Thread by @MBVD

I’m going to share my favorite pieces from 2019! It’s already 2020, but better late than never? This is my first year freelancing and I’m proud of basically everything I published, but this will just feature highlights. I’m going to post my rates in solidarity with @studyhallxyz.

@studyhallxyz I wrote about whether Tulsi Gabbard’s birth in American Samoa, which is a US territory, would affect her run for president. I wrote this for BuzzFeed News’ politics team shortly before I was laid off.
buzzfeednews.com/article/mbvd/t…

@studyhallxyz For Gizmodo, I went behind the six-foot wall that surrounds Mark Zuckerberg’s vast estate on Kauai. The tour occurred during a pseudo open house for controversial Hawaiian lands that lie within the Facebook CEO’s 700 acres. ($500, plus expenses)
gizmodo.com/a-trip-inside-…

@studyhallxyz I did a follow-up for Gizmodo when the controversial Hawaiian plots that lie within Zuckerberg’s huge property were sold at a court auction. It was a live auction held in the hallway of Lihue’s Fifth Circuit Court, so that was unique? ($450, plus expenses)
gizmodo.com/it-s-a-travest…

@studyhallxyz I met someone on Kauai while working on the Zuck stories who gave me the idea to cover the reopening of Kuhio Highway. The road was closed following massive flooding & opened with new rules meant to curb how many people would use it. ($700, plus expenses)
nbcnews.com/news/us-news/a…

@studyhallxyz The protests on Mauna Kea over the building of a $1.4 billion telescope was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, story happening in Hawaii in 2019. For the Guardian, I wrote about the arrests of more than two dozen kūpuna. ($375)
theguardian.com/us-news/2019/j…

@studyhallxyz For NBC News, I wrote about a community-run university that started at the protest site on Mauna Kea, which teaches through a Hawaiian perspective. This story was hard to tell & could’ve been a lot longer.
($700 for writing, $250 for photos, and expenses) nbcnews.com/news/us-news/h…

@studyhallxyz I wrote another piece for the Guardian about how the protest on Mauna Kea became a movement ($500)
theguardian.com/us-news/2019/a…

For the New York Times, I quickly got to Pearl Harbor to report on a shooting at the naval base. I interviewed tourists and a civilian contractor who worked on base about what it was like on lockdown. ($100) nytimes.com/2019/12/04/us/…

My last story of the year was inspired by the 1st story I shared on this thread. I reported for NBC News on American Samoa’s citizenship question, interviewing a person who lives in the US territory about why they don't want birthright citizenship. ($600) nbcnews.com/news/asian-ame…