March 31, 2023

The Huntington News

March 31, 2023

The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community

THIRD ANNUAL WISE SUMMIT CELEBRATES COURAGE OF FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS

Women entrepreneurs across Northeastern met in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex earlier this month to attend the annual summit held by the Women’s Interdisciplinary Society of Entrepreneurship, or WISE. The event’s theme was “Created by Courage,” recognizing the risks women take in creating their own businesses.

Over the course of nine hours March 18, students attended lectures

and workshops led by female businesswomen, breaking to network and chat over coffee and lunch.

Meghan D’Arcy, WISE’s head of summit, explained that preparations for the conference have been “a year in the making.” Her team began working in the summer of 2022, establishing their theme and vision for the event.

“We picked this theme because a lot of times these great people had key moments in their lives where they picked a certain path

over others,” D’Arcy, a fourth-year business administration and design combined major, said. “It takes a lot of courage to get over the fear of choosing that path, so we wanted to honor those women who were created by courage.”

WISE received support from all of Northeastern’s schools and colleges, in addition to a number of corporate sponsors. D’Arcy said her team worked closely with Betsy Ludwig, Northeastern’s executive director of

women’s entrepreneurship, to make the event possible.

In her opening remarks to the audience, WISE co-director Valerie Robert, a fourth-year computer science and political science combined major, recognized the unique risks female entrepreneurs face in the business industry.

“WISE was created because our founders noticed the lack of women in entrepreneurship,” Robert said.

“One of the biggest challenges preventing women from becoming

entrepreneurs is the fear of failure. When women do fail, they are judged more harshly than their male counterparts. We want to give women and non-binary students resources to support them and their ideas.”

The event kicked off with two keynote speakers. Melinda Smith, a former chief financial officer at Venmo, shared her experience working at technology startups during economic downturns.

CONFIDENCE, on Page 2

EMPOWER debuts new theme, ‘Ignite,’ for 2023 Student of Color Conference

By Crescent Huang News Correspondent

The EMPOWER Students of Color Collective launched a new theme this year for its annual conference aiming to create a safe and empowering space for students of color. With a focus on community building and social consciousness, the program was designed to ignite leadership skills and inspire change within the student body.

Under the theme of “Ignite,” the collective organized a series of workshops and events March 18 centered around the experiences of students of color, with the goal

CITY

Ukraine-inspired pâtisserie revitalizes neighborhood

Learn about Boston College grads who quit jobs in finance to open a bakery honoring their heritage.

of sparking a flame of activism and empowerment that will shine brightly in their communities.

The conference began with Northeastern’s Dean of Cultural and Spiritual Life Bob Jose briefing the audience on the history of EMPOWER.

“[EMPOWER] really started about 12 years ago because of an issue that had come about and [was] raised by students of color,” Jose said. “They did not feel that they were being adequately represented by SGA. There was a very large and very loud meeting, in what is now the Center for Intercultural Engagement … the room was packed [and] made their issues known to SGA leadership.”

Jose stated that shortly after that meeting, he and the director of the Asian American Center at the time determined they had to create a platform where students of color could learn and understand the resources available to them. He also emphasized that EMPOWER is a platform where different centers can connect together.

“It was a way of networking, so that Black students can meet Asian students; Asian students can meet Latin students; Latin students can meet Muslim students … and you won’t necessarily get that in your center. But this is a collaborative effort between all the centers,”

said.

IDENTITY, on Page 2

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Photo by Erin Fine

Photo by Ali Caudle

Jose

Members of the EMPOWER Collective pose for a group photo during the 2023 Student of Color Conference. The collective was started 12 years ago by students of color who felt they were underrepresented by SGA.

Photo courtesy Dani Rodriguez

Meghan D’Arcy, WISE’s head of summit, explains the significance of this year’s theme ‘Created by Courage.’ During the event, panelists emphasized the unique risks female entrepreneurs face in the business industry. “One of the biggest challenges preventing women from becoming entrepreneurs is the fear of failure,” said WISE Co-director Valerie Robert.

Photo by Katy Manning

By Katy Manning | News Staff

Women in business share experiences in male-dominated industry at conference

She reassured her young audience that opportunities for women in technology would continue to grow, despite the current state of the economy.

“I know that the WISE organization is newer, and it helps promote a unique women’s-only space,” Smith said in an interview with The News. “I’ve been in my career for 25 years now, and I thought that empowering and encouraging the student population here would be a great message to send.”

She was followed by Emily Herrera, a former WISE member who currently works as an investor at Night Ventures and is the founder of The Wiress, a community for women in startups. Herrera, who described herself as an “aggressive

girls’ girl,” discussed her experience feeling isolated in the male-dominated world of venture capital, creating her community for women to share their experiences.

In 15-minute “lightning talks,” Colette Divitto of Collettey’s Cookies shared her experience starting her own company as a woman with Down syndrome, and Crissi Cole of Penny Finance shared how she transitioned from working at Goldman Sachs to starting her own business.

Cole was transparent with her audience, sharing her best and worst moments that led her to where she is today.

“Entrepreneurship is not straight up — life is not straight up,” Cole said. “I thought my life was a series of highs and lows, but it turns out that everything was a stepping

stone. All those years in New York I learned how to invest and build tech so that I could eventually start Penny [Finance].”

Kimberly Nguyen, a second-year business administration major, said it was reassuring to hear about Cole overcoming her obstacles.

“I think that as women in business, we’re really scared to face failure,” Nyugen said. “It was really nice to hear that she went through those obstacles and learned from it.”

Event programming continued even through the lunch break, allowing attendees the chance to network as well as directly engage with female entrepreneurs in the small business marketplace.

One of the vendors, Laurel Greenfield, creates colorful prints and paintings of food. She came

to the event not only to sell her products, but also to share her knowledge with a new generation of female entrepreneurs.

“I went to Boston University, and when I heard about WISE, I was so jealous that Northeastern has this organization because it isn’t always easy to meet young female business owners,” Greenfield said. “I love speaking with younger women who want to start a business and talk about all the different ways they can do that. It’s important to me to connect with that community and show younger women what’s possible.”

Throughout the one-hour break, the first floor of ISEC continued to buzz with energy. Attendees chatted with old friends and made new connections while discussing various entrepreneurship-related questions sitting atop the tables.

Emma Jepsen, a second-year business administration major, said the positive environment is what drew her back to the summit for the second year in a row.

“I came last year and I didn’t know anyone, but I was immediately so well received,” Jepsen said. “Everyone here is so welcoming and loving. The energy is amazing.”

Attendees then had the opportunity to participate in two workshops, with topics ranging from personal finance to storytelling for business. Leading these sessions were female founders and CEOs of Boston-based businesses such as JUICYGREENS, Chew Innovation and Wyllo.

The event finished off with a keynote by Jules Pieri, founder, CEO and investing partner at XFactor Ventures, a female-founded investment company.

Claire Healy, a second-year business administration and political science combined major, said she appreciated the diverse backgrounds of all the speakers.

“It’s cool to see that the vast majority of them ended up doing something that wasn’t their college major or what they had expected to do,” Healy said. “It was great to hear as someone who isn’t exactly sure what I want to do.”

Healy said she has attended other business events, particularly those focused on venture capital, that are often male dominated.

“I saw this event that was created for women, by women, and I knew that it was something I was interested in,” she said.

Attendee Lizzie Beckett, a second-year economics major, said the focus of these lectures wasn’t what she had expected when signing up for the event.

“I like that the focal point isn’t necessarily female empowerment,” Beckett said. “It’s just about their success in business, and it normalizes female success instead of pretending that it’s special. It’s my first WISE event and it’s really interesting to see their approach, not treating female entrepreneurship like it’s exceptional.”

This feeling of normalizing female success in business is what made D’Arcy love summit in the first place and keeps her involved in the event year after year.

“I attended the very first summit during my freshman year, and it was like my second week on campus,” D’Arcy said. “It was the first time that these big ideals and goals actually felt attainable. I loved that feeling and I want other members of the Northeastern community to feel that too.”

Workshops create space for students of color to develop leadership skills, build community

IDENTITY, from front

Kya Martine, a confidential resource advisor in the Office of Prevention and Education at Northeastern and the keynote speaker at the EMPOWER conference, introduced the term “accountable space” to people in attendance.

Martine understands the phrase “what is safe today might not be safe tomorrow” and said she wanted this EMPOWER conference to be a space where everyone felt safe to tell stories. During her keynote speech, Marine expressed that being a person of color and a woman of color made her contribute and push herself more.

“We don’t get to be who we are,” Martine said of people of color. She believes passion is the virtue that keeps her driven.

The conference had 11 workshops in total. One of the workshops focused on intersectionality and how the interaction of certain identities affects the way certain communities navigate society. A second workshop aimed to address a shared experience

amongst many students of color: imposter syndrome.

Another workshop raised awareness about implicit bias and microaggressions, discussing strategies to tackle the latter.

Vy-Le Thao, a third-year bioengineering major who attended the conference, said she came to the EMPOWER event because of its opportunities to meet students and staff members outside of the Asian American Center. Thao felt that EMPOWER allowed a unique space for students of color and community leaders to interact with each other.

“Because the Asian American Center is the community that I interact with the most, I just wanted to learn more about other programs and interact with other circles,” Thao said. “It’s also an opportunity for us to connect and share about our experiences and learn about other people’s experiences in a way that you don’t usually do.”

The first afternoon workshop explored ideas of care from Deanna Zandt’s mini-comic “The Unspoken Complexity of Self-Care.” Partic-

ipants identified and celebrated some of the skills that earned them admission to an elite institution while discussing techniques on how to best leverage them in higher education at another session. Lastly, the “Music that Moves Us” workshop allowed participants to curate a playlist that expressed themselves and connected them to their cultural backgrounds.

Dani Rodriguez, the assistant director for the Social Justice Resource Center as well as the EMPOWER Planning Committee, emphasized the importance of education at the conference to ignite students’ social consciousness.

“When you leave the conference, you will hopefully take some hard skills and some soft skills with you in terms of how to address a particular issue that a lot of students of color might face … but we also make sure every year that some of our workshops are also just a space for students of color to heal,” Rodriguez said.

Sara Rivera, the associate director at the Latinx Student Culture Center

and a member of the EMPOWER committee, emphasized how she likes being able to engage with students of color, but also help them make connections with each other and the staff.

“I feel a sense of pride,” Rivera said. “Because they have faith and confidence in my ability to help them, but also even for them to have the courage to reach out to somebody that they may not otherwise know.”

Looking forward to next year’s conference, Jose said the EMPOWER summit will transform in whichever way students want it to.

“This is really student driven … students will tell us, what’s the awareness they need, what’s the knowledge they need, what’s the skills they need?” he said. “We listen to the fellows, and we get feedback from the people here.”

CONFIDENCE, from front

Photo by Katy Manning Attendees continue to network with female entrepreneurs and businesswomen from various industries during the lunch break. This year’s summit was hosted in ISEC.

Jose opens the conference as attendees eat a complimentary breakfast in the Curry Ballroom. He said EMPOWER provided a way for students of color to connect outside of established cultural centers.

Photo courtesy Dani Rodriguez

Bisexual women on campus struggle with acceptance and support from community

By Val O’Neill News Staff

This past November, Emily O’Brien met her now boyfriend. When O’Brien, a second-year English and journalism combined major at Northeastern, excitedly went to tell her all-queer friend group the good news, she didn’t get the reaction she was hoping for.

After telling them she thought she might find a happy relationship with this cisgender and straight man, one of her friends tugged at the rainbow Pride flag hanging in her dorm room and said, “I guess we should take this down.” O’Brien laughed along with her friends, but felt a sinking feeling when she realized her queer-identifying friends had just completely invalidated her sexuality. As one of the few bisexualidentifying women in her friend group, O’Brien felt isolated and disapproved of.

“I have been told to ‘pick a side’ by straight people and it never really bothered me,” O’Brien said. “But it was weird that the people I found comfort with were the ones invalidating me.”

O’Brien is not the only one who has felt as though the very people who should be the most accepting about sexual identity are the ones who discredited hers the most.

Many bisexual students have found their sexuality continuously discredited by people in general and specifically by those within the LGBTQ+ community. Bisexual women who date men are either “jumping to conclusions’’ or “faking it for attention,” but minimizing a bisexual-identifying person’s sexuality due to their choice of partner can be damaging and diminishing to their identity.

“Just because someone is in a relationship with a person of a specific gender doesn’t negate their identity or their attraction to another gender,” said Thekla Morgenroth, an assistant professor of psychological sciences at Purdue University.

“There’s a vast body of literature on identity denial, and it shows that if you have a certain identity and other people question that identity, that that can have consequences for mental health.”

According to a 2013 Pew Research Center study with 1,197 respondents, only 9% of bisexual-identifying people are in relationships with someone of the same sex, compared to 84% who are in relationships with the opposite sex. Bisexuality only began to attract attention in the late 1970s, making it a still-relatively new category of the LGBTQ+ community, especially to older generations who believe someone can only be gay or straight.

However, that perception is changing with a younger, more accepting generation.

“It’s more acceptable to be openly bisexual and there’s more representation of that in the media,” Morgenroth said. “These [identity] categories are becoming more fluid and less binary, especially among younger folks.”

The COVID-19 pandemic also gave many people the courage and incentive to find themselves and come out, with a specific uptick in bisexual-identifying people in Generation Z, according to Gallup’s 2020 survey estimate, which found bisexuality to be the most common LGBTQ+ identity among Gen Z. Roughly three-quarters of the Pew study were bisexual women. This created a new problem: people accusing bisexual women, especially those who date men, of “following the trend.” Bisexual women are one of the biggest targets of invalidation of their sexualities.

O’Brien knows this well. Back in her dorm room, she knew her friends were joking, but she still felt unsupported and hurt.

“I thought the queer community had moved past this type of biphobia,” O’Brien said. “But that is not always the case.”

A queer history lesson and how it’s changing

The idea of bisexuality has been present dating back to ancient Rome and even further back in history. People have always experienced attraction to both genders, but when the term “bisexuality” as a sexual orientation gained popularity in the 1970s, the stigmatization towards it came too.

“In Europe, leading to the colonization of the Americas, things were much more repressive in terms of the influence of the church on sexuality,” said Sarah Jen, an assistant professor in the School of Social Welfare at Kansas University. “That’s when homosexuality and bisexuality [were] much more stigmatized. Not only stigmatized but demonized. It was considered a sin and folks were actually criminalized for engaging in those kinds of behaviors.”

After the sexual revolution in the 1960s and early ‘70s, Jen said, many people began to speak out more about sexuality, and people became more familiar with different sexual orientations. However, that came with consequences.

“We kind of developed some of our now-current stereotypes of bisexuality, including the idea that bisexual women are really deep, nonmonogamous and hypersexual and want to have sex with everybody,” Jen said.

After the sexual revolution, heading into the late 1990s and the early 2000s, the stereotypes revolving around bisexuality shifted. Jen said it’s “much more defined by, ‘is bisexuality enough? Is it queer enough? Does it fit into

this community enough because it feels like this in between, liminal, marginal space?”’

According to a report by the Center for American Progress, gay and lesbian people reported facing more discrimination than bisexual people, but bisexual people reported a much higher rate of feelings of isolation and shame about their sexual orientation, which also causes an uptick in bisexual people’s mental health issues.

In 1952, the American Psychological Association published the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, which classified homosexuality as a mental disorder.

Since the ‘50s, when the DSM considered the LGBTQ+ community a cesspool of mental illness, society has come a long way in recognizing all types of sexualities as legitimate, specifically bisexuality.

“With that, we also kind of get more of the stigma and more of the kind of pushback of legitimacy, of bisexuality and identity,” Karpman said.

Bisexuality is placed in a gray area, Karpman said, because lesbian and gay are seen as “either or,” and bisexuality more “encompasses the ‘and.’”

Karpman defines this invalidation by others in the LGBTQ+ community as “double discrimination.” When the discrimination comes from peers in the community, it increases that feeling of isolation, she said. “The more oppression we feel coming from all angles, the more intense and harder things are going to be.”

Where bisexuality is going

The invalidation and erasure of bisexuality has been proven to increase the chances of bisexualidentifying people suffering from the most mental health issues, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

“Anybody in a minority group experiences minority stress, which is like the feeling of being othered by those around you,” said Charlotte Fountaine, a service and product designer based in London, and the founder of Kalda, the world’s first LGBTQ+ mental wellbeing app.

“If you’re bisexual in a sort of straight passing relationship, the kind of otherness is doubled because you don’t feel necessarily at home in the LGBT community,” Fountaine said.

Fountaine’s app, Kalda, offers video courses on offers video course on accepting one’s sexuality without attending actual sessions. The app offers one called “Embracing Bisexuality,” which helps bisexualidentifying people overcome stigmas.

“For instance, the idea that you’re greedy or the idea that you’re on your way to a monosexual kind of sexuality,” Fountaine said. “[The idea that] you’re going to turn out to be gay or turn out to be straight, when in reality, having a fluid sexual identity is totally valid.”

These types of stigmas and commentary from others can also result in the internalization of these ideas, which can be even more dangerous to a queer person’s mental health.

“I think the most classic … symptom of having some kind of internalized biphobia is the constant questioning of ‘am I bi,’” Fountaine said, “Trying to understand, ‘does my bi experience match with other people’s,’ that’s really stressful.”

Especially within Gen Z, fashion choices have become a way for members of the LGBTQ+ community to express their identities.

“I think self-expression and fashion, those kinds of things are definitely a good way of expressing yourself,” Fountaine said. “I think also having things in your space like gay posters and all this kind of stuff is a great way to feel connected.”

The environment one is brought up in can also have a powerful impact on the internalization of values regarding the LGBTQ+ community. As queer people of younger generations get older, many reject the values they were taught when they were young. However, some of these values may hang around, whether consciously known or not.

“The messages that you receive about sexuality from a young age do tend to stick with us, whether [or not] we grow up and live those same values that we were taught,” Mateer said.

If one grows up being told homosexuality is wrong, she said, then if they grow up to be queer, there may be something telling them that what they are doing is wrong.

It’s easy to absorb these invalidating comments, especially for those who are in relationships that make them appear heterosexual.

“People start to kind of second guess their identity,” said Elizabeth Mateer, a mental health counselor based in Seattle focused on LGBTQ+ health education.

These people may think that they’ve been in a heterosexual relationship for so long that they should just identify as straight because it’s easier, Mateer said.

“There’s this feeling of not being known that I think a lot of bisexual people experience and struggle with,” Mateer said.

Edyson Pines is a selfidentifying bisexual and a second-year nursing major at Northeastern. Although Pines has never experienced invalidation of her sexuality by those around her, she feels that because she has only been in serious relationships with men, her brain tells her sometimes that she’s not a “real” bisexual.

“I know that I’ve been bi since I was 16, and I’ve never had a homosexual relationship, I’ve only had heterosexual relationships,” Pines said. “I think it’s more like an internal thing. I think I internally invalidate myself.”

Growing up and attending Northeastern has encouraged Pines to be more open and expressive about her sexuality, she said.

“I think it’s a very accepting community. I don’t think there’s a lot of repression of sexuality, and I think a lot of people like to express their sexuality with how they dress,” Pines said. “My friends have told me that I dress like a lesbian sometimes. I like expressing myself like that and I don’t care if people think that I’m a lesbian.”

“If that’s the message we received as a child and then we grow up with that, a lot of times there is still that shame that is pretty deep seated and is very hard to fully break free from,” Mateer said.

Lauren Kaufmann, a second-year psychology and criminal justice combined major at Northeastern, was raised Catholic in Charlotte, North Carolina, and it was made clear to her from a young age that LGBTQ+ people were not accepted in their household.

“Until I got to college, it wasn’t really something I could even explore,” Kaufmann said. “And even in college I still have so much internalized homophobia and stress about ‘oh what if [my parents] did find out, what if they saw something.’”

For years, Kaufmann said, she used to pray that she was wrong about her sexuality.

“Eventually, I just couldn’t ignore it. I was like, okay, this is not how most people feel,” Kaufman said.

The messages Kaufmann received from her parents growing up hindered her ability to come to terms with her sexuality, and that still affects her today, she said.

“At least in my experience, it resulted in a lot of internalized homophobia and lack of personal acceptance, just because I felt like I wasn’t allowed to,” Kaufmann said. “It’s just something I haven’t fully processed, it’s like I’m out to everyone but myself.”

As Gen Z’s large population of LGBTQ+ people grow up, children will begin to grow up in xshouseholds where sexual orientation is stigmatized less and less.

“It’s just one of those things that I treat as a fact of life,” Kaufmann said. “I’m bisexual, I’m from North Carolina, I have three younger siblings. It can be just a non-event.”

“The messages that you receive about sexuality from a young age do tend to stick with us, whether [or not] we grow up and live those same values that we were taught.”

— Elizabeth Mateer

Mental health counselor

Graphic by Ananya Kulkarni

The Underground Cafe brings vibrant twist to typical campus coffee shop

By Christina McCabe News Staff

The Underground Cafe + Lounge, a relaxed and inviting coffee and pastry shop with an emphasis on community, has started to grow in popularity and make its mark in the bustling city.

Nia Grace, the founder of the Underground, made her dream a reality in 2021 when she opened up the coffee shop, nestled below LightView on Northeastern’s campus. After already owning and operating Darryl’s Corner Bar and Kitchen located further down Tremont Street since 2018, Grace felt opening the Underground was the next phase in her dream for success, she said.

“I think the vision was to create a space for community,” Grace said. “Considering that we are so within the campus community, we want to give those around us the space to sit down, unwind, hang out and meet up.”

Grace looked to incorporate the same atmosphere as her other restaurant into this newer venture.

“One of the initial visions was to have an evening component that did a departure from the main focus of the day where it’s food and beverages,” Grace said. “We want to focus

more on the socializing aspect, so that’s where we utilize the formula we use at Darryl’s.”

The Underground does not operate like a typical coffee shop. Grace is working towards bringing in bands to play in the evenings, and hosting game nights and open mic nights. The space is open until 7 p.m. most nights, giving it an edge that Grace feels helps to create the sense of community she strives for.

“I want people to say, ‘I came in here earlier to work or study but I’m coming back tonight because I heard they’ve got something great going on in the evening,’” Grace said.

When it comes to community, Grace not only thinks about the city around the shop, but also the employees within. Ranaye Kelsey, the dayto-day manager of the Underground, feels the effects of her boss’ kindness and appreciation, which is what makes working there worthwhile, she said.

“Her energy is shown through her work,” Kelsey said. “I never see her slacking. That’s kind of the motivation for coming to work everyday.

She’s given me everything I’ve asked for in a job.”

While Grace is out juggling her responsibilities between two restaurants, Kelsey runs the cafe five days a

week, from open to close. What makes the shop so special, Kelsey said, is Grace’s vision and how she has already incorporated it into the cafe.

“We play music,” Kelsey said. “Our music is a big part of our environment because we want everybody to feel like they are at home. We come in in the morning, and the first thing we do is we make sure we have the music playing.”

The ambiance and style of the cafe is created not only by the music, but also by the menu, Kelsey added.

“[Grace] creates most of her menu, like all of the seasoning and flavors and everything,” Kelsey said. “To be able to learn from her and how creative she is [is] a fun aspect.”

After seeing Grace’s devotion and motivation to make her dream a reality, Kelsey has decided to follow her dream of opening her own restaurant as well.

“I have no idea what restaurant I want to do,” Kelsey said. “I do know I want to cook. I feel that this job is an entry level for what I really want to do in life. That’s why I give 100% everyday because I feel like this is my start for the next thing.”

Dylan Dhindsa, a third-year journalism major, has worked at the

Underground for just under two months, but he has found the job to be better than he hoped. He said Grace goes above and beyond for her baristas.

“The work environment is very supportive,” Dhindsa said. “I feel that at my other retail and service food jobs in the past, the manager just [seemed] like they [didn’t] want to be there, but that has never been the case here.”

Dhindsa added that the work environment is not one you find at a typical coffee shop.

“I feel like the vibe is very chill,” he said. “The music too, it’s not the typical jazz or piano music you hear at other cafes. It’s different.”

After seeing how much the cafe has positively affected the community and her employees, Grace said she has higher hopes for the Underground in the future.

“Five, 10 years down the line, I hope we are still here,” Grace said. “Maybe our concept will get picked up by other colleges in the area and maybe even across the nation. That would be exciting.”

Two sisters bring sweet taste of Ukrainian pastries to Boston with Solodko bakery

By Lauren Salemo News Staff

Swirling cinnamon walnut babka, layered honey cake and poppyseed strawberry croissants are only a handful of the treats sold at Solodko Boston, a Ukrainian-inspired bakery owned and operated by sisters Ilona and Irina Znakharchuk.

The sisters sold pastries online for three years before opening the storefront last November in Brighton.

The idea of starting the bakery dates back to 2018, when the sisters visited their grandparents in Ukraine.

Ilona Znakharchuk was fascinated with the quality of Ukrainian desserts, which was unlike anything she had discovered in Boston, she said.

“One of the things that struck me was how simultaneously visually aesthetic, but also delicious all the

pastries were,” Ilona Znakharchuk said. “It was like a very fine-tuned balance of taste and looks. And here, what I oftentimes would come across is that there are really fancy, good desserts, [but] they don’t always have the taste because they’d either have the fondant or it was just too much sugar.”

When she returned to Boston, she set out on a mission to master this fusion of flavor and flair. During

Ilona Znakharchuk’s sophomore year at Boston College, her older sister Irina Znakharchuk drove her home to Westfield every weekend. Ilona Znakharchuk spent every Saturday baking, and had her sister drive her back to campus Sunday nights to help distribute macarons to her friends.

“One of my roommates was like, ‘Why don’t you start selling this? Like why do you just keep bringing them back? You should start a business,’”

Ilona Znakharchuk said. “That’s kind of how the idea was born.”

Ilona Znakharchuk’s first customers were friends and professors. But looking ahead, she realized she needed to expand her knowledge in business management. While continuing her math and music double major at Boston College, Ilona Znakharchuk joined an entrepreneurship program to better understand how to take the next step with her pastries.

“I think that was actually critical for seeing where I wanted to go with the business in the future, and how I was supposed to structure it from a legal standpoint, because I had no clue how to run a business,” she said.

After graduating in June 2021, Ilona Znakharchuk began working in wealth management while selling her baked goods at the same time. By December of that year, she said, she was burnt out. Running her business while working in finance became “overbearing,” so she had to choose between the two.

“I liked both [jobs], so it was a difficult decision for me,” Ilona Znakharchuk said. “I kind of just prayed and I was like, ‘God, I need something to happen supernatural that will show me which career to take because I’m a little worried about making the call on my own because … if the business doesn’t go where I want it to be in three years, am I going to regret leaving my finance job?’’’

In January 2022, Ilona Znakharchuk said the answer she was looking for came to her in three consecutive dreams. A few months later, she left her finance job to devote all of her time to her business. But opening up the shop could not be done alone.

“When I decided to go full time with the business, I obviously was like, ‘Who else am I going to take to help me but my sister?’” Ilona Znakharchuk said.

Soon after, Irina Znakharchuk transitioned from her job in finance to a full-time partner in the bakery with her sister.

The sisters are responsible for all aspects of the business — managing the finances, preparing ingredients, decorating pastries and maintaining the storefront. In December, however, the two-person team grew to three. Ilona and Irina Znakharchuk hired a Ukrainian refugee who previously worked in a bakery in Ukraine.

“It was very important for us to be able to give back to the Ukrainian community,” Ilona Znakharchuk said. “When we were able to bring on someone who would have a difficult time finding a job elsewhere also with a … significant language barrier, that was a very, very rewarding moment for us.”

The bakery also partners with Ukrainian nonprofits and fundraisers to support the sisters’ native country amid the Russo-Ukrainian War. Boston College hosted a concert in support of Ukraine March 26, catered by Solodko Boston.

The shop’s impact on its community is evident in Brighton. Once a rundown pizza shop, Solodko now offers the neighborhood an “operational food business” that fosters valuable “connections with the locals,” Ilona Znakharchuk said. Customers are able to step inside and view the open concept kitchen, giving them a first-hand look into

how their treats are being made.

“[Customer interaction] is one of the things I enjoy the most about the nature of this business,” she said. “We love to meet people who follow us on Instagram. We love to meet people who have read about us or heard our story. This is always a really rewarding experience when we can actually meet people who know about us that we don’t yet know about.”

One of those followers is Liz Morris, a Brighton resident, who visited Solodko after discovering the bakery on Instagram.

“I’ve been following for a while and wanted to come out here,” Morris said. “It was very, very tasty. I will definitely be back.”

Abigail Gary, a South End resident, also couldn’t wait to try more of Solodko’s baked goods.

“[The pastries] are decadent but I want to try all their stuff,” Gary said. “We both had the chocolate raspberry croissant and it was phenomenal. It had a little delicious dollop of jelly in the middle which was great.”

Working in the pastry profession isn’t always a piece of cake. Ilona Znakharchuk said she came into the food industry thinking it was female-dominated, only to experience that women business owners are often taken advantage of. Her advice for female entrepreneurs is to take a stand.

“Don’t be scared to stand up for yourself,” Ilona Znakharchuk said. “Don’t be scared to show people that you are smart and that you are driven and that you know what’s going on because people will try to use you for their benefit. And if you don’t stand up for yourself, who will?”

Pastries, snacks and drinks are on display next to the checkout counter. An original menu curated by Grace has helped create a unique ambiance and environment for the cafe.

Photo by Pavithra Rajesh

Irina Znakharchuck pipes strawberry poppyseed filling into croissants at Solodko Boston, a Ukrainian bakery in Brighton. Her sister Ilona began selling pastries to friends and professors at Boston College before the sisters opened a storefront in November.

Photo by Ali Caudle

The Possible Zone provides entrepreneurship programs to low-income high school students

By Alexis Algazy News Staff

The Boston public school system has a widely impoverished student body, with almost eight in 10 students classified as low-income.

The Possible Zone, or TPZ, is a Boston-based organization that supports high school students by creating access to educational and entrepreneurial opportunities and resources they may otherwise be unable to obtain.

TPZ began as The Possible Project, which started in 2009 in Cambridge, but has since moved to Boston to serve a lower-income community. The organization has a four semester entrepreneurship program where students develop a project of interest and grow it to be-

come a future internship opportunity, or even their own business.

The organization also offers STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) electives supported by successful businesses, like an apparel design focused elective in collaboration with Converse.

Donna Tambascio, the vice president of communications at TPZ, grew up in the Boston public school system herself, and has recently joined The Possible Zone team.

“We want to give young people the opportunity to experience learning opportunities that ignite passions in them and help them to think about what could be possible for their futures,” Tambascio said.

TPZ currently targets six Boston public high schools with low-income

students, with the goal of expanding their programming throughout the city, and eventually across the nation.

In a technologically-reliant society, familiarity with workshop and production equipment is vital to the modern working world, according to the organization’s website. TPZ’s mission is to seek equity to close the gap that rises for low-income individuals and to provide access to experiential learning and education.

Gus Halwani, the chief STEAM and innovation officer, has worked at TPZ for two years. Halwani can relate to many students participating, he said.

“When my parents first came to this country, I could have been a TPZ student,” Halwani said. “TPZ understands not only that we have to give them access, but we provide

students with stipends for all of the time that they spend with us because we understand that after school, most likely they’re going to have an after-school job that they’re going to use to help their family with the bills, as many of us had to do.”

The organization offers resources beyond education and experiential learning, including college counseling. The college matriculation rate in 2019 for Boston students that remained at TPZ throughout high school was 80%, in comparison to the overall rate of 42.5% of those at their respective Boston public schools.

“Sometimes there is a kind of a learning that …‘This is not for me.

STEAM is for the smart kids in school and I’m not one of them.’

And our theory of change at TPZ is really focused on changing that mindset and encouraging students to say, ‘You know what, maybe I could do this stuff,’” Halwani said.

TPZ attempts to instill a capable and positive mindset in students, he added.

Aicha Kaba, an alum of TPZ, and co-founder of By Us Girls, a traveling manicure service, realized her goals were attainable during her time with the organization.

“I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I didn’t know the word for it,” Kaba said in an alum interview from TPZ’s “Ten-Year Retrospective.” “Entrepreneurship allows me to pursue my creativity. A lot of things may seem unattainable, but they are 100% attainable.”

Compliance data show gender disparity in Boston employment

By Jethro R. Lee | Data Editor

Information regarding the types of workers that project managers and specific development projects have employed from May 2006 to the present day. Data are shown for ten popular neighborhoods in Boston and emphasize gender disparity

across its workforces, despite the employment standards established by the Boston Residents Jobs Policy in 1983 aimed to diversify access to employment opportunities.

Based on data from Analyze Boston.

LBFE Boston connects students and seniors

By Katy Manning News Staff

Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly, or LBFE, is working to break down social barriers and integrate older adults into their communities. Working with students at local universities, the organization offers a variety of programs at affordable housing sites around Boston and provides a safe space for attendees to form connections that span generations.

Boston’s LBFE chapter was established in 1979, and the organization now has three main programs that run from the North End to Brighton and Hyde Park. Nikki Shults, the executive director of LBFE, said the organization aims to include a diverse range of participants.

“One of the things we are very proud of is that we work with a lot of non-native English speaking older adults,” Shults said. “We have programs in eight different languages, and that is pretty unique to our organization and social services in general. We are really proud that we have been able to bring people of different cultures together.”

Shults began working for LBFE as a volunteer coordinator in 2013 and became the executive director in 2015.

“Growing up, my grandmother was kind of like my best friend,” Shults said. “Ever since I was younger, I knew I wanted to work with older people. So I got a degree in healthcare management and was a social worker. When I was job searching, I stumbled across LBFE. It really felt like my career had led up to

this point — it felt like coming home.”

The organization engages older adults in a number of ways. Its social program, Intergenerational CitySites, focuses on forming friendships across generations, with weekly activities, such as card games, arts and crafts, and language exchanges.

“We set up these activities to make it easier to build connections,” Shults said. “As a 19-year-old, it can be difficult to see what you have in common with a 90-year-old.”

LBFE’s other programs provide older adults with access to services that may not be available in affordable housing. The Creative Connections program offers eight weeks of fine arts courses taught by professional instructors, including painting and dancing. The Digital Dividends program focuses on tech equity, giving each person their own Chromebook, a hotspot with an unlimited data plan and personalized instruction on a number of technology topics.

Shults said these courses are intended to mimic programs in market-rate housing for older adults.

“Without these opportunities and programs, it can be difficult to engage with your neighbors and build a safety net,” Shults said. “You can think about it like your freshman year of college. Imagine moving in without any programs or mixers to help you meet other students. In a lot of the buildings that we work with, they have really great coordinators but they are often spread

too thin and don’t have the resources to provide these kinds of opportunities.”

One of the program sites for Digital Dividends is located at the Mission Main apartment complex in Mission Hill. Here, a small but dedicated group meets weekly to build their technology skills. This group is led by Program Manager Teresa Yao and Annie Lin, a Northeastern second-year on her first co-op as a program assistant for LBFE.

Lin, an international affairs and international business combined major, said she wanted to gain experience in the nonprofit sector at her co-op. She explained that at each Digital Dividends meeting, attendees can come in with specific technology questions to discuss, or the group might focus on a broader prepared lesson.

“We have to come in being super flexible and open-minded,” Lin said. “In this class, since it’s more one-on-one, we have more flexibility to teach them what they want to learn compared to a bigger structured course where people are all learning at different paces.”

Ernestine Washington, one of the program’s attendees and a resident of Mission Main, said the class provides her with knowledge to build off what she already knows.

“I’m a little familiar with computers, but I am a lifelong learner, and as you get older, your memory drifts away,” Washington said. “The details in the tech world are always changing.”

Another attendee and resident, Dorothy Spencer, said her goal

is to become self-sufficient when using technology.

“I’m not good at [using the computer] at all, and my memory fails me,” Spencer said. “When I go home I forget my skills and I get stuck, and I’m scared I will break the computer. So, I’m glad for everyone helping me. I just want to accomplish my mission of opening my computer and getting where I need to go.”

After Spencer’s remark, Yao replied with encouragement.

“You’re better than you give yourself credit for,” Yao said. “It’s just about having confidence.”

Throughout the one-hour session, the older adults work with Yao and Lin to address specific topics. While Washington is clearing out her email inbox and learning how to unsubscribe from mailing lists, Spencer is booking flights to Chicago for a family reunion. Both bend over their sticker-covered Chromebooks while the volunteers look on, providing support as needed.

In addition to enrichment programs like Digital Dividends, LBFE focuses on developing relationships between young adults and their older counterparts. When they aren’t discussing technology, the attendees chat about their families and pets, and details they remember from previous sessions together.

Lin explains that the volunteers stay away from words like “elderly” or “senior” to address the older adults in order to avoid ageism. In response, Washington said she appreciated

hearing that the young adults were keeping their language in mind.

“Ageism is a huge problem in this country,” Washington said. “When you pass 65 years old, you feel more invisible. It’s like you’re ‘put out to pasture,’ and like your thoughts and experiences don’t count as much. But I think young people are starting to understand that experience means a lot.”

Volunteering is open to all students, despite the organization’s gendered name, which dates back to its origins in 1940s Paris. The founder of LBFE was a man named Armand Marquiset, who wanted to give back to the community in honor of his grandmother. In the aftermath of World War II, he saw how many of Paris’s older adults were impoverished and isolated. He and his friends formed the Little Brothers, visiting poor neighborhoods around the city to provide material support and friendship.

Today, the organization has chapters across Europe and the United States, and welcomes anyone who is supportive of its mission.

LBFE hires Northeastern co-ops as program assistants for each sixmonth cycle, and other students can get involved by participating in service learning courses or by getting in touch with the organization.

“Over the summer I stayed [on campus], and I just emailed the managers and got involved that way,” Lin said. “The best way to get started is to reach out. To be a volunteer, all you need is to be open-minded and flexible.”

By Rachana Madhav News Correspondent

Decked in intricately beaded, sequined and glittery costumes, the Northeastern University club team figure skaters took to the ice to enchant a crowd of supporters in Matthews Arena March 20. The figure skating team was thrilled to put on its first ever spring showcase, a two-hour event for their friends and family which they had spent years working on.

The theme of the event was “Decades,” and the skaters had full creative liberty to explore exactly what they wanted to do pertaining to the decade they were assigned. fourth-year bioengineering major, was ecstatic during the final 30 min utes before the opening.

we wanted to do a spring show, but the competition season just wrapped up — it became really tight

to fit it in,” Klemm said. “We have to work around all the other teams.”

The team was determined to give its graduating seniors a proper send-off, and the spring showcase did exactly that. The event took a ton of work — the whole team came together in planning, scheduling and organizing an exciting and rewarding experience.

“I’m a senior, and this team was really quite tiny and recreational when I joined, so it’s really like a culmination of everything we’ve put in over the last five years,” Klemm said.

“Our team is 65 people big, and not

there weren’t that many opportunities,” Klemm said. “You kind of just skated and left and went home. Now, seeing the amount of people that are now roommates with one another, best friends — it’s really cool.”

Being a part of the club was a source of comfort to many of the skaters, particularly those who were struggling with the transition from high school to college.

Aly Broussard, a second-year nursing major on the team, spoke highly of her teammates while describing how much she was able to grow as a person.

“This team has been such a great opportunity for me to continue a sport that I love in a really inclusive environment, especially coming from high school, stressed about college. It’s just a great way to get to know people,” Broussard said.

Broussard and her teammates spend a lot of time with each other off the ice, whether going to the dining halls or studying together.

Even traveling to distant competitions has become a source of team bonding, where they enjoy each other’s company in the club van, or recuperate together after a long tournament.

The event moved through performances highlighting songs from each decade, beginning with “For Good” from the musical “Wicked” and featuring songs from the ‘80s, ‘90s and 2000s.

The ice was alight with energy, provoking various emotions with every song performed. There were upbeat, high energy songs like “Higher Love,”

“It’s Raining Men” and “Oops!...I Did It Again,” and more whimsical melodies like “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac and a piano version of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

The team was very excited about the theme of the event — one that everyone was able to be creative with. Members of the club planned their performances to the very last second.

Third-year biochemistry and health humanities double major Ashley Brown played a huge role in coordinating everyone’s schedules and skill levels throughout the year.

“Everything that has occurred in a decade — that will fit everyone’s program. But then, you could also go and get creative with it. Especially in a sport like skating — it’s hard, but you also go and get to be an artist,” Brown said.

Coaches Julie Pondelli and Elizabeth Tirrell have expressed their adoration for their team multiple times; they have gotten to know the skaters both on and off the ice, where they have watched them grow as people.

“The kids did 90% of this. They used each other as resources,” Pondelli said. “It’s very emotional, too, know ing the kids for so long … they’re a part of your life at this point.”

Pondelli and Tirrell watched all the performances during the event, and were there to hug and encourage their skaters after each one.

“It’s a nice chance for the kids to show their friends on campus their work, and it’s a really good chance for us to celebrate our graduating seniors,” Tirrell said.

With each performance, however, the skaters’ biggest fans, and the loudest cheers, were from the team itself.

After performing, the panting skaters would rush back to the stands to scream cheers for their next teammate that took to the ice.

“Everyone has each other’s back,” Broussard said. “Everyone is so supportive of each other, even when we have our not so great moments, so it’s definitely awesome.”

With every move the skaters made on the ice, the stadium broke into claps and shouts of encouragement from the team, making the crowd of friends and family all the more excited for what was to come.

By Lauren Salemo News Staff

Donning red and black sequined uniforms, Northeastern’s cheer and dance teams performed for friends and family Sunday at Solomon Court in preparation for the upcoming National Dance Alliance Collegiate Championship April 6 and 7 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Both groups will compete at nationals, where the cheer team will showcase a pom routine and the dance team will participate in jazz and hip-hop competitions.

Because they usually perform at Northeastern basketball games, the send-off ceremony was each team’s time to finally take center stage. Prior to the first performance, the coaches and captains of both squads gave speeches, thanking those in attendance for their unending support throughout the season.

The evening began with a jazz performance from the dance team. With each turn, flip and leap, those in the stands let out thunderous applause.

Following the opening sequence, the cheer squad took to the floor. Before the pom program even began, the audience erupted in shouts for the cheerleaders.

Hard work has been a consistent theme for the Huskies’ seasons. Both the cheer and dance troupes have devoted countless hours and long nights — on top of school work — to perfect their moves. They practice three to four times a week outside of any performances.

“During basketball season, we have two to three games a week,” said cheer captain Megan Whitcomb, a fourth-year bioengineering major. “It’s a big time commitment, but it’s all worth it.”

Cheerleading coach Kennedy Pagano said even though their competition routine is only two minutes and 30 seconds long, the team tirelessly practiced for two semesters to put it together.

Although the teams operate and compete on the collegiate varsity level, they are club sports that rely on teamled fundraisers to travel to competitions.

“We have really good leadership on our team this year,” cheer coach Catherine DiPalma said. “Without their leadership and their support and the support of our [executive] board — because this is a club-run sport, which a lot of people don’t know — we wouldn’t be able to do all the things we do.”

Angelina Huang and Kaitlyn Moleti and second-year Gigi Barucci were named All-Americans.

After punching their ticket to nationals, the Huskies began choreographing their championship routine in November, dedicating at least 10 hours a week to practice.

Last year, the dance team placed fifth in the nation for Division I team performance and ninth for hip-hop performance. The 2021-22 season was Northeastern’s first appearance at nationals since 2018, so the team is excited to return to Daytona Beach.

“I think that this is a rebuilding year for us,” said Nicole Vicino, the head coach of the dance team. “We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores who’ve never competed before, so we’re hoping that they learn what it’s like to be there and compete against the best of the best and come away … motivated for future years.”

Northeastern’s dance and cheer teams perform special routines at their Nationals send-off celebration March 26. The cheer team has prepared a pom routine, while the dance team has choreographed jazz and hip-hop programs they will showcase at the National Dance Alliance Collegiate Championship in Daytona Beach, Florida, April 6 and 7.

NORTHEASTERN CHEER, DANCE TEAMS SHOW OFF MOVES AHEAD OF NATIONALS SKATING BY THE DECADES: FIGURE SKATING TEAM HOSTS FIRST EVER SPRING SHOWCASE

“Here you have a roster of like 25 people roaring, and you can fall on every single jump and spin, and we’re going to cheer like you landed like a quadruple axel,” Brown said.

Both the graduating seniors and the newer freshmen alike spent all their time and energy on this event, and the payoff was evident in the whispers of praise from the teammates and the hugs from the tearyeyed parents.

With its first spring showcase over, Northeastern’s figure skating club team is already looking forward to the next one, which will hopefully become an annual event from this year on.

To wrap up the send-off, the dance team came back out for an energetic hip-hop routine. By the end, the dancers were panting, showing just how much effort they poured into the performance.

For the Northeastern dancers, the long road to Daytona Beach started in August, where they competed at the National Dance Alliance qualifier camp. At the camp, the team placed first in Division I team dance and took home a gold bid for nationals. They were Game Day Routine winners, and fourth-year

At nationals, the Huskies hope to place in the top three for their team performance and showcase their hip-hop routine in the Daytona Beach Bandshell, the amphitheater where the world’s largest collegiate cheer and dance competition takes place.

“I’m so proud of everything we’ve done this semester,” said dance captain Julia Reid, a third-year behavioral neuroscience major. “We worked so hard, and no matter how it ends up or what we do out there, it’ll all be worth it.”

Photos by Lauren Salemo

Northeastern’s club figure skaters strike poses during their spring showcase routines. The March 20 event in Matthews Arena was the first of its kind for the team.

Photos by Erin Fine

Brenda Song celebrates her 35th birthday with a Q&A at Northeastern

By Cathy Ching Deputy Lifestyle Editor

Best known for her famous role as the fictional heiress of Boston — London Tipton — actress Brenda Song joined Northeastern students in Blackman Auditorium March 27 to answer hard-hitting questions about cultural identity, mental health and her skincare routine.

Song is undoubtedly one of Gen Z’s most beloved actresses, playing iconic roles in both “Suite Life” iterations, “Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior” and “Dollface.”

She recently shared the news of her and fiancé Macaulay Culkin welcoming a second baby.

Song has raised children in more ways than one — the new mother of two took the hour-long Q&A to share advice for the generation who grew up watching her on screen.

The overarching theme of the event was: “facts about Brenda Song that will shock you.”

The audience learned that Song has a black belt in taekwondo, rejected an admission offer from Harvard University and chose to celebrate her 35th birthday at Northeastern — although this last fact was surprising to herself as well.

“I’m at that age now where I didn’t even realize it was my birthday,” Song told the audience.

The event was moderated by Rachel Young, a second-year communications major and design coordinator of Northeastern Council of University Programs, or CUP.

The organization, along with the Resident Student Association, or RSA, hosted the event, which has been in the works since the end of last semester.

Days before the event, Young set her affirmations in stone.

“I’m manifesting that it’s going to go well,” she said.

And it did.

Song attracted nostalgic Disney-loving students from across campus to cheer her on during the Q&A.

Some students who have not seen much of Song’s work, such as Stephanie Son, a second-year sociology major, attended anyway.

She admired Song as a role model for the Asian American community among Gen Z.

“There’s a pretty tight-knit Asian American community here,” Son said. “It’s kind of cool that it’s more of a bigger experience for everyone that goes to Northeastern to be able to see her.”

During the Q&A, Song expressed her gratitude for her role as London Tipton, describing her as her “fantasy character.”

Based not-so-loosely on Paris Hilton, Tipton was an “airhead” character that embodied confidence and was the blueprint for Y2K fashion — and for

that, Hilton has never been offended by the character, Song clarified.

As a first-generation Asian American, Young’s admiration for Song began with the “rambunctious” character of Tipton, she said.

Growing up in a rural town in New Jersey, Young connected with Song as she watched her through various shows and movies in her childhood.

During her time at Disney, she felt her cultural background was typically an “unspoken elephant in the room.”

Though Song learned to embrace her culture, this could have been more easily achieved if there were more Asian actors on TV growing up, she said.

“For the first time in a long time,

media is finally starting to reflect what the world looks like,” Song said.

“The more people see how colorful the world is on TV, the more accepting they are in real life. It’s really sad but [it’s] the truth.”

Along with discussions about identity, Song shared her struggles with mental health after her days on Disney.

Having been in the acting industry since she was a toddler, Song had an identity crisis, which noticeably began when she cried at an IHOP over her eggs — she didn’t know how she liked her eggs.

If she couldn’t decide between something as simple as scrambled, fried or over-easy eggs, how could she decide which path to take in her career?

“I just didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Song said. “Disney gives you such a specific identity [and] you can get wrapped up in it all the time. You don’t know who you are. I stepped into someone else’s shoes everyday.”

Song felt like she walked around with “Mickey ears” for most of her career. And it didn’t help when people in her life told her to book more “edgy” roles to enter the “adult world” of acting.

“I had never [even] gone to a house party,” Song said. “The first time I saw weed I thought it was potpourri.”

In the second half of the event, Song discussed what she has learned in the adult world.

In the mess of figuring out who she wants to be, there is one thing Song is certain about: her skincare routine.

“Drink water. Wash your face. Keep it simple,” she said.

Even if college students forget to keep up with the steps of Song’s skincare routine, she reminded the audience that there is still time to figure things out before entering the adult world.

“Make mistakes,” Song said. “That’s what your 20s are for.”

“To see how successful she is and how impactful she’s been on not only my childhood but millions of other people across the country has been awesome,” Young said.

Even those who could not relate to this level of connection recognized Song’s impact as one of the only nonwhite actors who played big roles on Disney in the early 2000s.

Alexandra Osuji, a third-year criminal justice and psychology combined major, attended the event as a veteran “Suite Life” fan.

“She is definitely a great representation in stuff that I have seen her in,” Osuji said.

Despite being a role model for many Asian Americans, Song also struggled with her cultural identity. As someone who is Thai and Hmong, Song would feel like an “outcast” from time to time, as she was usually the only Asian American in her friend groups.

“For the first time in a long time, media is finally starting to reflect what the world looks like. The more people see how colorful the world is on TV, the more accepting they are in real life. It’s really sad but [it’s] the truth.”

— Brenda Song Actress

Actress Brenda Song spoke to Northeastern students March 27 to discuss cultural identity, mental health and skincare.

Graphic by Ananya Kulkarni

Column: Here are 10 female artists worthy of your undivided attention

By Alexis Algazy News Staff

The music industry is home to many creative female storytellers who use music as their vehicle of communication. From female artists with songs on the Billboard charts, to up-and-coming artists here on Northeastern’s campus, here are ten female artists worth a listen.

For relatable indie pop, check out:

1. Brye

This modern indie pop artist uses their music to articulate their experience with eating disorders and struggle with mental health, resulting in lyrics that many teenagers and young adults can relate to. Their newest single, “Diet Culture,” promotes body positivity and takes a stance against toxic diet culture. They have 269,300 followers on TikTok and use the platform to promote their music releases, with videos gaining millions of views.

For a sublime voice on Northeastern’s campus, check out:

2. Twig Lake

Northeastern student Emma Zachary tells stories through music. Her single “Momma’s Boy” is inspired by her friend, whom she compares to the stereotypical momma’s boy. The music is arranged to radiate the feeling of missing someone. Her thoughtfulness shines through her lyrics, laid on top of ethereal acoustic guitar riffs. Twig Lake embodies honest songwriting, successfully expressing Zachary’s emotions and stories.

For an all-around amazing performer, check out:

3. Tate McRae

Nineteen-year-old Tate McRae found her audience years ago by competing on the show “So You Think You Can Dance” and subsequently going viral on social media. Her music first gained headway five years ago when she posted an original song, “One Day,” on her YouTube channel, gaining 39 million views. She has since released a multitude of songs and performed live alongside industry talents like Shawn Mendes.

For a meaningful lyricist, check out:

4. Arden Lloyd

Northeastern University student and singer-songwriter Arden Lloyd blends folk, indie rock and jazz to create a personal sound enhanced by her meaningful lyrics. Her debut album “This Moment” is composed of a deliberate blend between vocals, lyrics and instrumentals that combine to create moving songs and stories. Her song “An Intro” showcases her instrumental storytelling abilities, as the meaning of the song is told through the delicate piano line and would be understood even without the lyrics.

For a modern take on jazz music, check out:

5. Samara Joy

This jazz singer is making her mark on the industry, winning two Grammys this year for best jazz vocal album and best new artist. At 23, Samara Joy brings a youthful and positive spirit to the soulful and history-rich

genre. She is just beginning to explore writing, having composed the lyrics for “Nostalgia (The Day I Knew),” featured on her album “Linger Awhile.” Joy’s career has just begun, and her music continues to grow alongside her audience.

For a thematic album, check out:

6. Katie Dolce

Northeastern student Katie Dolce released her first album “Swallowing a Stone” on Spotify in 2022. The album expresses how keeping secrets can take a toll on you. The singer-songwriter tapped into old and new writing to create their album, which was produced right in her dorm room. Her song “Circus” touches upon how, like a circus performer, she can gain people’s attention but that the person they perceive her as isn’t necessarily accurate.

For a unique sound, check out:

7. Em Beihold

This indie pop singer-songwriter uses her music as a form of therapy, and her audience can relate to the feelings and stories she expresses through each song. Her lyrics are honest and sometimes blunt, a truthful quality many young adults crave, and Em Beihold delivers. Her song “Numb Little Bug” lays vulnerable lyrics about anxiety and depression over upbeat pop music, creating a duality unique to her as an artist.

For musical self-reflection, check out:

8. Ella Jane

Pop artist Ella Jane found a love for songwriting after realizing she could

use her music to express her thoughts and feelings. As a young adult, Ella Jane is dealing with the same changes many experience during their early twenties and her music reiterates this coming of age theme. Her most recent album, titled “Marginalia,” meaning “in the margins,” does exactly that, like her song “Party Trick,” where she talks about the unreciprocated feelings she has for a man she met at a party.

For incredible harmonies, check out:

9. Sorellé

This trio of sisters recently made their debut on “The Voice,” but have been displaying their sound on social media for a few years. The sisters compose harmonies that give their music a unique depth. The trio has released a handful of singles over the past few years, with their most played being “Ghost,” an upbeat pop number that tells the story of a girl proud of her decision to move on from her ex.

For a new talent, check out:

10. Sara Beth

This singer from Northern California displayed her voice on the current season of “American Idol,” winning herself a ticket to the next round of the competition. Her bright personality matches the tone she sings with. She has released one single, “Last October,” where she reflects upon how the past year has affected her, wishing she could return to the previous October and give her past self advice. As she’s gained a following on social media, she has teased more original music.

Rising star Keyboard Dog’s career began at Northeastern

By Emily Chung News Staff

Steve Kurz’s music career started with a doodle.

In spring 2020, the singer-songwriter came across a cartoon by artist Bjenny Montero depicting a dog playing an electronic keyboard on the ground, with colorful thought bubbles coming from his head. Thus, Keyboard Dog was born. Quarantined and bored, Kurz spent the long days in his room making music, and then listening to the songs he had made while riding his bike around his neighborhood in Rochester, New York.

Kurz’s inclination toward music has lasted for as long as he can remember, but his passion was sparked in his sophomore year while watching a guest folk band perform at his high school. He was awestruck and found his passion: he wanted to pursue music for the rest of his life.

Fourth-year music major Kurz stepped onto Northeastern’s campus in 2019 eager to discover his sound, and his enthusiasm for his music has never wavered.

His first song, “Cutout Model,” was an assignment for his first-year “Music Recording 2” class. Since then, Kurz has been writing and producing nonstop. Now, at 22 years old, Keyboard Dog has released six more songs on his debut EP, “throw your soul.”

For Kurz, writing songs is his therapy.

“Once I start to write, things kind of unravel. The phrases that come out — I won’t always know what they mean at first — but then once I look back on them, once I’ve given it a little space to breathe, I’ll go back and be like, ‘Oh, that’s what I was talking about,’” Kurz said.

When it came to producing his bandmate Max Morton’s EP, “a few songs,” the process flowed naturally. The two went to Vermont and spent four days bouncing around ideas and recording.

Morton, a third-year music major, emphasized that Kurz understood his music and what it meant to him more than anyone else — Kurz is the only person Morton would trust to bring his songs to life.

“He loves music on a very personal level and it shines through in his music. It’s more than just writing a

song for him,” Morton said. “When he’s working on someone else’s music, he puts himself in that place with that other person.”

Several friends, including his longtime mentor, fifth-year physics and philosophy combined major Justin Vega, noted his unique ability to understand exactly what an unfinished song needs and how to get it there. His attentiveness to emotions translates clearly in the lyrics that he writes.

Kurz released his song “amsterdam” Feb. 18, 2022. True to his style, “amsterdam” embraces a folky, indie-rock sound. The song hit 500,000 streams on Spotify less than a year later and was featured on Spotify’s “Ultimate Indie” playlist. To Kurz, though, these milestones are not goals that he has set for his career, but merely accessories to it.

At his core, he is passionate about maintaining the integrity of his music and creating things he loves. Indeed, as a listener, he seeks to find music he identifies with to share with friends. The idea that people would do the same with his music is a simultaneously weird and wonderful feeling for him. Moreover, Kurz cited his live shows as the most

Calendar compiled by Cathy Ching & Jake Guldin Graphics by Emma Liu

March 31 - April 9

Jurassic World Tour Live

Hop on the Green Line to Boston University and watch dinosaurs come to life.

Times vary per show, 925 Commonwealth Ave., Tickets start at $15.

Monday, April 3

Greenway’s Food Truck Program

Grab a bite from 18 food trucks spread across The Greenway, and support women-, BIPOC- and LGBTQ+ owned businesses.

Times and prices vary per truck, Rose Kennedy Greenway Park.

Thursday, April 6

Boston Calling Night: The Q-Tip Bandits

Enjoy a night of live music, delicious food and a chance to win a pair of tickets to Boston Calling.

6 p.m. - 9 p.m., High Street Place Food Hall, Free.

gratifying element of his journey as a musician.

“One thing that always gets me is when we’re playing live shows and people are singing along. It’s one thing to see a number of streams go up, but it feels like a whole other thing to see that person in front of you singing and resonating with it. And I’m like, ‘Oh my god — you’re real.’ It’s really surreal every time,” Kurz said. His friends and colleagues show their support for his career through streaming his music and attending these shows.

“I play his stuff for everyone all the time. Anytime anybody talks about him, I’m like, ‘I know him. I sang with him.’ He’s just my favorite person in the entire world,” said his friend Natalie Walsh, a third-year mechanical engineering and design double major.

Kurz is graduating in the spring, but has no intention of moving away. He plans to stay in the Boston area, focusing on his next big project, as his fans anticipate new music. Loyal Keyboard Dog fans can continue to support Kurz by streaming his EP on Spotify or going to see his shows at local venues around Boston.

Thursday, April 6

Great Decisions with Dr. Karen Jacobsen | Climate Migration

Learn about the current climate crisis, how it has forced people to relocate and what the United States can do to help from an expert in the field.

6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., Boston Public Library, RSVP required, Free.

April 7 & 9

Something Rotten!

Start your weekend off with NU Stage’s musical comedy that takes the audience back to the Renaissance.

8 p.m. both days, Blackman Auditorium, Free.

EDITORIAL BOARD

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Huntington

Op-ed: Companies need to cater their products to Generation Z

Additionally, as they grow older and participate more frequently in the market, their purchases will become an increasing source of revenue for companies. As of 2021, Gen Z represents around 40% of U.S. consumers and has 2 billion members worldwide. Logically, companies have begun to reflect on how they can better serve their new consumers, and how they can improve their supply chains.

So without further ado, companies, meet your new customers, what they expect of you and what you can do to satisfy them.

against Fairlife for false advertisement. The company had been known to advertise that they have zero-tolerance for animal abuse, but in 2019 an undercover video taken at one of its suppliers revealed the cows were being mistreated. Not only did the company face the lawsuit, but stores across the country also pulled Fairlife products from shelves to appease consumers. Since then, the company has announced that it’ll be conducting audits on all of its farms and has also invested millions of dollars into policies and programs to demonstrate its loyalty to customer standards.

ated hashtags such as #stopSHEIN that have garnered over 42 million views on TikTok. This has led multiple customers to stop purchasing from them, an event that has no doubt caused major potential revenue losses.

At this point, around half of Generation Z, or Gen Z, has reached adulthood or is nearing it. So far, their ability to utilize the information they see and spread on the Internet has defined their impact on the world. More specifically, their command of social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok has made it incredibly easy to share and learn about any topic. When it comes to the marketplace, they’re demonstrating a growing interest in products that are ethically sourced and environmentally friendly while still maintaining their expectations for good quality and exceptional service. Just receiving the item on time isn’t enough anymore; Gen Z wants to know what resources were used, the carbon output of the machines used to manufacture it, the well-being of the workers and more.

If they find an item has failed to align with their values, it only takes a few minutes for them to share this with the rest of the world. Buyers have made millions of reviews, rants and video essays on numerous brands and products advising other consumers based on their personal experiences. For example, an account named “cnnunderscored” on TikTok has garnered over 317,000 followers that are interested in their product reviews, while the Instagram user Carla Beltran uses her platform to promote a vegan lifestyle and to speak out against brands that are causing harm.

Gen Z has been shaped by their time spent in COVID-19 quarantine. Almost everybody had newly acquired time, which meant paying more attention to online entertainment, including shopping, streaming services and games.

Their newfound enthusiasm for online purchasing was quickly followed by an increased concern for how their buying habits were affecting the world. The topic of ethical consumption had already garnered people’s attention in previous years, but the pandemic acted as a catalyst for awareness. However, as the world emerged from the worst of the pandemic, ethical spending and shopping habits followed Gen Z and inspired many others. Consequently, since 2016, there’s been a 71% increase in online searches for sustainable goods.

Here are some of the things Gen Z is looking for during their next purchase.

Environmentally, the requirements for a company to be considered “green” in the eyes of Gen Z are quite broad. It can be anything from a restaurant emphasizing they use slow farming , or a clothing company claiming they use recycled materials, to a tech company advertising they use less energy-intensive machines. However, regardless of how they decide to advertise that they are environmentally friendly, the most important thing is that they’re transparent about their operations.

A lack of transparency can lead to major issues, like the $21 million lawsuit

Furthermore, surveys have found that 45% of Gen Z stopped purchasing from certain brands because of sustainability concerns, a number that will most likely continue to grow as this movement picks up speed. Additionally, 75% of the generation believes that sustainable purchases are more important than the name of the brand. This data was especially applicable when it was leaked that Apple, Dell and HP were sourcing from overseas companies with hazardous working conditions. There was a massive public outcry from their consumers, with many calling others to boycott the brands. Since then, the companies have made public announcements to gain consumers’ trust back. For example, Apple took to the public and released a list of its suppliers along with conducting regular monitoring reports on its factory employees.

Ethically, the most important standards a company must meet are regarding how their workers are treated. A 2020 survey found that 75% of Gen Z respondents said they would like to see companies ensure employee safety.

A prime example would be the general outcry against working conditions at fast fashion brands, such as SHEIN. The company has been under fire since social media users have called out their dangerous and inhumane working conditions as well as becoming one of the faces of overconsumption. The main driving force behind SHEIN’s criticism are audiences on TikTok, who have cre-

However, there are more reasons to listen to the new demands of Generation Z than just potential backlash. There are endless chances for increased revenue when potential improvements on supply chains are considered. Opportunities such as finding a sustainable energy source for factories, keeping employee motivation high and recycling or repurposing materials can all help companies become more profitable in the long run. Additionally, this generation’s love and appreciation for their Earthly home is influencing people of all generations. They’ve been labeled the “most disruptive generation” by the Bank of America due to their ability to pass their environmentally-conscious lifestyle to people of any age. Thus, companies should keep in mind that their outlook is causing a longterm shift in the industry.

Although I’ve referred to Gen Z as “they” through most of this article, it is most certainly a “we.” I was born in 2005 and am ever-aware of the changes that my peers are demanding. I want to emphasize the fact that they are not simply generalized statistics. For me, it’s everyday life. Obviously, my friends don’t campaign for environmentally-friendly companies on their social media accounts day in and day out. However, I’ve watched as my friends ditched certain sportswear because of allegations against the brand, seen them never step foot into certain stores after they read a news article and seen them drop snack brands after they learned about unethical working conditions. Consequently, I urge everyone to be aware of the changes that are occurring and what you can contribute.

Hannah Bai is a first-year business administration major. She can be reached at bai.han@northeastern.edu.

Op-ed: Thrifting has an ethical problem

When trends began to bring thrifting into high demand, many of the clothing racks were empty. Many students, including myself, operate on a budget that makes thrifting appealing, but it may seem that we are taking away a lot of the products these communities need because it is often the only store that is affordable for them. Even on a budget, many college students are still able to afford clothing from retail stores but choose to go thrifting instead.

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Through the rise of social media trends, thrifting has become a popular and sustainable method for students to find trendy clothing. However, many of these stores were designed to offer affordable clothing for lowincome communities, and they often focus on providing work clothes for individuals applying for jobs who may be unable to afford the business casual look. One in Virginia, Women Giving Back, has pop-up stores every weekend at their warehouse where volunteers help women pick out clothes for job interviews.

Personally, I do a lot of thrifting at home and in Boston, but it is extremely important to give back to these organizations. A few times a year, I clean out my closet and donate items to the thrift stores that I frequent, knowing this will help someone in need. When thrift stores became trendy, sales went up and donations went down. This causes many of the people who thrift due to necessity to not have access to clothing. This is when thrifting becomes a problem.

The argument to thrift instead of shopping at fast fashion stores comes down to sustainability. Fast fashion chains often use labor in countries where workers’ rights are not a priority and factories are often in poor condition.

Due to this, switching to thrift stores brings down the market of fast fashion and instead supports industries that sell second-hand: their goods are not manufactured in-house and therefore do not contribute to fast fashion. However, does this affect the price of thrifting? Has this originally affordable shopping option become too expensive?

Goodwill is a non-profit organization that has many popular stores and “bins” that offer a wide variety of affordable clothes and other household items. Their stores have become a hot spot for young shoppers looking to find cheap clothes. There are locations all across the country and even a few in Boston along with the numerous other thrift stores in the area. According to The Boston Globe, Goodwill has reported increased donations and sales since the beginning of the pandemic. The rise in demand has also caused some thrifting companies to raise their prices. This raises concerns about the ethics of thrifting both in Boston and around the country.

Another trend on the rise is upselling thrifted clothes on apps like Depop and labeling them as “vintage.” This has

created a whole new market and completely defeats the purpose of thrifting.

Instead of using thrift stores to find affordable clothes to add to one’s closet, shelves become bare and resellers make a huge profit. Consequently, low-income communities lose access to fully stocked shelves they often rely on for all of their clothes.

Thrifting is not an ethical violation.

But, making sure you are also donating clothes and other unneeded supplies back to these thrift stores helps them restock the shelves that have seen an overwhelming increase in sales, making it hard to keep up with the flow of donations to substantiate this. As long as thrift stores have as many donations as they do sales, prices will not see an increase, low-income communities will continue to have affordable stores for their needs. Thrifting started to combat the rising landfills and provide affordable items without any loss of quality. When thrifters continue to contribute to local stores with donations, its original purpose can succeed.

Rachel Mahoney is a first-year journalism and criminal justice combined major. She can be reached at mahoney.rac@northeastern.edu.

Photo courtesy Hannah Bai

Photo by Quillan Anderson

Op-ed: We need a new American Dream

screens, resulting in the omnipresent sensationalization of all facets of media from fear-mongering news cycles to “The Queen’s Gambit” and banana bread. Suddenly, in a time of unavoidable loneliness and fear, the presence of algorithms that intrinsically understood what we wanted to see were vital. And with that, rampant consumerism ensued.

in the viewer to curb the hoards of people that will inevitably flock. Companies have perfected harnessing new and traditional media for advertisement to the point where product placement has been a natural fixture of our lives. Meanwhile, contentment inches further and further away as material goods mutate from desires to urges to needs.

Since the insular gates of the COVID-19 pandemic gave way, the American zeitgeist has been dominated by an obsession with opulence. True to the ceaseless boom-bust cycle, mass deprivation spilling into mass over-consumption is intuitive on the macroeconomic level. But in the micro-economies existing in our communities, homes and friend groups, we as young people have managed to deny the looming global recession and general financial responsibility through the numbing nature of material goods.

During the incessant downtime of the pandemic, the eyes of even the most disconnected turned to

The American fascination with money and the act of accumulating it is not a secret; the need to achieve financial success has been encoded into its founding principles and handed to its citizens in the glimmering form of the American Dream. In the United States, productivity is a religion, the ownership of goods indicates well-being and happiness and wealth is hoarded not distributed.

Pop culture augments this through shows like “White Lotus,” “Succession” and “Gossip Girl,” which have viewers salivating over the uber-wealth just beyond their reach. Short-form content is even more dangerous in this gluttonous nature because its creators have perfected guerilla marketing, deeming each product shown a “must buy” and instilling a sense of immediacy

Gen Z, in their progression to adults and economic agents, has shown abnormally conscientious consumption patterns. Because consumption is viewed as an extension of their individual identities, they are inclined to make purchases that align with their ethics. In fact, Gen Z and millennials’ collective push for ethical consumption has had a significant role in the rise of the environmental, social and corporate governance market, better known as the ESG market, which is estimated to reach a valuation of $33.9 trillion in 2026. But, with all signs pointing toward excess, it creates a true dilemma for young people making the paradoxical choice between ethical consumption and the imbued need to act on all their material desires.

In the last year, consumer prices rose 6.5%. The United States Fed-

eral Reserve, or U.S. Central Bank, has aggressively pursued hiking up the federal funds rate — reaching 40 year highs —and developed economies across the globe have done the same to tame inflation. Global growth forecasts are projected to fall to 2.9% this year as opposed to reaching the historical average 3.8%. Companies are offsetting revenue losses through mass layoffs and the banking sector is on the precipice of collapse. But, we don’t need statistics to warn of economic instability. Students with already tight wallets are feeling the effects of surging grocery bills, living costs and $7 coffees. Our generation cannot afford its spending habits and struggles to curb the capitalistic enticement of more. Despite the euphoric spending environment we aim to create for ourselves, the already withering outside world continues to incur collateral damage. Young people have absolved themselves of responsibility for their own actions and their communities’ futures as all seems futile. And while this is understandable, more discipline is needed. Stepping away from algorithmic bliss, taking inventory of our relationship with consumption and seeking financial literacy

will be imperative as we enter the labor market amid global economic uncertainty.

The current economic situation also presents an opportune moment for a shift in societal values. As people struggle to grapple with the loss of their financial success amidst economic instability, we are given a chance to recalibrate this flawed ideal that sits at the core of our culture. Why is it that we deem the poor to be unmotivated failures while we revere the work ethic of the rich who, more often than not, amass their wealth from luck and preexisting privilege? The unnerving reality of the American Dream is that every person in the United States does not have equal opportunity to make it big and this has always been the case.

Americans are in dire need of a new dream — one that doesn’t fixate on well-being in financial metrics. The ability to consume eternal supplies of goods, services and entertainment is our greatest privilege, and perhaps more accurately, our greatest burden.

Ananya Chaudhari is a second-year economics and finance major. She can be reached at chaudhari.ana@northeastern.edu.

Op-ed: TikTok and its algorithm are a vehicle for misogyny, self-hatred and anti-feminism

This isn’t a big deal if, for example, you love cats but can’t stand dogs so the algorithm just steers you into a cat video hole. But if you’re a young teenage girl struggling with the growing pains of self-esteem and puberty or a young boy who can’t seem to score a date to a high school dance and has unsubstantiated resentment towards girls, then that’s a whole different story.

The way the algorithm works is by using “machine learning to determine what content a user is most likely to engage with and serve them more of it, by finding videos that are similar or that are liked by people with similar user preferences.”

the one thing that is of immediate concern to them during such a vulnerable time: appearances. A poll from the University of Michigan revealed that two-thirds of teens and preteens were insecure about some aspect of their appearance. Another study found that 15% of 11-year-old girls were unhappy with their appearance and by the time they were 14, 29% said they were unhappy.

posts from four different accounts.

We’ve all used it and seen the content catered to the masses. Some of the content is harmless. Cooking, sports, entertainment and other content generally don’t have many negative long-lasting effects on people’s psyche and perceptions. However, there are many types of far more subliminal content that harm women and feminist movements, making it imperative for you to forgo the app.

Before we dive into the different kinds of content that make TikTok a driving vehicle for misogyny and identity deterioration, we must understand what an echo chamber is. Echo chambers are “when one experiences a biased, tailored media experience that eliminates opposing viewpoints and differing voices. Due to the social media algorithm that ensures we only see media that fits our preferences, we have found ourselves in a comfortable, self-conforming feed.”

TikTok has admitted to creating these “filter bubbles” that keep users trapped in one type of content.

Think of it as a tree. TikTok shows you eight videos when you first join. Then, based on the one you engage with the most, it branches you to eight more videos that relate to the first video. And from that video eight more, then more and more.

If a person goes into the app with negative preconceptions of a group of people or even themselves, TikTok will launch them in the way of the content that promotes and even legitimizes the preconceived notions of self-hate and misogyny, trapping them in a room with all the negative rhetoric bouncing from wall to wall right back to their eyes.

This brings me to the plethora of content, evidence and research that points to TikTok being a net negative for women, men and everyone in between alike.

It is very difficult to empower young girls on the idea that they can be whatever they want to be — a flagship statement of feminist movements — when they can’t have

Often, user preconceptions are not even necessary. In a study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, or CCDH, new accounts in four English-speaking countries were set at the 13-year-old age minimum. “Within 2.6 minutes, TikTok recommended suicide content. Within eight minutes, TikTok served content related to eating disorders. Every 39 seconds, TikTok recommended videos about body image and mental health to teens,” according to the study.

Girls are not the only victims. This echo chamber phenomenon happens to boys and men as well.

We’ve all heard of the alpha male, cigar-huffing, bigotry-puffing, kickboxer Andrew Tate. The personification of misogyny itself, Tate has equipped many young men with the idea that they are miserable because of feminism.

An Observer investigation found how the site started to push more content tailored to men on a new account set at 18 years old. Without proactively searching for Tate-related content, the account started to show videos of Tate from a copycat account, talking about “the harsh reality of men” as a result of feminism. The next time the account holders opened the account, they were met with four Tate-related

Tate sells this idea that puts young men at the center of the world and that everyone is beholden to them. In retrospect, this isn’t a new concept. Men have done this since the dawn of time. The issue is that he is using feminism as the reason for why young impressionable boys can’t attain what they want. This is framed in the politically-charged backdrop of TikTok. Young boys who struggle to see how they fit into the narrative of feminism are more susceptible to idolize someone like Tate.

How can feminism thrive in this environment? It can’t. Sure, there are feminists on TikTok. But they’re in their own echo chamber. They can’t reach the people who are stuck in other chambers.

We went into the social media boom with enthusiasm because we could watch only what we wanted to and not have to wait for cable TV to air what we were interested in. We focused so much on what “I” wanted to watch, so companies built something so “I” could watch what I wanted. The best interest of society didn’t matter.

As I mentioned before, we all have preconceptions. Sometimes they’re good, but sometimes they’re bad. Sometimes, they don’t even exist. The issue is how social media companies and corporations harness these negatives, intentionally or not, to drive hyper aware teens to obsessively engage with socially degrading content for the sake of profit margins.

TikTok doesn’t care about people. They want the engagement and data that comes with this use to increase their monetized control, through

ads, of the public forum. They aid in the deterioration of already messed up societies under the guise of streamlined communication and speedy dissemination of information, whether truthful or not. Not to mention the other millions of items spreading racist, transphobic, classist and homophobic content.

TikTok is not the only culprit, but they did create the fast-paced content model that other social media companies have adopted to engage their users in the same short-spanned and looped videos that have us charting record hours of screen time.

My recommendation is to ditch TikTok and read a book or throw rocks at a train. I ditched TikTok during my second semester of college after feeling everyone in my age group started to adopt the same personality and catchphrases, hearing the same “oh no” sound and seeing the Charli drink at Dunkin. It made real life boring and repetitive, just like the app.

If you have younger siblings, delete the app from their phone. If you have kids in the future, don’t hand them an iPad as I’ve witnessed my cousins do with their children. Keep yourself and them away from screens for as long as possible.

We’ve all joked about how 13-year-olds are looking like adults and how boys have regressed into misogynistic, “grindset,” lone-wolf, sigma males. But it’s far more of a horror film than a comedy show. Happy scrolling!

Noelia Arteaga is a third-year journalism and political science combined major and the opinion editor. She can be reached at arteaga.n@northeastern.edu.

Photo courtesy Ananya Chaudhari