Meet The Staff: Anjali Sharma

Spicy and sweet are adjectives that don’t just describe my mom’s signature channa masala, or the Indian store-bought mithai, I consider myself to be a combination of both.

Hi fellow brown girls and boys! My name is Anjali Sharma and I am a fifteen-year-old, 100% Punjabi girl, born and raised in the town that contains the country’s #1 beach in sunny Florida. Whew, that’s a mouthful.

My writing and layout experience comes from writing for all three of my school’s publications. I am the editor in chief of my school’s elementary-aged paper, and consider myself to be a perfectionist, which can be both a blessing and curse. My passion for writing, I hope, will continue to take me long into my future.

This is probably where I should discuss what I want to do with my life after high school, but most mornings I can’t even decide what to eat for breakfast, so I don’t think I’ll decide that for a little while.

I joined the Brown Girl staff after my sister (Sunny Sharma) who had been on the staff for a few months, thought it would be a good fit for me. Of course, she was right. Soon after joining, I found that Brown Girl Magazine was the perfect opportunity for me to learn more about my culture and my fellow brown girls who are finding their place in this crazy world. There’s also the added bonus that I don’t have to watch 3 hours long Bollywood films in order to learn something cool about where I’m from (shout out to the people that have the patience for watching Bollywood films!).

I’m just your average fifteen-year old who occasionally dances on the side for various Indian functions and parties. I have an obnoxious affinity for rap music and I would love to be Mindy Lahiri from “The Mindy Project” and Cookie from “Empire” for just one day.

Ah, I can’t believe I’ve made it this far without mentioning my book drive! I created a book drive called Books for Young Readers (BYR) in my freshman year. So far, I’ve donated over 1,500 books to children who don’t have many personal belongings, especially books. As a third-grade girl anxiously waiting for the last book of the Harry Potter series to come out, I have always felt a bond with books. Whenever I need a pick-me-up or something to keep me sane, books are there for me, no matter what. Keeping up with my affinity for books, I have been volunteering at my local library for as long as I can remember. Books have really shaped who I am today, and I could never be more grateful for them.

Last but not least, I just want to make it known that I have a huge sweet-tooth that will never be fully satisfied… I would not be surprised if one day, I just turned into a bag of Sour Patch Kids. Not sure if I would really be complaining either.