As Annette Li and Kayla Nguyen took their seats at the SHSTV broadcasting table during classes, they got ready to read and bring announcements and fun ideas to cover on their mundane weekday afternoons. This year, they were the head producers for the broadcast team.
Annette and Kayla started their media journey in seventh grade, when the two of them joined Redwood Middle’s broadcasting elective Griffin News Network (GNN). Students in GNN sat together with the same group of people throughout the entire year, which is how the duo started growing closer. Even when COVID-19 dissuaded both from joining GNN in eighth grade, their friendship and media partnership persisted.
“Through COVID, we got way closer. We talked every single day. We were each other’s main person,” Annette said.
Annette also caught the bug for video editing, a hobby Kayla had previous experience in but wanted to take more seriously. Since the two didn’t have much to do during the pandemic, they invested a lot of time editing videos. Annette’s videos were especially fueled by her love for K-Pop, after which she made fan edits to practice her media skills.
“I think we definitely motivate each other to be more creative and practice our skills more,” Annette said.
In addition to inspiring each other’s work, Annette also said their collaborations set a strong foundation for their growing friendship. Both have been part of SHSTV since freshman years. They are the only students in the Class of `25 to remain in SHSTV for all four years.
Having fueled their passions together, both Annette and Kayla hope to use their skills to pursue a profession in a media-related field. Kayla hopes to be a film producer and is majoring in Broadcast TV and Journalism at Chapman University, while Annette hopes to be a video game designer and is majoring in computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
“I remember the day in seventh grade during COVID, when [Kayla] texted me and said: ‘I know what I want to do in the future: I’m going to be a film producer,’” Annette said. “I felt so much pride in that moment.”