A Note From Our Editor

Youth encapsulates significant components of one’s life story. It is valued differently throughout space, time, culture, and environment. Childhood for me encompassed princesses, fresh fruit, monkey bars, and clashing outfit patterns. Youth holds power in its appreciation of energy and the little things.

In many cases, youth is associated with physical appearance, aesthetics, and beauty, with worries of aging instilled in us through media. From makeup and style trends to social activities, youth is valued by mainstream society and desired by many.

It’s believed that youth begins to dissolve during a coming of age in your teenage years. But some people have to grow up faster than others. With a few weeks left of my time at college, the real fears of adulting have set in and I feel as if I am losing some of my youth. However, I know that my inner child blooms within me and will guide me through this next chapter of my life.

Youth embodies so much more than just the transition between childhood and adulthood, or the shift from one version of yourself to the next. Youth represents dynamic and transformative collective power that spans generations. As the world continues to evolve, so do new alternative forms of survival, resistance, and support, to challenge the existing systems of oppression. Intersectional feminists of all ages have contributed to the lasting thread of community building and liberatory work for all marginalized peoples.

In this note, I would like to pass the title of Editor-in-Chief to Bella Garcia, who will continue to allow FEM to thrive. Bella, you will have full support from the FEM Community in leading our publication next year, and I am so excited to see FEM under your guidance from the sidelines.

Thank you to my amazing managing editor, Sophia Obregon, who has helped me make FEM’s accomplishments this year possible — we did it. Thank you to Senior Staff for your care and commitment to FEM’s mission. I am incredibly grateful to FEM staff and the FEM community for making my three years in this organization so special and a highlight of my university experience. The people in FEM have strengthened my feminist practice and provided me with immense support throughout my time as EIC, for which I am profoundly appreciative. I am truly so honored to be a part of the legacy of 50 Years of FEM Newsmagazine and am looking forward to the organization’s bright future.

I present you with our Youth Issue, proposed by FEM Member Sabrina Ellis. Our writers, designers, and creatives traverse the complexities of the youth experience, and the ways in which it informs identity, feminism, and more. Enjoy the Youth Issue!

With love, and signing off, Mar

Escusa

Editor-in-Chief 2022-2023