5SR - January 31, 2024

Today’s #5SmartReads contributor is Madison T. Clark, a full-time freelance writer, part-time college counselor, and the founder of Grief Cards, a company that makes sympathy cards that don't suck.

Transgendered Candidate in Ohio Disqualified for not Disclosing Birth Name (New York Times)
link gifted via my subscription

I don’t know how exactly this story will play out, but I still think it’s an important one to be aware of. Vanessa Joy is a woman running for her state’s House race. Or, well, she was.

Vanessa never found any notice that her deadname needed to be included on her candidacy petition. She is in the process of appealing this decision, knowing full well that candidates in other parts of the state aren’t being punished in the same way for the same mistake.

Different rules are being followed by different districts, different legislations, based on arbitrary bits and bobs that no one can seem to fully explain, much less defend. Vanessa is working to become the first openly transgender elected official in the state of Ohio, and while that dream definitely isn’t impossible, the state’s governing bodies seem to be adding as many hurdles as they can.

For Kids of Latino Immigrants in Kansas City, Being the Family Interpreter is an Honor and a Burden (KCUR NPR)

Many of my high school students bear this responsibility: serving as a voice and a microphone for their parents. Just last week, we were working on a FAFSA-adjacent form when one student needed to call a parent to double check an income question. Partway through that phone call, the student asked me, “Can you explain this term again in English so I can better explain it to my mom in Spanish?”

It’s an extra layer of responsibility, especially for my kiddos where the vast majority of them will be first generation college students -- if that’s the path they choose to pursue. But these are the kinds of stories, the extra layers and nuances, that the “average” monolingual person isn’t aware of because it isn’t a cornerstone of our experiences. But the least we can do is make a point to learn more, to do more research, and to keep prompting others to make sure interpreters are readily available for the sake of this and future generations.

The Surprising Gift of the “Old Age” Filter (Things That Don’t Suck)

Andrea Gibson is one of today’s most incredible writers and speakers and public-facing humans. This read is from Andrea’s newsletter, “Things That Don’t Suck,” which currently has a big focus on the cancer that Andrea’s been dealing with for two and a half years.

This particular piece is somehow a study on relationship and aging and heartbreak and intense love, all at once. It’s a personal essay, of sorts, but with the most far-reaching implications. There is so much questioning in our world - who will get to see tomorrow and who won’t and whose fault that will be - and Andrea manages to humanize every bit of it. I encourage you to read this and then read it again, for full effect.

She Blew up her Life to Reform the Fashion Industry (The Cut)

I’d never heard the name Sara Ziff before. But unbeknownst to me, I was very familiar with her advocacy work, particularly her dedication to supporting and empowering survivors of sexual assault. It’s a multi-pronged thing, to try and change the status quo that doesn’t believe survivors, but Ziff has been at it for much of her life.

Here, she celebrates many of the people she’s worked alongside, the different prongs she’s been focused on for years and years, as well as her goals for the future. I’m thankful to know her name, and this piece has inspired me to hunt down the names behind so many other movements that I’m in awe of.

The Girls Shredding the Bronx (The Cut)

Growing up, one of my favorite Disney Channel Original Movies was Brink; one of my earliest crushes was on Fabiola de Silva; and I was on a ‘skate team’ during elementary recess that consisted of ‘grinding’ on the plastic barriers of the playground and doing tricks off the ‘vert’ AKA jumping off of the jungle gym and imitating the skaters we loved.

There’s a fearlessness I see inside of skaters that, today, I still adore and admire. This photo essay manages to capture that fearlessness inside of these young people in the Bronx, while also portraying their sense of community, their sense of justice, and their impatient advocacy. The subsets of communities are so, so fascinating, and skaters continue to somehow toe the line between Outsider and Coolest Aspirational People Ever.

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