by Sam Holmes I like to think that I share similarities with Malia and Sasha Obama. After all, the three of us are intelligent, fashionable, widely-loved girls of color, right? Okay, I’m exaggerating. I’m entirely unfamiliar with the burden of having an unbelievably powerful parent, dining with diplomats has never been an item on my…
by Sam Holmes It took me a minute to process what she had just said. It was pretty straight-forward, but I struggled to really wrap my mind around it. She paused, and then repeated herself: “I want to study outside, but I can’t afford to get any darker. This is as dark as I am…
by Sam Holmes I haven’t had the best experiences with required summer readings. An ever growing pile of books haunted me throughout the Julys and Augusts of my high school career. Moby Dick traveled with me to the beach, Taming of the Shrew was in my purse during the summer carnival, and Othello was an…
by Sam Holmes “I’d hate to work in a place that’s like entirely women. It sounds like it would be so shallow and catty” Allie said to me. I’d just told a group of friends about my upcoming internship at Keep America Beautiful, an organization where I’d be working mostly with other women. I was…
by Sam Holmes What is the best way to honor a revolutionary? Should one raise her firsts to the heavens in a moment of somber solidarity? Are candlelight vigils the best way to express one’s gratitude for all that her idol has done for the world? Or maybe one will once again open her biography…
by Maya Brown, Sam Holmes, and Madeleine Nesbitt In the past couple of weeks, the media has blown up about why the first female executive editor of the New York Times, Jill Abramson, was fired. Some sources claimed that she was fired because she brought in a lawyer to talk with her boss, Arthur Sulzberger,…
by Sam Holmes Dear Linda Holmes, My Aunt first showed me one of your blogs over a year ago. That introduction has been, without a doubt, one of the greatest gifts that she has given me in the past 18 years. First and foremost, I have to say thank you. I am one of many people…
by Sam Holmes On my first day of kindergarten, I encountered the consequence of poor representation in media. I remember how terrified I was as I entered the classroom. All my friends from pre-k had gone to other schools, so I didn’t know a single person in my class. When I finally found the courage…