ADORE'S JUNE THREAD
This month’s showcase features a selection of recent writing submissions from emerging voices. Each work is presented as part of Adore’s ongoing monthly collection.
Featured Writers
Sanvi Bajaj
An Open Letter to Teen GirlsBhanvi Grover
Censor meChainka
KismetRimjhim
The Noise Left BehindSaranya Bhat
Pity Party
An Open Letter to Teen Girls
Written by Sanvi Bajaj
Dear girls,
They told us to be quieter, so we learned to talk back louder. This letter is to you from another teen girl to remind you of some important things.
Please, be yourself. Stop letting anyone define you. Be loud, be bold, or be quiet and calm. Do only as you wish. You are far too full of life to be somebody’s maybe.
Rule No. 1 is to never be. Rule No. 2. If he did adore you, he wouldn’t have made you think twice about giving him a chance. But you, yes you, girl, you only need to be adored by yourself, so go work hard for yourself and create your dream life because your only option is success. Make sure everyone sees that you never settle for less.
A hot girl’s top priorities are music, money, and fashion, not as stereotypes but as freedom, independence, and expression. You only live once, so stop living in the past. Whatever happened doesn’t get to control who you become. Let your spark ignite again. Let your soul free.
If people think you are too much, let them go find less, because such people don’t deserve to hold any place in your life. You are and always will be the main character. Your life is a movie, and you are the director, so remove everyone who no longer deserves to be in the frame and give yourself everything to make it worth it, and yes, do it for the plot.
Forget the beauty standard and become your own definition of beauty. You are iconic. You are cool. You are fun.
I know they find it cringe, but you find it fun, and maybe that’s why you are happier. It’s better to be cringe in others’ minds than caged in your own. Never let the ugliness in others kill the beauty inside of you.
So go wear that pink eyeliner or your black eyeshadow. My mom always says, “Listen to what people say from one ear and remove them from the other one because hating on others makes them feel better about themselves.” These words are to live by. You were born to stand out, so stop trying to fit in. You don’t need to relate to any of those cool girl posts. You are your own definition of cool.
One thing that should never leave you is your confidence; carry it to your death bed. Life isn’t about finding yourself; it’s about creating yourself. So become the artist and your own muse. Next time, if you need a hero, just look in the mirror.
It’s difficult, but you have to realize that you are your own sunshine; you are the moon of your life. You are the light that you are looking for in the darkness.
Don’t live by anything I told you, but only live by what makes you happy. Go get that new piercing, have fun, wear that jewelry, add extra glitter, wear black, listen to rock, listen to pop, be fashionable, be powerful, be chic, be quirky, be classy, be cringe, be sophisticated, be funny, be sleepy, be positive, be sensitive, and for once, live only for yourself even if they think it’s selfish.
Censor Me
Written by Bhanvi Grover
My vision gets blurry
It tries hard to see the future
The future vowed to me
Stolen without my knowledge, there is no suture
The empty desires of material
No consequence for those at our mercy
Anne Frank shivers in your U.S.A.
Why do you not tire? There is no clemency
Tick destruction off your life list
Throw your god out; he looks contradictory…
Oblivion destroyed
Wake me; it’s a dull hurricane
Limbo destroyed
All we have is stupefied brains;
Sleepwalk in dreams that horror drains
Restricting my rights, yet I refrain
Plagiarise our music, art and soul,
Recreate our ether and we asphyxiate;
Unable to be ‘me,’ yet I am a mole
Tomorrow must be different; today we tolerate.
Kismet
Written by Chainka
In your car, drive slow Can we go somewhere far? To the places I don't, I won't know To be where you are, To go where you go; It's like seeing kismet falling down. Oh God, but don't look around, just look at me now, just look at me now, and drive real slow. I knew you from long ago. I swear, I know you from long, long ago. Look at me now, Kismet falling down. Let's drive around my block. Be quiet for hours, and then, for hours, talk. Dear, you make me wanna dress up fancy and go outside. You make me, you make me wanna have you by my side. Oh dear, you make me wanna skinny dip in the night and just drive, sing in tune and just drive. It's kismet falling down, slowly falling down. Closing my eyes, and I feel like I might charm you now, slowly charm you now. So could you go really slow? Just drive around. Just drive around.
The Noise Left Behind
Written by Rimjhim
Lying on the grass,
Looking up at the stars,
Where does it feel empty in my heart?
Childhood drifts back,
Not in pictures, but in feeling.
The way summer air used to mean something simple and not something fleeting.
Then the rain comes to mind,
Surrounded by the snow and the dew.
How they never truly disappear,
Just change their shapes and break through.
Rain soaks the feathers,
Dew dusts the trees,
Snow quietly becomes the river that finds its way to the sea.
Maybe I am like that too,
Not broken, but just being me.
Among all these,
I find something I can’t name,
Only feel.
So, again and again,
I lie on that patch of grass,
Look up at these indifferent stars,
And wonder
If the stillness can fill the noise left hollow in my heart.
Pity Party
Written by Saranya Bhat
Goodwill earns you points in God’s game, A few acts of charity to earn a name. You donate, you bow, you show humility— But tell me, do the poor crave your pity? Forgiveness comes, but where does it go? In empty smiles and words we know. Love built on actions starts to fray, What’s true fades as words decay. I shouldn’t even talk, right? It’s all for me, I’m just another case in your charity spree. Two years of love, then all just fades— My love, your gestures seem so staged. If I am wrong, let me wear the blame, But don’t pretend—it’s not the same. Your forgiveness, your smile—they seem so bare, An echo of something that was once there.
Thank you to everyone featured in this month’s showcase!
Submissions for next month are now open.SUBMIT HERE: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdVhnYR0vszruzmbA6vgTgcP6UJ2-OPYXlKjBAkzXyP3qJ5ZQ/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=115262157011670853556