Annabelle Frazer is a proud 2024 graduate from Marco Island Academy. During her time at MIA, she joined The Wave, starting off as a contributing writer, mainly focusing on publishing articles that surround the aspect of fashion, or simply entertainment. She continued this up until her junior year, when she climbed up to being the Feature’s Editor. She started dipping her toes into the world of opinionated pieces and political columns. Frazer was promoted to Editor-In-Chief starting senior year and that’s where she really got confident to grow in her voice and discovered how to use her gift of writing beautiful articles to advocate strongly for her beliefs. She also discovered her new-found love of creating and editing podcasts in that same year. One of her podcasts: “The Persistence Podcast” with the club “Girls Learn International” was used to bring a new skill to life to further advocate. Apart from her heavy involvement in The Wave and GLI, she was also majorly involved in Thespians for the first few years of high school before finally prioritizing The Wave.
During her senior year, Frazer was awarded with DePaul University’s presidential scholarship, where she now attends. She ultimately chose DePaul because she already knew that she wanted to start a new life in a big city and Chicago, where the school is located, was a perfect fit and she describes it as “the only city that felt genuine to myself.” She also felt as if DePaul had the greatest resources for her interests and an incredible student culture. With award-winning student publications, over 200 clubs and student-run organizations, and even just the fact that Chicago is the third largest city in the United States, there were a multitude of opportunities for Frazer in this new world.
Frazer is currently a journalism major and is working as a contributing writer for two of DePaul’s student media publications, The DePaulia, and 14 East Magazine. She is also interested in being involved with Radio DePaul very soon. Apart from this, Frazer is also looking to incorporate her love for theatre back into her life, joining the Blue Demon Theatre this winter. She stated, “After witnessing how outstanding our drama program truly is, I figured I’d give it another shot while I still have the time and resources.” The last group that she is currently involved in is “Students United for Reproductive Justice,” which focuses on providing resources to students across campus regarding sexual health and safety, since the school itself does not provide those resources.
The thing that surprised Frazer the most after graduation was not missing Marco Island. After moving to Chicago just over a month after receiving her diploma, she expected to feel homesick and miss the humble community of the little Island and all the people who were still there. Even though she was more than ready to put Florida in her past, she was worried about “…the ability to make genuine connections and feel confident enough to express myself as I’ve always wanted,” which seemed to contradict everybody around her while she was growing up. The biggest change was gradually learning to let herself be the confident, authentic, carefree version of herself without holding onto worry from her past.
The biggest impact that Chicago has given to her is the opportunity to see the resilience, strength, and courage that the city pours out every day. Though the world is an uncertain place with a new threat daily, the way that she has seen communities work together in order to hold their ground against the current political state and actions that have been taken against her city in the time that she has been there has left her starstruck. She describes the thing that leaves her in awe as the fact that “Chicago isn’t a city that breaks under pressure. Instead, it’s a city that will push back with twice the strengths.” This has helped her in more ways than anyone could possibly imagine. Not to mention the way that she just naturally belongs.
As a young queer woman growing up in a community that had always differed from her, she felt pressured to suppress some of the biggest aspects of who she is, withholding her identity each second. Upon stepping foot in Chicago, the biggest sigh of relief was let out, along with all that pressure as she looked around and saw so many people just like her. Seeing all the love and acceptance the city provided to its queer community, she finally learned to accept herself for who she is and discovered that she no longer had to hide. She now openly writes about her personal experiences and she goes to Thursday night drag shows weekly. She paints her face with vibrant colors and goes to ballroom competitions in crowded basements with her closest friends. This city returned her love of performing back to her and she once again found her passion to dance.
Above all, the advice she gives to all MIA students is: “There is no harm in being different from others. Don’t be afraid to be who you are.”
