Dear Lakeside,

Last fall, as Lakeside returned from two years of remote learning and interruptions, we wrote to you that we hoped Tatler would lead the way into a so-called return to normal. If the last year has taught us anything, it’s that maybe the school will never go back to normal — maybe we shouldn’t want it to. We hope that next year and beyond, our successors question and challenge the status quo, within Tatler and the school at large. 

That all sounds very serious and dramatic, but inside of Tatler, change just looks like the paper getting stronger with every issue. Accompanied by our wonderful editorial team and faculty advisor, we editors-in-chief set out to reconstruct the community that we’d lost in the pandemic. What drew us both to Tatler, more than the allure of publication or piping hot gossip was the opportunity to get stuck in at Lakeside, to explore our community and find out what we loved about it. This year, it was Fiona L and Estelle L running around campus with a camcorder, asking students for their best pickup lines. It was Evan R sitting down for a long chat with Seyed about his little-known past. It was thoughtful investigations into the most niche of topics. It was all of our writers pushing themselves to keep improving article quality, and Audrey D and her team leading a lovely and clean redesign of the front page.

That’s not to say that everything has gone perfectly this year. Our desire to be a reputable and respectable source has led to us writers at Tatler self-censoring about issues within the school from time to time, favoring the approval of the administration over our responsibility to cover controversies important to the student body. Tatler is a paper by students and for students, and it should never lose sight of that.

Lakeside as a whole has the opportunity for a metamorphosis. Traditions have been upended in the pandemic; almost entirely new administrative leadership is taking over next year. It’s Tatler’s role to be the voice of the student body and to guide the next version of Lakeside — while keeping its sense of irreverence and fun. 

We have no doubt that Aaron, Stellan and next year’s editorial team will serve Tatler and Lakeside well. To our fantastic staff, we ask that you dig deeper into what goes on at Lakeside. Don’t be afraid to ask tough questions. Be respectful in all that you do, but don’t self-censor out of fear of distant repercussions. And to the rest of the school community, we ask that you give us the opportunity to investigate and also to be irreverent. Provocative editorials can exist next to listicles and Valentine’s Day columns. And while we know it’s not easy to be questioned, Tatler has a responsibility to hold the school that it loves so much accountable, just as it has a responsibility to celebrate all of its successes.

Sincerely,

Evie and Haley