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H ave you ever had that dream of writing a story, reaching success and getting published? In 2013, 24-year-old writer Anna Todd decided to publish a fan-fiction called After, with the famous singer Harry Styles as its protagonist in Wattpad, the widely-known platform for independent writers. The story had a huge positive response from readers and a year later, after reaching a billion readings, Todd got formally published by the editorial Simon & Schuster. Todd’s original work includes a considerable amount of explicit content on issues such as violence (physical and psychological), sexuality, relationships, etc. Simon & Schuster’s version underwent some changes before its launching. Yet, these books were received enthusiastically by readers –even by those who had already read the original version. Todd’s success continued increasing to the point that big film studios offered to turn the books into movies. She accepted and in 2019 the first movie, After, was released; but not w...

M aría Dahvana Headley in “Moveable Beast” manages to create an unusual love story set in a fantasy world, packed with teenage angst, sexual awakening, and a pinch of dark humour. Witty, sarcastic, and lovable is the main character, Angela. A simple teenage girl that works in a simple ice cream shop. On a Thursday afternoon, Angela meets Billy Beachman, a so-called “Collector”. Their encounter will change Angela’s monotonous life forever. What once seemed set in stone, now is uncertain. It sounds like a regular teen story, right? Oh, But, the reader may wish to know that there is nothing regular about Bastardville Because you see, a small town needs an attraction, and Bastardville got The Beast: A creature that lurks in the dark behind the forest that surrounds the town. What is more, it is Billy’s desire to collect The Beast at all cost, even at the risk of his own life. A highly recommended tale, perfect for those who are craving for a singular love story.

“I will fight for the country in which I want to live”, an Argentine 21 year-old politician called Inaki Gutierrez says. Isn’t he too young to be a politician? Shouldn’t he be studying? Those are some of the questions that arise whenever a young adult tries to become part of spheres that are supposed to be of the adults’ world. Some adults have some misconceptions about YA attitudes and behaviors. When it comes to politics, some mature people claim that youngsters are just too uninterested in everything and not capable of becoming political figures. However, in this essay I will show that Argentine young adults are indeed able to have a say in politics fighting for their beliefs and values. Some of the misconceptions present in Argentine society about young people being involved in politics are that youth are just not able to have a clear political posture and hence are incapable of having a say in politics. Although Maria Larrondo is an adult now, this Argentine researcher and doctor ...

O ne day, a baby white tiger and his mother were alongside a river, when they encountered a baby zebra. Having noticed that they looked very much alike, they welcomed her into the family, becoming a pack. As time went by, baby zebra and baby tiger became inseparable, even more after their mother passed away. Feeling unsafe, they decided it was time to join another pack. They looked for other tigers nearby, and found some. “Your savepassage is your mate’s head”, the leader of the pack said. Fearing that he would be left out, the tiger turned back to the zebra, looking at her like a predator sees its prey.

D oes anybody need help? Six puppies and a young boy go to the rescue! In Adventure Bay, at least. If you do not know what I am talking about, then you do not have young kids or you live on another planet. Many under-5-year-old children are trapped in the adventures of PAW Patrol, the TV show produced by the toy company Spin Master Entertainment. Nowadays, it is common to draw upon TV shows to entertain our youngest children when we do not have any more ideas of how to entertain them. Thanks silly box! Anyway, television not only entertains children. There are certain shows that propose to teach different values to our toddlers, and this is the case of PAW Patrol. We must be grateful… or careful. PAW Patrol is a twelve-minute show created by Keith Chapman and broadcast on Nickelodeon, which displays the adventures of a ten-year-old boy and six puppies who form a rescue team. The TV show portrays current issues like caring for the environment, respect for animals, and even equality. Wel...

Tricia Sullivan Firebird, New York NY Paperback, 556 pp., U$s 78 P ost-Ironic Stress Syndrome is the story of a young woman and her struggle deciding whether to answer duty's call or to live the life of the girl-next-door. Tricia Sullivan, author of this and many other fantasy and science-fiction works, delights the reader with a highly entertaining and engaging story. With evident expertise, Sullivan makes the reader feel the need to keep on turning the pages to find out the destiny not only of the story's main character, but also that of the world she lives in and all other existing worlds. Maja, the name the main character of the story goes by on Earth, has been conceived, trained and, unlike her insurgent counterpart, Jared, genetically intervened to use the M-ask, a device that gives her access to the whole universe at all times. The two find themselves in battle to have control over M-space, for that endows the winner with the capacity to control the whole universe. As if...

 W hat is the line that separates childhood from adulthood? This is, undoubtedly, a complicated question for which there are multiple answers, but neither of them are enough to explain the passage from one stage to the other. This is exactly what Rachel, the main character from ‘’Survival’’, wonders about. This short story, written by award-winning author K.L Going, is about a high-school girl who is about to give a graduation speech, but before doing it, starts recalling some important events from her life which will lead her to the discovery of what being a grown up is. Narrated from the perspective of a young adult, and considering topics related to them, ‘’Survival’’ is definitely Young Adult Literature (YAL). One of the most salient themes in the story is the rite of passage that graduation represents. According to Donelson and Nilsen (1989), the rite of passage is a situational archetype in YAL, and ‘’Survival’’ is a clear example of it. Throughout the story, graduation is ap...

 Filmography- Title: Maat means land (2020) Author: Fox Maxy Time: 30’ F ox Maxy, a young and independent filmmaker from California, who has Kumeyaay and Payómkawichum ancestry, has managed to incorporate into his work the essence of what it means to be a Native American, offering a new viewpoint on issues such as identity, culture, colonization, and decolonization in the United States. Regardless of Maxy’s modest work background, which was originally shared on social media, his work gradually and steadily gained prestige among his followers. Not until the Covid-19 pandemic quarantine did he start editing the long-data collected material by using the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools. Immediately, his work acquired relevant international repercussions as it was shown at festivals such as the BAM Cinema Fest, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), the imagine NATIVE Festival, the MoMA's Doc Fortnight, LACMA, and the Camden International Film Festival 1 ...

 Rap music, which gained popularity in the USA towards the end of the 1970s, has been criticized worldwide. Critics have maintained that this music genre is negative for the youth since it glorifies topics such as violence, sexual exploitation and drug abuse. At the same time, critics have also claimed that rap is just pure entertainment. This is, in part, due to the belief that rap does not express any profound message to its listeners. Given this, rap is considered an inappropriate style for youngsters and it is shunned by adults. Since its inception, rap music has quickly expanded to many different countries and it reached Argentina in the 1980s, where it was accepted and welcomed by young adults, but rejected and underestimated by adults. Nowadays, a new generation of talented Argentinian rappers has emerged to challenge all the prejudices around this type of music. Nicki Nicole and Trueno are among these new artists, but Valentín Oliva, a.k.a Wos, can be distinguished from the...

 Y oung Adults (YA) have been chosen as a major target audience for many companies worldwide. From magazines, such as Girls’ life, Teen People, and Seventeen, to TV shows such as Elite, Skins, and Atypical, the YA market has been considered a very profitable business. However, the adult creators of these products usually have as their main objective to increase their profits and not so much to accompany YAs in this stage of their lives. As technology evolves, YAs are able to create their own content, which has expanded through social media. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, the number of teens that are internet users has increased in the last few years. Additionally, the use of the internet has been intensifying among YAs. Online access to platforms and websites has given many youngsters the possibility to become famous Youtubers, Instagrammers, or Podcasters by just using their mobile phones to record videos or audios. Nonetheless, youngsters are still po...

 K. L. Going HarperCollins Publishers, 2009 T ough and real, Survival is a coming of age story which deals with unrequited love, betrayal, seek for validation and sibling rivalry. Rachel is a teen who has lived under her sister’s shadow her whole life. Ever since she can remember she has been told to grow up, without understanding what that really meant, therefore she has been subconsciously avoiding doing so. As the story develops, we follow her through her last years of high school and witness how she is forced to face the real world Just before her graduation speech, she realises the real meaning of surviving high school, and that those whom she loves the most can hurt her the deepest: "This wasn't what we learned from high school; it was what we learned from life. It was what we would always have to learn again and again. No invisible line would be crossed, no diploma handed out, no age limit surpassed that would ever change this fact." K. L. Going’s descriptiveness i...

 'W hat happened to you, bro? You look like a gigantic muscley thumb,' Oscar says to Milo, the protagonist of the episode 'Big Fish', from the children's TV show Fish hooks. This particular episode begins with a tiny little fish called Milo, who goes to a gym class to get closer to the girls from the school. Ashamed of not weight-training as intensely as girls do, Milo decides to become strong to impress the girls, so he goes to 'the big tank,' a place in which fish grow up in size. But the moment that Milo turns into a muscly boy, he becomes ambitious to get even more muscles and to obtain popularity. Milo's unstoppable desires of being the most popular boy at school do not work out very well for him by the end of the day. Throughout the episode ‘Big Fish’, Fish hooks teaches children how ambitiousness can be very dangerous. At the beginning of this episode, Milo instantly becomes bigger and stronger. The new Milo starts lying to his friends about his ...

 H ave you noticed Disney films' tendency to set up a princess who acts like a lady and waits for a man capable of rescuing her from any danger she faces? Probably, you will picture in your mind films like Snowhite, Cinderella or The Little Mermaid. For decades, Disney Animation Studios has been presenting princesses who are at the same time weak-minded. In the 21st century, however, there is a Disney-Pixar film that challenges this tendency. It is the case of the Oscar winning Brave, whose main character is part of the Disney Princess’ line-up. This animated film takes place in the Scottish Highlands, during the Middle Ages, when Queen Elinor makes the preparation for her daughter’s betrothal. Princess Merida bravely rebels against her planned marriage and against her mother's traditional expectations about becoming an ideal royal lady. In the end, when the main conflict is fully developed, Merida ends up saving the day in her own way. While the aforementioned films portray ab...

 I t was a lovely night when the snail saw a gang of slugs enjoying something that seemed to be fresh leaves. Then, the snail stopped and said “why do they always look so happy? I want  to be happy, too”. So, he decided to talk to them. “Hello, friends!” “What’s up, dude? What are you doing here?” “Nothing. I was just looking for something to eat. By the way, what are youeating looks delicious and strange.” “These are toadstools, and to consume it, you have to be part of our gang, the slug gang. But… You can’t with that shell of a baby snail.” After that, the snail felt so bad because he wanted to be part of that cool group. So, he decided to do everything that was upon him to make it possible. When he arrivedhome, he started to smash his shell in order to get rid of it. The next day, the snail went back to the place of the gang, but now without the shell. “Well, well… It looks that the baby snail is a complete adult now. Now you can enjoy our delicious and hallucinatory food....

 A very entertaining video is introduced to talk about jobs in The Job Song. Sesame Street never fails in entertaining children while talking about important topics, as in this case is jobs. This video introduces different jobs from different puppets while singing a song. The fact that these jobs are presented through a song is what catches, not only native children, but also ESL students’ attention and stimulates them to listen and sing to this song. Through the use of puppets, children are able to learn about different jobs in an enjoyable way. Besides, by the use of repetition, the song becomes catchy and unforgettable, especially for ESL students who might get easily bored with a topic. The use of repetition allows children to sing along with the puppets, as they already know the sentence that comes next. For example ‘Jobs are important, the work that we do. Jobs are the things we do every day.’ The Job Song by Sesame Street is a good option to introduce the topic of jobs in a ...

  W hen my sisters were younger, they had an incredible imagination. They used to picture different scenarios taking place at home or at the park, and they interpreted a big variety of roles to play. I remember my parents hiding secret gifts all around the house for my sisters and I to discover. We played detectives and celebrated by sharing the hidden presents after finding them. We were curious, creative and free. We learnt that sharing and playing all together as a team was important to develop a good relationship. Nevertheless, it was not an easy task for my parents to provide such good values to us. There are plenty of methods for parents to use in order to transmit good values to children, and animated TV shows seem to be one of the most popular methods so far. Since their creation, most animated TV shows have taken the job of providing entertainment while implicitly transmitting values to children, and 2004 Backyardigans makes the work seem effortless. The popular show is a ...

 I still remember when I was a child how much I wanted to be older. I used to envy my older sisters because I thought that growing up was amazing. They could go out with their friends and also choose what clothes they would wear. They were free and I wanted a piece of that freedom too. Now, as an adult, I realize that things are not so simple but I still think that growing up is something amazing since it makes me who I am today. However, this positive vision towards adulthood is not always shared. Many of the movies for children show that growing up is sad and depressing. The movie Boss Baby is one of them. It has a nice message of brotherhood since it shows how Tim, a 7-year-old boy learns how to be a good brother. However, this movie has another not-so-nice message as regards growing up. In fact, the movie Boss Baby is a bad influence for children because it shows that growing up is something negative. In the movie, after being grounded by his parents, Tim decides to try to get...