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A Girl Named Sam
by Alex Andy Phuong

There once was a girl named Sam.  She had to endure a lot of struggles because of her gender-neutral name.  She also had to cope with famous people named "Samantha," such as Elizabeth Montgomery's starring role in Bewitched.  Sam also felt very embarrassed by the Dr. Seuss children’s book Green Eggs and Ham because the character was male and shared that same name.  Because of the nature of her name, Sam aspired to push herself to be as talented as her male counterparts.  She studied diligently in high school, graduated from a prestigious Ivy League school, and then became a professional writer to express her feelings about her name with a feminist tone.  She felt superb inspiration from the film Legally Blonde (2001) because Elle Woods was such an independent figure.  Sam has had ups and downs, but she still reminds herself about powerful women in cinema.  She loved Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind (1939).  She adored Rose in Titanic (1997).  In fact, she eventually became very proud of her name because the masculine aspects of the name "Sam" gave her the strength, courage, and determination to succeed.  Humorously, her father was named Sam, and he accidentally believed that he would have a son when his only daughter was born.