Winner
Hayne Kim, 16, from Tokyo, reacts to a Guest Essay from the Opinion section, “My Sister Was Murdered 30 Years Ago. True Crime Repackages Our Pain as Entertainment.” She writes:
My descent into the true crime rabbit hole was thanks to YouTuber Stephanie Soo. On far too many lazy Sunday afternoons than I would like to admit, I sat slouched in front of my laptop with my eyes fixed on the flashy fluorescent screen, an unhealthily huge bowl of Takis at hand. Video after video, I clung on to Stephanie’s every last syllable as she fed me one tragic tale after another through spoonfuls of uncanny suspense.
I continued to devour Stephanie’s stories just as quickly as I licked the MSG off my sticky red fingers.
Until I read this article.
At the ripe age of six, Annie Nichol lost her older sister Polly at the hands of a murderer.
Subsequent to Polly’s murder, Annie was continually met with floods of faceless reporters, writers, producers — strangers — all with an unquenchable thirst for details and an eager desire to dramatize. This constant bombardment of the gates that protected her private, sacred memories of her sister caused Annie immense pain and post-traumatic stress.
Suddenly, the hefty plates of Stephanie Soo videos I had wolfed down churned uneasily in my stomach.
I realized just how desensitized I had become. A human being’s lived-in nightmare is not meant to be hastily packaged into a sixty-something-minute monetized video. The inability of myself and countless others to immediately recognize this serves as a testament to the unsettling effects of mass media consumption.
Runners-Up
In alphabetical order by the writer’s first name.
Anagha Nagesh on What Trump Means When He Mispronounces ‘Kamala’
Desi Miller on “104 Shows. $260 Million. After 10 Years, Billy Joel Closes a Chapter.”
Gabriel Lam on “Giant Pandas Will Head to D.C.’s National Zoo From China”
Minghao Li on “If You Know What ‘Brainrot’ Means, You Might Already Have It.”
Vivian Wan on “The Book Bag That Binds Japanese Society"
Honorable Mentions
Yue Li on “Kids? A Growing Number of Americans Say, ‘No, Thanks.’”
Kareena Gunawardana on “The Tradwife Life Is Nothing New"
Amelia Yuan on “Cats Are Better Than Dogs”
Audrey Wang on “It’s Hot Out. People Still Look Good.”
Charles Peterson on “JD Vance, an Unlikely Friendship and Why It Ended”
Claire Weng on “My Father’s Quiet Love Speaks Louder Than Words”
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