Interview with NESN Writer Lauren Campbell
It’s not many girls’ dream to grow up reporting on the Boston Red Sox for a living.
For New England Sports Network (NESN) Content Editor Lauren Campbell, that is exactly what she wanted years before her dream became a reality. After graduating Marlboro High School in 2008, Campbell had her entire future ahead of her, and she had no idea where it would take her. She contemplated with a career in radio, television, and other areas of journalism. Her experience attending the Connecticut School of Broadcasting before transferring to Framingham State University helped set her up to become very involved in FSU’s student newspaper The Gatepost, which she would eventually become Sports Editor for.
“It really gets you prepared for like big dogs, like covering high school sports professionally,” Campbell said.
Campbell found herself working for NESN IN 2018 after several gigs throughout and after college. “I was finally doing at 28 years old what I thought I was going to be doing at 22. It was so much fun.” Campbell worked at Comcast SportsNet New England (now NBC Sports Boston) and This Week in Worcester before working at NESN.
Campbell also hosts a podcast called Locked on Red Sox, Monday-Friday with Boston Herald Sports columnist Jason Mastrodonato.
“You’re able to build relationships and that’s how you get the good stories. It’s how you get a cool angle of the story. We get to know them as people and players and coaches,” Campbell said, describing her position at NESN where she works closely with professional athletes.
From being a young girl watching sports all her life to living out those childhood dreams, Campbell does not fit the stereotype of a sportswriter. With sports being dominated by men on and off the field, being a woman in the industry has it challenges.
On being a woman in male-dominated sports industry, Campbell had a lot to say. She explained various instances on social media where she has gotten backlash from trolls, calling into question her qualifications from merely a typo. She spoke from personal experience that while many say to ignore those types of people online, human nature proves it difficult to turn a blind eye to such things. Instead, Campbell explains she responds, killing them with kindness, and not stooping down to their level.
“Thanks for the click, have a great day,” is one of Campbell’s preferred responses.
Overall, Campbell see’s being a woman as an advantage. It gives women the opportunity to prove the plethora of doubters wrong with ease, she explains. Whatever the reason for her passion and drive for the world of sports, Lauren Campbell is most definitely making other women in sports, and more importantly her younger self, very proud.
