My Untold Story
It all began with a 2007 summer issue of Teen Vogue. My fifteen-year-old self was sitting on my bed carelessly flipping through Teen Vogue’s pages when I noticed an ad for a contest. The contest was sponsored by Seventeen magazine and L.E.I. Jeans and it asked was that entrants create an “about me” video or submit a photo representing your personal style. Once peering across the page, I thought to myself…I can do that.
Within minutes, I found myself calling my best friend, Tori. She walked over to my house and we began discussing a plan of action. I told her of the contest and I also informed her of the lush prizes that would accompany the winner: a trip to NYC, an internship with Seventeen magazine, free clothes, a makeover, fancy dinners, and a $5000 scholarship. The best part of the deal was that I only had to make a video, which I knew I was quite capable of.
I began storyboarding like crazy. From scripts to shot lists, I organized my video outline so that I could curate and produce all of the content that I wanted the Seventeen and L.E.I. judges to see. Approximately two weeks passed and the video was finished. Tori’s filming and my editing came together to for my entry. Yet, to my dismay, I still had work to do. After reviewing my video a few more times, I noticed a grainy sound in the background of one of my final clips and this drove me absolutely insane. If not for my inherent need to seek perfection to some degree, I could have simply let this flaw go; however, I knew that I could not submit the video without doing my absolute best. I knew that perfecting my video to by absolute best was the only way I could feel confident in my final submission.
Tori begrudgingly assisted me in the re-shooting of my final clip and, finally, the video was done. I submitted my video to the applicable Myspace page that represented the contest and I crossed my fingers.
A few weeks later, I was preparing to do morning warm-ups for my theatre class. My sophomore year of high school had just started. Aside from my usual morning grogginess, there wasn’t much exciting happening. That is, until a note arrived from the front office.