Jacquelyn Thayer is the creator and editor-in-chief of Up the Ladder Sideways.

At 18, where did you envision yourself at this age? What jobs most appealed to you as a young adult? Did you study towards this then-goal?

Within a semester of university (and thus only a few months into 18), I envisioned myself as a successful creative writer and historian, likely with a Ph.D under her belt that would have in no way restricted the time to equally pursue these non-academic screen or novel writing endeavors. At one point, I double majored in history and English while minoring in theology, ultimately concluding with an English degree summa cum laude from my small liberal arts school.

Though a stint at a Canadian university studying English at the graduate level revealed that pursuit of the scholar’s life full-time was not my real goal, my desire for a graduate education remained unabated. I ultimately turned to the more commercially useful subjects of journalism, PR and advertising, and earned a masters with distinction from Chicago’s DePaul University.

Do you feel your professional or academic life was impacted by the recession?

My work during college tended to be temporary in nature, and this was also true of a one-year contract position I picked up after graduation. That contract ended in 2008, a most unlucky time to re-enter the workforce with a humanities-heavy education and very limited experience. It has been terribly challenging from there to break the cycle of short-term or contract-level work.

What do you do now? What do you hope to do next?

I am currently a freelance publishing professional and freelance and entrepreneurial journalist, creator of sport- and dance-focused outlets Two for the Ice and Moving in Measure.

As my interests as writer and researcher shift, so too will my work emphases. Up the Ladder Sideways is the product of an increasing awareness of the need to reveal the real stories — beyond avocado toast and an alleged homicidal tendency towards all societal norms — of work and economy for the world’s new predominant generation.

What is your least favorite millennial stereotype? What do you find most accurate?

My least favorite millennial stereotype is the notion that twenty- and thirtysomethings are willing slackers, or directly responsible for the financial challenges shaped primarily by policies and economic tides that long preceded our coming of age.

The stereotype I find most accurate would be the idea that we are driven to believe that work should in some manner be meaningful. And this is perhaps not a harmful mentality in a world in which the options are indeed both vaster and more limited than ever before. If few roads anyway will lead one to the top of the heap, better, at least, a happier route.

Do you have student loan debt?

A four-year B.A. and three-year M.A. from two private U.S. universities — even including scholarship funding at each, even including a multi-year gap between courses of study — say YES. Has it altered my future study plans? Not nearly so much as one might expect.