BE INSPIRED
FEB
2019
A HELLO //
For me, inspiration has always been one of the easiest things to find. It exists everywhere: in other people, in nature, in ourselves. One of my absolute favorite things is seeing other people’s success and feeling joy and empowerment, without any jealousy or insecurity. For when we are happy for other’s accomplishments and our own, do we rise together. February is a month of love and growth, something we are always seeking more of. Here’s to discovering that within ourselves. With love, Jennifer Xia -founder & editor-in-chief
The photographs for the cover and for the article on GCB Studios were all done by the talented Amanda He.
CONTENTS // February Tunes // 1 Bloom // 2 TheirStory: GCB Studios // 3 – 9 Meet the GCB Studios Team // 10 Meet Photographer: Amanda He // 11 Photo: Bring Your Own Best Friend // 12 Photos: Afternoon Filling // 13 – 14 Photo: Modern Market // 15 you were a great thing from the very beginning poem // 16 Hold on to the Grief Poem // 17 Photos: Rain on Pavement // 18 – 21 TMEA Trip 2019 // 22 – 25 The Sea and Me Poem // 26 Inspirations // 27 Chella Man and Morgan Harper Nichols // 28 Photos: Bus Ride Home // 29 – 30 Photo: Supermarket Saturday // 31 Sources of Inspiration // 32 Photos: Outside, I breathe a little better // 33 – 38 Photo: A little nook and me // 39 Photo: From the outside looking in // 40 Photos: Light from within // 41 – 42 Food Review: Bravazo Peruvian Rotisserie // 43 – 44 Photos: Legacy Hall // 45 – 48 We are not Invincible // 49 Thank you, February // 50
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FEBRUARY TUNES All The Pretty Girls // KALEO Coffee // beebadoobee Collide // Howie Day Don’t Let Me Go // Allman Brown Eyes in the Sun // Florist First Day Of My Life // Bright Eyes Girls Just Wanna Have Fun // Cyndi Lauper Gold Angel // Minke Good Cry // Noah Cyrus Hearts Don’t Break Round Here // Ed Sheeran Helplessly // Tatiana Manaois HIM // Sam Smith Holy // King Princess Hunnie Pie // Zella Day Just A Little Bit Of Your Heart // Ariana Grande One More Time With Feeling // Regina Spektor Sea of Love // Cat Power Seaside // The Kooks shut up // Greyson Chance Sweet Disposition // The Temper Trap Technicolour Beat // Oh Wonder Till I Get There // Lupe Fiasco Valentine // Kina Grannis Warm On A Cold Night // HONNE We Find Love // Daniel Caesar Why iii Love the Moon. // Phony Ppl Write It in the Sky // Kina Grannis 7 Days // Alessia Cara
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THEIRSTORY: GCB STUDIOS
4 of doing something greater than just selling clothes. “We wanted to make a local impact and give back to the community. We decided to focus on education because education is a gateway to limitless life paths. It was important to us that what we do with our time makes a positive impact within our community.” Karen says.
“It was important to us that what we do with our time makes a positive impact within our community.
GCB Studios is a streetwear company started by four passionate students from Plano Senior High School, with the mission of representing a generation of trailblazers and spreading a message of love in the face of a society of hate. This is the team behind GCB: Pablo Romero, CEO; Caleb Yu, CFO; Karen Yang, Creative Director; and Alex Cao, Designer. All four students share a common passion for fashion, receiving inspiration from up-and-coming streetwear brands. However, their company goes beyond just pursuing this passion, but to a greater compassionate cause. 100% of the proceeds GCB makes from selling its streetwear are donated towards the Head Start of Greater Dallas, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that “serves more than 4,400 low-income, preschool age children, and their families at 46 center locations throughout Dallas County” (“Head Start of Greater Dallas”, 2010). Although Head Start of Greater Dallas receives about $34 million from the federal government in order to manage its program, the nonprofit organization is required to match 20% of this amount. This comes from the support of local communities through volunteerism and donations. This is where GCB has stepped in, with the mission
GCB’s donations help support the efforts of Head Start of Greater Dallas. Head Start serves a diverse population. “Hispanic children comprise 55% of the total, while African-American children comprise 39%, Anglos 2%, Asian-Americans 1%, and other approximately 3%. Most Head Start parents are single and more than 70 percent work” (Head Start of Greater Dallas, 2010). Head Start seeks to address the nutrition, education, health, family, and special services of children, wanting to help children achieve academic success along with helping families become self-reliant. “Being a high schooler, it is difficult to enact change and influence the world around us. Through our partnership with Head Start, it is so rewarding to see the direct impact that we are making. Recipients of a strong education, it is important for us to ensure that others receive a similar support system for a successful future,” says Caleb. This tenacity to create a tangible impact in their community has motivated the four students to continue their company and release new products. But where did this creative endeavor all begin? “GCB Studios started with an idea by Karen and me in our freshman year. Originally, we would just joke about starting a clothing company and discussed what designs we would want to incorporate. But schoolwork got pretty intense and we didn’t talk about it for a while,” Pablo says.
“Recipients of a strong education, it is important for us to ensure that others receive a similar support system for a successful future.”
5 However, the idea was ignited and the four students didn’t let school stop them from pursuing this passion project. “ I proposed the idea to Caleb on the business side of things, and we just started working on the project a few minutes at the beginning of our physics class,” says Pablo. From that moment forward, a team began to form. They reached out to Alex, who had a reputation for his art, and the team was born. Fashion is an essential aspect of society’s culture, a form of expression that is fluid and diverse in its individuality. Streetwear has a variety of definitions, but what is evident is that streetwear is more than simply clothing, but a culture. GCB wanted to use the power of clothing to spread an empowering message to love more. “Fashion is personal. As we discover our own style, we discover our identity as well. It’s all about exploring new facets, pushing boundaries, and becoming comfortable with who you are in the world,” Karen says. Along with clothing’s influence on people as individuals, clothing serves as a way to connect with others. Alex says, “It’s a mainstream avenue for creativity and art that everyone can participate in. Creative works through art are many times under looked. Through clothing, fashion makes art accessible. At the end of the day, clothing also is just a great boost for self-esteem; if you look good, you feel good.” GCB’s clothing surrounds the idea of compassion for yourself and your community. Their slogan, Love more, exemplifies what the company believes in.
“It’s all about exploring new facets, pushing boundaries, and becoming comfortable with who you are in the world.” However, the well-designed products that you see at the end had humble beginnings. “Most of my designs start off as doodles on the edges of notebook papers in class. Sometimes I’ll have ideas just pop into my head or I’ll get inspiration from other designers and fashion trends,” says Alex. Once an idea is settled on, a clean digital copy is made, which gets sent to their clothing printing company. The GCB team receives samples that are approved, until it’s time to decide how many products to produce and when to release them. “I think the most
satisfying part is getting the final article of clothing with my art printed on it, ready to sell,” says Alex. GCB’s first drop was in November of 2017, which featured the X tee, the Hunger tee, and the GCB Logo tee. Since then, they have dropped their products for a second time in February of 2019 with their Love More tee, Highlighter hoodie, and the limited Space Oddity tee. However, their journey hasn’t been without its challenges. As a team of high schoolers, handling the logistics of a business is a monstrous task in itself. “None of us had ever taken a business class before we started, so it was all on us to learn everything, from how to go about producing the shirt to figuring out profit margins. Everything we’ve done has been entirely self-taught: creating budgets, designing a website, and marketing campaigns. We’ve definitely made mistakes, but we’ve learned so much from our first drop in 2017 and are only continuing to grow,” Karen says. GCB’s commitment to overcoming the challenges of going into a project full of uncertainty of how to handle the finance and marketing aspect truly illustrates how tenacious these four students are. While it started out as a passion project, GCB has grown far greater than that, inspiring me and other people to initiate the change we want to see. “The most gratifying part of being a part of GCB Studios is seeing the impact that we have made. We have a supportive community that appreciates the designs we put out. There is an inimitable thrill in seeing people in public wearing a product that we spent months designing and crafting,” Caleb says. On Instagram @gcbstudios, GCB Studios has more than 450 followers and more than 50 posts, showcasing their clothing.
“The most gratifying part of being a part of GCB Studios is seeing the impact that we have made.” Where does GCB go from here? Although the possibility of separate colleges creates new challenges of how to run the business, the GCB team hopes to expand the brand in the future. “The four of us have already gained so much experience from our first two drops, so if we keep improving and learning from ourselves and others along the way, we might just have a shot at making it big” says Alex.
6 Not only does GCB hope to continue their brand, but the company also hopes to continue making an impact in the community. “We hope that as our business grows, we will be able to make a greater difference. There are so many local causes we could support, beyond what we are currently doing. The potential is limitless” says Karen. I am so inspired by GCB Studio’s mission and the dedication its team puts toward making its quality products and learning the logistics of running a business as merely high school students. They exemplify the power of even youth to make a difference in your community. If you would like to read up on more information regarding Head Start of Greater Dallas, here is a link to their page: http://www.hsgd.org/about-us Their centers operate from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and all services to children and family are provided at no cost for families that meet the federal poverty lines. Like GCB says the potential is limitless.
“The potential is limitless.”
www.gcb-studios.com
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meet the team
Alex Cao Designer
Pablo Romero CEO
Karen Yang Creative Director Caleb Yu CFO
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MEET THE PHOTOGRAPHER Meet Amanda He, a high school senior, who has always had a passion for creating art and taking photos. She specializes in lifestyle and portrait photography. Her talent speaks for itself. Photographs by her are featured on the cover and pages 3-9. For business inquiries, visit her website.
@amandahephoto
www.amandahe.com
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bring your own best friend
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Smoky Chicken Bowl at Modern Market
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22 The whole entire trip, we had Ariana Grande playing and stuck in our heads. Once we stopped at Waco, we got lunch at Chipotle and Pie Five before heading back to drive all the way to San Antonio. I tried reading my book for my literature class, The Bell Jar, but fell asleep as soon as I got through the foreword. I woke up a little before we got to our hotel and we explored the hotel after checking into our rooms. We took pictures by the poolside, which was lit up at night. I’ve always thought that pools at night are so beautiful and eerily mysterious looking.
TMEA TRIP 2019 The Texas Music Educators Association, TMEA, is an organization comprised of over 11,000 passionate school music educators with the mission of promoting excellence in music education. TMEA has five divisions: Band, Orchestra, Vocal, Elementary, and College. My high school orchestra had the honor of performing at the TMEA Clinic/Convention, which took place in downtown San Antonio at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. The first day, February 13th, 2019, we showed up to school with our suitcases and backpacks packed. Everyone stood chattering excitedly in the orchestra room as we waited for our charter bus to arrive. Once we boarded the bus, my friends Jess and Katie and I went down the “36 questions to Make You Fall in Love With Someone.” It was really fun getting to learn more about people that I already knew so well. I’m always surprised by how much there still is to know about people. Katie’s perfect day starts out with a cup of orange juice and going outside to hike, before settling down for a nice book at the end of the day. Jessica wishes she had tried out for more plays in theatre and is most grateful for the people in her life.
We then went to the restaurant Maria Mia Mexican Bistro, which had plates of rice and veggies along with sizzling pans of chicken and beef that came along with heated tortillas. Katie and I created our own little handshake during dinner, something that took many laughs and attempts to get right! We went back to our hotel room and showered, doing some homework before heading to sleep, ready for performance day. The next day, we woke up at 7 a.m. and got breakfast at the hotel buffet. Then we relaxed in our
23 hotel room before it was time to change into our dresses and board the bus to drive to the convention. We had only two hours to get lunch and explore the Riverwalk area so it was sadly a rushed time, but Katie and I both got pho as a tradition and we all rushed back to the convention to finally perform! Our performance actually went really well. It’s always amazing getting to perform in front of a new audience, because it makes the music feel fresh and revived. We had been playing this music for months on end, which is a hard thing to do. But our orchestra director continually reminded us that this was brand new music for whoever was listening and that we still had a chance to change someone’s life, which I think is a pretty great philosophy to apply to anything in life. After the concert was over, I changed into comfy shorts and a t-shirt. While I was leaving the packing room, I was able to see my old orchestra director, which made me really happy to see him and give him a hug! Katie, Kevin, and I walked around outside and took some final pictures before Katie and I tried to finish up our pho before boarding the bus to head back home. On the way back, Jess got into NYU, which was amazing to be able to witness right in front of me. I heard a loud gasp before the tears began to flow. She deserves it so much and I can’t wait to see where she goes in life. After a long drive past long stretches of grass and a fading sky, we got dinner at McDonalds before heading back on the bus for one last time. With a few final hugs, the trip was over. Thank you San Antonio for capturing my heart another time.
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INSPIRATIONS The world can often feel too big, too challenging, too overwhelming. Our place in it can feel insignificant at times. But when you see the kind of change people make every day, you start to see that you aren’t as small as you think. You start to recognize that you can make tangible change if only you just start. I’ve always gathered great inspiration from those around me. I know people who have started nonprofits to raise money for refugee families, created their own dance group, website, clothing brand. The list goes on and on. These are the kind of people we celebrate as much as we celebrate ourselves. When we see that people just like us are capable of doing good in their own ways, we ignite that drive in ourselves. Here are a few people that personally inspire me in many facets of life: creatively, personally, academically. Who inspires you?
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Chella Man is a 19-year-old, deaf, genderqueer, artist that has always been open about his journey transitioning on testosterone. He’s extremely vocal about advocating for those with disabilities, to treat them with patience, empathy, and respect. Chella Man himself has cochlear implants to help him hear. Although he is studying virtual engineering at the New School in NYC, he is well known for his activism and art, spreading awareness on transitioning, being deaf, and learning how to respect those that are different than ourselves. @chellaman @chellamanart
Morgan Harper Nichols is a poet, artist, and singer-songwriter. I discovered her specifically on Instagram for the art and words she posts, that both are empowering and heartbreaking in their honesty and reassurance to live life with grace and beauty. I would definitely check out her work if words resonate deeply with you. morganharpernichols.com @morganharpernichols
Photo by @ryanduffin
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Sources of Inspiration 1. There’s a moment of peace in the morning right after a nightfall of rain, when the pavement is damp and the grass is saturated with green, and the world seems asleep. The air smells like earth, deep and rich like sweat, the honest smell of dirt. For this moment, the world feels like yours and it is beautiful. It makes you want to take a picture, write, be outside more. For this moment, you belong to something greater. 2. She’s talking so fast that her words start to slur together. Right now, her smile is starting from her eyes first and she looks different. This is how someone looks when they are passionate. Effervescent. Glowing. She has too much to say and too little time. But she tries to say it all anyway. 3. He is playing his instrument and you have never seen him more like himself. You notice the ways his cheeks inflate, lips rest, fingers hold, as he does what he loves. He is lost in the music and yet he has never felt more certain. This is beautiful to witness. 4. The woman in the pasta aisle asks you how to send a picture on her phone. Her daughter texted her to get a certain pasta shape and she has no earthly idea what it’s supposed to look like. You laugh and show her, and she is gracious for something you find simple. It is in these simple things with strangers that show you how good it feels to help someone. 5. You pass by a mirror and see yourself in a new way. Your cheeks have new freckles. Your hair is curling just right today. You feel strong. Your new sweater makes you feel at home. You are empowered. Your teeth don’t make you feel insecure. You smile today. You put yourself out there today. You don’t bother looking in the mirror again because you like how you feel.
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BRAVAZO: Peruvian Rotisserie During a free period at school, my friends and I went to Legacy Hall, which is a food hall with 24 artisanal food stalls run by local chefs. It has both dining, drinking, and entertainment, but the atmosphere itself was my favorite part. Upon walking into legacy hall, I was immediately struck with the chatter of people and the busy activity of each individual stall cooking. The hall was dimly lit and glowed with the neon signs of each stall and the exposed lightbulbs of the hall. The diversity of food choose from was what I really loved about Legacy Hall, in types of cuisine, health consciousness, and breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I ordered from Bravazo Rotisserie, which celebrates the flavors of Latin America. Bravazo means awesome, or exceptional, and that’s definitely what I tasted in their food. I ordered the Chicken Sandwich for $11.50, which has pulled rotisserie chicken, pickled red onion, avocado, and their Bravazo sauce, along with a side of Chimichurri Fries, which is coated in a flavorful garlic, parsley, parmesan, and extra virgin olive oil coating for $4.50. The fries were still crispy, even with the coating. Warning, the flavor was fairly strong, which I personally love, but if you have an interview or date, I would definitely make sure you have some mints or that you love garlic breath. I think the chicken could have had a little more rotisserie depth of flavor but the avocado gave it a richness to contrast the brightness of the onions, and it was extremely filling. I would highly recommend checking this stall out if you visit Legacy Hall!
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There is a moment when you realize that you are not invincible. I found out that someone in my school lost their dad to a heart attack. One second he was fine, and the next, he is driving home from work and ends up in the hospital. That night, I cooked dinner and made sure my dad ate vegetables, asking him about his high blood pressure, and told him to walk on the treadmill, something he had been putting off for weeks. When you come to terms with the fact that you aren’t immune from life’s uncertainties, in both its wonders and tragedies, you gain a whole new perspective on life. You hold onto people a little harder, care a little more, and wonder why you weren’t doing the same from the very beginning. But you take all the learning you can get, even if it takes a tragedy.
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With love and grace, Thank you, February.