Introducing the Former Graphic Designer Turned Pro Celeb Blogger

I was dragged into writing kicking and screaming, fighting it the whole way down to the registrar’s office. Okay, well, not literally. But I definitely did not think in a million years that I would be staring down the gaping black hole of my senior year with this crazy idea that I was going to make a living off of writing words, and maybe somebody would be nice enough to pay me for it.

It didn’t start out that way though. In elementary school I was the queen of Accelerated Reader. (Anyone else remember that program?) I actually just cashed in two savings bonds that I won through the AR rewards system in 3rd and 5th grade in order to pay for my Metrocard this month. Thanks, little self!

In 4th grade I wrote a 20-page fiction piece on the Iditarod that left my English teacher speechless. The next year, my parents bought me this book for Christmas called So, You Wanna Be A Writer? and I was like YES.

But then something went weird. In high school I had that quintessential teacher—you know, the one who will leave an impact on you for the rest of your life. She was my English teacher and the advisor for the high school yearbook, which I reigned over during my senior year. She encouraged me, challenged me, and told me that writing was worth pursuing. But it seemed like the more papers I wrote, the more A’s that I got, the higher the pressure was to be some kind of brilliant writing machine.