If there was a Kids’ Choice Award for Best Reason for Attending the Kids’ Choice Awards, 8-year-old Juanita would have it in the bag.
The cancer survivor made headlines Saturday evening at the annual slime-infused Nickelodeon event in Los Angeles, hitting the red carpet to photograph some of the night’s biggest stars (including Gwen Stefani, above, and Nickelodeon favorites Kira Kosarin and Mace Coronel, below).
Juanita was sent to the event on behalf of the Pablove Foundation, whose mission is to help fund pediatric cancer research, educate affected families and provide opportunities in the arts for children living with the disease.
Juanita is part of the Pablove Shutterbugs program which, according to the organization’s website, “teach[es] children living with cancer to develop their creative voice through the art of photography.”
This isn’t the first time Juanita taken the red carpet at a glitzy, celeb-filled event by storm: In January, she attended the 2017 Golden Globes, snapping photos of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
According to E! News, Juanita is in remission after battling cancer for almost three years. She’s now back in school attending third-grade classes. She loves taking photos of her dog Charlie, recently learned to ride a bike and spent time last summer taking photography workshops at the Pablove Shutterbugs Alumni Summer Camp.
Igniting a passion for technology is the goal of Connected Camps’ online summer camps in coding, game design, architecture, engineering, and survival mode in Minecraft.
The weeklong virtual camps, priced from $69 to $99, commence June 26. There are 30 online camps to choose from, including girls-only options.
“We offer the fun hands-on projects, and cool counselors that you get at a tech camp, but in an online format that is much more affordable and accessible,” said Mimi Ito, Connected Camps co-founder. “We give kids a STEM learning experience at a tenth of the cost of the more traditional summer camps. The online format also means that kids can keep in touch with their new friends and counselors and keep working on projects even after the one-week camps. And, we run a free, moderated Minecraft server that kids can connect to year-round to continue their learning.”
It can be hard for parents to find tech camps that are affordable, work with their kids’ busy schedules and tap into a passion for all things Minecraft, added Katie Salen, Connected Camps co-founder.
“The best way for kids to develop tech skills and interests is through fun and challenging projects with peers and mentors they feel connected with. We run camps that meet kids where they are, catering to interests in games, exploration, and design, as well as girls-only camps.” Salen said. “Connected Camps draws on over a decade of research on STEM learning and online education.”
Campers, ages 8-13, can connect from the convenience of home, and learn in small groups from expert counselors who are passionate about topics like coding, game design, and creative building. Campers learn by doing, creating projects like race courses, cities, automated machines, mazes, and more. All campers receive a personal certificate of completion from their counselor, and can continue learning on the free Kid Club server with counselor-led building and survival challenges, mini games, and clubs for various interests.
“We think of Minecraft as more than just a game,” said Tara Tiger Brown, Connected Camps co-founder. “To us, it is a flexible, design-friendly environment that not only lets the imaginations of kids run wild, but also teaches them about problem solving, programming, and getting along with others.”
Those who purchase one camp are offered a 20% discount on all other camps. In addition, Connected Camps will be giving away a free Piper computer kit — a computer that kids assemble themselves and runs the Raspberry Pi Edition of Minecraft Story — to one lucky camper, who registers by March 19 this year.
To register for camps, enter the giveaway, or for more information, visit connectedcamps.com.
About Connected Camps Connected Camps is a benefit corporation providing connected learning experiences that foster creativity, problem solving, collaboration and interest-driven learning. Its mission is to build a global online community where kids build, code, play, and learn from one another. Tapping the power of youth tech experts to teach and mentor, Connected Camps has served thousands of kids through its online and community-based programs. Connected Camps is a member of the Connected Learning Alliance, which supports the expansion and influence of a network of educators, experts and youth-serving organizations mobilizing new technology in the service of equity, access and opportunity for all young people.
Josh Gad, who plays LeFou in Disney’s new live-action Beauty and the Beast, is speaking out about the controversy surrounding the movie’s groundbreaking gay moment.
News of the gay character has caused a stir in recent days: In the new movie, LeFou has a crush on his pal, the handsome, self-absorbed villain Gaston (Fast & Furious star Luke Evans) — and LeFou has what Gad calls a “subtle but incredibly effective” scene during the film’s finale that hints at a happily ever after. Gad tells PEOPLE that the moment in the movie teaches an important lesson central to the theme of the film: “Never judging a book by its cover.”
“What I would say is that this film is one of inclusiveness,” the 36-year-old says. “It’s one that has something to offer everyone.”
“There is so much fear out there of that which we don’t understand that which we don’t know,” Gad tells PEOPLE.
“And you have a character in Gaston who uses his charm offensive to whip other people into a frenzy to go and attack somebody they’ve never met. Somebody that’s different. Somebody that only represents a danger because [Gaston] says that he represents a danger.”
He adds: “I think that that theme is as relevant today as it was when Beauty and the Beast was first written 300 years ago. So that’s what I hope people take from it.”
Evans weighed in on the controversy at the film’s premiere, saying, “It’s about unity, it’s about never judging a book by its cover.”
“But digging a little deeper and understanding to not be fearful of things you don’t know or people who look a little different to you.”
He added, “Fear is not a good thing to fuel, and Gaston is responsible for that. But he fails — he fails miserably, and everybody finds love. Everyone!”
We’ve all heard the one about the deer with no eyes, but what do you call a deer with no soul? In The Walking Dead‘s latest episode, ‘Say Yes’, Rick Grimes had his back against a fairground ride, surrounded by zombies, and to escape the situation, he decided to shoot a nearby deer as a fresh-meat distraction. Only problem was, that deer looked like it had wandered straight out of Minecraft.
The glossy cervid in question was at the nadir of uncanny valley. It didn’t catch the light in the right way; it didn’t cast a realistic shadow, it didn’t fit cleanly into the 3D space it was meant to be occupying. It looked about as convincing as Donkey in Shrek. The result is totally jarring, especially considering there was a real-life deer in the second season of The Walking Dead. By comparison, this seventh season seems to be having weird budgeting issues – a lot of money seems to have been spent on making the zombies look as awesome as possible; deer, not so much.
Twitter’s reaction was strong, and there were many pisstakes. Pisstakes like this one:
The Disney “live-action” remakes, of which the new “Beauty and the Beast” is but one in an assembly line, are starting to resemble an iPhone software update. Click a button and that old cartoon interface changes Belle into Emma Watson, the Beast into Dan Stevens and maybe fixes a few bugs in the system.
“Beauty and the Beast,” that “tale as old as time” (or, to pinpoint it, 1740, when the French fairy tale was published), could certainly use a few tweaks. It is, after all, a fable about finding beauty within that ends, curiously, with the once superficial prince falling for a beautiful woman he’s kidnapped, whose name literally means beauty. If you’d like to untangle those ironies, please, be our guest.
Director Bill Condon’s film _ let’s call it “Beauty and the Beast 2.0” _ often feels in search of a purpose beyond the all-but-certain dollar signs. Much of the live-action/digital effects makeover is less lifelike than the Oscar-winning 1991 animated film: It’s gained a dimension but lost a pulse. The merely fine acting and the lavish production design (the sumptuous sets nearly swallow the performers whole) dutifully strive to make this a worthy enterprise.
Opposites attract, of course. And this “Beauty and the Beast” is equal parts dispiriting and enchanting: overflowing in handsome craft, but missing a spirit inside. Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s songs still have their infectious kick, but most of the big musical moments feel more like very good covers of the originals. (There are also three less-memorable new songs by Menken and Tim Rice.)
And yet “Beauty and the Beast” finds its own verve _ or, to quote Lumiere, “reason d’etre” _ late. Condon (the “Dreamgirls” director who, having helmed much of the “Twilight” saga, knows a thing or two about young love and monsters), working from a script by Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos, has taken many of the old tale’s more cringe-worthy gender roles and mixed them up in the movie’s bright swirling medley.
Belle’s bookishness is more pronounced, thanks partly to the ‘Harry Potter’ credentials of Watson. Her performance is a little minor key, still, but Watson lends Belle an intelligence and agency that she has lacked. She’s less of a Stockholm syndrome Victim and more deserving of young girls’ admiration. And the Beast, a pile of horns, makeup and effects on top of the former ‘Downton Abbey’ star Stevens, is more haunted and melancholy.
But as the film nears its celebratory coda, a buoyant pluralism bursts forth. Characters _ large parts and small _ are freed from their prescribed roles in a glorious dance, shortly after Mrs. Potts (Emma Thompson), Cogsworth (Ian McKellen), Lumiere (Ewan McGregor) and the rest come to life. (Be sure to shake your living room and see which British star tumbles out of the furniture.) Here is where that already much discussed “gay moment,” as Condon has called it, arrives. It comes and goes in a flash
Josh Gad, the MVP of many a Disney movie, plays LeFou, the doting sidekick of the caddish Gaston (Luke Evans), the dopey pursuer of Belle’s hand. LeFou spends much of the movie hinting at his affection for his lecherous friend, but LeFou, too, earns a chance for redemption toward the end. That’s all it is _ an easy to miss suggestion that LeFou might find another love. And yet this slightest wink of homosexuality has drawn the ire of some who, it’s worth noting, raised no concerns over a romance between an imprisoned girl and a beast or, for that matter, a candelabra and a feather duster.
In fact, “Beauty and the Beast” would be better if it dared more such moments and went further with them. Nevertheless, the uproar suggests even this must count as progress. Perhaps we’ll be ready for a truly up-to-date ‘Beauty and the Beast 3.0’ in another few decades.
