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Aanya Sheth: Girls in Magic

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After learning some tricks, young magician Aanya Sheth hopes to shatter stereotypes and inspire girls to join the magical world.

As a young girl enchanted by the world of magic, I have always wondered why there are very few female magicians.

Looking back at history, men have dominated the field of magic. In the 1690s, women in Salem, Massachusetts who were accused of performing magic were called witches and then executed.  Today in the world of magic, women tend to be the “glamorous assistants” to their male counterparts; they are not the star of the show.

I became passionate about magic in third grade during the height of COVID-19. I learned magic through online classes and YouTube videos, and fell in love with it. The trick that most fascinated me was the “disappearing matchstick” trick because it was easy to perform and everyone was in awe of it.

For my eleventh birthday, I had a magic themed birthday party. We had a magician come and perform for my friends and me. He performed many great tricks, like a gravity-defying glass of water, a transforming card, and many more! Soon it was time for the closing tricks. He called me up to assist him, and my response was, “I would love to assist you now, but later I have three tricks of my own that I would like to show my friends.”

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With that one sentence, I sparked a tiny, but important change in the world of magic. I showed many of my usual tricks such as predicting a card and finding one out of a seemingly shuffled deck, and my friends and the magician ended up loving my card tricks! He even suggested a magic school in San Francisco for me to learn more advanced magic.

On that day, I learned an important lesson – that you can change history for the better. I plan to start a magic club at my school for girls like me. I also plan to perform for my old preschool and teach simple tricks. With every flick of my wand and flourish of my cards, I will be one step closer to changing magic for girls forever.

With a Perspective, I’m Aanya Sheth.

Aanya Sheth is a 7th grade student in San Mateo. She loves performing magic tricks for friends and family.

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