My journey with Buc Style began in 2023, but I have been with the East Tennessean since the junior year of my bachelor’s degree.

I started with the paper in spring 2020, writing for the news and features columns.

I was able to get a few stories under my belt before the university shut down for the pandemic. I spent that first semester on the SGA beat, and I watched President Noland address the student representatives days before lockdown was announced. Articles were few and far between after lockdown that semester, and when we came back, we mostly conducted interviews via Zoom.

During my undergraduate degree, I got to interview many interesting people, including Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett. Unfortunately, the audio file of that interview got corrupted and never fully made it to the final story.

For Halloween of 2021, I got to write a campus ghost story and learn about the ghost that haunts the campus radio station, The Edge.

Photo of Taylor Maupin. (Contributed/ETSU)

After my 2021 graduation, I moved to Florida for half a year, and I worked in Magic Kingdom as a part of the Disney College Program.

I decided to come back to ETSU for my master’s in digital marketing in fall 2022, and my friend and then executive editor, Allison Winters, asked if I wanted to take over the Buc Style column. My undergraduate degree is in fashion marketing and merchandising, so I was very interested in the offer.

My interest in fashion history and politics is very prominent across my coverage of Met Gala politics and changing beauty trends. I am very proud of my women’s history month articles from 2023 and 2024. I learned a lot about the feminist movement through research for them, and I hope readers did too.

As I say goodbye, I want to thank everyone from the East Tennessean from the past four years that have helped me get here.

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