Stay Out of My Room

Megha Barnabas
Nothing in this room has changed for almost seven years. It’s not something I’m proud of exactly, but my parents make no secret of who their favorite child is. When my brother went to college they turned his room into a gym. When he dropped out and moved back in they made him sleep on the floor by the Ab master.
Frankie Avazian
I grew up in Queens. My mom is Italian and my dad’s Armenian. I started growing chest hair in the fourth grade. I was an outcast: The kids called me Coco, after the gorilla on TV. My parents got me the orangutan poster as a joke I guess, but I liked it. When I was in high school I started hanging out with squatters and homeless kids in Tompkins Square Park. I used to try to pass as homeless, and tried to decorate my room like an abandoned building. The rest of the house is really nice.
Darius Grayson
It’s really embarrassing, but I was a really passionate toy collector until my junior year of high school… hard to say goodbye, et cetera…
Elizabeth Rubin
My mother remarried when I was in college. her husband wanted my room as a guest room, and they got rid of all my stuff. I had the walls plastered with clippings from rock magazines and comics. This is literally all I have left: a pink panther cut-out from my sweet sixteen party (everything was pink), and a set of oversized playing cards that came with the 1979 issue of CREAM magazine. The one on the left is the king of spades with H Rap Brown and Ayn Rand. Awesome.
Dana Farouki
This room used to be huge. Do I look fat?