Charlotte Barnes, an ex-St Mary’s pupil, has risen to newspaper fame. Currently starting her second year at UWE Bristol University, she has recently been given the exciting opportunity of becoming the editor for the lifestyle and student union section of the student newspaper. This young and aspiring writer is thrilled to have finally seen her name written down on actual paper, and has, without hesitation, agreed to discuss exactly what her role entails and how she finds being the editor of this successful newspaper.
Can you tell us what it’s like being the editor of the newspaper at your university?
It’s brilliant! I’m so excited to be part of the paper and it’s really building my confidence in terms of my writing. There are times when I find myself wondering whether I've taken on more than I can handle but it's all worth it when I see the finished pieces in print!
What was your first article about?
My first was about long-distance relationships - it was a short piece talking new students through the complications of maintaining a romantic relationship with distance alongside their studies.
The next article I'm writing is themed around the issue of body image for women.
Did you do anything similar to the newspaper club here at St Marys?
I'll hold my hands up and say no, I didn't. Although it was never much of a secret that I wanted to go into writing after my studies and the staff of the English Department were always very supportive of that ambition.
Do you have any career aspirations/goals relating to writing articles?
All of my career aspirations are related to writing! I've always been better at writing than anything else so it was an easy decision to make when people started to discuss career options with me. It's not an easy industry to break into but, from what I've experienced in recent months, it's most definitely worth the effort.
At A Level, Charlotte studied English Literature, Psychology and Business Studies. Now at University, she is currently doing a Joint Honours degree in English and English Language.
Being the editor of the SU and Lifestyle section involves a number of key roles, one of the most important being developing ideas for articles for the coming month. Scarily, albeit excitingly, she gets a four-page spread in the paper to fill with her own words. Her ideas are emailed out to a mailing list of contributors who then respond by stating which article proposal they’d like to develop further. After all the ideas for the many articles have been discussed and deadlines have been set, it is then Charlotte’s job to edit the articles once they’re completed. “I'm the mean person that criticises spelling and cuts out paragraphs of unnecessary writing!” she jokes.
Charlotte has only been working at the paper since September, so there are still a lot of new things to learn and discover. However since then, she has had her first ever article published in print, which will hopefully be followed by many more in the months to come.
By Claudia Webb, Year 12