Candice Jalili, Ambika Vohra

This kaleidoscopic panel will explore the love stories that blossom within broader contexts. In Finding Famous, a secret celebrity father, a potential soulmate, and a whirlwind of paparazzi take the stage in Candice Jalili’s Iranian-American, reality TV twist on the “rags-to-riches” tale. Ambika Vohra tells the opposite story in The Sticky Note Manifesto of Aisha Agarwal, which follows a valedictorian shoo-in who creates a wall of boundary-pushing dares upon encountering a college admissions prompt about going beyond comfort zones. Moderated by youth literature reviewer Sharon Levin, the irresistible stories of this panel prove that love—existing beyond genre, stereotypes, and our wildest expectations—is anything but a monolith.