Created in room E215 and catalyzed by original thought, Midtown’s literary magazine “The Unmasking” provides a creative outlet for students.

The Unmasking was founded in 1988, as a platform to share student-created literature, photography and art. Thirty four years later, the literary magazine has continued its mission — but in a post-pandemic form.

“When we initially went under with Covid back in 2020, we had to scrap our printed book,” senior and Editor-in-Chief Maddie Hoffman said. “Then, the next year, we had to not create a book at all, and switch to a website platform completely. This meant we had to basically revamp the class in a new way. That caused us to think about different options that we could really do with the program going forward.”

At home during the 2020-2021 school year, students were not able to access Adobe Cloud software, which is a crucial aspect to constructing the printed magazine. Because of the absence of an in-person classroom setting, The Unmasking website was born. This school year and going forward, the staff will continue to produce a hard-copy book and website content simultaneously.

Along with rethinking the physical format of the magazine, the staff had to tackle a learning curve as a result of the pandemic. English teacher Mary Elizabeth Villapalndo has been the adviser for “The Unmasking” for four years. Tackling this obstacle was one of the biggest challenges the magazine faced this school year, Villalpando said.

“One of the biggest challenges was that we usually have the editors train and teach the new editors coming in, to show them the ropes and how to work the programs,” Villalpando said. “However, with Covid, there has definitely been a learning curve. There’s been mainly starting from scratch, versus someone just walking in and already knowing how to work everything.”

This current school year provides the staff a chance to gain its footing and operate as it did pre-pandemic, Villalpando said. Hoffman also addressed challenges that have come with the current year — but how the adversity has forced the staff to grow.

“This year it was very important for us to get back to normal,” Hoffman said. “However, we had a lot of struggles with InDesign, and a lot of things that were happening with programs not working right. After having the same programs back after having them off for so long. However, it really allowed us to reshape how we do things, and it also gives me access to be able to teach younger generations to come up and take off.”

Settling back into the normalcy of the year, a typical week in Lit Mag is categorized by the submission of work and feedback, “Lit Shares,” where the class writes on a certain prompt, and work days. Junior Skylar Sweet cited this, along with the help of current leadership, as an important factor in the midst of a new year.

“For my grade, specifically, all of the juniors in the class, I think they did a great job of getting us into the class in the first place, and handling and initiating everyone during Covid,” Sweet said. “They’re working to prepare us for next year, and they’re doing really well. There’s only going to be a few people next year, and it’s going to be difficult — but they’re doing a really good job.

The current theme of “The Unmasking,”s final print magazine is a gallery, reflecting the collection of art curated by the staff. The magazine is set to come out after Spring Break.

Along with creating something physical, the literary magazine has also provided unspoken benefits for students. `

“I think it (“The Unmasking”) really showed me what leadership takes in a way to really allow people to listen and to be able to work with others,” Hoffman said. “I think that’s really important, especially going into college, because I want to take part in leadership positions in college going forward. I’m really grateful to have been given the opportunity to actually have this happen at such a key time in my life, where I’m transitioning from school into higher education.”

Sweet has high hopes for the future of the publication.

“I’m hoping for new people next year,” Sweet said. “We only have one sophomore in the class this year, and I’m really really hoping that we get more people. I’m also going to enjoy being a senior on the staff, since it’ll be interesting to be in that position as the ‘highest’ editors.”

Even with the challenges presented by Covid and a post-pandemic world, “The Unmasking” has found ways to reshape and grow for future generations of staffers to come. In the present, it provides students with a space to explore their academic and creative sides at Midtown.

“There are so many options for students here — they can learn graphic design, photoshop, Indesign, the entire creative cloud, photography — there are just so many things they can learn,” Villalpando said. “We also have Lit Shares, where students can share things that have inspired them and share with the class. It’s journalism, but it has a really fun and creative side.”