Obsessed

PAST

Neena often thinks of her birth as something far removed from her self. It is separate and has no tie to who she is, in her mind it is almost the same as being born from a surrogate or even an incubator. Neena’s birth mother gave birth to her at the tender age of 17 and quickly gave her up for adoption. Thankfully, a married couple who had just had the devastating news of no longer being able to have another child by birth were looking for the perfect final addition to their family. Mr. and Mrs. Dunn soon were linked to baby Neena in her Los Angeles orphanage and fate delivered them the perfect baby girl. The birth certificate may have said Neena Konar, but she’s never thought of that name as any importance to her - Dunn is her real name. Neena was taken home by the Dunns after all the paperwork was finished when she was only a few months old and to her, that was her real family. Growing up, Neena never looked at the Dunns as anything other than her real parents. They were the ones who wanted her when her own birth incubator did not. 

When Neena was still young, her father was still playing in his band and touring. Her father was a member of a popular rock band from the 80's and 90's often compared to Huey Lewis and the News, Bon Jovi, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Train and Weezer. There are many photos and videos of little baby Neena with her mother at his shows or in his arms for pap photos. And since her father retired when she was still in elementary school, she had something her older brother Noah never had, her father around for all of her childhood. Her parents doted on Neena while making sure to connect her with her culture. She attended classes and festivals and was raised to learn everything about her Indian background. While Neena appreciated that from her parents, she saw the Dunn’s culture as her own as well in addition. Both held meaning to her, and she never saw one above the other. She liked how it created a colorful tapestry for her background.  In 2009 when Neena was ten, her father fully retired from his band. For most of her childhood that she could remember he had slowly been doing less, his band was doing less tours, promoting the music less until they fully retired. By that point her brother was in college but her mother had wanted to raise Neena away from Los Angeles. She had grown up in a town called New Bellevoux in Louisiana before meeting her husband in college. Neena's mother had loved the town, and thought it was a better place to raise Neena than Los Angeles which she felt to be so fake. So the family moved to Louisiana while her brother stayed behind in L.A. to finish college. Her dad still did some reunion tours and appearances at events and on tv, but after the move he was pretty much entirely retired from the music scene.

Though Neena missed her friends and life in L.A. she grew to enjoy New Bellevoux. Neena was vivacious from a young age, and could often be described as dramatic and extra. Growing up, she was always the one to fill a room with her personality, and to be the center of attention. Neena tried almost every extracurricular activity she could and though she dropped a lot, she liked trying everything there was to offer. She took plenty of art classes, participated in theater in high school, was on the dance team, ran for student government and even was prom queen. Never one to fit into one box, Neena was popular, approachable and kind, but a wild child as well. She surely gave her parents many gray hairs as they struggled to raise her. Neena often snuck out of the Dunn house to attend parties, she was brought back drunk by the local cops, and even once got dared to steal a neighbor’s lawn mower and accidentally ended up with it in the lake in the person’s backyard drunk and laughing hysterically. Her parents tried to protect her as best they could with their connections, but she did face consequences with community service to keep her underage record clean. 

It was soon after her 18th birthday that Neena finally reached out to the orphanage to figure out who her birth mother was. She had often wondered who her birth mother was and what the circumstance of her adoption had been. But, she never had thought of the Dunns as anything but her real parents. Finding this woman would never replace them. Only fill out some questions she had. But, when she finally tracked down the woman, it only cemented how little this woman was even a birth mother, she’d been nothing but an incubator Neena was carried in. The woman had been shocked, and horrified to find Neena showing up. She’d been embarrassed and ashamed of her, scooting her away like she was some undesirable showing up on her doorstep to beg for her most prized position. Like she was a criminal. The woman had shooed Neena away, the big ring and big house of her family that had no idea about their mother’s teenage pregnancy. Eventually, Neena left in tears and swearing that the egg and sperm donators who created her were nothing but incubators who only served to get her to her real family - the Dunns. 

Eventually she did graduate high school and left to attend NYU in the fall. Neena majored in marketing and double minored to satisfy by her loves of art and history. She visited on some weekends, and was always glad to show her parents the city that had become her new home. She thrived, partying and living up to her glamorous and wild child reputation. Neena loved New York City and all the city had to offer, even when she got to see the underbelly this city still felt like a new home. After graduation, she got a marketing job over in Brooklyn and worked for almost a year before she figured out the 9-5 office job wasn’t for her. Even with the creative outlet of her job, she still felt stifled and boxed in. Was this really what she wanted for the next 80 years? Working day in and day out in the same cubicle, the same office, the same tasks that she just got to do all over again with a different project each week? She felt like she was drowning and quit after only six months. Neena stayed in New York since she wanted to, even without a job she knew her parents would support her while she figured out the next step. She did random things around the city, getting into minor modeling for a little while using her name and looks. She also invested in a friend's bar for a while too. And during this time she had continued to focus on her pet project, a true crime podcast.

While in college, Neena had started a true crime podcast just out of a fun hobby. It had done well, and during her time in her marketing job, she grew her following and started to market merch as well as a few paid episodes and even paid sponsorship. It was there during this period when she really started to focus on it that she realized she could make this her full time job and support herself. Starting off with a converted closet in her apartment, Neena started to record there before she eventually earned enough money to but a small studio herself in the city. With a job like this, she realized she could go wherever she wanted and Neena had been thinking of where she wanted to move next when the worst thing happened. 

Her mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago in the summer of 2022. When the news first broke, Neena wanted to leave New York City and come home. But her parents told her it was fine. Her mom was going to fight it, and for a while she was doing good fighting it. Neena traveled home a lot, she saw her brother as well whenever he visited New Bellevoux. She was with her mom for appointments and chemo treatments. But she still stayed in New York because her parents told her it'd be okay. But then a year ago, her mother took a turn for the worse. Dropping everything Neena moved back to New Bellevoux to be closer to her mom. For six months her health deteriorated and Neena was by her side almost every day. And then the worse thing happened six months ago in January 2024. Her mother lost to the cancer and died.

PRESENT

Moving back to New York didn't feel right, not when she had just lost her mother. And she could do her podcast anywhere, and since it had gotten pretty popular by this time she knew she didn't want to drop it. So Neena decided to stay in New Bellevoux for a bit before she figured out what she wanted to do next. She got a condo downtown and still runs her podcast, True Crime and Chill. Her brother moved back around the same time she did, and now both siblings are there to support their family and each other.