Latanna Beckstead

[Cicada]

Name: Latanna Beckstead
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: Cochise High School
Hobbies and Interests: Choir, Mormon teachings and scripture, community service and outreach, conservative and libertarian politics, political volunteering, public speaking, learning languages.

Appearance: A pale Caucasian girl who stands at 5'6". She has a slight hourglass figure with a sizable bust. She weighs 143 lb. She is inclined to hold a bit of excess weight on the gut while the rest of her figure remains fairly svelte. Her shoulders are bony. Her legs are a proportionally slightly short, giving her a stocky silhouette. She is very strict about maintaining no body or facial hair with regular professional waxing.

She has a heart shaped face, sculpted by strongly defined cheekbones. She wears her shoulder-length hair clear of her face and either straight-ironed or drawn into a simple ponytail. Her hair is a dirty blonde. Her eyes are technically hazel, but she usually refers to them in casual conversation as brown. This is how they tend to appear to the casual observer not looking for the streaks of blue and green also present in her iris. Her nose is defined, with a boxy bridge and angular tip. Her lips are small but posses a prominent cupid's bow. She uses makeup skillfully, primarily to even blemishes and wear a professional 'natural' look.

She mostly wears casual, conservatively feminine clothing. She enjoys the Kingman climate as it allows her plenty of leeway in wearing sundresses and blouses with ruffles and collars. In consideration of the clime she usually aims to wear breathable clothing, though she's hesitant to expose skin beyond the elbows and knees. When the situation calls for it she will wear feminine suits, always with skirt pieces.

Biography: Latanna was the second child born to Josephine and Benson Beckstead, of six. The Becksteads are a fairly ancient Mormon clan based in Salt Lake City Utah. They run a conglomerate of of local businesses and many family members have prestige as doctors and politicians. A number of the companies operate at the state level, including the one managed by Latanna's immediate family. Benson was entrusted as general manager of the Arizona branch of Beckstead Shipping Ltd. which deals with cheap distribution and logistics for small businesses.  The family thus moved to Kingman shortly before their first child was born. Benson has a good paycheck, and the family has maintained a relative status of wealth and luxury even with six mouths to feed.

Latanna was spoiled from a young age. Josephine worked few hours as a substitute teacher and was a permissive mother with her time. Benson hired a number of additional personnel to handle the business so his workweek could be shorter and he could be around the house. Both parents strove to be generous with their time and poured love and attention into each child as they grew, as best as they could. Latanna was rarely jealous of her siblings. Most of them were younger she'd aid in their rearing and she considered herself a role model. The family has always been tightly knit and stable. Incidents of family drama were few, limited in scope.

She was an average child, curious and inquisitive. She was easily molded into holding strong Mormon values that would hold sway over her life's philosophies. She dutifully studied scripture and learned of God's love and its place in her life. Good, to her, became equated with religiousness and faithfulness. Thus Mormon passages and scripture became the bedrock of the moral values she holds dear today. Church also introduced her to singing. Latanna was captivated by the beauty of choirs. Her parents soon discovered she had a relatively melodious voice. They encouraged her to sing hymns and went so far as to enroll her in weekly voice lessons in Las Vegas, which they drove her to. She entertained dreams of entering the Temple choir someday.

Latanna was a good student both in Sunday school and when she started public schooling.Her parents considered moving the family to back to Utah to pursue private, religious schooling. They were reluctant to leave the business, however. Latanna and her siblings were also already very deeply rooted in their local social lives. Latanna had plenty of friends and playmates. There would be the occasional spat of youthful drama due to Latanna's moneyed nature drawing jealousy, but Latanna was inherently strong willed. She was precociously mature for her age, and quickly understood how to win arguments with her peers. In the end, with more children on the way, Latanna's parents decided to remain in Kingman. Benson worried that his children's futures would be limited, however. Latanna took her father's concerns to heart, quietly nursing lofty ambitions of making him proud.

Every summer from the age of six Latanna's family spends Benson's vacation weeks traveling. Instead of taking a family vacation in the strictest sense they perform acts of charity. Latanna has visited multiple states and developed a strong patriotic sense due to these positive experiences. Her family's inclusiveness in their acts of outreach: building homes, teaching skills, and fundraising, introduced her to a multitude of other cultures. She was exposed to Hispanic and Native American communities, and she developed a strong moral compunction to be active on behalf of these impoverished environments that shocked and appalled her youthful mind. She developed an interest in other languages at the time. Her social nature made her seek to be able to communicate with others, even those who did not easily speak her native English. She requested a language tutor in Spanish, the most readily available back in Kingman. She was considered conversationally fluent in Spanish by her sophomore year in high school, and she eagerly applies the skill whenever she can. She currently studies French and intends to continue learning after she graduates.

One of the important milestones in her life to date occurred when she entered middle school. She became a formal member of the LDS parish and she almost immediately set to work on strengthening her bonds within the community. She was a darling child, beloved by many fellow Mormons for her charm and intellect. Even as a youth she was already proposing and suggesting community programs and functions. With the gentle guidance of her parents and her other elders within the community, she began to make a name for herself as a caring, involved young woman. She developed an eye for planning by observing the world of the adults she respected, especially her father's capacity for business. She reasoned that the best way to convince people of a position is to speak with conviction of voice, something that appealed to her naturally social self. She already endeavored to speak to crowds, either small or entire parishes' worth by volunteering to deliver gospels and news.

She entered Cochise in 2011, puberty having done her fairly well in terms of beauty, especially with investment into quality beauty products and care. Her religious convictions stood relatively firm. She could excuse herself partying from time to time in the pursuit of social acumen, but she contentiously avoided drugs and casual relationships. She only dates carefully, and is the sort who will seek out the permission of her parents with details of the boy who has caught her eye. She's also fairly traditionalist, and refuses to be the one to ask directly. She has little free time with her self-imposed schedule.  She works very hard on both her circular and extracurricular endeavors, and nowadays she usually sees friends day to day only when studying or volunteering with them. When she does have free time she prefers spa dates and trips to Vegas with family and friends over local partying.

In school she reached a point where she had to study hard to make up for her deficit of natural talent. She decided by Freshman year that she wanted to go to a prestigious college, to make a difference by entering the world of politics. Latanna began to reach out to the rest of her extended family for the necessary connections to smooth out the process. A few of the family had attended Ivy League schools, and offered her advice. She joined AP classes in high school, studying hard with the hours she could spare. She was known for organizing study groups effectively, and also became a member of academically oriented clubs. Latanna participated in Academic Decathlon as Honors division her sophomore and junior years. Cochise only barely made it to state and she's hardly the star of the team, but she enjoys the challenge despite the lack of results. Latanna has a higher than 4.0 GPA due to A's in AP classes. Though she suffers physical stress and frequent exhaustion due to inadequate sleep she honestly enjoys everything she does due to her ambitious and active outlook.

Outside of school she's started volunteering in politics. The first campaign she was actively on the ground for was Romney's 2012 presidential run. She enlightens herself on politics as best she could, she eschews teen fiction in favor of political biographies and economic studies. She regularly picks her father's brains about business, and she's visited the offices of her extended family who have political office back in Utah. She had an internship in the Mojave County governance in her junior year. The summer following her graduation her family has pulled strings for her to be an intern in the offices of Utah's state government. She was infamous in Cochise's debate class for the one year she could fit it into her schedule, for being a fairly eloquent speech maker due to her natural love of public speaking.

Her views are solidly conservative, influenced by the nature of her Mormon beliefs both socially and fiscally, and she makes her opinions on the matter clear. She firmly believes in practicality and bipartisanship where possible. To her peers her actions often speak on her own behalf, in the campaign efforts she involved herself with on the school during the 2012 and 2014 elections. She makes no effort to hide her stances: pro-life, anti-gay marriage, pro-small government, and pro-business among other clear positions. She will accept genuine debate on these issues, but she pulls no punches and is controversial for it.

She is always willing to make an acquaintance for political purposes and is friendly and charming on this count, but she is truly only comfortable with a close friend if they share her beliefs. She's not above using her money to win alliances, and is quite generous with spa dates and the like to win an attentive ear.

She's run for student council every year since her freshman year, and has generally made a position of some sort, even if her overall polarizing nature bars her from the highest positions. She's known for extensive outreach on the anti-bullying committee and actively promoting the diverting of fundraiser funds towards academic interests to her peers in council. She has strong school spirit and makes a big deal of attending at least important school events, even if she has to study while there.

When her voice settled following puberty she joined her Temple choir, and also engages in the school's choir. Her voice remains fairly beautiful and well trained, though she'll admit she's no natural star talent. However she enjoys the choir, and it's one of her few engagements that isn't so serious.

Her rigorous planning has served her well. She hasn't been able to quite make her dreams of Ivy Leagues affordable, but she's more than satisfied with a full ride scholarship to Brigham Young with it's extensive list of impressive alumni including presidential cabinet members, senators, and businessmen. She'll also have members of extended family to rely on, as she's not quite ready to be completely separate from family. She's fairly poor at taking care of herself due to her spoiled nature and she lacks basic homemaking skills. She's started preparing herself for the emotional burden of sorely missing her immediate family. Overall her younger siblings all look up to her and she in turn looks up to her older siblings, who she still looks to for advice even when they've left state to attend colleges. Though she's too busy to be thoroughly involved in their lives she maintains cherished bonds over the dinner table and helps with homework and personal life advice. She continues to deeply respect her parents and always defer to their advice.

Advantages: She's a trained speaker and is naturally charismatic, so she'll likely be able to make herself and her plans heard in an emergency situation and keep encounters civil and diplomatic. She has a strong moral core and relative maturity, both of which will likely help her maintain stability despite the harrowing nature of the island. She's naturally calculating and capable of split second cost-benefit decisions.
Disadvantages: She is a very polarizing figure in the school due to her nature and loud assured nature of her convictions, along with a propensity to attract attention, and for better or for worse students will likely know who she is and where they stand on her. She's lived a spoiled life of money and has never had to really face situations that are physically demanding, she will lack the endurance to properly handle many of the situations that could occur to her, and will suffer detrimentally for it.