My ideal bookshelf inspired by #BookTok would be so large I would need a mansion for it… Seriously, thanks to #BookTok my TBR is never ending. I will try to list by genre to list as many as I can. I will start with my favorite #BookTok fantasy so far The Cruel Prince series. This to me is a must-have fantasy, it has more fantasy than romance which is why personally I loved it and the writing felt so elegant. I was captivated. The impact of Romance an Fantasy genre combined gaining so much popularity they got their own genre has to be my next choice. My next Romantasy on my shelf would be ACOTAR by Sarah J. Maas and the following series in the universe, Throne of Glass and House of Earth and Blood. In the same genre I would add Fourth Wing and Iorn Flame. The next big genre on #BookTok is Dystopian. I would say the Dystopian books on my shelf are the classic all YA book series such as the Divergent, Uglies, The Hunger Games, and the Shatter Me of course. This genre honestly has to be my favorite even if it's one of my lesser read because the worlds are so captivating and new unlike other genres. Moving on to another fav genre Romance, recently I have found more queer romances I love but I will start with the straight ones. Starting with the straight books I have read and loved, #BookTok sensation The Summer I Turned Pretty, Better Than The Movies and Love And Other Words. All amazing emotional rollercoasters. I also enjoyed Emily Henry’s Beach Read and People We Meet On Vacation. Now that we have covered those, it's time for my favorites all the queer romances I have read thanks to #BookTok starting with my all-time favorite One Last Stop. It made me fall in love with Casey McQuinston’s writing. I the read I Kissed Shara Wheeler and Red White and Royal Blue. I'm now looking forward to her fourth book! I had yet to be able to discover many sapphic romances and #Booktok made it easy for me to find this more niche genre. Since that, I have found others that I have read such as The Roommate Arrangement, Kiss Her Once For Me, She Gets The Girl, The Falling In Love Montage, Paper Love, A purrfect Gift, The Lucky List, Checking It Twice, and my favorite lesbian romance series the Bright Falls series by Ashley Herring Blake. Even if when I started reading more sapphic romances I could no longer relate to my straight romance book buddies I still found a community that discussed these books through #BookTok. I left out three that are more of a historical YA than a sapphic romances. Last Night At The Telegraph Club and the sequel set in modern times A Scatter Of Light Also The Seven Husbands of Evelyn hugo. These books had such an impact on my life I loved it! Must reads especially if like me you weren't well informed on LGBTQ+ history yet. Lastly other YA books that didn't fully fall into one category like the Crave series, twilight, and the Selection series. I have so many more to talk about these are only the ones I have had the pleasure of reading I haven't even gotten to the classics, and the Mysteries like The Great Gatsby and One Of Us Is Lying but this all I have had space for.

As a high school senior, my journey in giving back to the LGBTQ+ community is only beginning. Coming into my queerness is still new to me, and I am only starting to be comfortable with my identity. I decided to come out to school this last fall. I had never imagined how far I would come in just a year. I decided to join GSA and accepted the position of president. It was the best thing I did for myself. It helped my mental health significantly. It is so rewarding to work with the LGBTQ+ community of my school, hosting events for people to socialize and express themselves. I’ve made bulletin boards about LGBTQ+ history and hosted an LGBTQ+ Thanksgiving event. I have collaborated with the LGBT Network in Queens and Live Out Loud to host events with my GSA. For an event, I helped organize an LGBTQ+ panel with panelists who talked about their experiences. After the panel, I will never forget that one of the students cried saying they were touched by the event and felt so inspired. I’m sometimes discouraged that my work isn't helping many, but I know that I was scared to attend the panel two years ago and be outed. Regardless I was so happy the school hosted those events even if I wasn’t ready to participate. The following year I went and was super emotional and inspired afterwards. It was very full circle to then plan the panelists that would attend. I hope by continuing this work I can at least bring comfort to someone like me in the past, struggling with identity. After the panel, there was a pride bash where people got free food, and LGBTQ+ swag, and danced. I helped everyone make Tie-Dye T-shirts as an activity. This was such a positive space people laughed, sang, and bonded. It was a safe place where they could talk openly about their identity and feel celebrated. It is so important to me that I get to do this because it helps people and helps me heal the part of myself I struggled to accept. In all these ways in the short amount of time I have been out, I have been able to give back to the community. It has been more rewarding than I could ever imagine. I will be continuing this work in college and hopefully long after. I have already begun to make connections with organizations dedicated to LGBTQ+ youth and plan to use them. I hope to one day be the role model that goes into schools, and be the queer role model that my job needs! In terms of my career I plan on studying English in school, I'm still unsure if I will go into Writing or Law, both are options I'm currently considering. I'm still not sure how giving back to the community will look in the workplace but I am sure I will find a way. It is important to me financially to receive this scholarship because even with aid I still can just barely afford college. I am a first-generation student, as well as an immigrant and the daughter of a single mother. No one can help pay my tuition but me. My education has never been a choice for me, it was always something I was passionate about. I plan to pay off my tuition early to relieve that burden from my mom. This would allow me mentally to focus on my education 100% without financial burden and would no doubt be a huge contribution to me becoming a successful college graduate.

Animal Farm- If I could have everyone read just one book it would be Animal Farm (Orwell, 1945). When I first read this question I thought about my favorite books, firstly ones that brought me the most joy. I read about sixty books every year, most are wonderful. It took some reflection to get here, but I'm certain this was the perfect choice. No matter who you are in the World some government or system affects you. There is much to be learned from this commentary on systems of power in society and how people abuse it. Especially thinking about what is happening in the world today, many people my age and older can benefit from remembering why we need to vote and why we shouldn't take our education for granted. Although this book was written for the audience of 1945 I'm sure George Orwell knew that this would apply for many years to come. In times of the internet, people can give money and support to causes they support. The Animals on the farm dedicate their lives to working for other animals instead of humans, this was their way of supporting a cause they cared about. We do something similar now, we can give money to causes we care for easily, as well as support who we want in government. This book teaches why we need to make sure we know the intentions of someone we are giving money and power. It is unlike me to choose something about politics since that is not nearly my most-read genre but I believe in this case it could be a beneficial story for everyone. It's a lesson on the importance of people having access to education as well as having a voice in government. It is an allegory for things that have been repeated throughout history. Without knowing the context of what it was based on, I learned so much and made connections to current politics and things around the world. I know that this book can be given to anyone and they will take something good from it, most likely more important than many other books I have read.