By Erika Kuehl | Staff Writer
From studying abroad in Australia to launching her podcast titled “Twenty, Plenty, and Thriving,” El Paso senior Andrea Vazquez is not one to shy away from taking a risk.
“I started listening to a podcast called ‘The Psychology of Your 20s,’” Vazquez said. “She’s super young too, and she’s been super successful. And it kind of got me thinking like, what am I waiting for?”
Vazquez said she designed her podcast to be 20 minutes long to accommodate her audience, most of whom are college students.
“I feel like being in college and just being in our 20s, there’s just so much that we have to navigate, and there’s not a lot out there for us,” Vazquez said. “There’s a lot for kids, and there’s a lot for adults to cope with life and advice podcasts. I feel like there’s not enough for people our age.”
Vazquez said she plans to release episodes biweekly on Spotify because of her current involvement in All-University Sing. However, once performances are over, she intends to release an episode weekly.
As a sociology major, Vazquez said research plays a huge role in the writing process.
“The episode that I just released this week is ‘The Power of Positive Thinking,'” Vazquez said. “It touches on my experiences, but I also do research, so it’s backed up by science. So I’m a sociology major, so social science to me is a big part of what I study. It’s like the society we live in, how we can be our best versions of ourselves. It’s really broad, but I designed it that way on purpose.”
After graduation, Vazquez said she plans to attend law school while pursuing her podcast on the side.
“My point of my podcast is to really inspire people, not take money from people,” Vazquez said. “But you can put listener support as an option, so people donate. That would be just a nice little extra source of income, but I don’t think I’m really doing it for the money or for the career.”
Vazquez said one day, her brother-in-law overheard her say she was considering starting a podcast — and that Christmas, he bought her a microphone so she could.
“I am the person in my family to do a lot of things first, even though I’m the youngest,” Vazquez said. “I am the first to go to college, to go away from home, to go abroad, to do a lot of things. My family plays it safe, and that’s OK. To each their own. When I came back from being abroad, I think I learned to take risks. Maybe nine times out of 10, it turns out better than worse.”
Vazquez said her biggest supporters have been her closest Baylor friends.
“I’m really fortunate to say I’ve had a pretty solid circle of friends who are my first listeners,” Vasquez said. “And I think at first, jokingly, they were like, ‘Well, yeah, we’re going to listen just because we kind of have to.’ But I’ve been getting really good feedback. They’ve been just on it, listening and reposting. And I don’t expect it to be huge, but it does mean a lot because to me, I thought it was this silly little hobby, and they are actually like, ‘Oh, this means something to her.’ And it really does mean something to me.”
College Station senior Emma King, one of Vazquez’s best friends, said she hopes Vazquez will not only teach others but also learn more about herself through the process.
“I remember her talking about it whenever she first released it,” King said. “She’s so excited because it’s a dream of hers, so it’s really cool to actually listen to it and hear how much work she’s put into it. If you listen, it’s incredible. It’s a lot of really well thought-out points. I can tell that she spent a lot of time on it, which is really inspiring, honestly.”
Vazquez said her goal with the podcast is to help other people and discuss topics that affect all college students.
“If it doesn’t go big, that’s OK, because I think at the end of the day, if one person was into it and their life is made a little bit better because of it, then that’s kind of what I wanted to do with that,” Vazquez said.
