My favorite thing about my job is talking to strangers.
It wasn’t always like this. As a baby journalist, I nearly quit after covering an animal-rights protest — walking up to people on the street with my notebook in hand was a nightmare of social anxiety.
But over time, I learned how to prepare better, how to shrug off rejection, and how to try again. The more I talked — to scientists, teachers, nail salon workers, grocery-store cashiers, activists, and countless parents and kids — the more I realized that being a journalist confers an enormous privilege. If I have a question, whether it’s about the nuances of AI policy or a capybara diary at the Scholastic Book Fair, I’m allowed to just call someone up and ask. Often, the answer is way more complicated and interesting than I could have imagined, and generates a whole list of new questions for me to investigate.
I started my career covering reproductive health and abortion politics, but I’ve always ranged widely. Over my nine years at Vox, my beat has evolved to include all aspects of family life in America, from childbirth to elder care. I write a newsletter called Kids Today about the experiences of children and teens in our rapidly changing world. I’m also a novelist, and when my latest novel, Bog Queen, came out, I got to write a story on how peat bogs can fight climate change.
Across all my work, my favorite stories are the ones that let me talk to people about how larger trends and issues affect their daily lives, like this one on teens using ChatGPT for relationship advice, or this one on Gen Z men’s attitudes toward parenthood.
Many years after I started out, I still feel so lucky to be able to learn from people about their joys, struggles, fears, and hopes, and to share that knowledge with readers. I couldn’t do this work without the support of Vox Members, and I’m so grateful to all of you for joining me on this journey. I hope that as we learn more about each other’s lives, we can all feel a little less alone.
