Cox written by Zoe Anderson (Staff Writer), DeGeneres written by Kyson Pearce (Staff Writer), Sailor Moon written by Emiko Kobayashi (Copy Editor), Kotz written by Sam Reeves (Webmaster/Social Media Director)
Laverne Cox
Being an open and proud transgender woman, Laverne Cox has made big moves in the entertainment industry.
Most recognized for her role as Sophia Burset in Orange is the New Black, Cox has made her presence known.
Cox was the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy Award.
She is also a trans-rights advocate and wrote an outstanding essay on gender expression and oppression. Laverne is the executive producer of the documentaries The T Word, for which she won an Emmy.
This makes her the first transgender woman to win for an executive producer role. You go girl!
Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres attended the University of New Orleans as a communications major but dropped out after one semester. She held a variety of jobs until she turned to stand-up comedy. She first started at small clubs and coffeehouses until she worked her way to being an emcee at Clyde’s Comedy Club by 1981. Her comedy was described as similar to celebrated comedian Bob Newhart.
DeGeneres made TV history in April 1997 on the ABC sitcom These Friends of Mine, when her character and DeGeneres herself revealed she was lesbian.
In 2001, DeGeneres launched a new series, The Ellen Show, on CBS but it suffered from poor ratings and was canceled. But redemption as a television artist came in 2003 when DeGeneres’s daytime talk show Ellen: The Ellen Degeneres Show proved to be both a critical hit and a commercial success.
Along with good ratings, the show has won unprecedented kudos from the industry, winning 15 Emmy Awards in its first three seasons on the air and becoming the first talk show in TV history to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show in its first three seasons.
Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon, or Usagi Tsukino, is known as a sailor scout and leads a group of warriors on a mission to defeat the evil forces of the Dark Kingdom.
The series was released in monthly girl’s comic magazine Nakayoshi from 1991 to 1997 by Naoko Takeuchi.
Sailor Moon is easily one of the most recognizable anime characters of all time, as the animated series ran in America during the mid ’90s and was a huge inspiration to young girls and boys during this time.
Sailor Moon has also become a staple of the LGBT community, having one of the first openly gay couples, Sailor Uranus and Neptune, on mainstream media, even though the English dub of the series censored the couple’s true feelings.
A role model to those who grew up during the mid ’90s and beyond, Sailor Moon has become an example of strength, beauty, and kindness and was one of the first strong female role models in Japanese media at the time by a female writer and artist, Naoko Takeuchi.
Maria Kotz
Serving as Indian Trail High School & Academy’s principal for six years, Maria Kotz has earned a reputation as one of the kindest staff members you will ever meet.
You’ve probably seen Kotz wandering through the halls of the school, and if you have, she most likely will have sent a smile or a “Hello!” your way! Her students’ safety has always been a huge priority and she makes it her goal to create a safe and welcoming environment here on Indian Trail’s campus.
Before becoming principal here at IT, Kotz was a Social Studies teacher at Bradford High School, and also served as an assistant principal at Tremper High School.
Thank you Ms. Kotz for making sure our school is safe and that our students S.O.A.R!