ITALY. June 15 th 2021. Fara Gerda d'Aadda (BERGAMO). In June 2021, Anna, 14, plays guitar in her room after her final school exams. "Before the pandemic, I was taking music courses. Then with the lockdown, the school has closed forever. The chords of the guitar broke and the shop were also closed. So I stopped. It's been more than one year now but I'm slowly getting back the rhythm"

COVID-19 halted Anna’s teenage passions. She loved Taekwondo, but she stopped practicing during lockdown. Anna was also taking guitar and music lessons, but when the strings of her guitar broke, she couldn't replace them, as the local music shop was closed. She only started playing again once her 2021 school exams were finished.

“I now think that COVID-19 has left a very profound change in the way I live,” Anna says. “It did not help me to find a way to express emotions. I now fear physical contact, and I'm conscious that my reactions to the world have very much changed. I lost trust…but maybe this is not because of COVID-19. It is now difficult for me to open myself to the world. Before, I was different.”