The holidays have always been about connection. Sometimes, that means bonding through the stuff we’ve loved for years: decorating the trees, lighting the menorahs, and building gingerbread houses that turn out embarrassingly bad but still cute.

Our cover star, Brooke Johnson, proves that it’s also about our connections to ourselves by skateboarding across the US, making friends with strangers, and learning to trust her own two feet.

The balance of the two is exactly what this Sunnie Issues is all about: keeping our oldies-but-goodies close, making friends when we least expect it, and getting to know ourselves as we go.

THE LINE UP