An Extra-Ordinary Life: Grace Shallow

When Grace Shallow was younger, she walked around her hometown of Cinnaminson, New Jersey with a pile of books at all times. Her passion for reading soon became a talent of writing as she wrote stories in notebooks and read how-to-write books by her favorite authors, of which her dad would buy for her. She watched Sex in the City because of Carrie Bradshaw, a character in the show who wrote about her opinions in a newspaper column.


“You could be like Carries Bradshaw,” her dad told her one night, during a playful argument. “You have too many opinions. You should write about them and get it out.”



Now a 20-year-old journalism student at Temple University, Shallow is doing exactly that. She is dedicated to reporting on addiction and recovery in Philadelphia and hopes her work as a solutions journalist will one day change the lives of those battling addiction.




Templeton: Why journalism?


Grace Shallow: I always wrote stories when I was a kid, in notebooks. I always had books with me––I was like a hoarder––I would carry like four books with me at a time, in the car, wherever went. My dad always encouraged me to write. Whenever I would pick a favorite author, he would buy a book by them on how to teach kids how to write and give it to me. He always encouraged me to write. Then one day, I was watching Sex in The City with Carrie Bradshaw, and he was like, 'You could be like Carrie Bradshaw,' how is a columnist who writes about her opinions. I think we were arguing about something, and he said, 'You have too many opinions. You should write about them and get it out,' and I said fine, I will do that. Then I decided on journalism. That's literally why I am a journalist, it just worked out since then.



T: What are your plans for after graduation, if you could do anything?
GS: I would live in and work in Kensington as an investigative reporter and imbed myself in the community and be on the streets every single day, interacting with people. And, in real life, I would really like to go to Colorado and do a fellowship there. Like, get away from Philadelphia for a little bit and do reporting somewhere else would be cool because I have lived ten minutes away my whole life and I've done a lot of work in Philadelphia so far so it would be interesting to learn more about another community because I like community journalism.


T: Why Kensington?

GS: Well, I would like to be a reporter on addiction and recovery––those are two things that I am highly interested in and Kensington is the epicenter of it.


T: If there was an issue that you could solve through journalism, what would it be?

GS: Oh, one hundred percent, addiction. I think it just affects everybody and I know so many people that are affected by it. So, if I could take away some of those things that people are going through, that would be amazing, but I think that solutions journalism has a role in making treatment and recovery easier to access. That's the closest thing, I think, besides literally being a recovery specialist, which is something that I would do later in life, but not now.


T: How do you think these sort of issues can be addressed, or even solved?

GS: Funding; the stigma being eradicated, holistic care. Addressing the fact that everyone is going to use drugs at some point in their life, so teaching kids how to use them in a smart way; and better understanding of what addiction is and what causes it.