About

Hi! I’m Melissa

As a 25-year-old California-based reporter, I have cultivated a background in print, digital and multi-media journalism. I have excelled in creating impactful storytelling across many verticals, and pursued opportunities to help me curate this content.

Born and raised in Riverside, California, I spent middle school and high school in a small village of Westchester County, New York. I relocated back to Southern California after finishing my undergraduate degree at Northeastern University on the East Coast.

As a proud Afro-Latina woman, my versatility and tenacity stem from a bicoastal and bilingual upbringing that molded me into the sharp wordsmith I am today. My mother immigrated to the U.S. from Sinaloa, Mexico to go to college, and my dad is a Detroit native and proud Black American descended from African ancestry.

In 2022, I rejoined my peers for in-person classes and completed my Bachelor of Arts degree and minors in August 2022.

By the end of my academic career at Northeastern, I had created a well-rounded portfolio in various mediums of journalism. My work delved into the topics of race and gender, culture, lifestyle, current events, politics, activism and more.

In print and digital journalism, I advanced from news correspondent to columnist to Opinions Editor at The Huntington News. My work was also featured in The Avenue Magazine, as well as WOOF Magazine, Northeastern’s only lifestyle magazine. For my six-month co-op, I was the only intern for the Specials team through the summer and fall of 2019 at the New York Bureau of NBC News.

In April 2023, I joined Blavity U’s team as a Gen Z News Writer. I kept up with viral trends on social media to evaluate what to cover and pitch original long-form content. As a deadline-disciplined reporter, I additionally curated a portfolio that includes 150 articles over my three months at Blavity U. My articles spanned the topics of culture, news, beauty, entertainment, music and more.

The following July, I embarked on an Editorial Partnerships Fellowship at Business Insider. I pitched and composed editorial packages of general-interest slideshows and stories. They spanned the topics of lifestyle, travel, food, health, entertainment, retail, real estate, finance, news and more.

At Business Insider, I jumped into my role as a generalist with alacrity. I developed a knack for tapping into the type of stories that resonated with readers. My reporting ranged from personal finance and human-interest to entertainment. My articles reached over 650,000 views on MSN, were among Business Insider’s top Life stories and consistently appeared in the top 10 stories on Apple News.

In my professional roles, I honed my ability to simplify complex subjects into accessible stories, tailor my reporting to different audiences and meet quick turnarounds with ease.

Coffee always in hand, I am currently on the hunt for my next opportunity.

I am active on Twitter @melissajowells. Feel free to email me at melijwells99@gmail.com or message me on Linkedin!