Chicago Tribune's Heidi Stevens Shares Big Goals on and off the Page

"The one with the hair" is a moniker she's come to embrace. In 2015, Heidi Stevens considered her then-new photo for her Chicago Tribune column "Balancing Act" unremarkable - until her inbox flooded with commentary from her readers. She shared a few in a piece for the Chicago Tribune, with gems like. "For heaven sake, comb your hair." "My neighbors and I give you permission to shoot your hairdresser." While Stevens was taken aback by this overwhelming response to a style that is arguably on-trend and beach-y, she took it in-stride and sought to learn why readers were so quick to comment on her appearance along with that of her female colleagues. She wrote this of the surprising responses: "Each one takes me aback. Not because my hair is above reproach, but because my hair is completely beside the point. It's unremarkable in appearance (not dyed fuchsia, not shaved on one side) and has no relevance to my job: I'm not a model; I'm not selling hair products; I don't work at a salon." She continued, "Is this really where we're stuck as a culture? At a place where we drown out women's voices with critiques of their hair?" It was this delightful refusal to be put into an Instagram filter that caught national attention - Today.com, NY Daily News, and AOL - and landed Stevens squarely in my Facebook news feed. She quickly became one of my feminist icons and her column a must-read. She's written about numerous topics besides her hair (like parenting, the #MeToo movement, health and her reactions to what's happening in the world around her), but people like me keep bringing up the hair incident. And through her writing, I feel like she and I are on grab-a-coffee terms, but I've never gotten to ask her the most pressing question we have around aSweatLife: What are her big goals? This week on the #WeGotGoals podcast, Stevens popped by to answer that and she shared her 20-year journey with the Chicago Tribune, working across the publication - from an intern to a section editor to a columnist. As we talked through her tenure, she shared that landing her column was the goal that made her the proudest. "I found myself really called ... to help other people and women especially feel less alone in whatever they were going through," she explained why it means to much to connect with readers week after week. With an extraordinary tenure, Stevens clearly loves the Chicago Tribune and the field of journalism. It struck me that this was the tone as I talked to Stevens just before she and 45 other Chicago Tribune Journalists announced they were forming a union, The Chicago Tribune Guild. It's a brave move that has been historically unsupported by a consolidating journalism industry - at least leading to the sale of a publication (the Los Angeles Times) and at-worst the scrubbing of the web of any trace that the publication ever existed (Gothamist/DNA Info).   Listen to this week's episode of #WeGotGoals, and follow @HeidiStevens13 to feel more connected and @CTGuild to support Stevens' brand of journalism.   ---- Episode transcript: JAC:Welcome to #WeGotGoals, a podcast by aSweatLife.com. I'm Jeana Anderson Cohen and with me I have Maggie Umberger and Kristen Geil. MU: Good morning, Jeana. KG: Hi Jeana. JAC: Hello KG: Jeana, this week you spoke with Heidi Stevens. JAC: I did. I spoke with Heidi Stevens, who's been someone I've looked to for advice, for guidance, but she just didn't know it until recently. She has a column in the Chicago Tribune. MU: nd can you talk a little bit about what that column is because it's incredibly interesting for us at aSweatLife and really for women in general. JAC: Heidi's column is called Balancing Act and it is a daily column, but she has a few online days and then two print days in the Chicago Tribune. She talks about everything from parenting to feminism to her reactions to news. And it's been incredible to sort of watch her along the way. I started reading her column about three years ago after I caught wind of it when she had this interesting incident with her hair of all things and her readers’ reaction to her hair, but she's been writing the column specifically for five years and she's been a writer in some capacity or working with the Chicago Tribune from for 20. KG: And Heidi is somewhat of a veteran in the industry. She's seen journalism go through so many major changes over the past several years. How has she adjusted to those changes? What changes has she seen as the most impactful? What in general did she have to say about how journalism has changed? JAC: Heidi has been a part of the Tribune in some capacity for 20 years. She started as an intern is done everything from copy editor. She said something about being on the mail room at a certain point all the way up to columnist with a daily column, which was her dream that you'll hear about. So she on the inside has seen a lot of changes and she's become a sort of ninja within journalism in that she's able to respond to changes. She's able to adapt to them. She's now producing online content. She has incredible editorial skills, but after our interview, Heidi was part of the organizing committee that announced a guild within the Chicago Tribune, which is another word for a union, so I think she's seen a lot of changes within journalism and she's probably bracing or is embracing more changes as a part of this group as well in the future. MU: We're thrilled to have Heidi on the podcast. So here is Jeana with Heidi. JAC:I am Jeana Anderson Cohen on the #WeGotGoals podcast and I'm here with Heidi Stevens of the Chicago Tribune. Thank you for joining me, Heidi. HS: Thank you for inviting me. JAC: I have known you through your column for as long as I've been reading it and I've been reading it since I think someone posted to my news feed a few years ago, probably related to the hair incident and I've been following you closely ever since. So I'm excited to talk to you about your, about your goals. So can you first tell us sort of how you spend your days and where readers can find you? ...