Olivia Valdes

Writer & Editor

United States of America

Hi, I’m Olivia. I write and talk about books, art, education, language, culture, travel, TV, politics, the Internet, and anything else that crosses my path. I have fantasies of publishing a series of essays about Livejournal, anonymity, and the culture of the early 2000s Internet. I'm sorry about the stock photo!

Portfolio
ThoughtCo
What Is Academic Writing?

Good academic writing informs, analyzes, and persuades in a straightforward manner and enables the reader to engage critically in a scholarly dialogue.

Yale Herald
Book Review: The Dud Avocado

She acknowledges her own suffering through a lens of self-protective irony, as though too much a woman of the world to do anything but play violence for laughs.

ThoughtCo
9 Self-Care Strategies for College Students

Most college students don't put self-care at the top of their to do lists. When you're caught up in the whirlwind of classes, extracurriculars, work, friendship, and final exams, it's easy to ignore a task that doesn't come with a deadline (even if that task is simply "taking care of yourself").

ThoughtCo
The College Resources You Should Use More Often

Colleges offer an abundance of resources to make students' lives happier and healthier. Your school's administrators want you to succeed-a successful graduate is the best advertising, after all!-so they've designed programs to help you make the most of your time on campus.

ThoughtCo
The Best Places to Study Abroad

Studying abroad is one of the most exciting experiences a college student can have. The world is yours to explore! But with so many incredible destinations across the globe, how do you narrow down your options? Imagine your ideal study abroad experience. What kind of classes would you take?

ThoughtCo
How to Write a Descriptive Paragraph

Descriptive paragraphs often have a concrete focus - the sound of a waterfall, the stench of a skunk's spray - but can also convey something abstract, like an emotion or a memory. Some descriptive paragraphs do both.

Yale Herald
04/13/2014
Music: Tweens

I really like tweens. Sweaty, confused, a little obsessive-- of course I relate to them more than any other demographic.

Profile
Young Jean Lee Gives Us Her Worst

Identity is no more fraught in Lee’s plays than it is in the real world, but in the plays, no one can avoid reckoning with it.

Review
Transformation! at the Disco

Death of a Bachelor is Panic!’s fifth album, but it’s also Urie’s first solo endeavor. He seems eager to compensate for a shrinking lineup with his superhuman supply of performative energy.

Yale Herald
Anti-cling

Maybe "whatever" is transcendence. You are capable of passing through these circumstances – and any others – unscathed. Maybe "whatever" is the ultimate serenity.