My name is Bianca and I’m the girl known as B. Seven years ago my whole life changed, and not in a good way but in a horrible way. It felt like someone stabbed their hands inside me and took my soul. Seven years ago is when I told myself that this world had nothing…

This story evolved out of a real text conversation between Venice High POPS the Club graduate Anthony Cortez and Tyanni Gomez, Venice High senior and POPS the Club President. Tyanni wrote: I thought I “knew” him through his stories, but I never knew him. Every time he messages me back on this subject, I feel…

A long time ago my family was involved in a lot of negative things. These negatives have left many of my family members and me scarred and afraid of drugs and the problems they bring. Afraid of gangs and the lives they take, not necessarily in deaths, but with mistakes that change people’s lives forever….

I live in South Central Los Angeles and experience an endless cycle of tension, waiting for something bad to happen. Gunshots ring out at random moments. Helicopters circle overhead in the dead of night and sometimes during the day. Police slowly cruise the streets staring out their squad car windows, and they make me feel…

17. 17th birthday – and this is first time he’s called me to wish me a happy birthday. 16. He called my mom and I answered. I let him know who it was. He said he had almost forgotten he had a little sister. 15. I don’t know how he’s doing or what he’s up…

You see me. You hear me. I seem strong. I say I’ll fight hard. I’ll show him wrong. I work hard. I try to stay strong. But you’re right. Inside I am weak. Inside I am holding Millions of tears. When you bring him up, It feels as if I’m Losing the strings That hold…

My father, my homeboy. I look up to him. At age 9, he lost his father. And had to go to work to help support his two sisters, seven brothers and his mother. By eleventh grade he had to drop out to work fulltime and then some. Two jobs. One of his paychecks went to…

It’s when you feel Helpless, breathless, empty I’ve felt that I’ve felt that to the point where All I saw was black Anxiety It’s when you feel like you’re drowning In an ocean of all those kept feelings They try to swallow you whole Like a whale swallows krill I have been that teeny tiny…

Second semester of sixth grade, you went in Praying every day and night that you would come home. I remember searching your name, but the results were not what I had expected. Two years later I graduated High Honor Roll just wanting to make you smile from ear to ear. Every Saturday or Sunday driving…

16- Finally quiet in the house. It’s not home, Dad would have to be there for that. Momma’s happy though. Good for her. 15- My mom gets tired of yelling all the time. She tells my dad to go and not to come back. He cries…of course he does. 14- New school. No familiar faces….