Books took on human qualities when I was a little girl. Some were comforting; some were contrary, and all were loved. My entrepreneurial spirit developed, I grew a little bit taller, and by the end of second grade, I was the founder and president of my own book club. I wrote, illustrated and sold pocketbook-sized tales to my peers for a quarter. Then, I hit double digits and discovered the wonderful world of magazines. When most girls my age were asking for neon-colored windbreakers, caboodles and headphones, I was begging my parents for magazine subscriptions. In the span of two and a half decades, through fads and growing pains, my love of words remains.

A good writer can take the most mundane, dense topics and transform them into something beautiful, enjoyable and profound. I admire those who have the ability to turn complex ideas into something digestible and entertaining — like three journalists who have fueled my desire to become a skilled and artful writer. 

Isabel Wilkerson is the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for individual reporting, which she won for her work at The New York Times. Wilkerson’s book, The Warmth of Other Suns, is a journalistic masterpiece, in my opinion. Drawn from the research and interviews she conducted over the past decade, she recounts the impact of the great migration of African-Americans from the Jim Crow south to the northern cities of the United States. I admire Wilkerson for the intensity in which she researches her subjects, and I also look up to her as a successful female journalist.

My favorite staff writer for The New Yorker is Malcolm Gladwell. I discovered him on the New York Times Bestsellers List, and then retraced his work back to the magazine. The thing I most admire about Gladwell is his writing style. Gladwell draws connections from faraway places and sits them neatly in your lap. A consummate storyteller, his work grabs you by your shirt collar and doesn’t set you down until you have come to the last page. By merging storytelling with research, he challenges assumptions painlessly. 

Jeffrey Toobin, also on staff at The New Yorker, is a senior legal analyst for CNN and a gifted attorney, who first served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in New York. I was familiar with him from CNN, but I came to admire his writing prowess through his best-selling book, The Nine. The U.S. Supreme Court, the subject of the book, is arguably one of the driest subjects a layperson could wish to read about, but Toobin manages to create an account that is both informative and captivating. I greatly admire Toobin’s career because it most closely mirrors my own aspirations. He is an accomplished attorney and journalist, equally. 

I love writing, and I also love the law. During my teenage years, I was devouring books by John Grisham and Scott Turow, but I hadn’t yet decided I wanted to be an attorney. Like most young people, I wrestled with several ideas about which direction I would take in the years ahead. My first job, as a waitress at a small town family restaurant in the Pacific Northwest, is where I galvanized my legal ambition. A chance encounter with a tall stranger in a tiny vintage Jaguar convertible is what led me to my current path in life. The day he came in during my shift, we started a casual conversation, and I expressed interest in learning more about his work. He became a wonderful mentor to me. Often, we would send emails back and forth; he generously answered any question I had about my dreams of law school and beyond.

Often, when I tell people I want to become an attorney, they ask me why I’m not a pre-law major. I always tell them: Law is a writing-intensive profession. By studying journalism, I have learned to write persuasively and acquired good investigative and interviewing skills. I’ve learned how to disseminate information, sharpened my critical thinking skills and become a more conscious consumer of information. 

I am confident I will be a better attorney due to my experiences as a journalist. After I pass the bar and begin practicing law, I want to continue to use my writing skills beyond the legal field. I would love to see my name on the New York Times Bestsellers List. I want to be recognized as a great attorney and an even greater writer.   

Bethany Redd is a senior at the University of Houston, majoring in journalism. She is working this semester as an intern at Houston Woman Magazine.

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