It was around 6:30 in the evening when I filed onto the train to go back to my host family’s apartment in Shibuya. As I untangled my earphones in my seat, I noticed a little girl, clutching her mother’s hand, gasp at the sight of my dark skin and box braids, as though she’s never seen anyone who looks quite like me before. A cause of great discomfort just a few weeks prior, I shook it off as...

It was the beginning of my Brown visit when my tour guide, Max, introduced himself as a computer science major, club volleyball player, and champion drag queen of the campus. I found it amazing that Max, just one individual Brown student, could be so multifaceted, all while being absolutely, unapologetically himself. Brown’s open curriculum and limitless opportunities may be what makes Brown perfect for me on paper, but it’s the diversity not only within the student body, but...

When I was thirteen, I learned about sexism and homophobia through social media and through small acts of prejudice in my everyday life. I guided myself through heated arguments with pure emotion, resenting those who were ignorant to social issues, but in reality, thirteen-year-old me still had a lot to learn.

I’m a fourth generation, born and bred resident of Metro-Detroit—my maternal great-grandfather came to Detroit during the Great Migration to work at General Motors, and my paternal great-grandfather was raised in Highland Park. I was mostly raised in the city of Troy, Michigan, and went to school each year with the kids I’d always known. I wanted to branch out, however, so I decided to attend a boarding school in New Hampshire, where my next door neighbors...

The LGBT community, particularly the Gender-Sexuality Alliance (GSA) at my school has taught me so much about self-acceptance and kindness. I've long been passionate about LGBT rights, but when I became a leader of my school's GSA, I realized that my bisexuality, which for a multitude of reasons I’d questioned since I was a kid, was something worth loving about myself and sharing with the world. My club's members, so eager and caring and supportive, have shaped me into...