- How did you approach the theme/topic when you first received the prompt?
The brief immediately made me think about the women whose work runs on Nairobi’s night clock. The lady who is unapologetic and definitely not playing the victim. That became my starting point for writing: “What does a woman who is good at her job, and knows it, look like at 4 a.m.”
- What drew you to the particular angle you explored in your essay?
I wanted to write a story about a sex worker who wasn’t waiting to be saved. Stephanie chose this work at 19, and it’s paid for real things in her life, including her son’s school and her own degree. I was drawn to the contrast between her street, which she knows completely, and the one night she steps into a world that isn’t hers, because that contrast let me show her competence in both places.
- Did writing this essay change or deepen your own perspective on the topic?
Yes. Writing Stephanie made me think harder about how rarely we let working women, especially women in stigmatized professions, be portrayed as skilled. She is someone who reads a room, negotiates her boundaries, talks her way out of a sticky situation, and has goals that need to be met. She also reminded me how much craft actually goes into work we don’t usually undervalue.
- If readers remember just one idea from your piece, what would you want it to be?
That a woman can be fully in control of her hours, her body, and most importantly her choices, even inside work the world judges her for. And this control doesn’t require her story to end in rescue or ruin.
- Complete the sentence:
I hope my writing makes people see women, especially sex workers navigating the city at night, as whole and capable, not always as a cautionary tale.
