When I first joined the Her Campus team at Western University, I was undoubtedly overwhelmed with school and found myself unable to actively participate in anything. Thankfully, after a semester of silence, the team continued to believe in me and gave me a second chance to write for them in January 2018. After being hazed and treated poorly by the sorority I had joined in first semester, I felt as though my life was lacking in strong and empowering female role models to look up to. Luckily, I found an entire community of them by writing for Her Campus Western.
While I have always loved to write, in school I often found myself either too busy to find the time or too constrained by specified topics. However, Her Campus gave me the opportunity to find my own voice by allowing me to write about the topics I wished to cover in a relatively laid-back setting. After my first article about my sorority story went viral within four hours, I realized my words could actually reach out to an audience larger than I’d ever dreamed of. Suddenly, I began writing articles around the clock, using them as an excuse to procrastinate my assignments. I was given a platform in which my voice and my opinion mattered. I wrote about taboo topics such as porn, taking nudes, and BDSM while also covering sensitive topics such as my estranged mother-daughter relationship, the lack of meaningful friendships in university and overcoming an eating disorder.
As the months went on and people reached out to me about my articles, it humbled me that my voice was finally being recognized and that it was affecting so many people. I have also come to realize that I am not as alone as I originally thought in much of my life battle. I often pour a lot of myself into my articles meaning that the majority of what I write it is entirely honest and reveals true, raw emotions and feelings that have otherwise been kept secret up until this point. Without Her Campus, I wonder who—if anyone—I would have told.
In addition to giving me the opportunity to find my voice, Her Campus quickly became my community. With over 70 women writers in our chapter, I was suddenly surrounded by an abundance of successful, empowering women who did nothing but build each other up. Despite not knowing me at first, they have all welcomed me in warmly and are consistently there to lend a hand or hug when needed. While clubs in university can be underwhelming to say the least, Her Campus exceeded my expectations entirely. Through everything, from the events to the monthly meetings, regardless of whether you were just a regular writer, an executive editor or the president herself, there was never a moment in which I felt unequal to anyone else in the room.
In the last four months of writing for Her Campus Western, I have never felt more proud to be a woman. I have come to personally see just how powerful my generation of girls are, as well as, how we have and will continue to impact society in the future. Not only are we strong, intelligent, witty, kind-hearted souls, we’re also kick-ass writers who refuse to have our voices taken from us.
Writing for Her Campus Western has undoubtedly been the best part of my school year, and as my final exam comes to a close, I can truly state that I am counting down the days until September when my favourite girl gang gets back together.
Cheers to an amazing summer! I’ll see you all back here in the fall!
If you or someone you know are looking for more information on our chapter or are interested in writing for Her Campus Western in the fall, please do not hesitate to email us at western@hercampus.com!
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