By Madison Menchaca

With 131 chapters and over five million readers, True beauty is an ongoing Webtoon and the story was made into a Korean Drama released December 2020. The story focuses on a high school student Im Joo-kyung who gets bullied at her old school because of her appearance until one day she is on the rooftop of a building crying about her experience at school and she meets a boy Lee Su-Ho who saves her from jumping, when she gets home her mom tells her that she’s going to be transferring schools. Determined Joo-Kyung learns how to do make-up so she won’t be treated the way she was at her old school. After many failed attempts she finally made herself look unrecognizable. When she enters her new school people are amazed by how beautiful she is,

“I thought that it was good that she was getting the attention she wanted because it made her happy, but it was sad because she had to make herself look like a different person to get that attention,” sophomore Haley Lopez said. 

 Soon we find out that Lee Su-Ho goes to the same school as her now but she has no recollection of who he is because she wasn’t wearing her glasses.  As she continues to go to school Lee Su-Ho becomes suspicious of who she really is. After a couple of weeks of going to her new school a new character is introduced and that is Han Seo-Joon. Both Lee Su-ho and Han Seo-Joon begin to fall in love with Joo-Kyung leaving them in a frustrating love triangle. 

  The fandom of the show and Webtoon took a liking to both of the main lead male characters. The first main lead male character is Lee Su-ho and the second lead male character is Han Seo-Joon.  Originally in the Webtoon Han Seo-Joon was the one to first get with Joo-Kyung but, in the Korean drama Han Seo-Joon doesn’t get to be with Joo-Kyung and doesn’t get his happy ending which upset a lot of fans.  

“I was obviously upset because he deserved way better than what he got but at the same time I was happy because Joo-Kyung didn’t deserve him because even after all he did she didn’t ever really give him a chance because she was still hung up oh Su-Ho,” sophomore Amy Guerra said. 

During both stories make-up is a huge part of how Juoo-Kyung makes herself unrecognisable. With many fans taking an interest to her make-up the Korean brand made a bundle of all the products she uses so that fans of the show can try to do some of her looks.  

By Staff writer Taylor Alton

With movie theaters closed and limitations on stadiums for sports and concerts, many of us have turned to T.V. for entertainment. Streaming services like HBO, Disney Plus, and Netflix have gotten a lot of attention during these quarantined times. Everything from mysterious superhero shows, to angsty teen dramas, we’ve all got our favorite quarantine shows. 

Disney Plus, being a product of one of the most influential companies in the world, has numerous shows and movies that will take teens on a trip down memory lane. Hannah Montana and Finding Nemo aside, WandaVison is the center of attention as it is a brand new show about two iconic superheroes. The show shines light on the not-so-suburban, suburban lives of Wanda Maximoff also known as Scarlet Witch and Vision. Full of mind boggling mysteries and unique references to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, WandaVision is perfect for any Marvel fan.

On HBO we have Euphoria. The show follows Rue, a drug addicted teen not interested in staying clean after leaving rehab. While at a party, she meets Jules, a transgender girl full of personilty looking for her place in life. The two embark on the treacherous journey of being a teenager in Other characters include an array of sporadic jocks and flashy popular girls who all deal with their own issues as well. The show touches deeply on drug abuse, sexuality, mental illnesses, and the stress of finding your identity as a teenager. 

Similar to Disney Plus, Amazon Prime is owned by an extremely large and well-known company. So, the options are limitless. But, some of the shows are actually made by Amazon, not just streamed by their services. For example, a new show called The Wilds started streaming on Amazon Prime back in early December. Like Euphroia, The Wilds covers the drastic lives of teenagers dealing with mental illnessness, sexuality, sexual abuse, eating disorders, tragic romances, and the loss of loved ones. But this time, it’s on a deserted island. After being told they’re going on a feminist retreat in Hawaii, nine teenage girls from all over America are left to fend for themselves on a deserted island after their plane crashes in the ocean. It’s the strength they find within and the friendships they build that keep the girls alive in hopes of getting rescued. However, their limits are tested once suspicion arises and they realize there’s a lot more to the island than they thought. 
Just like all these amazing shows mentioned, The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix is another new series featuring a strong female lead and her life as a young adult. Based on the novel written by, The Queen’s Gambit is set in the Cold War era and tells the story of Beth Harmon, an orphaned chess prodigy on the quest to become the best chess player in the world. Fueled by her determination, Beth soon finds out it takes more than just skill to be at the top of the food chain. The show follows the genius from her time in an orphanage as a child all the way to her life as a young adult. Every episode brings a new challenge to Beth whether it be her struggle with drug abuse or the ups and downs of her love life. The Queen’s Gambit is a unique story and will catch the attention of anyone looking for an addicting new show to watch.

  Co-Editor-in-Chief Emma Szabo

When the COVID-19 virus reached the US, the country went into lockdown, and even now plenty of people are still doing their work from home to stay safe. But while indoors, many people turned to video services such as Netflix and Youtube to stave off boredom. While that may not seem too different from what people regularly do, one major difference is what they’re watching. While it’s to be expected movies and television shows have risen in popularity, another surprising form of entertainment has grown in popularity during the quarantine – Virtual Youtubers.

  Virtual YouTubers, or Vtubers, are exactly what they sound like; Youtubers who stream using a virtual avatar that usually has an anime style. The idea of Vtubers was started in Japan around four years ago when the Virtual Entertainer Kizuna Ai rose to popularity and coined the term. Since then, being a Vtuber has become an actual job after companies such as Hololive and Nijisanji began recruiting talents and sponsoring them. Most times, Vtubers stream themselves playing video games while talking with their live chat or collaborating with other Vtubers in a multiplayer game. Many Vtubers don’t exclusively play games though, a lot of them sing and play instruments as well! Since Vtubers are entertainers, most of them have great singing skills and idol-like qualities. This has led to many of them creating their own music as well as performing covers of songs for karaoke streams. One Vtuber who is best known for his musical talents is Rikka from Hololive’s male branch Holostars. While most other Vtuber’s focus on gaming streams, Rikka’s streams tend to focus on his singing and his guitar playing. He has music streams almost every day, and he’ll even collaborate with other Vtubers to cover different songs.

“Before this whole pandemic, I had never even heard of Vtubers, but for the past few months a lot of my friends have started talking about them. One of my friends is really into Rikka, and she sends me his music videos whenever they come out,” freshman Ava Machuca said.

  Due to his popularity as a Vtuber, Rikka has written and produced his own music and is currently the second most subscribed Holostar member with over 80 thousand subscribers on Youtube.

  But what makes Vtubers so different – and so popular? While what they do on stream doesn’t differ much from what normal streamers do, the main appeal of Vtubers is their avatars. Most Vtubers belong to companies who provide them with both a character and an animated avatar for them to use while streaming, giving the world of Vtubers much more variety compared to regular streamers. While a majority of the Vtube avatars are presented as humans, there’s still a good amount who play the role of non-human characters such as demons, vampires, witches, and even the Grim Reaper’s assistant. One of the most popular English Vtubers is Gawr Gura from Hololive EN, a streamer whose avatar is that of a shark girl. Even though she’s a shark, her avatar looks like a young anime girl and she acts like a normal person, just with occasional anecdotes from her life and experiences as a shark from Atlantis. While this kind of character may seem weird to some people, she’s been very well received among both English and Japanese audiences.  Despite only streaming for about 4 months with the creation of the Hololive English branch, Gura has already surpassed 1 million subscribers, being the first Hololive EN girl to do so. Vtubers haven’t only grown more popular in America though, in Japan the Vtuber company Nijisanji had a recent collaboration with the PA League, one of the two professional baseball leagues in Japan.

  One of the other things that makes most Vtubers different from other streamers is that it’s an actual job. While it is possible to be an Independent Vtuber – a vtuber who isn’t working for a company and handles everything themselves – most of the well known Vtubers stream as a career. Companies will provide their talents with an animated avatar, a character, and face-tracking technology for them to produce streams for a certain amount of time each week and keep them on contract for at least a year unless some kind of complication arises. This is very different from normal streamers like Ninja or Pokimane, who are independent streamers who set their own schedules and have no contract to abide by. But just because being a Virtual Youtuber is a job doesn’t mean that you have to be with a company to start streaming as one. As mentioned before, many successful Vtubers are independent, like Artemis of the Blue or Pikamee, who have both become popular independent streamers.

So, why have Vtubers become so popular during the pandemic? Besides people having more time to watch streams, there’s another group of people who have contributed to Vtubers rise in popularity, which are the translators. Since a majority of Virtual Youtubers are from Japan and China, translators provide a necessary service to fans who don’t speak those languages. While most translators only translate certain clips from streams, some will provide real-time translations for their favorite streamers, opening up the world of Vtubers to a worldwide audience.

  Although the past year has had more downs than ups, one of the better things to come out of the lockdown has been the growth of this new, virtual form of entertainment. Many people have turned their hobby of streaming with their virtual avatars into a job, and the community surrounding these streamers has grown exponentially. As we go further into the digital age, it’s exciting to see what new innovations will surface and see what new ways people choose to entertain themselves.

Graphic by Taylor Alton Staff writer