Women Who Lead: Anya Kamenetz

"Does Sallie Mae own a chunk of your future? Living with four roommates, working a glorified internship, and putting your groceries on plastic? You may be a member of Generation Debt," reads a description of Anya Kamenetz's popular Yahoo! Finance column, Generation Debt. If you answered any of those questions with a resounding YES, then you need to hear what Anya Kamenetz has to say.

Anya Kamenetz is no normal 26-year-old woman: after graduating from college in 2002, in just a few short years, she has moved to New York and written for major publications such as the Village Voice, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Salon.com, Time Magazine, and New York Magazine. She has also published a book, Generation Debt, which has been praised by twenty-somethings all over the country, writes a popular Yahoo! Finance column, and has even been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her writing. She has been praised by some bloggers as a "heroine of personal finance" and is widely regarded as an expert on financial issues affecting our generation. Not to mention she has become an outspoken and prominent activist promoting the economic interests of college students, and travels the country speaking at colleges. Did I mention she's only 26?

In a world where "a college degree is now a crucial pass for entry into the middle class," Anya once wrote in a past column, graduates are more likely than ever to leave school with an average of $20,000 in student loan and credit card debt – and we need to do something about it! So if you're a college student or recent graduate, if you're one of the millions struggling with rent, credit cards, or student loans – take note, because Anya's work is speaking out about issues that directly affect us all, and offers plenty of hints, advice, and wisdom from her own experiences along the way.

You have published a book and written for numerous major national publications--and all of this by age 26, which is very impressive! How did you do it?

What it took was a lot of luck. I started out as an intern at the Village Voice when I was still a senior at Yale. Out of college and in New York I freelanced as a copy editor, fact-checker, and research assistant, and gradually started to do more writing. I published my first hard news stories in the Voice in the fall of 2003 after I traveled to Israel on a small grant. The following spring, I was tapped along with a couple of other writers to contribute to a feature series in the paper called "Generation Debt." I published two stories in the series, the second was spotted by an editor, and the rest is history.

Looking back, the best thing that I did was to start freelancing right away so I could pursue the topics that most interested me. But really, I applied for plenty of full-time jobs. It was just luck that I didn't get hired!

What would you say is the single biggest financial problem young people are facing today?

Student loan debt trips up a lot of people, but I would say the biggest problem is not having basic knowledge of personal finance. The issues get complicated and you need a lot of information to make good choices."

How do you get college students to take notice of the economic issues affecting them, and motivate them to do something about it? What do you say to the students who, quite frankly, think financial issues are boring?

Learning to drive a car is boring too, but getting behind the wheel without lessons is suicidal, and getting stuck taking the bus all the time is kinda lame. This is basic knowledge that you need to survive in the world. I actually find that awareness is growing all the time of the dangers of student loans and other forms of debt, not to mention the changing job market that makes it harder to join the middle class.

So, what can college women do right now to protect their financial futures?

Avoid paying for school with expensive private loans. If there's no other way, you need to think about transferring, finishing college more quickly, or going part time.

If you must have a credit card for books, etc, make it a goal to pay it off every month or at least every semester. And do it yourself--having Mom and Dad cover your card teaches bad financial habits.

Explore future careers as much as you can while in school. Take internships. Look up salaries on websites like Salary.com and Monster.com , and run the numbers with a loan calculator like this one, http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.phtml so you have some ballpark idea of what your finances will be out of school."

And if you want to get involved, there's a lot more movement on this issue than there was in 2004. You can join the Campaign for College Affordability run by Campus Progress which works on a broader slate of issues that affect students, and the Public Interest Research Groups also do excellent work on campus: www.pirg.org/highered.

With all the debt our generation is facing, how are graduates handling graduate school, which is increasingly more expensive? Is a graduate degree worth it?

It's impossible to answer that question in general. Surveys say that humanities PhDs are the most likely to believe that going to school didn't pay off, while if you borrow private loans for the full cost of a less lucrative master's in social work or education, or heaven forbid an MFA in creative writing or filmmaking, you're probably going to be hurting. I can't really endorse graduate programs in journalism either! For professional school students, the trade off is different: six figures of loans for lawyers, doctors, and MBAs, but salaries do offset that--if you're prepared to work around the clock. The major thing I would say is you should get real life work experience as close to that field as possible before you conclude that an advanced degree is the only way to go.

For many recent college grads, the future appears very bleak, with high rent, low-paying jobs, and crushing debt. How do you remain optimistic about the future when covering such issues?

I'm optimistic because the people I write about are amazing. They are a diverse group of dreamers and hard workers who want a better life for themselves and eventually their families. I really do believe this generation is going to overcome enormous challenges and go on to greatness and a totally new future for America.

What advice do you have for college women about journalism and freelancing?

For women who want to break into journalism, the most important thing is not to sell yourself short. Research and make yourself knowledgeable about the issues that you care about so you'll have a basis for good stories.

I kind of stumbled into freelancing and I love working for myself, but you have to have the temperament for it. In journalism, you need to be able to balance more lucrative work (like glossy magazines) with the credibility stuff (like policy op-eds online). Truthfully, with job security eroding the way it has been and newsrooms slashing jobs, freelancing no longer looks like so much of a risk by comparison.

And finally, what have you enjoyed most about your career as a journalist and author?

Talking about and thinking about issues of national importance, in a public way that is a positive contribution at least some of the time. And meeting so many people around the country, and online, who have shared with me their ambitions and dreams.

To learn more about Anya and the issues she covers, check out her blog, website, book, her old Village Voice column and her new Yahoo! Finance column.

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