Elaina David is a 13 year old girl originally from Houston, Texas. (Amazing food…abysmal weather:) She loves reading books, especially historical fiction and fantasy. Currently she is interested in pursuing a career in journalism and/or archaeology. When she’s not begging her dad for family stories or delving into some new obsession, she can be found playing soccer with her team.
Go United!!
Isabella loves art, animation, jewelry-making, macro-photography, entymology, and her many many rescued kittens. On any given day, Isabella can be found writing stories and haikus, inventing quirky characters and adventurous storylines.
Camden S. is 15 years old and enjoys spending his free time coding, creating board games and making stuff with his 3D printer. Also, he loves animals, especially dogs. He enjoys reading and his favorite subjects to learn about are history and science. A passion of his has always been computers and he loves learning about how they work, and his future job will probably have something to do with computer science. He is always excited to learn more about the world around him. An interest of his since a young age has been paleontology and he has always loved Jurassic Park! Another thing he enjoys is being in nature and exploring new places. He is excited to explore Europe and Hawaii the most. He also enjoys fencing and would like to participate in tournaments in the near future. He likes playing games like chess, risk and monopoly with his family and friends.
Layal Hilal is 12 years old and is half Palestinian half Syrian. She has been homeschooled since kindergarten and she loved it and still does. She loves to read, sing, write her novels, play piano, and hike, and she’s hoping to pursue writing as a career. Layal also really wants to be an actor when she grows up. Actually, she’d prefer it if that could happen very soon! Reading is definitely her favorite subject, which you’d probably get right away if you stepped inside her bedroom. It has turned into something of a bookstore, only nobody is allowed to buy or borrow anything. Her favorite book series are the Sky Fall series, Keeper of the Lost Cities, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, The Baby Sitters Club, and Wings of Fire. She also desperately wants to read the Hunger Games. Layal is also working on three novels at once, two with her best friend and one by herself. (Titles to be revealed!) She started reading and writing when she was two years old though, so it’s not too much of a challenge. (That’s not true). She joined the Lighthouse out of her love for writing and wanting to be part of a community of writers. She has two adorable kittens, Dua’a (Layal’s kitten) and Zainab (Her sister’s kitten) that she got six months ago, and she loves them more than she ever thought she could! Except when they claw her when she squeezes them too tight. (Accidently! Accidently!) Layal plays the piano, sings every moment she can, and hates talking to people she doesn’t know on the phone (She gets tongue twisted). Her main passion since discovering how much she enjoyed writing has been writing for and about freedom in every oppressed country she knows about.
Quick Fun Fact: In 2022, Layal was given an assignment in school to write a short fantasy story, about two to three pages long. That assignment was never submitted. It is, in fact, one of her novels and it has reached nearly one hundred twenty pages! She really hopes the teacher will accept a novel for the assignment…she will, right?
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a town called Danville, and in a house in that town there was a boy named Lucas… Lucas is 13 years old, and when he isn’t playing Dungeons and Dragons, he is probably designing 2D animation or reading Hunger Games and Harry Potter. He’s happy to be working with TVE, and eager to keep writing.
Aleena Haimor is a 14-year-old Lebanese-American girl living in gorgeous Danville, California, with her parents, three siblings, and three very silly cats. Homeschooled since the beginning, Aleena is passionate and always tries to be kind to everyone around her. She’s an avid reader and writer, currently working on getting her first novel (current name: Hope) published, while also writing the first book (‘Shatter’) in her new fantasy trilogy, which, overall, is currently called The Unseen. Stories have always captivated Aleena’s imagination, and she hopes to be a professional author (and nurse) in the future.
A hard-core music and book lover, Aleena has many hobbies. She plays both piano and guitar, sings, and acts, having been in two productions with ICDT! In Danville, California. Her favorite music artists include Janani K. Jha, Olivia Rodrigo, Ella Red, Avril Lavigne, TROY and TE/MO. She also enjoys musicals, her favorites including Hamilton, EPIC, and Wicked.
Aleena’s favorite books are Caraval, CRISIS (written by her friend Shifa S. Sheikh) Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, The Cruel Prince, and especially Powerless, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, and The Hunger Games. She describes her current WIP as “a crazy mix of all the best books I’ve ever read, but completely different.”
Even while being part of many clubs, such as Park Day Productions, The Lighthouse has and will always have a special place in Aleena’s heart, since it was the first place that an awkward 11-year-old girl really felt seen, three whole years ago. She loves to write stories and informative articles for The Lighthouse, and hopes to continue for many more years!!
Cy Bernardi is 15 years old and a sophomore in high school. He lives with his parents and has no pets or siblings. This is his first year at the Lighthouse, and he is looking forward to his position as Sports Editor. He has been homeschooled since 3rd grade, and his favorite subjects are math and history. When he’s older, he plans to go to Las Positas Community College and transfer to a UC in Southern California, but he’s not quite sure which one yet. After that, he plans to pursue a career in either business or engineering. Some of Cy’s favorite things to do in his free time are rock climbing, cooking, listening to music, playing board games, and participating in any kind of athletic endeavor that comes along. Some of the sports that he plays are soccer, ultimate frisbee, and parkour. He also enjoys watching TV with his parents at the end of the day.
Liam Pate is 10 years old and loves to play with LEGO’s. He is currently collecting Minecraft Lego sets. Liam enjoys playing chess and his favorite opponent is his dad. He also likes to play Minecraft with his friends. He loves animals and especially loves dogs. He feels uncomfortable around new dogs but once he gets used to them he likes them. The reason he chose to do photojournalism and videography for The Lighthouse is because he prefers to be behind the camera and likes making short movies with his sister.
Once upon a time there was a writer named Lydia. Her fairytale is filled with animals, kids, and friends. She is 15 years old and in the 9th grade. She enjoys sketching and digital art. Lydia is very passionate about animals, and volunteers at the SPCA animal shelter in Dublin, California. Pet-sitting and dog-walking are some of her favorite activities. She is especially fond of horses, and enjoys horseback riding. Her cat, Katiara, is one of her best friends. Lydia loves spending time with kids, and has taken many babysitting jobs. In the future, she hopes to pursue a career where she can be surrounded by children. She sings in the Danville Girls Chorus, and has taken part in many concerts including a tour in Seattle. Lydia also enjoys Dungeons and Dragons, West Coast Swing, TVE events, film-making, gaming, and a large variety of movies with her co-writers. Her homeschooling journey began in the 4th grade, and joined The Lighthouse in 5th. She is very excited for the new school year, and plans to write about animals, stories, art, and so much more.
Olive Pea is 14.5 years old, but her math book says that rounds to 15 so she does. Olive lives with her mom, dad, 12-year-old brother, two floppy, squishy cats, and a maniacal beast of a puppy named Pepper (who now has a master’s degree in sock thievery and destruction). During the school day you can find Olive burning her algebra book, geeking out about Lord of the Flies’s themes and sub-sub themes in ludicrous amounts of unnecessary detail, cursing Chopin for his 32nd notes, wondering why on earth donkeys and elephants represent political parties, taking notes on tooth-filled lobster stomachs, exasperatedly trying to finish complete thoughts before semicolons, all the while writing down her favorite insults she learned in Latin class. She loves being part of The Lighthouse and is finding short story writing to be quite enjoyable, right up there with crafting, sketching and painting. (Side note: Olive says highschool is crazy, and making it a rule to only use oxford commas or no oxford commas for an ENTIRE BOOK is insane.)
The Lighthouse 