List of 20 news stories.

• 

  Free Candy, Fake Commitments: The Activities Scene at Hopkins

  Winter Szarabajka ’27 Op-Ed Editor
  Imagine it’s early September. The leaves are starting to change, and everyone has that fresh, back-to-school glow, naive to the burnout most of us face later in the school year. On Thompson Quad, you’re met with an onslaught of sticker-covered poster boards and plastic bowls filled with snickers. Upperclassmen shout to be heard above the chaos as they pitch their ideas, droning on far longer than anyone is actually listening. Freshmen race to put their names on as many sign up sheets as possible while seniors steal candy from their friends’ tables. Yep, you guessed it, you’re at the activities fair. But although this day is supposed to be inspiring, most of us are left with one question: Are these students really invested in the activities they sign up for?
• 

  The Razor’s Edge: The Government Shutdown and Partisan Media

  Lilliana Dumas ’26 Editor-in-Chief
  Forty-three days of a shuttered federal government didn’t just expose a budget crisis. It exposed something deeper: a media ecosystem so polarized that it helped cause and sustain the longest shutdown in American history, whose effects continue to linger.
• 

  Social Comment or Simple Joy? Food as a Status Symbol

  Anjali van Bladel '27 Lead Op-Ed Editor
  While food insecurity only grows across America, food has increasingly become a status symbol, glamorized by social media culture through fridge restock TikToks or “what I eat in a day” videos, even as food grows less and less accessible for the average shopper.
• 

  Vegetarian Lunch Options: What's on the Menu?

  Gitanjali Navaratnam-Tomayko '28 Assistant Op Ed Editor
  I have a variety of allergies, my most limiting one being milk. I also avoid beef and pork for a combination of ethical, environmental, and health purposes. When I was in J-school, I would regularly get the “allergy plate”; a special meal designed to fit a range of food sensitivities and dietary restrictions.The Hopkins dining hall staff always served me with kindness and care. These lunches avoided red meat, something that should be limited in Hopkins lunches overall due to the environmental, economic, and social benefits of doing so. The problem of meat in school lunches doesn’t lie in the hands of the Hopkins dining hall staff, but with school lunch culture overall. 
• 

  Labubu and the Illusion of Individuality

  Beatrice Lundberg ' 27 Assistant Op Ed Editor
  In 2025 there are three things that are unavoidable: death, taxes, and Labubus.
• 

  Programmed for Perfection: How Hopkins Culture Drives AI Dependence

  Mary-Winter Szarabajka '27 Op Ed Editor
  Whether you’re new to Hopkins or months away from graduation, I’d like you to reflect on how many times you’ve heard the phrase “I just care about the grade,” in the last month.
• 

  Woke is not a joke: taxing effects of performative feminism  

  Gitanjali Navaratnam-Tomayko '28 Assistant Op Ed Editor
  Recently, social media has been filled with mocking content about performative males: matcha drinking posers who pretend to care about women's rights.
  
  
  
  
  
• 

  Claire’s Closing: the End of the Tween Era

  Anjali van Bladel '27 Op/Ed Editor
  Picture this: you enter a shopping mall in 2012. Tween girls swarm around you like a colony of bees, each wearing a rainbow choker and shimmering fake nails. The air smells like chemicals and cupcakes. That’s when you know you must be approaching one fragrant, glittery, purple store: Claire’s.
• 

  Camp Ivy League: Are Pre-College Programs Worth It?

  Anjali van Bladel ’27 Op-Ed Editor and Bea Lundberg ’27 Assistant Op-Ed Editor
  With summer finally here, we’re all excited to enjoy the warm weather, spend time with friends, and above all, get out of the classroom. However, for many high schoolers who are looking to impress top colleges, it's not yet time to relax. With growing pressure to keep busy over the summer, the question remains: are pre-college summer programs worth it?
• 

  To Tan or Not to Tan: Beauty Standards and Complexion

  Winter Szarabajka Op/Ed Editor and Gitanjali Navaratnam-Tomayko ’28 Assistant Op/Ed Editor
  As the school year comes to an end and warm weather eases its way into our daily routines, our FYPs have become flooded with tanning hacks and “base tan” recommendations to ring in the summer season. As a redhead, I (Winter) have always wished I could achieve a perfect tan. To be honest, it’s not fun watching everyone show off their beautiful summer skin while I’ve got a red-and-white candy cane look going on. 
• 

  How to Achieve the Perfect Summer Body

  Rain Zeng '26, Lead Op-Ed Editor
  “I need to lose weight.” It’s a phrase we hear more often than we should, many have often groaned in front of mirrors examining  a body part that isn’t lean or small enough . Of course, context matters; anyone can decide to lose weight for a variety of reasons. But as summer approaches and showing skin becomes unavoidable, I hear friends and family express the desire to lose weight more often. For many, weight loss is a way to feel more beautiful and worthy of being seen in the summer months. But this mentality only reinforces insecurities and diminishes the value of the bodies we already have.
• 

  April Fools’: Has Humor Turned Dark?

  Bea Lundberg '27 Assistant Op/Ed Editor
  April Fools’ Day is a holiday celebrated around the world, known for its traditions of playing lighthearted tricks on the people in our communities. Although the holiday sets a specific date for people to participate in comedic acts, humor is a prominent part of society no matter the time of year. The innocent nature of April Fools’ Day is the very thing that gives it its charm, but with the current social and political climate, why have jokes on the internet become particularly cruel in recent years?
• 

  Celebrity Baby Names: Original or Just Weird?

  Anjali van Bladel '27 Op/Ed Editor
  I’ve always had a hard time getting people to say my name correctly. While there’s an abundance of Anjalis in India, most people in the United States have never met someone with my name before. Growing up, I always resented having to explain its pronunciation every time I met someone new. However, as years go by I’ve only become more and more grateful for my simultaneously unique and ordinary name, because the baby names chosen by celebrity and influencer parents have increasingly ventured into even stranger territory.
• 

  Dialing Down Distractions: Phone Bans in Schools

  Gitanjali Navaratnam-Tomayko '28 Assistant Op/Ed Editor
  At the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, tens of thousands of schools across the US began implementing phone bans in an effort to increase focus among children and break phone habits and addictions that research suggests is detrimental for their development. Despite this ban being in place in more than 77% of US schools, it remains controversial. Through various efforts, Hopkins has also tried to limit phone use during school. 
• 

  The Prom-Pros of Promposals

  Rain Zeng '26 Lead Op/Ed Editor
  Prom season is fast approaching, and upperclassmen from across the country are scrambling to prepare for this monumental event in their high school experience. An excited junior or senior might find the following on their shopping list: a formal outfit, flowers, and a poster board. The latter, of course, is for one of the most memorable elements of prom: A “promposal” is an elaborate and public invitation of a date to the dance. This usually entails terrible puns on posters and personalized gifts and is often, but not always, romantic in nature. Some in the audience might roll their eyes at the spectacle, while others swoon. But why does this tradition persist, and why is it so important?
• 

  International Women’s Day: For All Women

  Rain Zeng’26, Op/Ed Editor
  March 8 is such an important day for women in other countries — and I’ve always wondered why it isn’t for Americans. My parents and relatives celebrate International Women’s Day through gifts, and women even get a half-day off work every year in China. As a child of immigrants, I know that there are many aspects of American culture that differ from that of other countries; holidays and traditions celebrated elsewhere may not be a commonplace observance here.
• 

  The AI Friend Dilemma: Go Outside (Please).

  Anya Mahajan ’25, Lead Op/Ed Editor
  Human-to-human interactions have steadily declined due to the silent period of suffering during the pandemic. The final nail in that coffin of connection? Artificial intelligence (AI) companions, offering a person something to confide in, with a free, instant accessibility that will always beat out your friend who takes 3-5 business days to text back.
• 

  What's in a "Scarf"? Modern Cultural Appropriation

  Anya Mahajan '25
  This summer, the “Scandinavian scarf” took TikTok by storm. The only thing is, the Scandinavian scarf

  isn’t Scandinavian — it’s Indian.

• Granny? More Like Mommy: The Prevalence of Ageism in Beauty

  Winter Szarabajka ’27 Op/Ed Assistant Editor
  Throughout history, beauty has been defined extensively by characteristics such as a youthful appearance, perfect skin, and cleanliness.

• Letter to the Editor: Heidi Dawidoff

  Heidi Dawidoff
  The Letter to the Editor excerpted below was written by Heidi Dawidoff, a retired Hopkins English teacher, in response to Mira Krichavsky’s story in the December 2023 issue of The Razor about the merger of the all-boys Hopkins Grammar School and all-girls Day Prospect Hill (DPH) (“Looking Back on a Thorny Path to Coeducation”).