Her Story
About Lauren
Lauren Boudreau is a senior at the College of Charleston, where she majors in English and minors in medical studies. She serves as a peer academic coach helping freshmen access campus resources and as a certified life design coach guiding students in designing their paths. Her future specialty lies in medical publishing and research. Currently, she is developing The Art of the Stripes magazine through an internship with the Medical University of South Carolina's North Lab. The publication features interviews with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome patients about their creative adaptations to raise visibility for this often invisible illness that predominantly affects women. Boudreau holds certifications in life design, research methods, and human research subjects. She graduated high school early in Massachusetts, completed one year of community college, and participated in a travel writing study abroad program in Italy. She founded the Crafts for Kids club on campus, which creates items for children at the Ronald McDonald House, building on her earlier Girl Scout work making tag blankets for patients at Boston Children's Hospital. Boudreau attributes her success to trusting herself and trusting time, values spreading awareness and creativity, and sells her artwork through a local campus program.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lauren
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to trusting myself and trusting time. I came up with the idea for The Art of the Stripes as my internship and it passed. I have the connections, the ideas, and the way to make it happen. I underestimated myself until that point but got to a place where I have faith in myself and let things play out and find me.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is to trust myself and trust time, and have faith in yourself. I realized this through people I've looked up to. I came up with the idea for The Art of the Stripes and it passed, showing me I have the connections and ideas to make it work.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Trust yourself, trust time, have faith in you and who you're gonna become. There's no telling who she is until you get there, but she will be amazing. There's so much that we have yet to accomplish that we need to accomplish, and I have so much faith in young women and our generation to change things.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One challenge is finding the right audience and reaching out to all different kinds of contributors. It's hard because I can only get in touch with people through advocacy groups and support platforms like Facebook, and I haven't gotten the reach I've wanted yet, but we should be fine for the first publication. In the future I really want to expand and grow upon it.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Spreading awareness is huge, bringing visibility to the invisible because EDS is an invisible illness. Getting answers for people like me, and creativity is definitely one of the biggest things for me. I also sell my artwork through a campus program around Charleston.
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