Traci has worked in national newsrooms and freelanced since 2011, covering breaking news, reporting features, and bylining personal essays. She’s written about everything from oil spills to state politics to the Olympics and has conducted a range of interviews, from celebrities to politicians.

Here are some of her clips:

Enterprise and Features

Original reporting and longform writing

Personal Writing

  • Here’s What Happened When My Mom Hid Her Cancer Diagnosis From Her Family (Bustle)

    • “In that moment, I heard the depths of how terrified she was, despite how upbeat she had been at the start. I realized that maybe not telling our family about the cancer wasn’t just her way of trying not to ‘burden’ them. Maybe it was a way for her to protect herself. If she didn’t have to tell our family, then maybe it wouldn’t be ‘real.’”

  • How I Finally Saw Myself Reflected in the Original ‘Mulan’ (Variety)

    • “In 1998, when ‘Mulan’ came out, my eyebrows were starting to disappear. Two years later, about 50% of my hair fell out. I went through various stages of grief in the process until I began to wear wigs daily. But I tried not to see those wigs as a disguise. Instead, every morning when I would wake up and my mother would place the hair on my head, I pretended like it was armor for the day: armor to protect me from bullies and gossip, and armor to help me hold my head a little higher in the school hallways.”

  • ‘The Half Of It’ Is The Love Story I’ve Always Needed (HuffPost)

    • “There’s a hunger that I think we all share to see our lives represented in some form on screen. It’s validating to know that the things we thought isolated us can actually be a way to connect with people who are like us.”

  • How I've Learned That Being a Bisexual Chinese American Woman Doesn't Make Me "Leftover" (Teen Vogue)

    • “At 30, just as I started to feel like a new chapter was beginning in my life, the shame others associate with my unmarried status felt like the only thing my family could see. With every Chinese New Year lunch and holiday gathering that passed, I felt the concern around me grow that my life had yet to truly begin because the chair next to me wasn’t occupied by my future husband.”

  • 23 Days with Tam (personal blog)

    • “It was starting to get depressing because as Tam aged (a day is equivalent to a year for [Tamagotchis]), I became more and more aware of how little I’m doing with my own life. As Tam sought food and playtime, I found myself sinking deeper and deeper into habits that felt a little pointless. No matter how much I was tending to my own needs, it didn’t feel like anything in my life was changing. I was static, as was the world, and it no longer made sense to keep trying to pretend like things were ‘normal.’”

Other

Event coverage, breaking news, exclusives, analysis