Hello! My name is Taylor Lail, and I am a writer. Though screenwriting is my ultimate prerogative, I adore all kinds of writing; I actually find that writing in multiple formats is an excellent exercise in ability and prowess.

I am a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I majored in Communications (Media Production Track), and minored in Creative Writing (thorough the English Department) and Writing for the Screen and Stage (through the Communications department). The summer before my junior year, I interned at Tapestry Films, where I mainly wrote coverage on screenplays. This was where I was truly introduced to the medium of the screenplay, where I completely fell in love with the idea of writing my own screenplays as well as the process of dissecting the screenplays of others.

As my courses became increasingly specific toward film during my upperclassman years, I came to truly see movies as living and dynamic pieces of art. To me, they are their own little worlds. I love the collaboration that is inherent in producing a film; the idea that so many people have worked to create the final product for the authorship to truly and unconditionally belong to the brain of one person. I long with all of my heart to be a part of this process.

Like many people in their early 20s, I have found post-graduate life to be a far cry from what I imagined it would be. I still live in my hometown of Hickory, North Carolina, and have struggled to get my footing as an adult. Despite this, I continue to work on my writing and dream big. Over the past year, I have left my waitressing job for an office job and have been hired by a local publisher to co-write a business slash political memoir slash advice book for a highly successful couple in my region. Though I’m still not exactly where I thought I’d be (i.e. in Los Angeles or a graduate school program) as an undergraduate, I believe I am getting closer to that point each and every day.

My impetus to write used to be what I assume is common in the entertainment industry: a lust for fame, fortune, and validation. The main thing that my emergence into true adulthood has taught me is to abandon this belief completely. To me, writing is first and foremost an act of empathy, and through this empathy lays the capacity to change the audience’s perception of others. Through my successful recovery from a mental illness, I have been inspired to tell the stories of those with mental and emotional problems, to erase the sigma attached to those who suffer beyond their control. I am likewise interested in how mental and emotional illnesses intersect with gender perceptions, as I believe dangerous social expectations from a broader cultural craziness are often at the root of many cases of women (and men) acutely suffering at an individual level.

My most sincere goal in terms of my writing can be succinctly posed in one question: How do we, particularly us women, love ourselves in the face of a society that insists we don’t?