Name: Tatiana Pérez ’16
Major: English
Hometown: New York City
You’ve been writing for New York Natives for some time. Could you tell us a bit about the site and how you became involved?
I’ve got to give Briar McQuilkin a major shout out for this — I owe my involvement in New York Natives to her. When we were looking for summer jobs during freshman year, she suggested that I apply for an editorial internship she’d seen advertised by a fellow Chapin alum, Laura Hill, who was looking for young grads to write for this cool new start-up media production company/blog thing she’d co-founded. I didn’t know much about the site when I applied — all I knew was that the content was produced exclusively by born and raised New Yorkers (a criteria that has since changed) seeking to communicate their New Yorkness to the Internet. I rep my hometown hard, so I was like, alright, perfect! It seemed like a sweet gig, and it was. Evidently, I got the job — woo! I interned there all summer, and they ended up hiring me to continue writing my column, Campus Chronicles. I’ve contributed bimonthly to the site pretty consistently ever since (so, for a good two years now).
A lot of your stories tackle issues that you are personally affected by, such as your piece on Aderall and the tendency of students to use it as self-medication for a variety of afflictions other than that of ADHD. Do you ever feel nervous about writing these somewhat personal stories? What draws you to them?
Sure, I always feel nervous. Writing a story about *you* — whether it’s about that weird, funny hookup from a few weeks back or about something a little more serious, like an addiction or that time someone called you “dirty and brown” on Yik Yak — is always going to be nerve-wracking. I never feel more vulnerable and self-conscious than in the few moments after I share one of my pieces on Facebook. Will they like it? Will they think I’m bad writer? Will they laugh? Will they relate? Will they hate me? But, at the end of the day, I’ve always been down to make my work highly anecdotal and centered around either my own experiences or those of my close friends (with their permission and enthusiasm, of course), which is often scary and awkward. I’m confident in my writing, and I live for positive responses that I get. I’ve found that a lot of people — mostly young women — relate to my work, and to me, there’s quite literally nothing better than that. There’s nothing better than feeling like I’ve put into words what someone else has been thinking about or struggling with and, then, feeling like I’ve helped them a little — like I’ve created some kind of community — as a result. There’s nothing better than getting a random Facebook message from someone you barely know (or don’t know at all) who wants to thank you for writing what you wrote. To thank you — seriously! It’s crazy — like, thank you for reading, dude. So, yeah, my immediate relationships with my readers have been pretty consistently thrilling and, ultimately, very therapeutic for me. And, to be honest, I think I’m a bit of a narcissist. Seeing “likes” roll in on my posts gets me high. Shares are even better. I want to be low-key famous. I want people to read what I write. That means fucking my nerves and making like Mark Twain: writing what I know.
Besides New York Natives, have you written for other publications?
Kind of. I’ve had a bunch of my work for New York Natives republished by Thought Catalog, and last spring, I wrote my first (and only) original piece for them, which turned out to be totally exciting because it got shared something like 3,000 times on Facebook. I had friends at other schools blowing up my phone with screenshots accompanied by, like, “holy shit, look, this girl I don’t even know shared your piece!!!” A middle school biology teacher I hadn’t seen in years shared it and tagged me in her status on Facebook. It was awesome. And now I’m going to be working at Thought Catalog this summer — they hired me right before spring break to be their first intern! I’m completely stoked and also terrified because, apparently, they’re going to have me writing two or three posts per day. We shall definitely see how that goes…
How does the work you do with New York Natives and Thought Catalog relate to your studies at Williams? Does it?
Absolutely, my writing relates to my studies at Williams. I’ve pretty much always known that writing was my “thing,” so I came to Williams fairly confident that I’d be an English major and ready to cultivate my writing skills for my future career. But beyond the English stuff, I’ve taken a bunch of classes that have influenced a lot of my content. I have to give another shout out, this time to Candis Smith, for teaching me most of what I know about race (and my own racialized identity) back when I took a class on comparative racial and ethnic politics with her in my sophomore fall. She’s an incredible professor, and there’s no doubt that she influenced pretty much all of my work that deals with *race stuff* (on which I’ve written quite a bit). I’ve taken almost as many political science and art history classes as I have English classes, so I’d say that my experiences in all three of those disciplines at Williams have factored into my work at some point. I think I always aim to enroll in courses that’ll enrich and inform my writing career in some way. To that end, my Radio class, taught by the unorthodox and categorically amazing Professor Rosenheim, this semester has been huge, because it’s teaching me how to be a better story teller. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to learn how to do that — how to tell stories.
Would you say that Williams provides the necessary space for students interested in pursuing a career in writing, or are at least interested in it?
Sure. We have a stellar English department as well as a bunch of on-campus publications that are super well-funded and easy to get involved in. But I think I wrote a total of three Record articles back when I was a staff member in freshman year, and otherwise, I’m fairly pathetic when it comes to extracurriculars here, so I’m not exactly an authority on non-academic writing opportunities at Williams. But yes, Williams is a solid place to go if you’re thinking about being a writer, at least in my experience. I wouldn’t trade my training here for anything.
If you could give one piece of advice for aspiring writers on campus, what would it be?
Be fucking fearless. That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m terribly flattered when people say I’m brave and stuff — when they applaud my candidness (that’s a really bizarre humble brag and I apologize). But I’m certainly not fearless. I hold back a lot… I’ve shied away from publishing a million juicy stories because I’ve been too scared of them — too scared of exposing myself, too scared of how people will react, too scared of the infinite judgments I imagine might flow from them. But I’m learning. I’m learning that, if I want to write, I’ve got to write it all — I can’t discriminate when it comes to content. I can’t ditch a story because I’m scared and diffident. I’ve found that Williams students tend to be unbelievably self-conscious and insecure, and I’m no exception — we’re told that we’re *the best* just by virtue of having been accepted to this place, so we’re waaaaay, way scared of messing up or being judged. But if you’re a creative — if you want to write or paint or make movies for a living — you’d better welcome all press, not just the cheerleadery stuff from your mom and your friends. You’d better be prepared to have people hate your work and hate you for producing it. Read the comments section on that one original Thought Catalog piece I wrote — “To The College Students Who Don’t Consider Themselves Feminists” — and you’ll catch my drift. Trolls tore me apart, and I was rattled. But I got over it — at least two-hundred-and-something people commented, right? So, I guess my other piece of advice would be to never read the comments! Do you, write you. And let yourself believe you’re a badass for it.