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Andrea Vale ’18

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Susan Zhu Student Contributor, University of Notre Dame
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ND Contributor Student Contributor, University of Notre Dame
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Notre Dame chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Name: Andrea Vale

Major: English with a Creative Writing Concentration

Dorm: Walsh Hall 

Hometown: Mansfield, Massachusetts 

Grad Year: 2018
 
 
You recently published a story with US Today, tell us about that!
I wrote about prude shaming, which is sort of the reverse side of slut shaming. It’s something that, unfortunately, I really felt the pressure of in high school. I think that it’s a lot more prevalent than people realize and isn’t talked about nearly as much as it should be. Writing the article was a really cool experience – I got to hear a lot of girls’ stories and really get personal with them.
 
When you start to feel that connection with the people you’re interviewing and have them open up to you, that’s when journalism starts to get a lot more eye-opening and grow beyond you. And after publishing it, I had a lot of girls reach out to me and tell me how much it meant to them, which was really rewarding. It felt good to write something that resonated with girls and that hadn’t been said before.
 
What do you do outside of class?
Write! I write for The Observer and The Scholastic at Notre Dame, as well as The Huffington Post and USA Today on my own time. Besides that I’m a long-distance runner, although not a very fast one.
 
Share a fun fact about yourself:
I was born without ears. That’s actually more of a creepy fact than a fun fact, but without that I’m not that interesting. (Disclaimer: they eventually grew in.)
 
What are you most looking forward to during Thanksgiving break?
Getting to see my friends from high school again, and to have Dunkin Donuts instead of Starbucks!
 
 
What was the last song you listened to?
“The Maker” by Dave Matthews. Such a jam, and the best concert I’ve ever been to.
 
If you had to choose only 3 of your favorite books, which ones would you choose? 
That’s a tough one…
I’d have to say: 
1. Walden by Henry David Thoreau – This one absolutely changed the way I live my life, and continues to today. This is totally nerdy, but I think it’d be so cool one day to get an advanced degree in literature and focus on Transcendentalism. 
2. Broken Glass by Arthur Miller – Arthur Miller is one of my all-time favorites, and I love his voice in writing. I also think that stage plays have a very distinct way of conveying emotion that’s very effective and really interesting to me.
3. The Giver by Lois Lowry – This book still gets to me just as much as it did in the fourth grade.
 
Thank you for sharing with us Andrea! We can’t wait to see you published in The New York Times. 
 
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Susan Zhu
Susan is a freshman at the University of Notre Dame studying mechanical engineering. You can usually find her eating ice cream despite her lactose intolerance and occasionally catch her acting as though her pH is greater than 7. She is excited for her midlife crisis because that is when she will be able to join the FBI, her lifelong dream. You can find her floating around in the Twitter realm and see her attempting to be artsy on Instagram, both at @agentsuezhu.
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Notre Dame