#5SmartReads - August 24, 2021

Qudsiya on Gossip Girl, authors, and disabled character representation

Today’s regular guest contributor is Qudsiya! Learn the unique history of her name below! Check out her podcast and more here.

Q: Name pronunciation + any back story?

A: My name is pronounced “could-see-ya,” with the emphasis on the first syllable. The word “al-Quds” in Arabic means Jerusalem. I have yet to travel to my namesake city, but it’s definitely on my bucket list. My father used a family tradition to name me—when I was born, one of my aunts opened a copy of the Quran to a random page, and selected the seventh letter of the seventh line, and that’s how my parents decided on the name.

How Gossip Girl Broke The Fantasy Of Being The World’s Most Special Girl (Vox)

Maybe it’s because I’m getting on in years or experiencing nostalgia for the past over this last tumultuous year, but I’ve been doing a lot of looking back to the pop culture I consumed in the late ‘90s and early 2000s and boy, have I been getting a fresh take on things I used to love.

This revisiting of Gossip Girl is a pe…