Dual interview conducted at Sarah's home in Salem, NH on 7/29/09

Jessica: Give me some general information about yourself- kind of like a Myspace biography. What would you say to someone who didn’t know you?

Sarah: I’m really awkward and kind of open about it. I am really honest, too, and it can shock people. I don’t like to be formal, so I can come to be friends with people really fast, but I can be shy, too, sometimes. I think that is my myspace biography.

Lisa: No, it’s not. But it does say you’re an introvert.

Jessica: Lisa, same question to you.

Lisa: I’m just weird… I don’t know.

Jessica: Sarah, What are your plans for college and beyond?

Sarah: I am going to Suffolk with Lisa and we are rooming together. That makes things less stressful because we can share the walls and clothing. We want to go to Boston Common and do the big pillow fight and pumpkin carving.

Lisa: We’re going to try to get free jewelry from a guy right outside the school.

Sarah: We want to find all of the cheap sushi places.

Jessica: What about your major?

Sarah: I’m doing communications. I don’t know if I want to do that, but they are pressuring me to.

Jessica: Lisa, What career would you ultimately like to devote your life to?

Lisa: I want to be a type of writer, but I don’t know what type yet. I don’t want to be famous. I want to write something that someone else can get the credit for- like a movie where the actors get noticed. I don’t want to be recognized.

Jessica: Sarah, who would you say are your heroes?

Sarah: For famous people, I’d say Kat Von D. She is awesome and doesn’t care about how weird she is. She’s just cool and has so many tattoos, but she can pull it off. She’ll even be cool when she’s 90.

Lisa: I thought you’d say Janis Joplin.

Sarah: Oh yeah, also, Janis Joplin- not the heroin, but she’s just awesome. My friends are my heroes, too, all for different reasons, and my mom.

Jessica: Lisa, what is your opinion on the media’s effect on self image? Do you feel any pressure?

Lisa: All I can think of is religion class.

Sarah: Oh yeah, our classmates would have something to say about that.

Lisa: I think that the media puts it out there, but you take it the way that you want to. Your opinions of yourself and your own self-confidence matter more. The media doesn’t affect you, it just gives you an idea, you already have your own image of yourself.

Jessica: I think that’s interesting. I never thought of it that way, but there is a lot of truth to it. Next one is for Sarah. What do you do in your spare time?

Sarah: I go to shows sometimes, but now I work at the mall, so I don’t go as much. I do random things with Lisa. We watch people in their cars and imagine what they do when they get home.

Lisa: We watch people have conversations.

Sarah: Yeah we fill in with what we think they’re saying. We have different perceptions of everything that goes on than what is actually happening.

Lisa: We’d imagine lives for all sorts of people that we meet… people at school. It’s fun.

Jessica: That’s really funny. Lisa, what past hero do you see as still having an effect today?

Lisa: I’m a big fan of Andy Warhol. He had a lot of ideas and he wasn’t afraid of putting them out there. He brought so many other people into the limelight. I’m a huge fan, except for the drugs. He just did his own thing, and I admire that.

Sarah: Yeah, think of Hollywood now, it’s not the same. People like Lindsay Lohan…

Lisa: When I think of Lindsay Lohan, I just think of her freckles.

Sarah: Yeah, but her and other people with drugs and all that, it’s like, I like to watch that life, but I wouldn’t live it. I think it’s really sad. Fame is just not for me.

Jessica: Sarah, as a concert-goer, what has been the best show you’ve been to?

Sarah: Oh… that’s tough. Probably the Devil Wears Prada and A Day to Remember show, and also Emarosa. They are my favorite bands and everyone was perfect.

Lisa: We’re going to Bring Me the Horizon.

Sarah: Oh yeah!

Lisa: October 4th.

Sarah: Bring Me the Horizon might top the other shows.

Jessica: Are there any bands that you are currently obsessed with?

Sarah: The Devil Wears Prada, as usual. I also love Versa Emerge and Vanna, too, even though Chris is gone. It was sad at the last show.

Lisa: Yeah it was.

Jessica: Lisa, which issue do you think people our age face most?

Lisa : I’d say trying to fit in with drugs and partying. People are afraid to be their own person. That really aggravates me and ruins my relationships with people. I like them for themselves- not high.

Jessica: Sarah, has going to Catholic school affected your religious beliefs at all? Maybe strengthened or weakened them?

Sarah: It didn’t really affect me. I was religious in my own way before I went to high school. They didn’t focus on religion as much as you would think. It was frustrating to me when people didn’t respect my religion. At liturgies and things like that, people just wouldn’t be respectful. You don’t have to do crazy and wave your arms participating… it is all teenagers so what do you expect? But I would respect someone else’s religion. You can’t expect total respect, but I’d like it.

Jessica: Lisa, are you a book reader or movie watcher?

Lisa & Sarah at the same time: Movie watcher.

Jessica: What’s your favorite?

Lisa: There are so many… I watch movies over and over again.

Jessica: I am the same way!

Lisa: Yeah, I have to watch them by myself for the full effect. I love Requiem for a Dream and The Virgin Suicides.

Sarah: I found more symbolism in Georgia Rule.

Lisa: You love that movie.

Jessica: Sarah, do you have any thoughts on Obama or recent government actions, or are you not into politics?

Sarah: I’m probably the only one, but I’m a non-supporter of Obama. I never really liked him. I never got crazy about it, marching for McCain or anything like that, but I think that everyone is expecting this huge change that isn’t going to help anyone who wants it. I don’t see the hype. I found him sort of sketchy. They couldn’t find his birth certificate.

Lisa: Didn’t they find it in Hawaii?

Sarah: Did they? Buried in the sand… I don’t know. It creeps me out. I think that it’s cool that he’s the first black president. I think a lot of scene kids love him because they all follow one another- if someone says he’s cool, the rest will love him. I have a long conservative line behind me, so my ancestors would probably be in my room and stab me if I supported Obama… I’d lose my inheritance… if I had one.

Jessica: This is another one for Lisa. As a teen, how do you feel about downloading music and movies? Is it fair in this economy, since CDs and DVDs are so expensive?

Lisa: Ah… I don’t want to answer that, haha. I haven’t paid for a song since 8th grade. I buy CDs sometimes, for like a dollar. Honestly, if I love a band, I will go to their shows to support them- that says enough. The bands that Sarah and I love just want the support, not the money. I can’t listen to them once they sell out like Fall Out Boy.

Sarah: Yeah, then it becomes all these young kids at shows just so they can say that they went – like how everyone goes to Warped Tour to see All Time Low.

Jessica: Definitely. They want to show off their mosh pit wounds when they barely know what a pit is. I used to like Avenged Sevenfold until they sold out to Warner Brothers.

Lisa: Exactly. They change. That’s why I like bands like Chiodos- they support themselves, and it’s hard, but they just want the fans to enjoy what they do.

Jessica: On another note, do you have any opinions on the war on terrorism, or is that not something you follow?

Lisa: I don’t really follow it. It’s doesn’t affect my life personally, so I don’t feel that I have a right to an opinion.

Jessica: And lastly, do you think marijuana should be legalized?

Sarah: No way! It shouldn’t happen.

Lisa: Can we put that all in caps?

Sarah: Yeah. People like to do it around me, but it’s never something that I accepted in people. I don’t believe in living life in a haze; take life for what it is. I can find fun in so many different ways in different things, I don’t need to do drugs. It ruins people. Friends choose that over you and it’s not right.

Lisa: It changes people. It’s so sad. I don’t go around preaching it, and neither does Sarah. I don’t respect drugs, but I do try to respect people’s decisions, just like I expect them to respect my decision not to smoke.

Sarah: I’ll get crap for saying all of that, but I know that I’ll be better off than them in the end.