BELLES LETTRES

“I get to decide to be or not to be whoever I want, regardless of the portrait you’ve painted. That decision is mine to make.”

— Jada Lin, “I’m Not Who You Think I Am”

In “I’m Not Who You Think I Am,” Jada Lin explores the theme of individuality through the lens of a narrator who is fighting her own inner battle between good and evil as their class reads Hamlet. Welcoming disapproval, the narrator paves her own way despite her own inner turmoil. As St. Mary’s girls, we live in an ever-changing world with so many contrasting ideas around that it can be hard to discern fact from fiction. Belles Lettres encourages difficult conversations like these by advocating for free expression and offering students the platform to share their thoughts with the community. Ellie Midha ponders on hopelessness, declaring “ignorance is our nature” in her poem “Do You?” while Hafsa Qureshi’s main character proclaims that knowledge is power in her short story “Frozen Water”: “I will learn all those words. I will learn the rules and I will remember that morning.” Both of these ideas directly contrast one another, yet they can both be true. This is the idea that the 2025-2026 Belles Lettres seeks to explore: the juxtaposition of good and bad, and how two things can be true at once.

Through poems, prose, scripts, and more, this year the St. Mary’s student body created beautiful works that explore what it’s like to hold both good and bad at the same time. This year, our staff selected art to intentionally accompany the writing. Ava Cohen’s art piece “Sewn and Salvaged” featuring a very old yet loved stuffed animal from childhood works particularly well with Edie Cowles’ paired poems, “The Child” and “The Mother.” In her poems, Edie explores the innocence of childhood, a time when we didn’t feel the expectations from the outside world, contrasted to an imagined meditation on the weight of motherhood. Along those same lines, Harper Robinson’s “Home Sweet Home” mimics a childlike art style with more adult craftsmanship, reflecting on her childhood with a more adult perspective. Each art piece emphasizes the idea that as we grow, we begin to perceive the nuances and paradoxes of our world. Some pieces like Elizabeth Thompson’s “Rock Out,” Carter Visinsky’s “Monumental,” and Aleesha Awan’s “Morning in the Mountains,” even feature threaded elements adding texture to the magazine. These pieces blend two distinct art styles, something unexpected yet beautiful.

This year, we are excited to highlight senior Charlotte Hernández, a poet who has consistently been featured in Belles Lettres throughout her high school career. She writes about her own craft in “Epistula ad Pisones,”: “Now I write imperfectly and earnestly, and I create poems that I’m proud to show off. Being remembered means putting myself out there, even if some of my spondees are more like trochees.” 

By experimenting with her style, Charlotte was able to find herself in her poetry. Her growth as a poet didn’t just happen over night—it took tons and tons of drafts and edits. Like Charlotte, many of the artists and writers we feature in Belles Lettres are just beginning to develop their own style and voice. Belles Lettres offers students a place to share their voices, and many wrote about finding the courage to express themselves freely. Even in difficult situations like in Seraphine Saghafi’s “A Dinnertime Exchange” we can learn to “find [ourselves] outspoken, with courage filled in [our] chest[s].” This courage doesn’t always come easy though, we have to slowly build it up like Eva Ferdinand’s character Alyssa in “Jump!” who comes back even stronger after an injury.

I am so grateful that I got to be this year’s Editor-in-Chief. I have gotten to see Belles Lettres grow over the past four years, and I am so proud of how far it has come. Belles Lettres proudly highlights all students no matter where they are on their journey, and I hope that this magazine offers a diverse range of perspectives that allows the reader to widen their horizons and grow alongside the artists and writers. I’m sad to leave Belles Lettres, but I leave it in good hands.

Sincerely,

Eleanor Chandler ’26

2025-2026 Editor-in-Chief