To help make prom a reality for Chicago area students, Reina Santiago, who is an Interactive Designer at the Redbox office in Oakbrook, organized a dress drive to benefit the Princess Closet

The event started with a kick-off on Monday, Oct 10th, and a subsequent drive on Oct 20th, during the lunch period. The first twenty donors received a copy of the book "Anti-Prom" on behalf of the Princess Closet. The event was a tremendous success. 100 dresses were donated for this prom season. It is people like Reina who make attending prom dreams come true for high school girls! If you are interested in hosting a dress drive or fundraiser on behalf of the Princess Closet, please contact Maria Davalos at 312-203-5392 or princess.closet@live.com. More information on the organization can be found at www.princess-closet.org

LATINO FASHION WEEK- TEEN/FAMILY NIGHT

Join us at Latino Fashion Week - Teen/Family Night on Thursday, Nov 3, 2011 from 2pmto 9pm.  During the Expo LFW, will set-up a donation box at the Princess Closet Fashion Lounge if you would like to donate items.  We accept shoes, dresses, evening bags and Jewelry.

For vendors we also look for gift certificates, perfume, make-up, hair products, nail products, and other small items for our goodie bags. 

See you there!

The Life of A Junior by Jurnee Carr, Miss Teen International 2011

High school is such a fun time in a teenager’s life. Driving to school, cheering on your school team at Friday night basketball games, and going to prom are huge highlights! As a junior I have had an incredible 2 and a half years of enjoying high school! My high school is a little bit different than most; it’s year-round! This means that we go for 9 weeks of instructional time and have a 3 week break! Yes, I love it! I am also dual enrolled at the local university, completing college hours on top my high school credits.

My typical high school day consists of French 2 in the morning, then Advanced Algebra 2, next comes Environmental Science, and finally, U.S. History. After I am done with these classes at the high school, I venture over to the university to take English and Religion. Dual enrolling has been an incredible experience! Not only do I complete hours towards my future college degree, but I also get to meet new people and prepare myself for a real college atmosphere.

Junior year is very crucial. This is the year to start looking into colleges and thinking about what you would like to major in college. My ultimate educational goal is a Doctorate of Ministry. Needless to say, this will take a while to complete so I have begun researching all colleges that will offer the best education for this specific degree. Yes, college research is tedious, but you get to scope out the perfect college for you and discover what cool things they have to offer! Who knows? Maybe you’ll end up studying abroad in England! The possibilities are endless!

Another great aspect of high school is the countless opportunities to get involved and meet new friends! Conditioning just started for basketball, and I have had a fun time not only working on my personal and team basketball skills, but getting to know each team member a little better. My school is all about the freedom of the student body. We each have the opportunity to join as many clubs as we wish and create new clubs of our own! A friend and I started a Christian girl’s group that meets during lunch to have Bible study. Key Club is another way to get involved in the community! Also, showing your involvement in sports, clubs, and extracurricular activities stands out on college applications!

Sadly, high school is only four years. I encourage you to make the most out of every day that you spend at a desk, work diligently on your studies, and be the best you that you can be! The harder you work now, the easier it will be in your future. Four years go by fast; take it all in and make the most of it and yourself!

THE DEBUT




So…I put off writing this blog because I wasn’t sure what to say. Young women today are crazy incredible – I seriously don’t know how you do it. I only graduated five years ago but you ladies make me feel like a wimp. You have so much to worry about, so many pressures, and so many people telling you to worry about all the wrong things – I’m so amazed at how awesome and level-headed you are.



I was asked to write about the “high school experience” but if I’m being honest, high school sucked for me – until Senior year anyway. I wish I had a cool, older girlfriend that was into interesting things and could have helped pull me out of my slump earlier so that’s what I will try to be for others.



I hope you realize that you are far from alone and that no matter what anyone says, you have the power to totally transform your life into whatever you want it to be.





Listen to yourself. Seriously.

Call it intuition, your soul, your psyche – or just that annoying voice that just won’t shut up – but whatever you call it, it’s there for a reason. In ALL of us there is a whispering voice that tells us what we should be doing. Crazy, huh? Many believe that women are more in tune with this voice and I think in a lot of cases they’re right.



Sometimes stuff like Facebook and TV can gag this voice so it can’t say anything. There’s been times I’ve turned on my computer to try and write something awesome and wound up looking at some guys pics he took at a party – two years ago! Yuck. Makes me feel super lame AND mad at myself for never getting around to what I actually wanted to do! Just keep it in mind for next time…it’s crazy how many things meant to keep us in touch with others make us lose ourselves.



So, whether you love to dance, knit, or collect garden gnomes – do it and do it with all your heart. Do it like your life depends on it – in some ways it does.





Remember – this isn’t all there is!

If I had a dollar for every time someone said to me, “High school is preparing you for the real world” I could’ve paid off my car by now…well maybe filled it up with gas. But besides getting the best grades you can, making friends who care about you, and learning about yourself and your goals, the rest of high school can be about as real as Paris Hilton’s personality.



In high school if you say the wrong thing, date the wrong guy, or wear different clothes you can kiss your social life goodbye. Now with cell phones, mini cameras, and Facebook (sorry, not trying to hate on it!) your whole school can know about what happened Friday night with the click of a button. That’s awful and immature. Just remember, no matter what drama happens to you in high school you will barely remember it after. Take what happened to you and learn from it. Take the high road and keep classy. Trust me, this garbage won’t follow you into the “real world”…whatever that even means.





Go outside yourself.

Live with no fear – even if it’s just for a day. Everyone has something that they wish they would’ve done. Remember that girl that was getting bashed because of how she looked? Remember how you wanted to stick up for her? Remember that play you wanted to try out for? That charity you wanted to meet up with? That cute guy you wanted to say hey to? We all have that fear. The fear of letting our real selves shine. Do you know that the #1 human fear is public speaking and #2 is death? Whaaaat?? Seriously, it’s time to get over it. You will regret the things that you did not do way more than the things you did.





The end…for now….



I once helped another young woman that I had never met get where she needed to go. She told me this phrase, which I will end all of my writings with:



In Lak’ech



In Mayan it means “I am another yourself” or I am you and you are me. No matter how someone acts towards you whether is is beautiful, brave, kind, or even mean; remember we are all just reflections of each other :)





Peace. Love. Light.

-- Lydia James





Listening To: Norin & Rad – The Gift

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADc3YsKwjQo



Read more about In Lak’ech:

http://www.kachina.net/~alunajoy/97aug.html