Introducing the one & only Taralei (with guest appearances by Layla the Dog!)

Hey there! My name is Taralei. My parents completely made it up - don't worry if you mispronounce it, no one gets it right at first.

I am brand new to Steemit and bitcoin. Feel free to assume I know nothing about what is going on here, at least until February. ;)

For the past 5.5 years, I have worked as a freelance pop culture and political journalist. Going into 2018, I decided it was time to completely take over as The Boss, and so the other day, I launched an online publication about local, up-and-coming artists, called Meridian Creators. I'm always on the lookout for new artists to feature and writers who would like to contribute pieces about artists in their town/city, so feel free to reach out about that!

Deciding to take charge and be The Boss this year is part of why I joined Steemit after my amazing friend @molovelly told me about it. I am very excited to be here and expand my reach with my writing!

Oh hey look! There's Layla, my furry child/sidekick/bae, wondering why on earth I'm paying more attention to a dry erase board than her. She's a 10 year old collie mix who I adopted 5 years ago. Not only is she adorable, but she is amazingly brilliant. I went through training with her to have her certified as a PTSD Service Dog. She was unfortunately too skittish with loud noises to pass her Service Animal certification, but she is a certified ESA, and still performs the tasks she was trained to do as needed. Expect to get to know her as well if you follow me!

I'm a nerd of all trades - by that I mean I will nerd out about music and politics as much as I will about "typical" nerdy things, such as Star Trek. My apartment is decorated with a few stray protest signs, but the dominant decor is all my Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and Chuck posters. To stay active, I take boxing classes and hike with Layla.

Fun Facts: INFP; Aries; Hufflepuff; born and raised nerdy - my parents named me so my initials were TNG (yes, for The Next Generation), and raised me to love both Star Trek & Star Wars.

I'm excited to get start posting here regularly! While I work as a journalist and deal in facts daily, I also write poetry and fiction in my free time. I plan on posting short stories and poetry here, as well as maybe some of my photography art.

If you're interested in seeing what else I do on the web, feel free to follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and/or Twitter.

Thanks for reading!
Peace, Love, and Badgers;
Taralei <3