In the essay “Girl” by Alexander Chee, Chee shares his experience of finding his identity through “putting on a mask.” Chee believes that you may not know who you are at first, and it is okay because you will find out through time. The essay starts in Chee’s friend John’s bathroom where he is getting dressed up for Halloween. He is dressing up as a girl- applying a base, powder, eyeliner, lipstick, and eyebrow pencil. Chee feels like he is finally beautiful in his own skin with all of this stuff applied on to his face. He shares his experience growing up in Korea as a mixed-race individual. He talks about how he was told terrible things such as how one day "everyone will look just like him" and how he would be sold into prostitution if he played outside alone, just because of him being mixed race. After this flashback section of the story, we are brought back to the same time period as the beginning of the story: Chee and his male friends are walking outside on Halloween night dressed up in drag-queen costumes. He feels beautiful under all this female beauty product, being catcalled from passing cars. Then he questions the meaning of beauty and what it really is. We are sent to another flashback where Chee explains the origin of his makeup fascination: He believed his mother was beautiful and would sneak into the bathroom to try on her makeup. Chee comes to the conclusion that it is better to be yourself rather than what others want, but sometimes you don’t know who you are until you put on a mask.

In the grim fairy tale “The Princess and the Zucchini,” Audrey Thomas expresses the concept of free will. She shows how a female character can go against social norms and succeed. We are introduced to the main character, Princess Zona at the beginning of the story. Zona discovers a talking cucumber while walking in the garden, the cucumber claims to be a handsome prince. This cucumber tries convincing Zona to kiss it to break the spell. He promises if she does she will live happily ever after, however this is not a stereotypical fairytale - it is a grim one. Princess Zona thinks about her life wondering who she really is. She decides she will not let the cucumber control her decisions and prepares dinner for her family: ratatouille featuring zucchini. Thomas chose to be different from the standard fairytale, we should make our own decisions and not be controlled by others.