Sydney Sweeney made headlines once more: “In a new one-minute ad for the sports betting site Novig, the actress Sydney Sweeney is dressed for about eight seconds. … As the lights come up, viewers see Sweeney wearing nothing except two footballs held against her chest” (NY Times, Gupta). Many view the ad as an affront to female athletes that devalues their athleticism and retreats from feminism.  Others will have you believe the sex appeal is empowering, an exercise in freedom of wear and feminism.

You’ve probably heard the phrase “honesty is the best policy” countless times. First appearing in 1599 in an English work by Sir Edwin Sandys and later popularized by Benjamin Franklin, the phrase has engraved itself in the ears of little kids for centuries. While it used to be a moral law, in the social lives of many today, honesty is more like a calculation. Society is now prioritizing social comfort over hard truths, leading to performative politeness for personal gain. This shift is seen especially in two words that used to be synonymous but now have a crucial difference in meaning: nice and kind.

Halloween is one of the most anticipated nights of the year for children and families across the United States, with everyone looking forward to the sugar rush and colorful costumes. The tradition of walking door‑to‑door in costume, collecting candy, and enjoying the excitement of the neighborhood has been a cultural staple. It should be more than just a holiday — it is an event that encourages face‑to‑face interaction, creativity, and a sense of shared celebration. But in recent years, I have noticed a decline in the classic Halloween spirit. Why does Halloween feel so empty now? As COVID isolated the world, it accelerated social customs that changed the way we celebrate Halloween,making it more scripted and less spontaneous. As soon as COVID hit, everyone, myself included, turned to our devices and the internet to stay connected. Ever since then, I’ve noticed a huge cultural shift regarding phones and social media. For a lot of people our age, those in-between years where you aren’t necessarily a kid, but not yet a young adult, were spent inside on zoom calls instead of outside, experiencing things and becoming teenagers the way previous generations have. As a result, several old traditions ended abruptly without a proper goodbye. People adapted to celebrate Halloween with what they saw around them, which were all these new “trends” popularized by social media.

“Has anyone else noticed how strikingly thin Ariana Grande has gotten?” That was the opening line of an Instagram post showing Ariana Grande’s figure, followed by comments accusing her of drug use. Although this post was just one of many discussing her weight loss, numerous other celebrities are in the same situation of losing weight and having their bodies up for discussion. The new number of alarmingly skinny celebrities are all a part of the “Ozempedemic,” a term coined by social media, referring to the dramatically increased usage of certain medications for weight loss purposes. 

In 18th-century France, the Palace of Versailles was a hub of luxury and authority that thrived in an era when common people could barely afford to eat.

For decades, the beauty industry has sold more than just makeup to women; it has also sold the idea that beauty is ephemeral. With every new product, the same message is conveyed: that there is something needing to be fixed. By exaggerating traits deemed “flaws” and pushing beauty standards, makeup companies benefit from women’s insecurities by offering their products as a way to be more conventionally attractive. 

It’s 6 pm after a tiring school day. You lie on your bed, phone hovering above your face as you scroll on TikTok. In one video, you’re greeted by bright, colorful foods flashing past, as if painted just to catch your eye. The camera pans across the tray, revealing more Raising Cane’s and Crumbl Cookies than you have ever seen, with a single person sitting behind it. The person takes one bite. Then another. And another — and now you can’t look away. 

If you haven't been living under a rock for the past couple of months (and are lucky enough to own a Hulu subscription), then it is impossible to have missed the newest hit limited series "Love Story." The show follows the relationship between a young John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette as their lives intertwine and they eventually fall for one another. 

None of us would be surprised at a new social media trend centered around people trying to look better. Some may find it surprising, however, just how astronomically self-sabotaging some of the strategies are. An offshoot of looksmaxxing, mogging is the act of improving one's appearance purely for the sake of outshining others and being perceived as “superior." The history of this word began in the early 2000s with AMOG, an abbreviation for Alpha Male of the Group. “Mog” gained traction in 2016 and has become more popular since.

Over this past summer, you could usually find me and my sister cruising ten miles over the speed limit, melted iced lattes in hand, laughing hysterically at the witty stories and jokes told on Mary Beth Barone and Benito Skinner’s Ride Pod. Although many people would have preferred to be bumping Zach Bryan or some “wind in your hair” driving music, we—like many other people—decided to hop on the podcast trend.

Over my past four years at Hopkins, I have been given homework assignments in every form imaginable, all of which influenced not just how I study, but why I study in the first place. My teachers have followed a number of different strategies to teach responsibility through homework. I have had classes where homework is a small “buffer” grade, compose the majority of my grade, be ungraded,or entirely optional, or even be a where test questions are directly pulled from. While many differ, each of these approaches have taught me something different about how to learn. 

As I begin the second term of my junior year, it’s hard to believe that I still have a year left of high school. Hopkins students are frequently described as ‘driven’, which is often just a synonym for ‘always busy’. It feels like for as long as I can remember, I’ve spent my nights doing homework and my weekends studying. When in a particularly difficult stretch of the school year—like right now—it feels like I would do anything to go back to elementary school, when my biggest concern was the amount of time until recess. Hopkins recently announced that after a historic fifty million dollar donation, they will begin construction on the Gibbs Innovation Center. This new building will have new and improved lab, robotics, and student life facilities, which are all exciting additions to our campus. However, I’d like to propose a new project that I think would be just as beneficial for the student community at Hopkins: our very own playground. 

Throughout the course of my eighth grade year I called my mom at least three times a month begging to come home from school. It wasn’t because of friend drama or bad test grades, but from a constant fear of being looked down upon by my classmates who excelled in science and math.