Emma Peplow is a journalism student from Los Angeles. She currently serves as the managing editor of the USC newspaper, The Daily Trojan, and hopes to continue her career in journalism in the features department of a major magazine, like Vanity Fair or The New Yorker.

Peplow is passionate about writing about people and one of the main reasons she loves journalism is that she gets to meet so many of the people that make our communities what they are. Some of the highlights of Peplow's journalism career so far have been interviewing Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, covering a speech given by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and covering the historic election of USC's first female presidential ticket.

However, the prospect of meeting new people did not always bring Peplow the same joy. Growing up, she went to six different elementary schools across three states and six cities. She suffered from crippling shyness, and the thought of meeting new people made her extremely anxious.

However, the prospect of meeting new people did not always bring Peplow the same joy. Growing up, she went to six different elementary schools across three states and six cities. She suffered from crippling shyness, and the thought of meeting new people made her extremely anxious. New faces and small talk begin to lose their luster when you're the "new girl" for the sixth time.

Initially, she took her first journalism course in middle school to work on her shyness, but learning people's stories quickly became her new passion. Peplow found that once she learned people's stories, meeting new people wasn't so scary anymore.

Peplow believes this to be true for all aspects of life, which is why she wants to be a journalist. She wants everyone who reads her work to have the same realization: that once you learn how things work, the world is a little bit less scary.