Artograffi #139
Not all men: why we should celebrate women authors
The school curriculum teaches us the wonders of male centric literature from the past- Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, F Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell, (and I could go on). It’s Shakespeare’s birthday on the 23rd of April, so I encourage you to find female, queer and ethnic minority authors to celebrate instead. A few classic female authors that I love, or think should be more recognised:
Jane Austen– To be fair, she is probably up there with famous classic names like Shakespeare, but I still think she deserves to be praised. Pride and Prejudice is my favourite of her stories, with several others on my reading list. Celebrate her birthday on the 16th of December.
Maya Angelou– Both a poet and civil rights activist, Angelou’s poems have a spectacular voice. She was kind of ruined for me when she came up on my GCSE language exam, but we still love her. Maya’s birthday is the 4th of April.
Virginia Woolf– Woolf wrote both fiction and non-fiction in her lifetime, containing themes of breaking traditional patriarchy. Her birthday is the 25th of January.
Sappho– she was a Greek poet from times BC and Sappho is credited for being one of the earliest lesbians. Evidence is inconclusive because of the time period she was writing in, but it’s generally agreed she had relationships with women. We don’t have a birthday for Sappho, so just celebrate her at pride month.
Even if classics aren’t your thing, it’s important to remember you don’t have to settle for a straight white man. Do your research and find other authors (or directors, artists, etc) that resonate with you. Happy birthday Shakespeare, but it isn’t all about you.
By Ava
How not to get lost
My Duke of Edinburgh expedition (and how I failed )
In September last year, with cadets I did my DofE expedition- and failed. How is it possible to fail you may be asking, well me and my team walked around the same mountain for 5 hours when we were only 20 minutes away from the start. But I think the universe was trying to give me a sign from the start because it took me an hour and a half to put a tent when the instructions said it should only take 7 minutes.
For the DofE you don’t need to just do an expedition you need to do volunteering, physical, skills and the expedition. You must do a minimum of three months activity for each of the Volunteering, Physical and Skills sections, and plan, train for and do a two-day, one-night Expedition.
The difference is, this year my team will be different so I have a higher chance of passing because some of the people on my team were not very good ( no offence ( including me))
By Hannah
Earth Day (my birthday)
Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
Why is Earth day celebrated ?
Earth Day is an annual celebration that honours the achievements of the environmental movement and raises awareness of the need to protect Earth’s natural resources for future generations. It’s also my birthday!
What do you do on Earth Day ?
More than a billion people celebrate Earth Day to protect the planet from things like pollution and deforestation. You can take part in activities like picking up litter and planting trees, to make the world
a happier and healthy place.
Why Earth Day began
In the early 1970s an American Senator
created Earth Day as a way to force this issue onto
the national agenda. Now it’s celebrated world wide. See more at: www.earthday.org/earth-day-2023
By Katie
Haircut heroines
Billie-jo Gladys Simpson made £575 on Just Giving in her bid to raise money for the Little Princess Trust and she has donated 27cm of her hair to be made in to a real hair wig for a child with cancer.
She was inspired by her big sister Felicity who has done this three times now, and has donated a total of 107cm of her hair and raised over £1270 for the charity.
Billie-jo turned 6 on 5 February and goes to Amble Links First School. Her sister Felicity is 11 years old and goes to James Calvert Spence, and plans on cutting her hair a fourth time next year.
Billie-jo getting her hair cut. Photo by Bart Rippon
Billie-jo had 10.5 inches (about 27cm) cut off by Andrea Louise Purvis at Salon AP on Fenkle Street in Alnwick on 18 February.
The girls’ parents are very proud of Felicity and Billie-jo. Mum Katt said “Myself and my husband Joe, are so proud of how generous and selfless our two daughters are in doing something so amazing to help other little girls to regain their identity after losing their hair to cancer treatment and other childhood diseases.”
Felicity said “Having such long hair that grows super fast is something most kids take for granted, but as long as my hair keeps growing I will keep donating it.”
Billie-jo said she just wants to help make another little girl or boy feel like a Princess.
Welcome back puffins
The puffins should be here by the time you read this! Every year at the end of March, the puffins return to Coquet Island where they stay until mid-July. There will be over 30,000 puffins on Coquet Island, which is a bird sanctuary, no one is allowed to land there. There are 82,000 seabirds that live on the island on total, including kittiwakes, eider ducks, species of terns and fulmars! If you want to see them, you will have to go on a Puffin Cruise!
By Grace
Thousands dead in Turkey
On the 6th of February 04:17 (local time), a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, 11m near the city of Gaziantep.
At the time I wrote this, there were over 49,000 deaths in total, 44,218 dead in Turkey and 5,914 in Syria, but the number could double. The country’s president said it was the ‘Worst disaster in decades,’ and is apparently the worst disaster there in 84 years. It is also the largest earthquake in Turkey. Another magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck 12 hours later, apparently not an aftershock of the bigger earthquake before it.
More than 5,700 buildings in Turkey had collapsed, and nearly 200 people were arrested for poor building construction after the earthquake. 26 million people across both countries needed help, and in Turkey it is estimated that 1 million people are living in tents, and 80,000 people with injuries are in hospital. In Syria, it is estimated that up to 5 million people could be homeless.
By Grace
Help for lonely children
Lonely children are contacting Childline 15 times a day on average. The number of children under the age of 11 feeling lonely has increased 71% since 2018. Loneliness can have a huge impact on children’s mental health.
In response to this, Childline has launched a campaign called ‘Day in the Lonely’ so children know their feelings do not need to last. The website includes three videos showing a day in the life of three young people and different ways in how they feel lonely, all of them are based on real life Childine calls. See www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/your-feelings/feelings-emotions/loneliness-doesnt-have-to-last/.
Poor mental health is the top concern when people call Childline, and has been for the past six years. Childline’s trained counsellors hear from lonely children who feel that way, due to being left out of friendship groups and social media chats, whereas others say their loneliness stems from feeling bad about themselves and not liking the way they look. Many young people also feel that their friends and family don’t understand them.
Children and young people can contact Childline for free, confidential support and advice 24 hours a day online at www.childline.org.uk or on the phone on 0800 1111
By Hannah
Deinfluencing: The next big TikTok trend?
Influencers are everywhere we look, but nowhere more than TikTok. The app with over 1.5 billion users is known for its gross consumerism, and it’s done irreparable damage to the planet and our society. But there’s a new counter culture emerging, the self proclaimed ‘deinfluencers’; they want to kill the trends and save your money.
#Deinfluencing has over 200 million views on TikTok, but what does it mean? Deinfluencers basically want to reduce the amount of money people spend on trendy TikTok products just because they feel they need it to fit in. They are encouraging a change in the way we see trendiness and what is a necessary purchase.
There are several different types of deinfluencers, those who want to cut consumption completely and encourage a minimalist lifestyle, and others who display cheap alternatives to the fashionable products everyone else is clamouring over.
Most deinfluencers also recognise the importance of reducing consumption for the environment, and whilst it’s questionable whether promoting cheaper, more disposable products is the way to do this, as an overall they share simple ways in which everyone can help the environment by changing their habits.
image: Pixabay
Popular deinfluencing videos follow the lines of products I regret buying, honest reviews, how to shop intentionally, stop wasting your money on these products, and much more. If these videos get the same hype and views as the ones promoting the products in the first place, it’s possible to see a future of more intentional consumerism that has a positive environmental impact.
Although, of course, not all influencers are demon capitalist machines, the culture that TikTok and other social media platforms have created mean that we are constantly being sold something, in the way of being told we aren’t good enough. I would argue that deinfluencing has already begun in the body positivity (and more general positivity) movement, which influences people to be more grateful for what they have and themselves, therefore meaning they are less likely to buy products that are advertised as ‘fixing’ you.
A wider societal shift is needed in this sense, towards a world that tells people, especially women, they are beautiful no matter what products they have and trends they follow.
Deinfluencers are on the right track, and it’s an important message they are sharing. We need to be kinder to the planet and kinder to ourselves in order to overcome the capitalist brainwashing we are fed from advertising and TikTok.
So, next time you feel like you desperately need something because an influencer is promoting it, think: Is this worth my money? Is it worth the effect on the earth? Is it worth my time? The answer is inevitably no.
By Ava
