I'm sure you think you've seen this article before—and maybe you have. You've seen the listicles and the funny memes and the GIFs galore. You've seen titles from Odyssey that intrigued you, enraged you or made you stop scrolling for just a second before your eye caught the cute puppy video below it.

Telling people that I write for Odyssey usually gets one of two reactions:

"Oh, that sorority-girl website with the silly lists?"

Or, my personal favorite:

"Yeah, I've seen some of those—the click-bait stuff on Facebook."

Newsflash: Odyssey is neither of those.

Yes, we publish funny, lighthearted humor pieces (sometimes written by girls who happen to be in sororities) that aren't always terribly journalistic in nature. But we also publish hard journalism, real op-ed pieces about current issues (written by girls in sororities just as often as the funny stuff) and relevant content that affects millennials from all walks of life.

Just as you wouldn't discredit a newspaper for having their Sunday comics, you can't discredit a social content platform like Odyssey for the lighthearted "listicle" side of their content. Just because it comes to you via Facebook or Twitter or whichever social media platform lead you here, doesn't mean that it only took as much thought as the last status update or 140-character post you read. Every one of our articles go through three different editors and are reviewed for far more than just typos. Of course, every now and again, a few of those pesky auto-corrects gets through—I've yet to read a book without a mistake either—but the content of our work is under review every step of the way.

Odyssey isn't a click-bait generating machine. Sure, our articles' social media interactions and page views are monitored and measured as part of generating popularity for Odyssey as a site, but the main goal is to create a platform for people of our age and place in the world to share our voices far beyond just college campuses.

I know that I write for Odyssey because I'm an aspiring writer with a lot of opinions and ideas to share. But Odyssey's Content Creator title doesn't just apply to writers or English and journalism majors. The Odyssey is here to give voice to everyone—so that you can read those articles that intrigue and infuriate you—knowing that there are those of all academic and professional interests who have important things to share.

All that said, you should write for Odyssey because you have your own ideas to share. There's no requirement besides having something to say—and writing it down once a week.