2020 was a YEAR. VICE News Reports handed over the mic to 17-year-old Monaea Upton in North Minneapolis. Using the audio diary of her senior year of high school — during online learning, the aftermath of the George Floyd protests in her hometown, and a spike in neighborhood gun violence — together we made an intimate, first-person look at a turbulent moment in our country’s history through the microphone of a young Black woman. 

As journalists and storytellers we have all worked hard to document this unprecedented time. With this piece we sought to get out of the way as much as possible to hear the lived experience as it was unfolding. This is Monaea’s year in her own words. — The producers