Teens - Unique Interests
Teens Let their Imaginations 'Run Wild' at ICON
Annual Convention Puts their True Inner Self on Display
Annual Convention Puts their True Inner Self on Display
By: Jeffrey Valfer
TeenNewsNet Editor
Growing up you are always encouraged to let your imagination run wild. You get your first introduction to fairy tales, bedtime stories and even dress up as a princess or your favorite superhero. During these years your creativity is not only encouraged, but accepted and applauded. However, as the teen years approach due to peer pressure you often hide that inner creativity. The imagination that used to “run wild” is now caged. Do you tell people that you still like to dress up like your favorite character or your favorite activity is participating in role playing games?
Most don’t!
“At my high school if I say anything [about this interest] they’ll look down at me,” says Williams. She continues to tell me what it’s like to be in an environment where she is accepted. “It’s stressful that I can’t actually be myself in school. [Here] I can randomly hug people and they wouldn’t care.” There is a part of Williams which acknowledges that some teens take their love of fantasy too far. She explains to me that although this is something she loves, her creative interests are also applied to drawing reading and writing. There are more teens that I meet like Williams, such as Kim Horn a junior at Miller Place High School, Miller Place, NY. Horn informs me that this is her first year attending ICON and she is already hooked. “I have a lot of friends that went and said it’s a lot of fun,” she explains. “It’s not very popular in our school, but now that I look around [this convention] I know it’s pretty popular.
Even popular sci-fi characters Tony Todd (known for his role as Worf’s brother Kurn on Star Trek the Next Generation and also the voice of The Fallen in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) and Bonnie Piesse (Beru Lars in Star Wars Episode II Revenge of the Seth) have become impressed with the attendees of these types of conventions. Todd who did his first convention in 1995, and currently does at least two per year refers to the fans as “dedicated and unbelievable.” Piesse had the same sentiment. “I love it! I had no idea when I first got involved that this community… whole world exists of Star Wars fans. In the beginning it was shocking, but now it’s really fun.”
Besides going to ICON and playing with their friends both participate in gaming leagues at Brother Grimms located in Selden, NY. Sakowsky eyes light up when he tells me how he recently competed against a lawyer. He went home afterwards and told his parents who are becoming more and more impressed with his hobby. “My parents like it because I’m not on the street causing mischief - they know I’m with a good group.”
Richard Parla President and CEO of LR Hobby, a Long Island based maker of role playing terrain and gaming accessories agrees with Sakowsky. “They can engage their imagination and exercise their minds,” says Parla of role playing versus video games. He goes on to explain to me that “he is not disparaging video games.” In his opinion, Parla stresses that video games “can be very educational and interactive; however they are more scripted leaving kids with less room to think and solve problems in creative ways.”
TeenNewsNet Editor
Growing up you are always encouraged to let your imagination run wild. You get your first introduction to fairy tales, bedtime stories and even dress up as a princess or your favorite superhero. During these years your creativity is not only encouraged, but accepted and applauded. However, as the teen years approach due to peer pressure you often hide that inner creativity. The imagination that used to “run wild” is now caged. Do you tell people that you still like to dress up like your favorite character or your favorite activity is participating in role playing games?
Most don’t!
Perhaps this is the reason so many teens from around Long Island 
can’t wait to expose
their true personalities and be among others like them at ICON, held annually at the end of March at SUNY Stony Brook. Touted as the Northeast’s largest sci-fi and gaming convention ICON has hundreds of vendors selling memorabilia, character clothing or hobby items. Additionally, there are seminars on anime, gaming, publishing and Star Wars.
Although ICON has all these things, what I took away the most from it was the comments I heard from teens like Alison Williams, a sophomore at Sachem North High School, Farmingville, NY.
can’t wait to expose their true personalities and be among others like them at ICON, held annually at the end of March at SUNY Stony Brook. Touted as the Northeast’s largest sci-fi and gaming convention ICON has hundreds of vendors selling memorabilia, character clothing or hobby items. Additionally, there are seminars on anime, gaming, publishing and Star Wars.
Although ICON has all these things, what I took away the most from it was the comments I heard from teens like Alison Williams, a sophomore at Sachem North High School, Farmingville, NY. “At my high school if I say anything [about this interest] they’ll look down at me,” says Williams. She continues to tell me what it’s like to be in an environment where she is accepted. “It’s stressful that I can’t actually be myself in school. [Here] I can randomly hug people and they wouldn’t care.” There is a part of Williams which acknowledges that some teens take their love of fantasy too far. She explains to me that although this is something she loves, her creative interests are also applied to drawing reading and writing. There are more teens that I meet like Williams, such as Kim Horn a junior at Miller Place High School, Miller Place, NY. Horn informs me that this is her first year attending ICON and she is already hooked. “I have a lot of friends that went and said it’s a lot of fun,” she explains. “It’s not very popular in our school, but now that I look around [this convention] I know it’s pretty popular.
Even popular sci-fi characters Tony Todd (known for his role as Worf’s brother Kurn on Star Trek the Next Generation and also the voice of The Fallen in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) and Bonnie Piesse (Beru Lars in Star Wars Episode II Revenge of the Seth) have become impressed with the attendees of these types of conventions. Todd who did his first convention in 1995, and currently does at least two per year refers to the fans as “dedicated and unbelievable.” Piesse had the same sentiment. “I love it! I had no idea when I first got involved that this community… whole world exists of Star Wars fans. In the beginning it was shocking, but now it’s really fun.”
Often when teens themselves aren’t exposed to something, they are sold on others perceptions rather than forming their own reality. “[At first] they are really not open to it,” explains Henry Buck, a junior at Longwood High School, Coram, NY. Buck’s Uncle 
got him into role playing games and he has been hooked ever since. He now has recruited others by showing them that some of their favorite movies are now role playing games. “I gotten so many people into role playing and miniature games and they didn’t know the game was from a book or movie. They have so much fun because they enjoyed the movie and then have a blast playing the game as well.” One person that Buck has gotten hooked is his friend Chris Sakowsky a sophomore at his school. Sakowsky thinks more teens should get away from video gaming as role playing offers a more social environment. He tells me of another friend they no longer associate with because he rarely comes out, staying inside most of the time to play video games.
got him into role playing games and he has been hooked ever since. He now has recruited others by showing them that some of their favorite movies are now role playing games. “I gotten so many people into role playing and miniature games and they didn’t know the game was from a book or movie. They have so much fun because they enjoyed the movie and then have a blast playing the game as well.” One person that Buck has gotten hooked is his friend Chris Sakowsky a sophomore at his school. Sakowsky thinks more teens should get away from video gaming as role playing offers a more social environment. He tells me of another friend they no longer associate with because he rarely comes out, staying inside most of the time to play video games. Besides going to ICON and playing with their friends both participate in gaming leagues at Brother Grimms located in Selden, NY. Sakowsky eyes light up when he tells me how he recently competed against a lawyer. He went home afterwards and told his parents who are becoming more and more impressed with his hobby. “My parents like it because I’m not on the street causing mischief - they know I’m with a good group.”
Richard Parla President and CEO of LR Hobby, a Long Island based maker of role playing terrain and gaming accessories agrees with Sakowsky. “They can engage their imagination and exercise their minds,” says Parla of role playing versus video games. He goes on to explain to me that “he is not disparaging video games.” In his opinion, Parla stresses that video games “can be very educational and interactive; however they are more scripted leaving kids with less room to think and solve problems in creative ways.”
