Thank you to the 1,276 teenagers who participated in the eighth week of our 10-week Summer Reading Contest, and congratulations to Nina, our winner, as well as to our many runners-up and honorable mentions.
Scroll down to take a look at the variety of topics — from scrapbooking and playing dress up to the Americans With Disabilities Act and A.O.C.’s viral condemnation of sexism — that caught the eyes of our participants this week.
And please remember to always check the top of our contest announcement to find the right place to participate, any week from now until Aug. 21.
Note to students: If you are one of this week’s winners and would like your last name published, please complete our permission form (PDF) and send it to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
Winner
Nina chose an Opinion essay headlined “Why America Needs a Royal Family” and wrote:
The royal family’s private life often intersects with their royal duties. Similarly in America, the extracurricular activities of politicians often overlap with their political affairs as well. Seeing this, writer Jennifer Weiner asserts that America needs its own “royal family,” separately-elected representatives who can perform ceremonial tasks while representing America’s overall values.
Ms. Weiner juxtaposes the royal family’s personal affairs with a soap opera, stating that, “The problem with a real-time soap opera … is that very few people are equipped to be its stars.” She appeals to a sense of familiarity by comparing the lives of the royal family and, in larger part, politicians to television melodrama, showing the reader that these matters relate.
I largely disagree with her argument and would like to propose one of my own: We need to separate the ribbon-cutting and the baby-kissing from politics and remove them entirely. Even now, politicians’ personal affairs distract from more important political matters, and an American “royal family” would only compound this issue.
What Ms. Weiner is asking for reminds me of a mascot, such as the Nesquik bunny — a hollow symbol of the values of carefree fun that the company supposedly has while its parent company, Nestle, commits child-trafficking and slavery in West Africa to harvest cocoa. America needs a lot of things, and a mascot isn’t one of them.
Runners-Up
In alphabetical order by the writer’s first name.
Adora on “Have You Considered the Benefits of Crying?”
Albert on “The Mysterious Life of Birds Who Never Come Down”
Emma on “Building Accessibility Into America, Literally”
Jennifer on “He’s 83, She’s 84, and They Model Other People’s Forgotten Laundry”
Jessica on “You Should Start Writing Letters”
Lauren on “What Is the Hardest Part of Writing?”
PhilipL-BengleAP20 on “That Flour You Bought Could Be the Future Of the U.S. Economy”
Samantha on “A.O.C. Unleashes a Viral Condemnation of Sexism in Congress”
Sanai on “Scrapbooking As an Act of “Radical Self-Care”
Sarah on “He’s 83, She’s 84, and They Model Other People’s Forgotten Laundry”
Teddy on “Trump Is Plotting Against the Census. Here’s Why.”
Tina on “How Do I Know Where Your Socks Are?”
Honorable Mentions
Albert on “Trump Visa Rules Seen as Way to Pressure Colleges on Reopening”
Ava on “For the Navajo Nation, a Fight for Better Food Gains New Urgency”
Christine on “How Do You Know a Human Wrote This?”
Clara on “If Our Masks Could Speak”
Ellee on “I Miss My Father’s Mind”
Fyze on “U.S. Adds Sanctions Over Internment of Muslims in China”
Huda on “A.O.C. Unleashes a Viral Condemnation of Sexism in Congress”
Isabella on “Chin Up, Extroverts: We Will Crowd Again!”
Jason on “How to Diversify Your Toy Box”
Jiajun on “For a Sweet 2020, Look to the Bitter in Wine”
Lauren on “What Happens When You’re Disabled but Nobody Can Tell”
Lianna on “Note to Dancers: ‘Drop Your Self-Consciousness’ and Get Into It”
Neeraja on “‘Amazing, Isn’t It?’ Long-Sought Blood Test for Alzheimer’s in Reach”
Rebecca “I Cured My Pandemic Anxiety by Making Tiny Food Out of Clay”
Xichen on “Single in China”
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August 18, 2020 at 09:52PM
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Summer Reading Contest Winner, Week 8: On ‘Why America Needs a Royal Family’ - The New York Times
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