Her Story
About Victoria
I graduated summa cum laude from Grand Canyon University with a degree in marketing and advertising and minored in professional writing and new media. Before publishing my first book, I had never taken a creative writing course in my life. One of my favorite mottos is that anyone can write a book as long as they have the passion for it, and I truly believe that. I don't think you need to have a degree in creative writing or even professional writing for that matter. I think if you have an idea, that's really all you need and the drive to actually finish the book. When I was 19 years old, I was working as a receptionist at a tanning salon when a 400-page fantasy novel just popped into my head, and I quickly grabbed out my laptop and started jotting everything down, and then 14 months later, I published it. I published my first novel, Legend of Golden Shadows, in 2022, and I'm publishing my second one, A Serpent in the Sand, this summer. I'm now a law student at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. I was in a case of my own and had my own experiences with the justice system, and just seeing how it worked and what needed to change was really my big inspiration for deciding to go back to law school and to create the Gender Violence Project. The Gender Violence Project is the third of its kind in the nation, falling after Harvard and University of Michigan, and we provide free legal resources to victims of gender-based violence on a platform that is available not only to people who live in Arizona but really anywhere in the United States.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Victoria
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say two things. First would be, I have a wonderful support system with my family. I'm so lucky to have parents and friends and family who never think my ideas are crazy, like, including writing a fantasy novel that's out of nowhere. And they've always been so supportive of my dreams, whether that's Miss America, or publishing a book, or going to law school. Secondly, I would say that another attribution to my success is just myself and my belief in myself. I mean, you have to believe, like, the first step into believing something, or being able to accomplish something, is first believing that you can. And I'm not some crazy, amazing, smart person. I wasn't valedictorian, I didn't go to an Ivy League school. But I had a dream to go to law school, and I worked hard, and I put in the effort, and the time, and the energy, and I believed that I could be a great lawyer, and because of that belief, now I'm in law school. And I think just not second-guessing yourself and not being afraid of failure, because of course I had plenty of rejections from plenty of law schools. But that didn't stop me, and just trying again and trying again, and knowing that success will become inevitable.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
It's okay to change your mind. I did not want to go to law school at all when I graduated from undergrad. I thought that I did, and then I changed my mind, and I was like, I don't think this is what I want to do, they don't have any purpose here, and I ended up working for a year before just ultimately deciding to go to law school. Changing my mind and deciding to go to law school is the best decision I've ever made. I'm so glad I did it. I think being in law school is so incredibly rewarding, and I'm glad I changed my mind. Because I had my degree in marketing, I was working in marketing originally, and a lot of people think that what they've graduated with or decided to major in is the end-all, be-all. And I don't think it is. I think you can always change your mind, you can always go back, you can always try something different, and that's absolutely okay.
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