Hailie Tebo

Maylee Ohlman aims to help others while following her passion as she pursues film journalism.

When senior Maylee Ohlman first began to chronicle the journeys of a rainbow unicorn in fourth grade, she was convinced it was the start of her first chapter book. Although the book revolving around unicorns and the environment was abandoned, her early love for writing would eventually catapult her into a career in journalism.

“I’ve always loved writing, but I just didn’t really realize,” Maylee said. “In fourth grade, I was going to write a book, and it was about a rainbow unicorn and environmental issues. Obviously, I never revisited it, and I made it to two pages in.”

Despite only making it two pages in, it was evident: Maylee would continue fostering a love of writing for years to come. Starting with journaling and short stories, Maylee’s love for writing initially took a backseat to some of her other hobbies. Participating in orchestra and taking an interest in marine biology, it wasn’t until her sophomore year that Maylee joined The Central Trend (TCT).

“When I got to TCT, I felt like this is something I could be doing for the rest of my life, and feel really happy in,” Maylee said. “The community we have in [the class], I don’t know if I’ll have in college or in a newsroom, but I think that this experience will help me try and shape it or find it or maybe create it in other places.”

Once Maylee joined TCT, she knew that she wanted to spend the next three years on staff. Writing stories, especially those that required interviews, helped Maylee grow—not only as a writer but also as someone stepping into a leadership role with confidence. 

“Before [joining TCT], I was so nervous about what people thought of me,” Maylee said, “and I just wasn’t really in tune with who I wanted to be. But TCT kind of helped me form those connections… and interviewing people and learning more of their stories kind of helped shape my story.”

Maylee eventually earned the role of Editor-in-Chief in her senior year, representing not only the culmination of her time as a writer for TCT but also of her leadership in the classroom. Post-graduation, she hopes to apply the lessons she’s gathered from the class to film-based journalism, aiming to make a difference through political and social awareness. 

“I think [writing film reviews is] important,” Maylee said. “A lot of movie reviewers I’ve seen from The New Yorker or The New York Times can exemplify the social atmosphere of what’s happening in the world. A lot of movies are political, and I don’t think people really realize that. Even ‘kids’ movies’ like Monsters Inc., or Zootopia, have political and social implications. And I think it’s really important to dive into those as well.”

Maylee is planning to major in English at the University of Washington, with a focus on communications and film studies, as she seeks a career in film journalism. As a film journalist, she could attend red carpet events, press junkets, and get advanced access to films in the future. 

Seeing how interviews with celebrities have been conducted in recent years, Maylee hopes to make a difference by redirecting interviews to focus solely on the celebrities’ craft. 

“Nowadays, most journalists who are interviewing celebrities just ask them about trending [stories] on the internet, and not really about their movie, which is what they’re there for,” Maylee said. “Movies are what [celebrities are] passionate about, too, and I think it’s really important to capitalize on that.”

Through film journalism, Maylee can connect the importance of reporting with her adoration of films. Although adoration is perhaps too lackluster a word, since Maylee has seen each and every animated film produced by Disney, Pixar, Universal, and DreamWorks. 

“I’ve always really been obsessed with animated films,” Maylee said. “You go to the movie theater, and you sit down, and even if you’re alone, there’s just this communal aspect to be watching something together for the first time. When you cry in a movie theater, or you laugh, there’s nothing like it. When the lights go down, you can experience something else for two and a half hours, and then that story can become part of your story.”

Through her movie reviews for TCT and her eventual ambitions to interview movie premiere attendees, Maylee has gained an appreciation for all parts of the “behind the scenes” of movie-making. Although she doesn’t quite want to study the technical production of a movie, she hopes to learn more about the steps to make a movie. 

“I really love diving into the specific details in the movie, specifically the score,” Maylee said. “I just love music also, and so I love how music can really punctuate the undercurrents and the themes of the movie. Because if you try to take the instrumentals out of any movie you think of, it would just be really awkward. I feel like music can kind of really pull emotion out of the viewer, and also just make the experience that much better.”

In the same way that music evokes passion and emotion, dance accomplished the same thing for Maylee. After trying dance for the first time her freshman year, Maylee quickly found a community and passion that she continued throughout high school, and into college, as she plans to minor in dance.

“I loved how [dance] took a lot of hard work,” Maylee said. “It made me feel like [I was speaking a] language; I could really feel grounded, but also weightless at the same time, in my own body. And I thought that was so cool. I just loved the community aspect of this team as well, and the different styles of dance, like pom, jazz, and hip hop, so I wanted to keep going with that.”

What made the dance community so special to Maylee was the way the team welcomed her despite her lack of prior experience when she first tried out. This is something that likely would not have been possible at a larger high school with a different dance culture.

“[For] a lot of elite high school dance teams like Rockford and Dakota, you have to have certain requirements to get on the team, [such as having] done dance for a certain number of years, or have a certain amount of tricks,” Maylee said. “And so all these girls are engineered to be on these teams. But for FHC, a lot of people have either started dancing, like me, for the [FHC] dance team, or they’ve been in the studio for one or two years. Some people come from ballerina backgrounds, which is different. And so for them, especially, transitioning to hip hop or pom is a lot of work, but I think we do really well with accepting any type of style and whatever your background is, the dance team [is an option to] try something.”

From dance and music to journalism and film, Maylee clearly has a passion for everything she takes on as she searches for ways to impact others’ lives. However, her journey started with only two things: her first story about a rainbow unicorn, and her early passion for reading.  

“Reading has always been a big thing for me,” Maylee said. “Reading helped me develop into the kind of writer I wanted to be. I love how reading can kind of dissect stories. If it’s a memoir or a biography, [it can] really get to the heart and soul of what that person is experiencing. Even in fictional stories or fantasies, I love how it can transfer you to another world. And so I think the reason I started writing was so I could kind of achieve that same thing, and hopefully help someone else.”