My work with The Fem Word and clients often involves interviews, and I’ve been asked to go on camera a LOT during the course of my early career. I hate it. Not only is my face literally MADE of angles that distort lighting and make me look like Vampira’s dumpster cousin, but I also just…don’t enjoy it.

For whatever reason, I felt bad about this at first. Was I limiting my potential? Was I disappointing my mentor, who has 30 years of experience as a news and radio personality, and who looks & sounds incredible EVEN IN TERRIBLE LIGHTING?

It turns out that both questions can be answered with a big “nope.” I’m a writer. That’s what I like to do, that’s what earns me the most money, and as long as it’s what I CONTINUE to do, it’s perfectly viable without any cameras or audio equipment involved. You can hold your options open, but I think our whole fixation on visual content is overblown — and I say this as someone neck deep in the media industry.

I now do written interviews regularly and people LOVE them. Subjects love them even if they’re not sure about it at first, people on social media love them, and readers love them! We’re in a new and very adaptive age, so I’m happy to try new approaches that rely on MY strengths. I’m glad you gained confidence and still kept sight of that! Thanks for sharing :)