Theresa Barber

Obviously, I feel like I've worked hard and tried to educate myself and get better at what I do, but honestly, there's always that element of, I just feel very fortunate. It's a little bit outside of my control that I kind of landed in a position that I think is so perfect for me. So, as cheesy as it may sound, I would say I thank God for it. I'm grateful for what I feel is good luck and good fortune to have ended up here, because I feel that I have my dream job, and I know a lot of people can't say that. Yes, there's things I did, working hard and not giving up and trying to get better at what I do, but at the end of the day, there's always a little element of, wow, I just lucked out. The truth is, I actually wasn't even job searching when I found this job. I had actually been praying, and I was like, God, can you just send me something that's a good fit. And a friend literally reached out and texted me and said, oh, this magazine is looking for a writer. So I didn't even apply to a single job. She reached out to me, and so that's why I feel like I really lucked out.

When I first started to go into journalism, I remember older journalists telling me, in today's world, you kind of have to be ready to do everything. In the past, a journalist might have had a photographer or a camera crew out with them, but in today's world, a lot of the times, you're taking your own photos, you're maybe even taking your own videos, you're even filming content. The message that they gave me is that in today's journalism industry, you need to be ready to kind of do a little bit of everything, and be like a jack of all trades, so to speak. Today's journalist needs to be very flexible and skilled in multiple areas in order to really be successful. Some career advice that's been helpful to me is being ready to do all different kinds of things and pivot and learn new skills throughout the career. It's not one of those jobs where at the beginning you figure out how to do it, and then it's on autopilot. Journalism's an industry where you need to be able to keep learning as you go.

You have to be scrappy. When I first started out in this industry, I was writing for free, just writing for whoever would let me publish something with them, just trying to find a place to just share your thoughts. The thing is, you can't give up, because if you start doing that, there's always people saying, oh, journalism's dead, book writing is dead, but it's not true. There's always gonna be a place for someone who is good at what they do and works hard, and that's something that's needed and wanted by the public. My advice to a young woman would be, don't give up if this is what you want to do. Keep trying, but don't just try in the sense of keep throwing your writing at publications, seeing if it'll stick. Work to improve yourself. Read books or articles, or watch videos, whatever your preferred form of media is, but read and take in content that will show you how to get better at what you do. Read about writing. There's a really good book I love called Writing Well, and I try to go back and reread it every few years, because the book just explains how to write in a clear manner that readers can understand. Try to improve and get better at what you do, and don't give up if this is what you want to do. You can do it.

Definitely one thing that's a challenge is AI, because a lot of people are starting to rely on AI or think that it can be replacing a journalist's work. In my experience, having certainly used AI extensively for research, and for editing, and almost like intern work where we use AI to gather ideas and this kind of thing, it is not able to produce content like a human being is able to for our field. In our field, where we're writing from the heart and personally to others, from our experiences, AI is not able to share its own personal story. I think it's really important that journalists remember that we have something to offer others that AI does not, and never can, because it's not human. That's the personal and real connection of who we are reaching out to somebody else across the screen, through the written word. The challenge is that not only journalists are selling themselves short and thinking, oh, the AI can do it as good as me. No, it cannot. A journalist should not be selling themselves short in that way, but also that the broader public or editors, or other people might think that the journalist can be replaced when I think that would be a huge mistake, and would be leading to a much lower quality of writing and work that's much less human. We need to build a more human world, where the personal connection that can happen through writing is not lost.

I would say one is honesty. I always want my readers to know they can trust me, and then also, obviously, in my own life with my family and my children, I always want others to know they can trust me. So honesty, trustworthiness is a big one, as well as accountability. If I make a mistake, I want to own up to it and not try to shift the blame to others, but say, I'm the one who wrote this article, or I'm the one who made this decision for our family, or whatever it is. I need to take the consequences and not try to shirk those or pass them to someone else when I'm at least partly responsible. And then finally, I would say warmth and kindness. It's very important to me to make others feel very cared for and even loved when they're with me. Whether that's my kids, my friends, or even my readers, I try to write to them in a way that's very compassionate and thoughtful, so that they don't feel that I'm judging them in any way, even if I'm saying you should try to do this or that to make your life better. I'm not saying it because I'm criticizing, but because I want to help. And then one other one would be just effort, personal effort. I really want to go to bed every day feeling like I did the most I could to be the best person I could be that day. Within what's possible and what you're capable of, feeling that you gave your best effort.