Image by Mia Wise

Tonight’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion reminds us of a few things. First is that these women are incredibly beautiful and graceful. Second is that, for most of us, we will never be able to achieve the perfect bodies that Adriana Lima and Lily Aldridge work super hard to achieve.

Body shaming is an issue that every race, gender and age can relate to. For some it starts as early as elementary school.

“Middle school was the worst for me because that’s when body image is like a big thing. It made me feel so worthless that I was bigger than other girls. Actually, it got to the point where I would often starve myself in the hopes of losing weight and looking more like everyone else. I never ate breakfast or lunch and if I could help it I would try and skip dinner too. It really left me feeling empty and despite that being when I was my smallest I never felt like I was good enough,” said 19 year old Elizabeth McArdle.

Body shaming is not always fat shaming. Naturally skinny people are prone to this issue too. In fact, in 2014 when Meghan Trainor released All About That Bass people were quick to point out that they felt the lyric “Go ‘head and tell them skinny bitches that” was skinny shaming.

“I’ve been body shamed all my life. Growing up it was hard for me to gain weight. A lot of girls growing up would say they were jealous of my size, but then would say I needed to eat a sandwich. To start eating fried chicken and sweet potatoes and cornbread to grow some curves. It really affected my body image and self esteem growing up,” said Andrea Burns.

It’s always easy to think about body shaming as something that you would never do to another person but most of the time people can’t control the urge to compare yourself to another.

“I think people body shame because it’s in our nature to compare ourselves to others. If we see someone who we think has a worse body than we do we will instinctively feel better about ourselves. Of course I’ve body shamed, everyone does. I don’t think we as humans will ever stop body shaming. I think we can make an effort to not do it as often, but it’s such an instinctive reaction I think we all unintentionally do it every day. Obviously, you can make an effort to not say it out loud, but I don’t think it can be stopped from happening within your own thoughts,” said McArdle.

Even if you see someone and have a mean thought about the way they look what’s most important is that you don’t act on it. They will never know what thought passed through your mind but if you say something they might dwell on it forever. In a world where 50% of teenage girls have resorted to unhealthy restricting habits to loose weight, every bit of kindness counts.

Almost every college student has gone through or is going through a long distance friendship. At graduation everyone makes promises of summer hangouts before they leave in the fall but relationships with people from high school are never the same once you go to college.

These are people that you go from seeing everyday to seeing maybe once during winter break and then a couple times over the summer if your job or internship schedule allows you. Although it’s sad there are some friendships that can last no matter the distance or time that you two are apart.

“One of my best friends moved to Florida when during my senior year but she came back to see me graduate and it meant the world to me. We facetime, text and communicate through social media for urgent things, but every time we link up again it’s so much fun to talk catch each other up on life. We both really look forward to those moments,” said Bridget Saucedo.

Even if you’re going to the University of California and your friend is going to New York University, it doesn’t mean that you should give up on the friendship completely. Any relationship worth having requires work on both ends. From skyping to sending a quick text to say hello, we live in an age where nothing stops anyone from communicating with another.

Image by Mia Wise

“My advice would be to stay connected. Just because your friend is far away doesn’t mean the friendship is over,” said Saucedo.

Each Christmas season, Santa can be seen at every local mall waiting for children to sit on his lap and tell him their Christmas wishes. For most mall patrons, Santa is always white which doesn’t show much diversity.

This past Thursday, Larry Jefferson, a professional Santa impersonator, made his debut as this season’s Santa at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Mall of America welcomes its first black Santa https://t.co/TJ90SkjZLP pic.twitter.com/cus0Jy2Zg8

— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) December 2, 2016

When news of this hit the internet, there were many different responses. The most surprising responses were from people who were outraged at the thought of Santa as a black man.

Since Santa is a fictional character there is no right or wrong way to portray him. White or black, all a child will see is Santa.

Even though there has been backlash, every reservation to see Jefferson is full proving that he is very popular. According to an article from The Washington Post, some families drove miles to see Jefferson and a woman told him she had been waiting 25 years to see a black Santa.

“Everyone’s making a big deal about this because I’m a black Santa. But gosh, I’m just Santa!” said Jefferson in and interview with The Washington Post.

Last December, Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened and broke records making it one of the top three highest grossing releases worldwide. Before the release of the movie, the release of the trailer in June 2015 also broke records making it the most viewed movie trailer on Youtube in 24 hours.

For anyone who isn’t a fan of the Star Wars franchise, this might be mind-boggling. Fans can be caught standing in line for hours just to get a good seat for the movie or for the new toys.

“In my opinion, Star Wars has one of the most expansive universes in anything I’ve ever seen (honorable mention: Star Trek). The fact that there are almost infinite amounts of planets, galaxies, different species in the Star Wars Universe… it’s exciting; the imagination of the fan is almost endless. The ships, the weapons, the technology, the heroes/villains, the force, the conflict… ALL of it is why I love Star Wars,” said Dante Dio.

Dio can be seen at 0:43 talking about the newest toys.

“Craziest thing I’ve done was pretty recently when AMC had the seven Star Wars movie marathon. I stood out in line from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m. to get a good seat… waited for 1 a.m. to see the first movie, didn’t get out till 9 pm the next day. IT WAS SO WORTH IT. Also I’ve seen the newest Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a total of eight times in theaters,” said Dio.

This December, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will hit theaters. Fans can look forward to this new installment in the series. The story will focus around a new group of heroes who are out to steal the plans to the Death Star, which hold the power to destroy entire planets.

“The thing I’m most excited to see has to be Darth Vader on screen for the first time in a decade. He hasn’t truly been on screen since Return of the Jedi and a very small clip in Revenge of the Sith. Biggest difference is that it’s 2016 and the technology we have now can show the most badass Darth Vader to date,” said Dio.

Image by Mia Wise

Posting, snapping and tweeting are all verbs that are used daily in the vocabulary of this generation.

According to a study 95% of teens report going online daily. With new social media sites popping up every day among Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat it is easy to see how people become obsessed with constantly checking their accounts.

“I spend a good chunk of my free time on social media. I don’t have any real hobbies anymore. I spend my free time on my phone looking at social media or watching television,” said Facebook and Instagram user Ashley McCoy.

Checking social media obsessively can cause jealousy and loneliness. From the beautiful celebrities and fitness models of Instagram to the pictures of weddings and babies of people you talked to once in high school on Facebook, it can all make your life seem a little less exciting than others.

“Sometimes I see my friends posting snapchats of themselves hanging out without me and it makes me really upset. It’s crazy how little ten second videos can ruin your mood immediately,” said Snapchat user Michelle Rivas.

Social media has its pros and cons but everything should be done in moderation. Anyone who feels like checking Instagram or Facebook is making them depressed should take a break or think about deleting their account.