At Odyssey, we're proud to spotlight our talented team of response writers. Using our response button feature, they carry on our mission of sparking positive, productive conversations in a polarized world.

Each month, we'll highlight a response writer on our homepage. For June, that writer is Valerie Gregorio, a college grad whose connection to Odyssey goes all the way back to high school. We're proud to have her on our team! Read on to hear her story.

If you're interested in becoming a writer, email us! You’ll get to choose your own topics and write one article a week. Your work will be featured on our homepage and in our weekly Overheard on Odyssey newsletter. Plus, for your first 10 articles, you’ll be compensated by HQ at $10/article.

Hi everyone! My name is Valerie Gregorio and I'm one of the response writers here at the Odyssey Online. I'm currently a 25 year old working full-time in the government with multiple passions. One of them is writing because I love to express myself and get creative on a range of topics. The first time I was published was back in my junior year of high school when I started writing for my high school's newspaper. My work was published in print and also online. I ended up winning a journalism award during my senior year of high school. Afterwards, I took an hiatus from writing for a couple of years while I was in college. I didn't start writing again until my junior year of college. I started to write for a couple of online publications that I came across. I've wrote on a number of topics, ranging from lifestyle to travel. I haven't stopped writing ever since then.

I actually did write for the Odyssey Online for a bit back in 2019 and beginning of 2020 (see my first articles) before I've branched off to other publications. Fast forward to January 2023, I saw a post on Instagram that the Odyssey Online was hiring response writers. I figured why not? Plus, it would be a different take for me when it comes to writing since I've barely wrote response articles in the past. And the money is always a plus for me since I don't get paid most of the time for writing articles.

As a response writer, I read several articles from different writers and figure out how I would respond to them based on my own experiences and opinions. It wasn't hard for me to write response articles myself since I just need one idea from those articles of those writers to inspire me to write a response article in one night. Everything just comes together for me.

I write for the Odyssey Online on a weekly basis. I get excited every time an article of mine is published. I get the freedom to choose which article I respond to from a list provided to me every week without hesitation. Recently, I've been writing articles on any topic I choose and submit them for publication, including this article I'm writing right now. I love the freedom and flexibility when it comes to writing for the Odyssey Online and since I can write on any topics I want, whether if I'm doing a response article or an article of a random topic I chose, I know my work would impact people and make them relate to what they are reading. Hopefully my readers are inspired to pursue writing in order to express themselves just like me when they see my work. I'm looking forward to writing more for the Odyssey Online as I continue to expand my side hustle career in freelance writing.