Lakewood Letters

Introduction

Smitty. The name I gave myself was Anya Smith. Smitty for short. Call me old fashioned, naming myself after the alias of a princes from a small, nameless, nation when she goes galavanting around Rome.

Audrey Hepburn played the beautiful, if not adventurous, Princess Anne in Roman Holiday. Accompanied by Gregory Peck's Joe Bradley and Eddie Albert's Irving Radovich, Hepburn's character explores the Eternal City under the name Anya Smith, which Albert's character is quick to shorten to Smitty.

And so it came about that when I needed a second alias, a character to write as, per say, Smitty appeared in my head. And though I'm not one tenth as beautiful as the eternal actress in the Eternal City, I hope to someday to live up to the name.

My Smitty isn't nearly as beautiful as Hepburn either. How could she be, when she was meant to be a hazy reflection of myself? But to do the role and the magnificent woman cast in it justice, my Smitty has more of Hepburn's looks and prowess than I do, if only slightly.

I don't pretend to be Hepburn anywhere other than my dreams and would never encroach on her legacy, which is as impressive and badass as she was, in any other way than to say that if I strive to be even a quarter of the woman she was, I shall die a happy death and go on my way peacefully when my time comes.

If you don't know Hepburn or her work, do some reaserch, watch some movies, and come back a changed person. She was as sucessful and driven to help people as she was to act and even for those who don't want to make the kind of difference she did, she is an inspiration.

My Smitty isn't the Anya Smith that Hepburn fans around the globe know and love. She's flawed, she's a modern teenage girl at a girls' boarding school in modern day America, she's confused, she's learning, she's shy, she's naive, she's average, ordinary, plain and simple. And shes pansexual.

And though my Smitty idolizes Audrey Hepburn for everything she did for the world along with her acting, she also looks up to the artists of her time. Our time. Ruby Rose, Lin Manuel Miranda, Millie Bobby Brown, Halsey, Leslie Stephens, Aviva Pressman, Leilani Jones Willmore, Jonathan Sharp, Jen Colella, George Salazar, Ben Platt, Mike Faist, Will Roland, Ruth Bater Ginsberg, Michelle Obama, and so on and so forth.

In short, my Smitty is an almost average girl in an almost average world with almost average friends and an almost average life. And this is her story.

(Rights to the name Anya Smith are owned by the creative team of Roman Holiday)