‘Gilmore Girls’: Why Rory Was Better Suited to Write Books Than Be a Reporter
Gilmore Girls set Rory up from the start as a brilliant young overachiever who was most likely to achieve every imaginable feat. Throughout the early seasons of the show, Rory is a straight-A student whose ambition was to go to an Ivy League school and achieve her dream of becoming a respected journalist.
Journalism becomes something she pursues the entire series, but along the way, it becomes clear that she might have been better off rethinking the decision. Here’s why Rory was better suited to write books than be a reporter.
Rory wasn’t aggressive enough for journalism
From the start of the series, Rory (and the show) makes it clear that the young star will achieve great things. During the first season, she tells the condescending Chilton headmaster Charleston that she looks up to foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour.
However, Charleston gave her a look that said he didn’t see Rory in such an aggressive role. He even offered her names of other journalists who covered lighter content on television. Rory was 15 years old at the time, which would have been excusable because she was still young. However, her meekness and overly cautious demeanor would have never worked in the fast-paced career that is journalism.
Additionally, Rory didn’t do anything to prove that she wanted to pursue journalism as much as she claimed. In the early seasons, viewers see Rory trying to actualize her dreams, but toward the later seasons, she slacks off. She proved she wasn’t cut out for journalism when she didn’t try very hard to understand how the career path worked.
During her first year at Yale, Rory didn’t apply for internships at various outlets to get a feel of things. With her grandfather’s connections, she would have easily gotten into any outlet or company she wanted.
However, she decided to spend the summer in Europe, getting away from her life after disrupting her ex’s marriage. She also spent a significant portion of her time doing side jobs that had nothing to do with journalism instead of learning the ropes, even when there were paid gigs available to someone with privilege like Rory.
Rory easily got discouraged
Rory had always ached to be a journalist since she was a teenager, but most of her passion appeared to lean toward her desire to travel and see the world and learn. Rory eventually got an internship at Logan’s dad’s paper. However, Mitchum Huntzberger wasn’t the easiest to deal with, and with his experience in the field, he tended to be very critical of those around him, including Rory.
While he was a jerk to Rory, she easily let him defeat her by telling her she didn’t have what it took to make it in the industry. This sent Rory into such a spiral she committed a felony and dropped out of school — largely because she got her first piece of harsh criticism from someone important.
Her inability to take criticism in a very fast-paced and competitive industry like journalism were all signs that she never had the passion or tenacity for pursuing journalism.
Rory would be better suited to write books
Rory valued knowledge and, as such, almost always had her head buried in a book. Whenever she wasn’t catching up on school work, she would be reading novels, most especially fiction. This makes her better suited to write long-form narrative works rather than feature stories or profiles.
When she confided in Jess about her aspirations of being a journalist, he was surprised, arguing that the career path seemed rough for her. He later on guided Rory toward writing a memoir about Stars Hollow and her relationship with her mother.
The book allowed her to exercise creative freedom and take things at her own pace. It also opened her up to different career paths and put her writing skills to good use, not to mention it was something she truly enjoyed.
