Are you maskfishing ?

Tanushri Sundaram, 17, thinks everyone at her school is a bit of a “mask fisher.”


“When you have a mask on, you only get to see the forehead, the eyes, and when you’re only seeing that, you just kind of have an image in your head of what someone’s supposed to look like,” she said. “So when you take that mask off, it’s like a new person you’re looking at. It’s always going to be something you don’t expect.”

Throughout the pandemic, face masks had become reliable shields for Tanushri and her classmates in New York City. In addition to protecting against the spread of Covid-19, they had obscured all kinds of transformations teenagers may feel inclined to hide: braces, pimples, acne scars, the first growths of facial hair.

Now that the city has ended its mask mandate for public schools, students are dealing with old anxieties about appearance and the pressure to fit in. And as they get a closer look at each other’s faces, they’re finding out who among them has been mask fishing — in other words, using facial coverings to cover up what they really look like.