Announcing the 2022/2023 Teen Editorial Staff!
TeenTix is proud to announce the 2022/2023 Teen Editorial Staff. This year's Teen Editorial Staff (TEDS) is comprised of six teens: Aamina Mughal, Audrey Gray, Disha Cattamanchi, Esha Potharaju, Kyle Gerstel, and Yoon Lee. The TEDS are the leaders of the TeenTix Newsroom, and work to curate reviews and arts coverage for the TeenTix blog. Teen Editorial Staff members decide which TeenTix Arts Partners' events to cover each month, write an editorial about their curatorial choices, and assign Newsroom writers to review each event. TEDS members interface with TeenTix Arts Partners to set up press tickets for each review, and edit all Newsroom writing before it is published on the TeenTix blog. The Teen Editorial Staff is a group of skilled writers, editors, and leaders, who keep the pulse of the TeenTix Press Corps and the Seattle arts scene.
Statement from this year's Teen Editorial Staff:
"We, the Teen Editorial Staff, are committed to uplifting and nurturing youth voices. We believe in the inherent artistry of arts journalism and strive to elevate appreciation of the arts and critical thinking beyond what is taught in academic settings. Genuine empowerment of youth voices is dependent upon peer collaboration and mentorship. We hope to provide a platform for marginalized voices and support our peers in harnessing their unique perspectives in their writing."
About the Teen Editors
Aamina Mughal
Aamina Mughal (she/her) is a junior at Eastside Prep where she has participated in public forum debate and her school’s peer mentor program. She was a member of the 2021/22 Museum of Pop Culture Youth Advisory Board and will be a member of the 2022/23 Youth Poet Laureate Cohort. She spent a year writing for the TeenTix Newsroom and is excited to continue writing as an editor. Aamina is a lover of music, books, and all things Seattle.
Audrey Gray
Audrey Gray (she/her) is a junior at Shorewood High School, where she’s involved in her school’s newspaper and Psychology Club. She worked as a Newsroom writer for TeenTix for two years, but has been passionate about creative media her whole life, writing about it informally even before she became involved in arts criticism. She loves the power of creative mediums in expressing the range of the human experience. In her free time, Audrey loves to play the violin, read, write creatively, and watch movies—one of her favorite artistic mediums.
Disha Cattamanchi
Disha (she/her) is currently a senior at Juanita High School. She was a writer on the TeenTix Newsroom last year, with articles published both on the blog and in The Seattle Times. She is an active member in her school’s theater program, well versed in the ways of the lighting board and writing various plays. Disha believes that creating an equitable space is vital to the arts and tries to initiate inclusivity with all her work. When she isn’t watching movies, you’ll find her walking her dog or eating with her friends.
Esha Potharaju
Esha Potharaju (she/her) is an avid art lover, writer, and programmer. She is a firm believer in the importance of diversity in the arts, because the arts shape culture, and culture shapes policy. She is grateful for the skills and opportunities TeenTix has imparted to her and is eager to give back by supporting youth to pursue arts criticism and arts leadership. As an advocate for equity in education, she works with students and educators across California to increase access to information about the education system and to raise funding and community support for arts education. Esha believes that technology and art are two sides of the coin--both allow us to envision a better future for all, both are the tools we need to get there, and both are subjects that everyone deserves to learn. In her free time, you can find Esha scribbling something in a sketchbook or passionately trading analyses on comics and cartoons with her best friends.
Kyle Gerstel
Kyle Gerstel (he/him) is a sophomore at Mercer Island High School. This is his third year as a part of the TeenTix Newsroom and first as a member of the Teen Editorial Staff! Although he has grown a lot the last two years as a writer and human with height, he remains a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen and Hermione Granger, although his parasocial relationships with each differ. Outside of TeenTix, Kyle enjoys writing, directing theatre, and obsessing over "We Think We Know You," the brilliant finale to Bo Burnham's 2013 stand-up special what. You should go watch that instead of reading the rest of this bio. Really? You didn't stop? Are you going to? No? I suppose that's not surprising—what am I but a mere bio, hopelessly wishing to persuade someone of something... Alas, a bio has no purpose but to consolidate a soul's existence to a few surface-level personality traits and perhaps evidence of a remarkably self-indulgent sense of humor.
Yoon Lee
Yoon Lee (he/him) is currently a senior at the Lakeside School. He edits the Arts and Entertainment section for Lakeside’s newspaper, Tatler, and has led both the school orchestra’s viola section and the Bird Club that he founded since 2020. Previous to becoming a TED, Yoon wrote on the TeenTix Newsroom for two years and has been published on the blog and in The Seattle Times. When not writing, Yoon can be found practicing his repertoire (most recently the Viola Concerto by Bartok), watching random video essays on YouTube, and birdwatching around Washington.
