By Kayla Hoang
Ariana Rathan likes to showcase her inner creativity, not only as a writer for Baron Banner but also through theater and dance.
For Rathan, writing is something that has always been a part of her life. “When I was young, I always loved writing,” Rathan said. “I remember in second grade I wrote a little book and I was just so excited to write it.”
Stories are her primary channel for writing since she wrote short stories for her friends focused on fiction and adventure. Spending her earlier school years at a Christian private school where there weren’t that many girls, Rathan said, meant that she’d cope by writing stories for her friends and reading them to the other girls there.
Her inspiration for creative writing stems from books she read when she was a child, from “Magic Treehouse” to “Harry Potter” to the “Goddess Girls” series, fueling her passion for this hobby throughout her life.
“I was always the kid in the class who just wrote a lot, who wrote two extra pages,” Rathan said. “I was always the one who would write very well-written essays because I love personal prompts—that’s why I love English.”
It’s no surprise, then, that Rathan found her place among Baron Banner, which she learned about her freshman year and joined her sophomore year.
“I just want to write articles, I want to get to know really how to write everything, try out everything in the world of writing,” Rathan said. “And I also want to write a feature or something, maybe.”
In addition to writing, Rathan has a strong love for the performing arts.
One of her bigger passions lies in dance, where she is a competitive dancer in Costa Mesa. Rathan cites her dance teacher as being her biggest idol and inspiration because she always supports and encourages Rathan to improve in her dancing. Rathan enjoys teaching the younger students to learn to dance, noting their smiles as one of the biggest joys she experiences in her time dancing.
Her freshman year of high school, Rathan was also involved in Huntington Beach High School’s Academy for the Performing Arts.
“It’s a very hard program to get into, and it’s very stressful- that’s why I quit,” Rathan explains. “It was ten-hour rehearsals every week.”
Today, Rathan is a performer at the South Coast Plaza performing arts program.
“It’s a very good training place and I do classes there,” she said. “They do Christmas Carol there every year and I can get paid, so it’s like professional theater.”
With so many different outlets that Rathan utilizes to express her creativity, it might seem difficult to guess what direction she wants to follow in the future, but she’s already pinpointed her future towards a career in journalism. Rathan aims high with her dream school being New York University where she can further delve into the world of journalism.
Whether you find her interviewing people for a Baron Banner article, showcasing her talent at a dance performance, or writing out another fictional story for her friends, Rathan never ceases to amaze with what she is capable of.