Vanessa Andrea Padilla

I am Vanessa Padilla, a journalist and now soon to be graduate in fashion journalism MA program at Academy of Art University. Fashion journalism has always been a passion of mine. At the age of 12 I picked up my first fashion magazine and as I read through each page, I told myself that I wanted to put my writing to good use. I was already big on fashion and style so combining the two made so much sense to me. As I reached my senior year of high school I was determined to find a way to write about fashion. I was offered a weekly fashion blog at The Goshen News. Later that year I moved to Indianapolis to study journalism at IUPUI (Indianapolis) and continued my education at the online MA Journalism program at the Academy of Art University.

The fashion journalism program prepared me to go out and search for a writing job and luckily I landed a job at The Goshen News as a correspondent and leading contributor of the Elkhart County Living Magazine. I have been contributing to both publications since August 2023. I have been able to use everything I learned in my work and it has led to many opportunities.

My thesis project, Vivacidad is a concept that came from wanting to honor my Latin roots and represent Latinx artists, writers, photographers, and entrepreneurs. I was able to interview and feature all Latinx individuals and share their success stories as well as the low points that led them to success, confidence, and pushed the momentum which is what Vivacidad is all about!