accept it, rather I would whine and complain until normalcy...

Be advised that the content in this story contains self-harm and suicide, and may be triggering to some readers.    My mom cried when she saw the scars littering my arms and stomach for the...

Hundreds of people cram into the small, humid Granada Theater in central Dallas after standing outside in the blazing Texas heat for hours on end. I’m next to all the other teenage girls packed together...

Editor’s note: This story won third place for personal column in the 2024 ILPC contest.  “If you don’t convert to God, you’ll be sent to hell after you die.” Religion had never played a...

One of my favorite memories of my childhood was when my mom and I used to go every other weekend to a small frozen yogurt shop. Just the two of us would drive to the shop when it first opened to beat the...

  Eraser crumbs covered the desk. I stared down at my tear soaked paper and the empty spaces I couldn’t fill. Everyone in my second grade class had finished their work and gone to lunch, but...

Editor's note: This story won first place for personal column in the 2023 ILPC contest. It also won a 2023 Tops in Texas.  Resting at the bottom of a box buried below an old preppy school uniform and...