Today we're talking with Yasmeen Khalifa, who you may recognize as one of the folks who wrote The 713 last week while I was out. She's also one of our amazing audience producers, who does tremendous work making sure our stories are shared across all social media channels.
How did you first become interested in Journalism?
As a Muslim Egyptian woman growing up in small-town East Texas, I experienced a great deal of misinformation about my community and a severe lack of representation in my local media. When I began soul searching for the right career path for me, I fell into a fellowship at a local news nonprofit that had just started up. I quickly realized I could be the change I longed for growing up. Now, I strongly believe in the power of journalism — and audience outreach — to highlight the issues and stories of underrepresented and misrepresented communities.
Your title at the Houston Chronicle is Audience Development Producer. That probably doesn't mean much to most readers. Can you explain what your day to day actually looks like and the kind of work you do for the Chronicle?
What that means is I'm here to connect with readers, whether that be out in the community or digitally, and meet them where they are. If you're getting your news from Twitter or Instagram or TikTok, we want to meet you there with the stories you're most interested in. I work on all major social media platforms and dabble in newsletters as well.
You grew up in Texas, but you only moved to Houston a year ago. How are Houston and Houstonians different from where you grew up?
WAY different. I grew up in Tyler, which is a small town in East Texas. You wouldn't think driving three and a half hours northeast would change much, but it does. In Tyler, everyone knows everyone, and the culture is, well, lacking. And the entertainment is, well, scarce. We entertained ourselves out on lakes and random plots of land.
But now that I live in Houston, never again will I consider hanging out on a piece of land entertainment. Here, there are community events out the wazoo, and if I'm not at my desk, you'll probably find me at a night market in Montrose or doing yoga at Discovery Green or on a bike ride with a hundred other East Enders. Life here is... lively. And you didn't hear it from me, but the people are way nicer, too.
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