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

By Madison Menchaca Staff Writer

‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ consistently at the top of gaming charts, released March 20, 2020 and composed by Yasuaki Iwata, Yumi Takahashi, Shinobu Nagata, Sayako Doi,  Masato Ohashi, and written by Makoto Wada. With 11 million sales worldwide it is now one of the best-selling games for the Nintendo Switch. It was also developed by Nintendo, Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development. In the game you get to explore and create your own island, discover mystical creatures, assemble tools that you might need to collect materials. Players are also given tasks to complete, such as collecting certain materials to build a new house or building, and collecting new creatures to help put together a museum. 

With the current issue of COVID-19 people are now feeling bored and have no idea how to spend their time.“It’s really lonely and boring,” freshman Amy Guerra said. 

 Since Animal Crossing is a very popular game many people enjoy playing it. 

“I like the freedom you have to create the island you want and I play it because it reminds me of where I  grew up,” freshman Alexis Fodderie said. 

Some players even say it reminds them of another popular game ‘Minecraft’.

“I play it because you have a lot of freedom and it really reminds me of Minecraft,” freshman Gerri Ramirez said. 

Some students shared they are logging 30 hours of game-play or more per week, creating the island of their dreams in their virtual world as they wait to be able to safely emerge back to the real world.

Staff writer Madison Menchaca
The inspiring, courageous Mulan was to open in theatres on March 27, 2020, due to the coronavirus Disney announced it will premiere July instead. This remake directed by Niki Caro will focus more on the culture of China and the realness of the Northern Wei Era, it sadly will not be a musical. The remake will also have a love interest but not Li Shang. People who loved the original have different opinions about the changes that are going to be in the new movie.
“Honestly I don’t want to see the new movie because it’s not going to be like the original but I do get that they’re trying to focus on the culture of China,” Amy Guerra said.
“I didn’t know it wasn’t going to be a musical, now that I think about it it’s not going to have the same aspect and feeling that the original one had,” Ace Ortiz said.
Some fans think the new movie will be interesting and are excited about what the 2020 remake has to offer.
“I am really looking forward to the remake because I loved the original when I was younger and I would live to see what they are going to do to remake it,” Charlie Schellin said.
“I feel that even though it’s not going to be a musical it will still be an interesting movie to watch,” Brandon Fine said.
In an interview with “Film is now” Director Niki Caro reveals that there might be a possible love interest.
“Maybe, there is certainly the opportunity for romance”.
This story is about a young girl who joins the Imperial Army by disguising herself as a male so her father won’t have to join and battle the Northern invaders of China. Some fans of the original movie are upset because the remake won’t have a Mushu who was brought to life by the help Eddie Murphy who voice acted as Mushu in the 1998 film.
“I like Mushu because he is iconic and a god. He messes everything up and no one hates him for it,” Sarah Garza said.
Mushu’s goal at the beginning of the movie was to gain respect from the Fa family’s ancestors. Throughout the movie, Mushu assists Mulan through her journey during her time in the imperial army. In a recent interview with “Film Is Now” the director Niki Caro revealed why she chose Liu Yifei to play Mulan.
“She couldn’t sleep at all. She turned up to me for a two-hour audition because I really needed to know if she was the right person for Mulan so she did five scenes one of them being a dialogue scene and English was not her first language after that I sent her to a physical trainer and she did a growling physical assessment for an hour and a half. The reason I knew she was right for this movie was not just because she’s a brilliant actress and smart, strong, kind human being but because she never complained once and what I learned on that day was that she was a warrior”
Liu Yifei informs young people what they can learn from Mulan in an interview with “The Hollywood Reporter.”
“To really dig deep into who you really are and be true to yourself have the courage to really be yourself and figure out what your dream is.”

Staff Writer Madison Menchaca

Singer, songwriter Billie Eilish age 18 recently won five Grammys. She won Album of the Year, the Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Record, and Pop Vocal Album of the Year. She credited her brother with helping inspire her to make her music. In a recent interview with Jimmy Fallon Billie’s brother confirmed that he and Billie were chosen to write a new song for the upcoming James Bond movie.
In Eilish’s songs, she expresses feelings and reflects on relationships. The meaning of “idontwannabeyouanymore” expresses how Eilish feels about herself. Throughout the song, the words are directed towards her. In a video with Genius she states how she feels, “You wanna be me ?”, and “I look over at the mirror, over here. I don’t wanna be you.” Her words also communicate she knows others are trying to help, “As many people can try to help me and talk to me and whatever but it doesn’t change anything.”In the lyrics “was I made from a broken mold” she is referring to when she was a child and she would make candles. When she would take the candles out of there mold it would sometimes break.
In the song “Everything I wanted” Eilish reflects on her relationship with her brother. In an interview with future sounds (with Annie Mac) she says why she wrote the song). She wrote the song because she had a dream that she killed herself and no one cared. But she knew her brother would always be there for her.
In the song “Lovely” ft. Khalid she talks about the feeling of being trapped in one’s mind with overwhelming depression. This song was created to raise awareness about mental health issues. Being teens both artists have dealt with mental health issues. In a video interview with Genius Khalid said, “Me being a teenager and seeing my friends deal with mental health issues and mental health problems myself, you know, I felt like it was necessary for me to step up.” The song was also featured on the 13 reasons why season two soundtrack.
In the song “Xanny”, Billie wrote this song because some of her friends are addicted to drugs. Throughout the song, she expresses how she feels about being around them. The lyrics “what is it about them,” she is trying to understand why her friends aren’t doing anything to quit. She feels as if her friends are unable to interact with one another because they are always surrounded by drugs.
Eilish has been recognized for her style as well, usually wearing oversized baggy clothes. The reason she does this is she doesn’t want people shaming or sexualizing her body. This way no one can have an opinion about her body. She has stated, “I never want the world to know everything about me.”
Billies brother Finneas revealed where he and Billie get their inspiration from in a recent interview with Jimmy Fallon. They get inspiration from random sounds they find. For example Billie recorded a sound of her dentist using a drill to shave down her teeth and put it into her song “Bury a friend”. Another sound they used was the sound the telescopic pole (crosswalk) makes in Australia when it tells them they can cross, they put that sound in “Bad guy”.
Billie Eilish inspires millions of fans around the world.
“I love her because when I first started listening to her I was going through a tough time and then she helped me get over it with her music and I also just fell in love with her unique and one of a kind voice,” freshman Brandon Fine said.