Content Warning: This section discusses sexual harassment.

Anna Hunt, an eighth grader at East Middle School, submits her assignment on social issues to her teacher, Ms. O’Dell. In her note, she apologizes for turning in her “un-essay” late and thanks her teacher for marking it “incomplete” rather than failing her. Her research on what happened to Rachel Riley, a popular girl turned social outcast, is in her notebook, along with a collection of items, which include “an old iPhone with recorded interviews, a gift certificate for Lee’s Dairy Emporium, a purple lighter, a stapled packet of text message transcripts, and a pack of hallway passes” (2).

An assignment brief details “The Un-Essay” for Ms. O’Dell’s social issues class. It is a semester-long project on any social issue topic of the student’s choosing, which can be in any format except an essay.

In a voice recording on September 8 for the social issues class, Anna introduces herself and her family. She is 12 years old and is young for eighth grade because she started kindergarten early. She just moved to Madison, Wisconsin, from Chicago. Her parents are lawyers, and her mother is going to teach at the University of Wisconsin Law School.