Aliyah, Chapel, and Moriah are excited to introduce our new Youth Editors for the South End Stories Youth Blog! After starting the blog nearly four months ago, we are passing on our roles to three new amazing writers. It was a collective decision to make sure these roles are held by people who are invested in the South End, and who represent all of the passion and community the South End holds. We've had so much fun with the blog, put a lot of investment in its direction, and look forward to how it will grow and change with our new editors! Now it's time for you to meet them...
Hello, my name is Dayanara Almon and I am 15 years old. My pronouns are she/her and I identify as Black and Latina (or Afro-Latina). I live in Skyway and I go to the Northwest School. My passions include social justice and performing arts. Currently my friend and I manage a Instagram account called @empoweringourmelanin, our goal is to uplift BIPOCs. We go on IG Live (to talk about important issues concerning social justice) and we created a podcast series called EmpoweringOurMelanin The Podcast. In the past I’ve worked with groups like IMPUHWE (Inspire Motivate Powerful Undiscovered Hopeful Women with Education). I have been in school plays and presentations and in the past couple of summers I was in the Teen Summer Musical. I’m so excited to work on this blog to uplift the voices in our community through art and journalism, because these are things I am passionate about. I’m very happy I got the opportunity to be a part of the SES Youth Blog Editing Team!
My name is Fatrah Hussein, I am 12 and a 7th grader at Washington Middle School. My pronouns are she/her. I am someone who is passionate about writing and believe that young people appreciate, want, and need spaces to tell their own stories. I am from the heart of South Seattle, born and raised in the South End. I want to give back to my community through storytelling of my own. For me, giving to the community around me is a way to help the world. I'm Black and Muslim (yes the hijab), from an Oromiyan ethnic group that has faced genocide for years on top of years that is still going. Noticing all the things happening to my people, genocides and unfair things happening to people similar to me (like people calling Muslims "terrorists"), Black people getting oppressed by the government and police, and the LGBTQ+ community getting so much hate and their rights taken away–makes me want to be all of their voices and help not only them, but even more people.
My name is Beba Heron, I use they/them pronouns, and I am a 16-year-old Latina running start student at South Seattle College. Previously, I attended Cleveland STEM High School in Seattle, where I was a part of the Youth Race and Equity Team; a group that held discussions about how we could make our school somewhere that was accepting and safe for everyone, and that our diversity was properly represented. I was born in Oakland, California and moved here to Washington at the age of eight. Outside of school, I am a part of the Vertical World rock climbing team, a competitive sports club. I have been competing with them since middle school, and it is truly a passion of mine. I love learning about political theory and thinking about how I can apply what I know to the world around me to make change–– in particular, I am interested in how communities of color are affected by policy, and how global capitalism lays the foundation for inequality in our society. Aside from that, I also enjoy reading, making art and practicing language in my free time.