Name: Aubrey Burrough
Year: Junior
Hometown: Melbourne, FL
Major: English (Editing, Writing & Media)
Relationship Status: Single
Her Campus (HC): What did you consider when picking your major?
Aubrey Burrough (AB): I actually applied to FSU as an Editing, Writing and Media major before I even knew what it was. I just saw it on the list of possible majors and in a total Raven voice was like “yep, that’s me!” Turns out it was actually perfect for me and I never switched it.
HC: Did you have any other majors in mind?
AB: I knew I wanted to major in something English-related. Literature would have been cool, but I basically turn illiterate in a stubborn way every time there’s reading assigned in class and never will do it so that wouldn’t have worked. Creative writing was another option that I almost did, but it just didn’t feel as right as EWM.
HC: What do you want as far as a career?
AB: I want to write comedy in whatever form that may be. My biggest life goal would be to create my own TV comedy, but obviously I’d be elated to get a position writing for any show. I do standup now and I’d like to see where that could take me as far as writing positions and other opportunities in comedy.
HC: How did you come up with the Eggplant?
AB: Houston Barber and I had been talking for a long time about starting up an Onion-y publication at FSU because we didn’t have anything like it. College satire is really big in the north and in California, but in the south there’s essentially no schools with publications like the Eggplant. We took inspiration from other sites, but also made it our own.
HC: How do you come up with ideas for articles?
AB: Usually when I come up with an idea I’ll be walking around campus observing stuff that either makes me laugh or annoys me. For example, I noticed that when I was crossing the road with other pedestrians at the stadium, everybody always seems afraid to j-walk until one person goes and then the entire group is like, “oh okay we’re going now I will follow you until the end!” This made me laugh every time it happened and it eventually became the article, “Assumed Leader of Pedestrians Leads Directly into Oncoming Traffic.”
HC: Is it difficult to write satirical articles?
AB: It can be. Sometimes an article just comes to me and I write it in like 30 minutes and I’m in love with the concept. Other times I’ll get pretty bad writer’s block and stare at a blank word document for an hour before I decide maybe it’s not the best idea.
HC: Did FSU have any issues with the Eggplant being “the real source of FSU news?”
AB: FSU has actually never contacted us about it, but the official FSU account recently followed us on Twitter so I’d like to think they’re fans. Or maybe they’re just watching us.
HC: Are you ever contacted by anyone voicing complaints over the articles posted?
AB: Occasionally we’ll have somebody e-mail us a complaint. This is typically after we wrote an article about something they’re involved in or if they personally took offense to something for another reason. But for the most part organizations are really happy when we do articles about them and even tend to share them on their social media.