NYC – Shortstack™, a charitable focused youth modeling agency, sets to expand globally and send their models to Haiti to actively participate in the rebuilding efforts. 8 years ago, at the young age of 15, inspired by a vision and a dream, Olivia Mignone created the charitable Shortstack™ Modeling Agency to prove that anyone could achieve their goals without limitations. The modeling industry may say they are too short, but Olivia and her team have spent 8 months of every year training and empowering girls to think otherwise, culminating in a professional and chic 5th Avenue Charity...


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Scott Fried did not have the room’s undivided attention as he told a group of teenagers his story about going to a near-stranger’s home in Manhattan 25 years ago for a hook-up. A low din overtook the auditorium at St. John’s University as Fried described realizing he did not bring a condom with him that night but telling himself it would just be this one time. But then he said something that brought silence to the room. “I have HIV,” he said. “I got infected that night.” Fried was a speaker at the Dream Out Loud youth conference held at the school, at 80-00 Utopia...


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By Meredith Webb Welcome to another edition of Hot Noise where this week we will be focusing on the lesser-publicized but just as exciting borough of Queens. Yes, yes we all know Brooklyn is uber-out-of-this-world cool right now and Long Island and New Jersey are home to some of punk rocks finest, but what about Queens people? What about Queens?? This beloved borough has spawned some of the finest musicians in history including  rock’n’roll royalty THE RAMONES, SICK OF IT ALL, hip hop’s RUN DMC and more, and one man is doing his gosh darned best to get this neighbourhood back on track...


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By Dina Wilcox Windows of Opportunity (WOO)—a little not-for-profit with a huge heart and commitment to teens—sponsored its 9th annual DREAM OUT LOUD conference at St. John’s University on March 1st. I was honored to be the first speaker of the day. As always, the young people were amazing, so responsive, so kind, and so present. As I have many times in the past 20 years, I told my story of falling in love and getting caught in the AIDS epidemic. Along the way, I injected some brain science to show how powerful we are, and what’s really going on with our feelings and emotions. As I always...


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