A 14 year old freshman, former figure skater, member of the 4 student graduating class of Southside Family Charter, actress, and social justice activist, Lilia Torchia-Stately brings individuality and excitement to the Southerner Newspaper staff.

“I live with my mom, my five year old sister Zoie, and my dog Taz. He looks like a sausage,” Lilia said as she described her home. She also has two cats who evidently don’t resemble tubular breakfast foods.

After completing her education at the social justice oriented school Southside Family Charter, Lilia has since been participating in protests, demonstrations and plays concerning various social justice issues. She enjoys bringing social justice onto the stage, too.

“I watched some spoken word poetry, I really wanted to make some, but I was never really good at it,” she said.

However, Lilia has mixed the two several times with her former teacher (who’s literally the coolest) at Southside Charter. She spoke about the various plays her teacher had written to address social justice issues. These plays included original scripts, and pop songs with lyrics to match the theme of the show.

“Reading and writing have always came naturally to me,” Lilia stated. “Paulina [Poehlman] told me to join the paper.” Lilia brings her passionate personality and ambitions of equality, acting and to some day be a camp counselor to add another dimension to the Southerner staff and South High community.