Izzy Teng, class of 2029
I woke up at seven, washed my face, and did my skincare routine. I threw on a pair of flared leggings, a tube top, and a cute denim jacket. I walked out of my room and got into the car to go to school. Another boring day of school. As I sat in the passenger seat, I heard my mom yelling at my younger brother. A few seconds later, my brother ran out with his backpack in one hand and a tub of Play-Doh in the other. My mom got in the car, put it into reverse, and backed out of our driveway. I looked into the rearview mirror and watched my brother play with his Play-Doh. I looked at the Play-Doh and wondered, “Where did it even come from?” At school, math class was boring, and we were just working on parabolas. My teacher wasn’t paying attention to my screen, so I looked up where Play-Doh even came from. After a bit of research, I found a video that looked pretty informative. I clicked into it and it told me the whole story of how Play-Doh was made.
In the early 1900s, wallpapers were really useful, but there was a big problem: soot. Fires were burned to light the house and keep it warm, but with fire that burns coal, comes smoke. From smoke comes soot, and it often got stuck on the wallpaper wrapped around walls in the rooms. A company called Kutol had a pretty genius idea. They formed a putty-like substance that got the soot off the wallpaper pretty easily. But around the 1950s, people began to use more modern heating techniques, such as oil, gas, and electricity. The company started to struggle. Joseph McVicker, the CEO of the struggling company, was trying hard to turn it around. He asked his family for help, and his sister-in-law, Kay Zufall, spoke up. She had read an article about how wallpaper cleaning products could be used in the classroom for modeling projects. She was a nursery school teacher, and she brought a bit of the product to her work one day, to test it out with her students. Her students loved playing with it and molding it into different shapes. She reported back to McVicker about her success in the classroom, and suggested its redebut under a different name: Play-Doh. After that, the company got turned around and put back on its feet.
I found that really interesting and I told my mom and brother. My mom thought it was pretty cool, and my brother didn’t really care. I hate my brother sometimes. The next time I steal my brother’s Play-Doh to play with it, I’ll just give a quick thanks to Kay Zufall for making it such an original plaything for children.
My name is Izzy Teng, and I'm a freshman here at Arcadia High School. When I first saw the announcement for the Alias Magazine, I thought, "What in the world is that?" I clicked into the form and read through it. I have always liked reading and writing fictional novels. I thought it couldn't hurt if I tried out for this right? I had no clue what in the world would come as surprising to high school students, but as I did more and more research, I realized that there were actually a lot of surprising discoveries. When I saw Play-Doh, I thought it was really cool. I decided to join the magazine with Play-Doh.