Her Campus offers the opportunity for bold college females to speak their mind and relate to millions of other girls in the same place as all of us. While an individual can get to know our writer through their pieces, sometimes there are questions that go unanswered. I spoke with one of our HerCampus writers, Caroline Trussell, to get to know her college life, future dreams, and passions for writing.
1. Tell me about yourself!
Hello, I’m Caroline! I am a junior majoring in Writing and Rhetoric and Minoring in Mass Communication and Magazine Journalism. In my time outside of school, I work at the University Writing Center, write for three online magazines, am a student editor for Stylus Magazine and am a member of the Gamma Phi Beta Sorority, which helps in building strong girls. I’m very passionate about writing and school and I work really hard in both areas. I love food, traveling, and hanging out with my friends.
2. When in your life did you notice you had a passion for writing?
Writing has always kind of run in my family. My great grandpa won the Pulitzer Prize and my grandpa is a freelance novelist. I discovered my own passion in my second grade class, when I had to write stories that went along with our vocabulary words. I would find out that I wrote a lot more than my classmates, and my teacher even asked me to publish one in our school newspaper!
3. What events in your life have helped you grow as a writer?
I believe through taking upper level courses such as Professional Editing and Research Writing and Literacy, I have been able to improve upon my writing and literacy skills. As far as life events outside of school, I would say probably the impact of people on my character, such as my late Grandma. She really inspired me to be a better person and just care for others. I wrote a children’s story about her which I hope to publish someday.
4. Do you consider writing to be an art form?
Yes of course! It actually makes me angry when people try to defend that it’s not. I think anything that includes emotion, is expressive, and includes hard work is art, especially writing. Writing involves using your knowledge, emotions, and skill sets to create a piece that is personal to your own character and experiences.
5. What do you like to write about?
I love writing in general, but I think my favorite genres to write within would be Journalism, Poetry or Young Adult. I’m actually working on a Young Adult novel right now (in the works for two years) and really hope to pitch it to some publishing companies. As far as journalism, I love writing for HerCampus, and hope to write for an online magazine once I graduate, writing fun articles for Buzzfeed or Cosmopolitan!
Caroline is a passionate writer for our chapter of Her Campus here at UCF, and allows us to see the college experience through a different perspective. Thank you for all that you do, Caroline!
-All images provided by interviewee.