Gwen's Open Road
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Gwen Zepeda Highlight (1:06)
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Interview (4:04)
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One Thing (0:40)
Interview Excerpt -
Housewife (1:09)
Interview Excerpt -
Growing Up (1:14)
Interview Excerpt -
Start Now (0:47)
Web Exclusive -
Having a Dream (2:05)
Web Exclusive -
Confidence (0:57)
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Icing On Your Cake (1:11)
Web Exclusive
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INTERVIEWED BY:
Aussies Abroad Roadtrip
GWEN ZEPEDA
Writer
“The only mistake you can make now is to not do anything.”
INTERESTS:
THEMES DISCUSSED:
Confidence Hobbies & Pastimes Money & Financial Security Societal Pressures Family Pressure Culture Education Failure Choices Goals Values
FOUNDATION:
BIOGRAPHY:
- Says people always ask her when she became a writer and she thinks she's been a writer since she was born.
- Grew up in a rough neighborhood surrounded by poverty, alcoholism; a mentor pushed her to apply to college.
- Got pregnant at 19, "just like every other woman in [her] family," saw her peers realize, "aw, her too," felt like she'd let everyone down.
- After having a baby, her GPA dropped; she lost her scholarship and had to drop out of the University of Texas.
- Told herself she wanted to be a housewife, said she'd use that time to be creative.
- Started writing on the internet, saw many of her peers getting published; gave herself a one-year deadline to get a book published.
- Stresses you don't have to pick one thing and do it for the rest of your life, but you should always be doing something rather than nothing.
- Says that in the time she "wasted" freaking out about her writing, she could've finished 85 books.