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| Countywide birthday party sparks hope for girls aging out of foster care - Seattle Weekly Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:30 PM PDT Sitting under a balloon arch surrounded by colorfully wrapped birthday presents, 17-year-old Kathie Nguyen beamed as she explained why this was the first birthday in her lifetime that she actually enjoyed. Nguyen, along with other girls from the South King County area, received more than just birthday wishes at Celebrate 18! – a countywide party for girls aging out of the foster care system. Hosted by Eileen & Callie's Place, a Kent-based nonprofit organization, Celebrate 18! provided makeovers, new outfits, education and job resources, and more to the birthday girls last Saturday. The overall idea is to build up the girls' confidence and support them in the next stage of life after foster care, said Dr. Natalie Ellington, founder of Eileen & Callie's Place. "Every one of their stories is different," Ellington said. "The only thing that's the same is they've all been impacted by a system that's been broken for a long time." Love could be found in all the details of the Celebrate 18! event at the Auburn Event and Community Center. When searching for a new outfit, the birthday girls perused racks of shoes, clothes and jewelry designed to mimic a boutique shopping experience. Clothes were available in a broad range of sizes to accommodate all body types. On-site representatives and resources included King County library cards, voter registration, information on continuing education and career networking. "We wanted every single thing to say 'we thought about you,' " Ellington said. As Nguyen exited the dressing room area at the event to show Ellington her new outfit and heels, volunteers and other attendees cheered and applauded while she struck a few poses. "I feel like I was actually loved and supported by others," Nguyen said after the event. "It's kind of overwhelming because I've never had this kind of care and love in my life … I love today." Nguyen, who lives in a group home in Tacoma, attends high school in Federal Way and has lived in dozens of foster care homes throughout South King County. She has been in the foster care system since she was 13 years old, after a childhood of sexual abuse began at age 6. The trauma from her childhood combined with mistreatment at group homes, such as at Iowa's Clarinda Academy according to the Inlander in 2018, has led to difficulties with self-harming, she said. Celebrate 18! proved to be the new beginning she needed, Nguyen said. "I feel like this was a 'Hey Kathie, new opportunity! Doors opening for you. Step in.'" Aside from the generous gifts of the day, Nguyen's favorite part was hearing the advice and personal experiences of five women who are foster care alumni themselves. Hearing these women offer guidance was one of her first experiences of motherly love. "It helps to know I'm not alone." As the party concluded with dinner and birthday dessert, the event's speakers offered advice they would give their younger selves. Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus was among the special guests. Speakers included Jamerika Haynes, Ms. Evergreen State 2018 and founder of Clever Jam Communications; Barbara Rockey, Treehouse education specialist and Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors candidate; Lisa Barnes, Salvation Army captain and author; Kathy Ohrt, assistant manager of Foster Champs of Maple Valley nonprofit; and Latasha Eaddy Haynes, owner of Tacoma-based Ike and Tash Photography and Motion and youth program manager at Advancing Leadership. Sometimes comparison leaves a lacking feeling, said Barnes, who lived in 30 to 40 foster care homes during her adolescence. "We learn to measure ourselves up against others before we really know the value of the measuring stick," she said. "We see other little girls with more bracelets or more dolls and we feel like their lives are better than ours. … " You are not alone in your overwhelming anxiety or crippling trauma or searing pain, you just know yours, Barnes explained. While every feeling is valid, the bad experiences do not have to be yours forever. The conversation then opened up for the birthday girls to ask questions about how to navigate life during and after foster care. One birthday girl's question brought many to tears. "How do you let others love you?" she asked. "And how do you love yourself? I've never felt love so I don't know how to let (people) in." Don't hold people responsible if they didn't do it, Barnes said. Be gentle with yourself and allow yourself to heal, said Rockey. "Before I could say 'I love you,' I would tell people 'I care for you,' " she said. "Give yourself permission to take your time." Fulfilling that "must" of every birthday party, each girl blew out a candle on a decorated cupcake after the crowd sang happy birthday. Although the candle flames went out at the end of the night, the hope for these young girls blazes on.  Kathie Nguyen embraces Eileen & Callie's Place founder Dr. Natalie Ellington. Celebrate 18!, hosted on July 13, was also the day of Ellington's birthday. OLIVIA SULLIVAN, Federal Way Mirror  Kathie Nguyen blows out her birthday candle at Saturday's Celebrate 18! event. OLIVIA SULLIVAN, Federal Way Mirror  Clothes, shoes and jewelry were neatly placed on display racks to provide the birthday girls with a shopping experience. OLIVIA SULLIVAN, Federal Way Mirror  |
| Posted: 18 Jul 2019 02:17 PM PDT Gossip Girl is back! Well, maybe not in exactly the same format or with the same cast that we knew before, but the same drama, backstabbing, and conniving that we all grew to know and love, will surely be a part of the new version of the show. News of the reboot has had fans going back and reexamining everything that they knew about the show and its cast. One of the best things about Gossip Girl was the relationships between the characters. Namely, the one between Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf. Though the girls were extremely different and could be petty towards one another every now and then, they always had each other's back. But apparently, the relationship between the actresses who played them, Blake Lively and Leighton Meester, was nowhere near as good. What was Meester and Lively's relationship like in real life?Often times, real life doesn't imitate art. From the moment they met, it was clear that Meester and Lively weren't going to be friends. They were just too different. "Blake is very much in the moment," writer Joshua Safran once told Vanity Fair. "Blake knows what's happening. She knows this movie's coming out, this band is happening. Leighton [on the other hand] was very removed and very quiet, and, after her scenes were done, she would wander the stage. I had this image of her just in these gorgeous dresses with a book in her hand, sort of a little bit out of focus out in the corners." Though the girls may not have gotten along, they were great at pretending that they did. "Blake and Leighton were not friends," Safran continued. "They were friendly, but they were not friends like Serena and Blair. Yet the second they'd be on set together, it's as if they were." There was no animosity between the women, they just simply weren't each other's cup of tea. "We were all chill. It was cool," Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Georgina Sparks, told the outlet. Were any members of the cast friends?Ed Westwick and Chace Crawford, who played Chuck Bass and Nate Crawford, decided to live together in Chelsea once they started filming. "Initially Ed and I became roommates here in New York because we didn't know if the show was going to last or not," Crawford told Interview in 2009. Their friendship really blossomed at an Arctic Monkeys concert. "We had these girls coming up to us, and they were kind of freaking out about it: 'Oh, we love the books.' [Ed and I] kept looking at each other like, sh-t, man," Crawford told Vanity Fair. Did anyone in the cast date?Though few friendships may have blossomed from the show, relationships certainly did. Penn Badgley, who played Dan Humphrey, dated Lively in real life, Meester dated Sebastian Stan, who played Carter Baizen, and Westwick and Jessica Szohr, who played Vanessa Abrams, also spent some time together. Even Matthew Settle and Kelly Rutherford, who played Rufus Humphrey and Lily van der Woodsen, were rumored to be dating at one point. "They wanted us all to date," Lively told the outlet. "They wanted us all to wear the same clothes that we're wearing on the show. They wanted that, because then it fed their whole narrative. People could buy into this world."  |
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