In the final days of the year 2007, a young girl named Alexis Menjivar penned an essay beginning with the fateful line "My daddy died this year in Iraq." The essay was soon selected as the winner of a contest sponsored by Club Libby Lu, a store that specializes in pink fabric and makeovers for babies. Six-year-old Alexis was awarded four tickets to a sold-out Hannah Montana concert, round-trip airfare, and a makeover.
In case you didn’t read the headline, it turns out the essay was fake. Actually, the essay was real, made up of real essay molecules. But its story, in which a man named Sgt. Jonathon Menjivar died in a roadside bombing on April 17, was not true. The Department of Defense (whichever division thereof is in charge of fact-checking Hannah Montana contest essays) has no record of any such man dying on the aforementioned date. Club Libby Lu, presumably having hired Harriet the spy, got to the bottom of this mystery immediately, and quickly stripped the girl of her prize and happiest memory to date.
The girl’s mother, Priscilla Ceballos, soon explained that she had prompted her daughter to fictionalize her father’s death, defending her actions by saying, “It was just an essay. We do essays all the time. You know, my daughter does essays at school all the time. I never lied and said that the essay was a true story.” Some would question the validity of this defense, but it certainly explains Alexis’ recent essay on penguins for science class (“The chinstrap penguin died this year in Iraq.”).
This story has been covered by the Associated Press, BBC, and countless local news outlets across America, but every story neglects to mention three key issues: The first is whether or not Alexis Menjivar’s essay actually violated the terms of the contest (was there a rule stating that the essay had to be true?). The second is whether or not Alexis Menjivar has a father named Sgt. Jonathon Menjivar, and if he is in Iraq, or if he perhaps even died on a different day. The third is that “Hannah Montana” herself is actually a character in a television program, whose exploits are entirely fabricated and whose father ought to be dead.
So to recap: growing up without a father in your life due to a grossly unjust war is not enough of a reason to get tickets to a concert for a fictional pop star and a free blonde wig.
Hannah Montana tourdates:
Hannah Montana takes February off in protest of Black History Month.