POWER TO THE PEOPLE

by Daniella Gross

As sophomore Hannah Bazo spoke of how she had been told to “go back in hiding” and “go back to the gas chambers” in elementary school, snickers from the left and the right could be heard from nearby peers. Her face dropped, but she hid behind a smile for the remainder of my interview questions. Bazo’s experience in Washington D.C. speaking with Congress about antisemitism and mental health was eye-opening. But while sharing the exciting details, RUHS students displayed exactly what Bazo spoke against.

From Feb. 24–27, Bazo was asked by her rabbi and temple to go on a trip to Washington D.C. with her rabbi and a close friend from South High School in Torrance to speak with Congress about mental health in teens and ways to combat antisemitism.

“It was very comforting going through the whole trip because not only were for Jewish people, was held on the frst night that Bazo arrived. After the meal and prayers, everyone participated in an activity.

“A homeless man came in and talked about how the government did nothing to help or support him and how he became homeless to begin with. It was a heart-toheart conversation, and after his speech, we did an activity where we were given a role [to play] and we had to try and ‘feed our families.’ Those two hours brought up a lot of feelings for many because the questions were intimate, and it was all very moving.” Bazo said. When Bazo was asked to choose a topic to speak with Congress about, she chose mental health because she could relate to it.

89% of American high school students have experienced or witnessed antisemitism at school

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“Seeing myself and other students sufer from mental health and sometimes not get the help they need at school brought to my attention that kids might need help and are afraid to ask for it from their parents or their educators,” Bazo said. “So knowing that we can better the system and hopefully make kids feel more comfortable was important to me.”

Bazo’s congregation, Temple Beth El, partnered up with another congregation, Willshire Boulevard Temple, which spoke about gun laws. The stories shared gave Bazo new insight into others' personal experiences.

Both congregations sat down with California representative Ted Lieu and presented their speeches.

“We [talked about] a quote from the Torah about a man seeking help from God and we also talked about the Mi Shebeirach, which is a prayer for healing the soul. We related this back to mental health, because if the Torah mentions nor malizing mental health long ago, then it should be recognized as a human thing today,” Bazo said.

Unfortunately for Bazo, people criticizing her for her religious beliefs and customs has taken a toll on her mental health.

During elementary school, Bazo encountered many children that called her names, made cruel re marks about her reli gion, and minimized

Sophomore Hannah Bazo traveled to Washington D.C. to speak with Congress about her experience with antisemitism and mental health

her self-worth.

“There were always a couple of kids that would tell me to go back into hiding or say that my relatives were Anne Frank. Some would [reference] Hitler and tell me to go back to the gas chambers. Throughout my life, I've been called these things and an apology note doesn’t stop it from happening,” Bazo said. “At one point in my life, I was ashamed to say that I was Jewish, and I stopped wearing my Star of David necklace.”

Even in high school, Bazo still comes across people disrespecting her for being Jewish. Even while Bazo was sharing her sensitive and personal experiences as a child, students from RUHS overhearing her interview laughed at Bazo.

“I ask myself why they inval idate my stories. They have no idea what it was like, which makes me feel like maybe as a Jew I deserve that. This shouldn’t be normalized, but it has become this way, which is why I don’t let it afect me anymore,” Bazo said.

At school, Bazo has found a safe space with the Jewish Culture Club. There, she can connect with more Jewish kids her age and not feel embarrassed, but rather embrace who she is. Hannah Bazo’s older brother, Jacob Bazo, has seen Bazo gain more self-confdence in recent years. The four-day trip also provided Hannah with the opportunity to be empowered by oth ers' speeches and made new friends along the way.

“From the beginning of sixth grade until now, I’ve seen a huge diference in how Hannah feels [towards Judaism]. She’s more supportive, more into it and has made me want to join more things in the temple congregation,” Jacob Bazo

41% has become so normalized to me that I just let it slide at this point because if you say something, [people] don’t do anything about it,” Hannah Bazo said. “But seeing a bunch of teens get together to make a diference [in Washington D.C.] showed me that we have a voice of Jewish students report being the target of antisemitism at school

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The pressure of beauty standards on high schoolers afects self-esteem and confdence

by Lauren Greene

As she stares in the mirror, she searches for a single feature that she likes about the girl staring back. She fails. This is one of the daily struggles of anonymous sophomore Jane as she aspires to ft societal beauty standards that will determine her self worth.

“I've never had very high self esteem,” Jane said. “People always say, ‘Fake it ‘till you make it,’ but it's really hard to fake it when every day you're looking in the mirror, and you just can't stand what is looking right back at you."

According to licensed marriage and family therapist Jessica Taylor Vara, the pressure teens face to conform to social standards stems from “unhealthy messaging around body image and diet” both at home and on social media. The “non-stop fowing of strong opinions” allows younger generations to doubt themselves without a protective flter for “incorrect information.”

“I think it's a survival mechanism. As humans, we strive to ft in and feel like we're supported in part of a group community so that we're not standing alone. There is this desire to feel loved and valued and import ant,” Vara said.

Since she was in third grade, Jane has struggled with her self-image, learning to tie her self-worth to her appearance in the belief that she will be treated better if she gets “pretti er and prettier.” Society also plac es pressure on individuals to ft a beauty standard based on race, labeling traditional white features as the norm, according to junior Jade Thomas.

“I'm Black and Asian, and in a place like Redondo that is predominantly White, I can see how a lot of minority girls can feel very unseen and not the prettiest. They're so used to [comparing themselves to] all these white girls who have light eyes and perky chests,” Thomas said.

Jane believes that it is important to have more representation of women and individuals of diferent ethnicities in media. In doing so, many young girls from minority backgrounds won’t be left to wonder why they were born with such features that make them feel “worthless.”

“I'm half Asian, and growing up, I’ve been told that I have a wider nose and a shorter nose bridge, and that’s engraved in my mind,” Jane said. “I also always feel like I'm never feminine enough. I’ve heard a lot of comments about my small chest and I feel like it takes away the femininity in me.”

A lack of social acceptance re garding appearance can destroy one’s self-esteem. As a young girl, senior Brooke Talbott would force herself into uncomfortable clothes to “ft in with popular trends,” while today she continues to feel “apprehensive” when she wants to post images that may not be deemed as socially acceptable.

“If you're bigger, you're not supposed to be wearing tank tops or bikinis in beach photos. You're supposed to cover up be cause you're not what society has deemed as ‘pretty,’” Talbott said.

Jane recognizes that she falls into a perpetual state of wanting to alter aspects of her own appearance in or der to achieve beauty.

“I think, ‘If I get rid of my glass es and get contacts, I'll be pretty. If I grow my hair out, I'll be pretty. If I lose weight, if I get rid of my acne, I'll be pretty. But after all of that, I still feel like I'm not enough,” Jane said.

According to Thomas, girls’ self esteem comes not only from their own self-perceptions, but also the comments they hear from others, especially boys, whom she has overheard make “nasty, hateful comments” about girls’ bodies.

“Society tells us to ‘Let boys be boys’ and do whatever they want. So, they often think it's okay to be mean when they don't have a positive feeling towards something,” Thomas said. “But we need to change the way they talk about girls’ bodies, if at all.”

Teenagers see a large gap between societal pressures for wom - and men. According to sophomore Westley Reese, the appearance expectation for guys is more “simple” than that for girls.

“The expectation for guys is to look strong and not look out of shape. You have to work out and have a [specifc] diet. At school, every kid is going to think about [their body image] because [they are exposed to ftness] through P.E., weight training or a sport they play,” Reese said.

In addition, Talbott believes that there are diferences in the way men and women are treated if they don’t conform to traditional social standards.

“Boys struggle with their body image as well, but I think it's so much more focused on young girls and women. If a boy isn't meeting expectations, people are going to make more excuses for him. But if young girls aren't following so cietal expectations, it’s because they're doing something wrong,” Talbott

Vara, however, believes that the division between gender expecta tions may not be as wide as it

“Even though women are more vocal about it, men also struggle internally be cause there's not a lot of openness or validity,” Vara said. “It’s not accepted as easily coming from men because they have grown up not talking about things that bother them and not having emotion. There are nega tive views of self and body image in both men and women.”

Reese be lieves that in ternal pressures often stem from self-comparison to others. For guys, this may create obsessive behaviors in order to achieve a phy sique that is simi lar to or better than those around them.

“Someone who creates their entire personality around going to the gym and trying to look like an other [person] does not really leave time for themselves to be a human. They are so focused on being perfect that they are more like a shell of a human,”

Talbott fnds it important to follow infuencers and spend time with people who make her feel seen and understood. “I want to surround myself with people who make me feel confdent. I know what size I am. I know what clothes are going to make me feel comfortable and I'm not walking into PacSun anymore trying to ft into Brandy Melville because I just know it's unrealistic,” Talbott said.

Jane, on the other hand, often struggles to fnd a way to cope with insecurities, unable to ease the aching sense of unworthiness.

“There's people that I consider perfect, but those people still have things they don’t like about themselves. In the end, looks fade and what's on the inside really is all that's important because that's what stays as you age. I can see beauty in everybody, and if I can see that in everybody, somebody's got to see that in me,” Jane said.

To begin to change toxic societal standards, according to Talbott, more representation of girls of diferent shapes and sizes are needed throughout media and television. Progress toward body acceptance is slow, Vara says, but “we are on the right track as a society.”

“It’s an individual process that then causes the bigger change. [It’s important to ask yourself,] ‘What am I following on social media? What kind of messaging am I contributing to? Is it universally supportive, or am I breeding micro-aggressive hate and negative viewpoints?’” Vara said. “Once we stop following and spreading misinformation and focusing more on the body positive accounts, the gender afrming accounts, the intuitive eating accounts, that shift will slowly happen and the focus will start to change.

While students continue to struggle with the mental health ramifcations of external and internal appearance-related pressures, individuals such as Talbott are still able to step back and refect on the future they hope to create for themselves.

“At the end of the day, I'm still graduating from high school in three months. Don’t let moments where you're having bad days or bad thoughts hold you back. Go to the beach with your friends. Treat yourself to that ice cream. Don't let hard moments stop you from enjoying your life,” Talbott said.

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