Farewell, and Thank You for the Balloons!

The semester went by so fast – it’s like I created my blog only yesterday, and now I’m looking back on my journey, and it felt better than expected.

And since it’s an ending, and endings are bound to get a little cheesy… This video is a metaphorical summary of my entire blogging journey:

Throughout my journey, I learned a lot of things, including social media and software skills:

• Blog (obviously) with over 1000 views
• Promotion on a Facebook page, as well as on my personal Facebook
• Over 800 Twitter followers
• Multi-track audio editing with Audacity
• SoundCloud
• Slideshows
• Video editing with YouTubeEditor and MovieMaker
• BBC 5-shot method and news package form for videos
• Storify
• ThingLink
• SocialBro
• … And finally, I learned that I am able to work under pressure and deadlines, and that it’s actually not that hard to approach people

But, most of all, I got a sneak peek into the childhood of my interviewees, and each and everyone had reasons and stories to tell about their idols. Let’s take a brief look back at who their idols are:

William Clark

Male: Jim Ryun (athlete) for his sports achievements, as well as for his later involvement in sports camps for kids and service in Congress.

Female: Sally Field for her cuteness, but mostly for her ability to grow into a serious actress and activist.

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Rada Atanasova

Male: Bugs Bunny for his clever tricks and ability to manipulate others into doing what he wants them to do.

Female: Danielle (Drew Barrymore’s interpretation of Cinderella) for the fact that she takes action instead of waiting to be rescued.

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Alexandra Solonevich

Male: Dumbledore for his wisdom and for being the type of elderly person she strives to become in her later years.

Female: Bloom for her magical abilities and supernatural power of fire.

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Bozhidar Radev

Male: Indiana Jones for his intelligence, adventures (and attractiveness, of course).

Female: Traxex for being dark, vengeful, strong and fun to play because of her great damage.

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Harrison Ford

Iva Pavlova

On the topic of Star Wars (in light of the coming sequel), she shared that when she was younger, she wanted to marry Han Solo!

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Denitsa Getova

Male: Edward Cullen, because he helped her go through her first break-up, even though she feels his character isn’t realistic.

Female: Hermione Granger, because of her intelligence, organisation and respect for order… Although Deni did mention that her first favourite character was Barbie, and Hermione came later, but had the greater influence.

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Luna Lovegood

Jetmira Allushi

Male: Tom Sawyer for his playfulness and adventurousness. She also mentioned Harry Potter, because his ability to find a family in his friends reflects her life and ideas about family and belonging.

Female: Luna Lovegood for her ability to be different and to be herself even when others see her as crazy or strange.

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Hristina Balabanova

Male: Popeye… because his spinach-driven strength inspired her to start eating spinach as a child (which meant a lot, since she wasn’t really fond of eating)

Female: Luna Lovegood for thinking outside the box, being different, but also smart and loyal to her friends.

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Fan art of Arya as described in the books

Sava Stoyanov

Male: Geralt of Rivia because of his ability to remain impartial and do what is morally correct in a violent and corrupt world

Female: Arya (from Eragon), because of her selflessness and ability to ignore her feelings in order to achieve a greater good… and also because he had a bit of a crush on her.

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This answers the question, “Who are they?,” and as for the part regarding “What do they say about us?,” I tried to answer that for each person individually in each of my posts. However, there are a few general trends that I noticed:

• The Harry Potter series were the most popular ‘source’ of childhood idols – 4 of my interviewees (Alexandra, Denitsa, Jetmira and Hristina) had an idol from there. This seems about right, because most of my interviewees were from my generation, and I think we were really influenced by Harry Potter as a group.
• Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter seems to be the idol of the semester – 2 people (Jetmira and Hristina) independently had her as an idol!
• On that note, I think it’s worth mentioning that 2 people (Iva and Bozhidar) shared idols that were played by Harrison Ford. I am full of respect for his acting.
• Additionally, If I count myself, it would be 2 of us (me and Iva) who shared idols from Star Wars!

So there they are, the idols of the semester:

Harrison Ford

Luna Lovegood

And finally, we come to the actual end… I will not be writing anymore posts, but it was a wonderful journey and I am endlessly thankful to those who agreed to share a piece of their childhood with me, as well as to you, who kept on reading!

Like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, if you wish. And may your childhood idols always be with you in your heart, because they are wonderful memories and an endless source of inspiration!

Sava Stoyanov, Fantasy and Morals

This week’s victim is Sava Stoyanov, an AUBG student (with JMC inclinations) who decided to focus on the idea of childhood idols as role models. Sava’s interests include fantasy books, the medium where his idols originate. His story proves that fantasy can be a source not only of enjoyment and marvellous nerdiness, but also of moral examples.

Male idol – Geralt of Rivia

Having grown up with The Witcher books, Sava looks up to the protagonist, Geralt. Sava sees him as a role model because of his ability to remain impartial and do what is morally right without taking sides and without even considering his own practical interests.

He lives in a world full of violence and intrigue, and everyone is taking sides, and he doesn’t. He always does whatever he thinks is right, no matter what the consequences for him are, good or bad.

Apart from the books, he also enjoyed playing one of The Witcher games, although it was never as influential to him as the experience of reading about Geralt. He managed to explain his fascination for Geralt’s character in Game of Thrones terms:

If you think of Game of Thrones, in Game of Thrones everyone is doing whatever is most lucrative for them at the time, most practical. Geralt does the opposite, he does whatever he thinks is right, no matter how bad it could be for him right now.

Sava felt inspired to follow Geralt’s “way of reacting to things and to people.” He doesn’t like “taking sides forever,” and often prefers to do the right thing, rather than the practical thing.

Female idol – Arya

Fan art of Arya as described in the books

Arya in the movie

The female character he found most inspiring is Arya from the Eragon books, someone he also had a bit of a crush on. In Arya’s case, rather than trying to list everything awesome about her – “there’s a ton to love,” – he focused on the ways she influenced him as a role model.

What most struck me was that she did things for the greater good. So she was willing to ignore and to suppress her own desires in order to fulfil the greater mission.

More specifically, he is referring to the fact that she developed feelings for Eragon, but chose to suppress them, because otherwise it would be “detrimental to the mission.” Her character made Sava go from frustration to a final understanding her selfless motives:

I hated it at the time, because I really wanted Eragon and Arya to be together, but afterwards I actually understood what it’s all about, and I liked it.

His idols share some remarkable similarities – first of all, they both come from fantasy books, of course. But beyond that, they are both highly moral – they manage to ignore self-interest and practicality for the greater good. As he puts it,

I like heroes that have sort of a moral red line that they do not cross, ever. And I kind of dislike heroes that do whatever pleases them at the present moment. I mean, some of them are awesome as characters to read about or see on the screen, but they are not someone who I would aspire to be.

I personally found it really inspiring that he made the distinction between entertaining characters and characters you want to be like. Here is a video about Sava and his idols:

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P.S.: To all the people who asked me about it, I’ve decided I’m officially bringing back the balloons by the end of the day!

Hristina Balabanova and the Guy with the Spinach

AUBG student Hristina Balabanova used to be one of those kids who just wouldn’t finish their food. She remembers her mother “always used to chase [her] in the whole house to eat something.”

Male idol – Popeye

Knowing that she liked very few things and it was tough to get her to eat, they introduced her to Popeye, “the guy with the spinach,” hoping to influence her – “and it really worked!”

She looks up to this hero for being strong and awesome, and looks back with a smile, because thanks to him she started eating spinach!

They showed me Popeye, so I started to eat spinach, and I was imagining that I would get strong as him. And actually that’s the way I started eating spinach, and I love spinach now.

So I guess one could say that he was a good influence – although she remained fastidious, at least she liked spinach (and does to this day), an achievement uncommon even among those children who most like eating.

Female idol – Luna Lovegood

Hristina is also a fan of Harry Potter, a series that appears to be quite common childhood idol material for my interviewees and generation. Her top female character is Luna Lovegood (not sorry for the repetition, Luna is awesome). Hristina admires Luna for being more than meets the eye:

She’s strange, she doesn’t quite fit in, she’s always thinking out of the box and most people think that she’s kind of crazy, but at the same time she’s also a very loyal friend. And she actually is very smart, although no one actually sees it at first glance.

She was inspired to be more like Luna:

That’s what I like about her – she makes me want to be creative, think outside the box, be different. […] She tells me it’s good to be different and to not blend in.

On a Harry Potter note, of course she also admires Harry for being “a regular kid that’s not very handsome or smart or whatever, but […] very brave, and […] very loyal to his friends.” He could fit under the category of ‘male idol,’ but Popeye came earlier in her childhood, which is why he got the title.

In the future I might start considering the Harry Potter series as a whole collective childhood idol all by itself, all because of the influence it has had on my peers and the many strong and inspiring characters there. For Hristina, the influence can be seen in the way she chooses her friends: “I like to have a few friends that are loyal to me, rather than having a lot of friends that actually I cannot talk to.”

Here is a video about Hristina and her heroes:

To sum up, Hristina’s childhood idols taught her to think creatively, to not be afraid to be different, and to eat her spinach. She concluded by sharing a thought to all of you about the importance of trusting your childhood idols:

Believe in your childhood heroes, because when you’re a child you’re so pure and you’re not biased in any way, so I guess that’s the most pure example of what you want and what you’re inspired of. […] So [the fact] that someone was your hero as a child means very much.

Please like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, and remember to eat your spinach!

Jetmira Allushi, Friends are Family

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Jetmira Allushi, an AUBG student known for her involvement in Defacto and Radio AURA. You will forgive me for talking about Harry Potter characters yet again, for the story that she shared was truly heartwarming and inspiring.

Female Character

Jetmira’s top female character is Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter, the strange, awesome and kind of crazy character that helped lighten up some of the darker parts of the books with her presence. “She was really smart, but also very quirky. And even though other people would call her names and call her loony and things like that, she would always believe in herself and stand her ground.” Jetmira likes Luna for not being afraid to be herself despite being seen as weird and being made fun of.

She let her imagination free, she believed in what she believed, and even though I don’t specifically believe that there are insects in the air that make our head buzz, I really found inspiration in the fact that she was true to herself and she stood by her convictions, even though they weren’t conventional, because I think that I’m also kind of like that.

Jetmira was also inspired by Luna’s ability to find something good in every person and situation, “even situations that for a regular person might be very frustrating.” Luna’s character influenced her and made her more positive and outspoken.

Male Character

For her male character, Jetmira hesitated between two main choices. She said, “I tend to look at positive aspects of a lot of characters, fictional or real, in order to draw the parts of their personality that I like, that I identify with.”

The first one is the title character from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, one of her favorite books since childhood. She enjoyed the book and felt inspired by “the playful character of Tom. But also the adventurous spirit that he had.” His wit and inventiveness definitely make him easily likable.

The other one, however, has a deeper and more personal significance for her. As a Harry Potter fan, Jetmira couldn’t help but be influenced by the protagonist himself:

The fact that Harry found a family in his friends. Because it’s… I don’t want to get into personal details, but it’s also something very similar for me, because my family is very small, and I have created a non-blood-related family with my closest friends who support me and who are actually just like a family would be.

This explanation made me look differently at her choice of female character. Luna is not entirely like Harry, who lost both of his parents, but she, too, didn’t have a usual family, having spent most of her childhood with just her father after her mother’s death. This adds another layer to why Luna is perceived as different and strange. I might be over-analyzing, but it seems to me that both Luna and Harry are characters who have less than others in terms of family, yet manage to be themselves and to find friends that understand them.

At this point in the post, I usually like to do my ‘big summary,’ where I try to figure out what someone’s idols mean. In this case, however, I don’t think I could say it any better than Jetmira did:

Those two male characters I identify with and have actually influenced me and given me strength… for example with Harry Potter, that I don’t need to have the conventional family of a Christmas movie in order to be accepted and to belong. And from Tom Sawyer to always go along with my adventurous, playful side.

Here is a video about Jetmira’s idols:

P.S.: Don’t forget to like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter!

My first Storify to anyone who doesn’t believe that Luna is awesome:

Luna is awesome https://t.co/KThAMONw9d via @childhoodidols

— Childhood Idols (@ChildhoodIdols) March 31, 2015

Denitsa Getova, Girly Girl No More

This week, my interviewee’s idols were by far the most controversial ones I’ve encountered so far on my journey – which made it a really interesting experience to talk to Denitsa Getova.

Here’s a video to introduce her and her idols:

Female idol: Oh, I know, I know! It’s Hermione!

Deni loves Hermione for being a brilliant student, clever, respectful, and always considerate of rules and order: “I’m especially fond of order.” And aside from going to middle school dressed up as Hermione, hat and wand and all, Deni was also inspired to develop similar qualities. She didn’t go to Hogwarts, but at AUBG she is an extremely organized and diligent student. We happen to share some classes, and I know that she actually has her own exam review schedules going back weeks before Finals (just like Hermione), starts projects early (for real!), and even has the ability of organizing others.

However, this isn’t the full story. She shared that when she was really young, she used to be a typical “girly girl.” And just as “every little girl wants to be a princess,” Deni did too: she used to read Barbie magazines, and the first character in her life (in terms of chronology) was actually Barbie. The contrast between the two is startling – in fact, Barbie and Hermione are polar opposites.

Ultimately, though one of them proved to be more important than the other. Even though both were her idols at a younger age, and in her words Deni still has both her “Barbie side” and her “Granger side,” Deni chose to emulate Hermione’s brains rather than Barbie’s shallow beauty.

Male idol: Edward Cullen

You read that correctly – he is none other than the leading male character in the Twilight saga. But before you start wondering how a clever girl who looks up to Hermione could have such a hero, let me tell you that Deni is anything but illogical and obsessed. She says that even when she read the books that describe Edward as the perfect guy, she realized that someone like that cannot be real. Moreover, she said that her expectations of the opposite sex aren’t shaped by him:

I don’t expect my future boyfriend, or partner or (…) husband to be an Edward Cullen.

For her, the Twilight saga (and especially the second book) was a way to go though her first break-up in high school. She said it was engaging to read, and helped her through a tough time. Looking back, however, she confessed that right now she is unable to watch any of the Twilight movies without feeling an irresistible urge to punch the screen. At this point, Edward is for her no more than an idol from the past without a significant impact:

I don’t regret reading it, or liking him, but it’s (…) no more an influence in my life.

I know that Deni’s idols are characters one often hears about, but I was utterly impressed by her judgement and her ability to separate useful from useless even for something as personal and precious as childhood heroes. Although she liked both Barbie and Hermione, she kept as her favorite idol only the one whose qualities she really appreciated and wanted to imitate – Hermione with her brains and respect for authority and order. And although Edward Cullen came as a consolation in a tough period, she still managed to understand that he doesn’t have a realistic personality, and didn’t allow him to change her expectations of relationships. Talking to Deni made me realize that aside from nostalgia, we can also get something useful out of our childhood idols.

Click below to hear her for yourself:

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Past and Future

People say that if we are lucky, our childhood goes by very quickly, because as kids we are happy and careless. I guess it’s because I’m equally happy (even though not as careless) that the first half of my journey with Childhood Idols is already over before I know it. Today I want to focus on three things – an overview of what happened so far, a brief look at what will come next, and finally a special midterm surprise for all of you!

Things To Remember

Harrison Ford

This wall consists of the heroes that my interviewees kindly shared up to this point. Let’s take a closer look at what each person had to say:

Professor William Clark has active, real-life heroes. As a child, he looked up to high school athlete Jim Ryun and actress Sally Field simply for what they are. As a grown up he appreciates their involvement – Ryun in sports camps and Congress, and Field in serious roles and women’s rights. He said, “as they’ve matured and I’ve matured, now I can see in them qualities that I would view as important in people.”

Math Major Rada Atanasova said it is hard to separate the influence characters had on her from her parents’ influence, since it was her parents who introduced her to the characters. Nevertheless, she loves Bugs Bunny’ manipulative cleverness, and admires Drew Barrymore’s interpretation of Cinderella – active, smart, and capable of resolving difficult situations on her own.

JMC Major Alexandra Solonevich likes her idols magical. Her female childhood idol was Bloom – the exuberant, red-haired Winx girl who can control fire. Her male idol was Dumbledore because of his wisdom, extravagance, and the fact that he seems to always know what should be done in every case. She simply sees him as “ a perfect person […] in elderly age”

Economics major Bozhidar Radev looked up to Indiana Jones as a child. Indy’s intelligence, attractiveness, adventures and combat skills are all good reasons for that. His female hero, Traxex from DOTA, is dark, beautiful vengeful, and “all about the DPS.” This shows that he was a dedicated gamer even as a child.

Here is a brief video that summarizes the impact of Childhood Idols so far:

What to Expect Next

1. More people who share their heroes

2. A transition from separate video and sound interviews into unified video materials (thanks to MMJ class!)

3. More videos than before

4. More and more ‘awww,’ nostalgia and inspiration to remember your childhood!

My Surprise For You

I think it’s about time I shared my childhood idols with you! It’s not fair to ask everyone to share their heroes with me without revealing mine. I’ll tell you why I like them (I still do), but I won’t attempt to analyze myself, because I think I’ll be too biased.

My female hero was Padme as she appears in Star Wars Episode II, played by Natalie Portman. She is very gentle, diplomatic, yet brave, loving, compassionate… and I won’t lie, I just loved all her dresses. She looked so delicate and beautiful, I wanted to be just like her.

My male hero was Naruto from the Japanese anime series of the same name. First of all, it’s important to note that I loved him even before he got as powerful as he is in the later part of the series! I know he gets a lot of hate for acting before thinking and for not being the smartest. What I admired about him was his determination and his kindness – he always works hard, and always tries to understand others. He is never arrogant and doesn’t act as if he is superior even when he is stronger.

To everyone who is reading this, thanks for sticking with me, I hope you enjoyed reading about the childhood heroes of others. I encourage you to stay for the rest of my journey, it will be a lot of fun!

And finally, don’t forget to like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.

In a Generation Far, Far Away…

We all have that parent, uncle or friend that really, really likes Star Wars. The original Star Wars trilogy – A New Hope (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983) – was perhaps the single biggest obsession of action and sci-fi lovers in my parents’ generation. Those original fans were kids or teens when the movies were released, and many of them (judging by my parents and friends) saw Han, Luke – or even Vader – as childhood heroes. This legacy is continued by many members of my generation (myself included), with the prequel trilogy serving as a bridge between parents and children. Although controversial, the movies from the new trilogy made parents remember their teen obsession and helped children become Star Wars fans as well.

You can imagine the pressure of the expectations laid upon the upcoming release of the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens. Two generations look forward to it, hoping it will do justice to their precious childhood idols. The announcement of the seventh movie was definitely one of the biggest news that in the film industry in recent years.

Here is the official teaser, in case you don’t remember it:

Do you want to know what is even bigger news? Rebecca Hawkes wrote in an article for The Telegraph that the man behind Star Wars, George Lucas, shared that his original ideas for Star Wars VII were abandoned:

The ones that I sold to Disney, they came to the decision that they didn’t really want to do those. So they made up their own. So it’s not the ones that I originally wrote [on screen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens].

Disney acquired Lucasfilm back in 2012, and consequently Episode VII is directed not by Lucas, but by J. J. Abrams. I can’ begin to imagine the disappointment fans will feel if the movie doesn’t live up to its expectations, especially knowing that Disney chose to ignore the plan of the saga’s original creator.

AUBG sophomore Iva Pavlova is a second generation Star Wars fan. She was introduced to the saga by her cousin who is twelve years her elder. She appreciates the classical, original trilogy: “I had it on a video tape, and I was watching it over and over again.” Despite that, she doesn’t have negative feelings towards the prequel: “I like the three new released movies, even though they’re not quite the same.”

She is one of those people to whom Star Wars is more than just a few movies. In them she found something in between an idol and a childhood crush:

I wanted to marry Harrison Ford when I was young.

When asked to describe her attitude towards the upcoming release, she said she was “excited and kind of skeptical at the same time.” Needless to say, she was rather disappointed when I told her about the article on how Lucas’ ideas were being ignored. In her words, he not only made Star Wars, “he IS the film.” This is how she summed up her attitude after finding out:

I don’t trust Disney. I mean, he’s George Lucas, he made Star Wars, and I don’t trust Disney to make my new Star Wars.

I doubt she is the only one – I, for one, share her opinion.

Click below to listen to Iva’s response to the news:

And here’s a video of her remembering the teaser trailer (AND her childhood crush):

Remember to like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, and may the force be with you!

A Gamer’s Heroes: Bozhidar Radev

It’s funny how you can learn new things even about people you think you know well just by asking them to talk about their childhood idols. Such was the case with this week’s victim, Bozhidar Radev. We conducted the interview, because I wanted to learn more about him, and because I thought you guys would enjoy what he has to share. Bojo is an AUBG sophomore majoring in Economics, whose main hobbies are video games and playing guitar.

Traxex/ Sylvanas

His favourite female character was Traxex from Defense of the Ancients, who shares the same character model as Sylvanas Windrunner from Warcraft III and World of Warcraft. Bojo liked her dark and cruel personality, as well as her in-game abilities. In short, he described her as:

All about vengeance and all about the DPS

He enjoyed playing with Traxex, as he had lots of fun taking down enemies in two shots. Currently, he still likes both Traxex and Sylvanas (because… look at them). His passion for gaming in general can also be traced back to the time he first got acquainted with these characters.

Indiana Jones

Bojo’s absolutely favourite male idol was Indiana Jones, the title character in the award-winning action adventure trilogy. As a kid, Bojo was fascinated by the quickly-developing action and supernatural elements in the movies. He used to anticipate the time when the movies would air on TV, and he recorded them on tapes to watch them again and again – for a total of “about 400 times” in his words. Aside from the archaeologist’s looks and extraordinary survival skills, Bojo admired his intelligence and even saw him as an influence for his own development. The Indiana Jones trilogy is still a favourite of his:

I would never pass on an opportunity to watch it for the 401st time.

Since Bojo is just about the biggest fan of the trilogy that I know, I asked his opinion on the rumoured remake of the movies with a different cast. He expressed his disapproval, saying that for him the movies “die with Harrison Ford.”

Blizzard Entertainment seem to agree with this opinion. Two of their games, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, feature a character called Harrison Jones. He is an archaeologist with a similar appearance to Indy, and was made as a tribute to Harrison Ford’s iconic performance as Indiana Jones.

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Both of Bojo’s characters are ones he still likes today. However, if I was to look for a similarity beyond that (and also beyond the fact that they both get their own World of Warcraft NPC), I would say they share survival, action, adventure… and, of course, endless attractiveness.

Click below to hear Bojo talk about his idols:

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Alexandra Solonevich: It’s All About Magic!

This week the spotlight falls on Alexandra Solonevich, a Belorussian AUBG sophomore majoring in Journalism and Mass Communication. Her interests include books, design and visual communications. Hearing her idols evoked a strange nostalgia, and I hope they bring back memories for some of you, too.

Bloom

That’s right, Bloom, from Winx! Sasha was initially worried about being perceived as silly or childish, but there was such sincere joy in her voice when she spoke of Bloom that it was apparent how dear she still holds this character.

“She was so adventurous, and she was so brave, and she’s got this supernatural power of fire! […] I was really obsessed with her when I was a child.”

Sasha admitted that when she was a kid, she even imitated Bloom in her clothes, actions, etc. But this character was more than just a childhood fascination – she was an influence. Sasha enjoys fantasy and magic, and those preferences can be traced back to Winx: “I’m really into all this, you know, magic stuff right now. I still believe in that.”

And then we come to the question that I feel slightly bad about, but I can’t help asking every time I see a Winx fan – how do they feel about comparing Winx and W.I.T.C.H.? Fortunately, Sasha didn’t hate me for it, and, in fact, responded rather positively:

“I was watching W.I.T.C.H., too, but, of course, I loved Winx more, because it was my obsession. […] I’m not antagonistic to W.I.T.C.H, it’s just another cartoon, and I liked watching it, too.”

Dumbledore

Her favourite male character was Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter. She saw him as a grandfatherly figure and a mentor, because “He was always right, and he never said something which is inappropriate.” Sasha admires his wisdom and sees him as a role model for how to grow old:

“A perfect person for me […] in elderly age. […] I would like to be like him when I would be really old. […] A person I would listen to and ask for a piece of advice.”

Although a dear character throughout, Sasha shared that she prefers Dumbledore’s depiction in the books over the movie adaptation: “In general, I liked more books because in the movies they miss a lot of stuff.” Any Harry Potter fan would agree that some of Dumbledore’s background is underrepresented.

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Click below to hear Sasha talk about Bloom and Dumbledore:

Despite the fact that Bloom was a childhood obsession, and Dumbledore – more of a role model, there is huge similarity that connects them: MAGIC! Magic school, magic powers, and a mysterious magical feeling that you can’t quite explain, but is present in both!

Here is some magical nostalgia for you, too:

And finally, if you like this, don’t forget to like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter!

The Cunning and the Clever: Rada Atanasova’s Story

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing AUBG sophomore Rada Atanasova. Rada is a Math major who doesn’t lack imagination and creativity. She has a wide variety of interests and ever-evolving hobbies that include discovering new music and an appreciation for art and poetry.

Rada shared that during her childhood the limited number of TV programs didn’t give her a wide range of characters to choose from, but I personally find her choices an interesting combination of funny and meaningful.

Bugs Bunny

Her favourite male hero was Bugs Bunny. She unknowingly made a little rhyme for this popular Looney Tunes character: “That was Bugs Bunny. ‘Cause he was so funny!”  He impressed her with his ability to get out of tough situations and win arguments with trickery.  Two characters would be stuck in the classic, back-and-forth Yes-No-Yes-No type of fight. “And at some point Bugs Bunny would change his position, and he would go like ‘No!’ And the other guy, he just didn’t notice and went the opposite way, went like ‘Yes!’ And then, then of course at the end Bugs Bunny got what he wanted, he was like, ‘Oh… OK, Doc!’”  Although Bugs Bunny is often seen as cunning and manipulative, Rada loved him for being smart – and don’t we all!

Danielle/Cinderella

Her female character was Cinderella. But before you go ‘awww’ and think Rada’s heroine was cute and girly, I must tell you she didn’t look up to a typical and generic Cinderella. Her role model was Danielle, Drew Barrymore’s take on Cinderella in Ever After: A Cinderella Story. Rada liked her because “she wasn’t like the other Cinderella-s, she took action.”  Not to mention her brains and beauty! Rada’s favorite scene from the movie was the one when Danielle and her prince were captured by a gang of thieves. Danielle demanded to be set free, and the gang jokingly told her she could leave with all she could carry. At which point “she just took the prince on her back” and started walking. This made the gang laugh, but also won their admiration, so they agreed to escort them.

When I asked Rada if her idols changed her, she said that since it was her mother who got her the tapes with moves to watch, it was “a bit difficult to separate (…) what [she] would have learned from [her] parents and these characters.” Although hard to discern the source, the influence was still present. We didn’t go looking for deeper meaning to Bugs Bunny. But Rada confessed that she “definitely” wanted to be like Danielle.

Click below to hear Rada tell her story:

Despite the fact that one is a live-action human, and the other – a rabbit cartoon, I couldn’t help noticing some similarities between Rada’s heroes. They are both witty and clever, good at conversation, and have a certain innate aptitude for getting out of tough situations.

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