Need a mood boost? Read our most uplifting stories from 2023
Good news — it’s there when we take the time to look for it. In all that 2023 brought us, what continues to glimmer are stories of Angelenos overcoming odds, pulling off inventive acts of generosity and finding connection in unexpected places. Read some of our favorite examples of just that.
During the Holocaust, a Ukrainian family hid a girl from the Nazis. Decades later, with Ukraine at war, her son and a community of strangers repay the kindness.
The Puente Hills Mall, featured in ‘Back to the Future,’ is mostly dead. Santa is there to bring joy.
Black Santas are local heroes, spreading joy and love to children and families at a bustling mall during the Christmas season.
During the pandemic, Rachel Nafis worked as an ER nurse. Burned out, she turned to flower farming and learned that being a florist is about more than just flowers.
As El Segundo wins with a walk-off home run, hundreds of fans in the Southern California city celebrate the Little League team’s victory.
Jacob Rock has profound non-oral autism. But thanks to text-to-voice software and a music-loving dad, Rock transposed the sounds in his head to the concert stage.
After 82 years of marriage, Carla and Jack Weingarten are somewhat of an L.A. anomaly. Here’s their secret to having a long and happy life together.
In a warehouse in the heart of Los Angeles, a dwindling handful of devoted craftspeople maintain more than 80,000 student musical instruments, the largest remaining workshop in America of its kind.
A self-taught architect started building a round barn after his wife died. Its beauty draws strangers off the highway in Oklahoma.
Jarad Nava, sentenced to 162 years in prison for a crime he committed when he was 17, has a second chance in life and is now working for an influential committee of the California Senate.
When she moved to Los Angeles, Monica Figueroa launched L.A. Girls Who Walk for women finding it hard to make friends and find healthy ways to hang out.
Skiing within the City of Los Angeles? That’s what five friends accomplished Sunday when they descended the slopes of the city’s tallest mountain.
After experiencing a series of tumultuous events, Bianka Gravillis created Tea Party 4 Black Girls to provide a space for Black women to talk and connect.
The Garibaldina Society is the oldest Italian club in Los Angeles. Younger members are giving it a new life — and you don’t have to be Italian to join.
Santa Cruz’s sea otter, 841, has given birth to a wee pup — suggesting that her erratic behavior could have been hormonally driven.
Jana Johnson rebuilt her shattered life by thinking differently and nursing the nearly extinct Palos Verdes blue butterfly back from the brink.
In a densely populated Watts neighborhood desperately lacking green space, a Los Angeles garden is designed to facilitate healing and honor loved ones lost to violence.
Amelia Air’s volunteer pilots fly unwanted dogs from kill shelters in rural areas to urban rescue centers, where they have better chances of finding forever homes.
Bestselling author Luis Alberto Urrea joins the L.A. Times Book Club to discuss ‘Good Night, Irene,’ a novel inspired by his mother’s WWII service.
A graduation ceremony at the state prison in Lancaster was held for 20 men who have been trained as alcohol and drug counselors.
Chad and Stacie Vanags’ backyard cutting garden has become a healing sanctuary for the couple and others, following Chad’s Stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis.
Young Latino creatives are letting go of traditional gender norms — and forging their identities in new and freeing ways.
Daniel Dooreck’s fascination with motorcycles, flash tattoos and cowboys comes alive in the hand-thrown vessels he creates in his tiny Echo Park garage.
A former gang member who left his criminal past behind, Richard Cabral has found success in Hollywood. His next move? A coffee shop in Pasadena.
Eris Nezha and Petra Conti fell in love after long nights rehearsing in Italy. Now the married couple embark on a journey as artistic directors of a new ballet company in L.A.
Melinda Sullivan, a tap dancer, and Larry Goldings, a pianist, improvise eclectic music together and bust out musical theater classics, which has amassed them a dedicated fan club.
After her experience with generalized anxiety disorder, entrepreneur Rosa Valdes is working to normalize mental health awareness among Latinos.
Julie Jackson’s use of reclaimed wood reinforces her commitment to creating sustainable home goods that tread lightly on the environment.
Language and culture are intertwined, and many Latino Americans are seeking to learn or improve their Spanish to form deeper connections with family and their own identities.
Chef Chris Bianco’s father in 1970 painted a portrait of a well-to-do Manhattan woman. It vanished. What happened to it?
Milan Alex Rafaelov, Trans Joy Fest’s founder, says gender-affirming products for cisgender people are easily accessible in retailers like Costco. So why aren’t binders, nipple guards and TransTape?
Soraya Yousefi’s art career started by accident, but she’s found her stride making whimsical bowls and cups in her Northridge home studio.
‘People laughed at me for being fat, and I would just laugh along.’ Now she’s getting ready to perform in one of L.A.’s hottest strip revues.
Marissa Engoy of Good Morning, Cactus began posting photos of her plant arrangements on social media and found herself immersed in the online plant community.
Want to have a ‘cakebarring’ adventure like the characters in Prime Video’s ‘Sitting in Bars With Cake’? Here are the L.A. bars you should check out.
The Southern California Wildlife Confiscations Network aims to simplify the placement of confiscated, trafficked animals, allowing federal authorities to focus on investigations.
Western monarch populations have rebounded since their calamitous drop in 2020 but are still far below historic norms. Are native milkweed giveaways helping?
Being Asian American and LGBTQ+ can feel lonely, with institutions such as ethnic churches often disavowing non-heterosexual relationships while traditional LGBTQ+ spaces such as gay bars can be unwelcoming.
Inspired by her career in automotive engineering, L.A. ceramist Becki Chernoff throws ceramic dinnerware that is clean-lined like the cars she loves.
