“Get to Know Your Reporter” is a series of interviews we’re having with reporters & journalists covering topics that are both timely and relevant to our audiences. Our aim is to advocate for and highlight the issues that affect the children and families we serve, and one way is by providing information directly from experts in the field.

To launch this series, we are honored to have had the opportunity to sit down with Jenny Gold, a staff writer at The Los Angeles Times, covering the Early Childhood Development & Education beat.

Q: Thank you, Jenny, for your willingness to be interviewed. I’m sure as a reporter, being the interviewee isn’t the usual spot you’re in, but we’re thankful for your time and would like to learn more about you. Could you start off by telling us about your background in journalism?

I’m a long-time reporter, having covered health care for a large portion of my career, including maternal and child health. Over a year ago, I joined The Los Angeles Times to cover the early childhood beat, so now, I write exclusively about kids aged 0 to 5 and their families. It’s just such an amazing beat—so interesting, so varied and so important. 

Q: What motivates you to report on early childhood, education and development?

What drew me to the early childhood beat was becoming a mom myself. I have two little boys, ages two and five, both of whom I am completely in love with. Going through the experience of being pregnant, giving birth and then all the joys of early parenthood—including the ups and downs—have been so fascinating to me. This beat has given me the opportunity and the excuse to explore all these issues that I was already really interested in and passionate about and report on them.

Getting to both live and report on my beat has been such a gift. This experience provides a constant flow of ideas, a deeper understanding of child development and insights into the issues facing parents in finding education and childcare for their young children.

Q: What makes you most passionate about being a reporter?

I am passionately committed to truth and accuracy. I see so much misinformation out there, especially on social media, and I’m driven to correct the record and ensure that families, caregivers and people in power have the correct information to understand how things are playing out on both a state and national level, in terms of young children. 

As more research comes out, we know more and more about how important the early years of life are for a child’s brain development, happiness and even earning potential. The first few years are such a significant period in a child’s life, when more than a million neural connections are forming every second. It’s also a vital time for families who are fully hands-on in caring for their children.

It’s important to me that people have accurate information about what’s really going on during a time when families are just trying to figure out what’s best for them—and I think it can be hard to get accurate information about what’s really going on. I care deeply about making sure people have the information they need. 

There’s an education part to this to make sure that the truth is out there, and that families and caregivers are informed. The second piece to this is to hold the people in power accountable. We need to ensure that the changes and commitments we make to children and families are effective. 

There are always unintended consequences to policy decisions, and as a reporter, I track how these policies are impacting real people so that necessary adjustments can be made. That impact piece really matters to me. 

Finally, I want to alleviate the pressures and guilt that parents and caregivers often feel from the constant stream of information on social media about how to parent. I feel it myself. Parents log onto social media and there’s a constant stream of content telling you how to parent and what your child needs and what you’re doing wrong. Through my stories, I try to avoid that kind of pressure and guilt because it can be counterproductive. Parents are doing their best, and the last thing they need is someone wagging a finger at them.

Q: Are there any future projects you’re working on or plan to work on?

A: We’re coming up on an important election with a lot on the ballot locally, statewide and nationally. We’ll be following these developments closely and equipping our readers with information so they can be well-informed when they go to the ballot box.

Q: Is there anything interesting about yourself or any hobbies you’d like to share?

I secretly aspire to be a children’s book writer and hope to add that to my list of accomplishments someday. I love reading children’s books with my kids and would love to create some for others to enjoy. I’ve written a few but have never tried to get them published—they’re just sitting in my computer. I hope one day to have the opportunity to share them.

I’d like to note that I’m grateful to everyone who reads our stories on The Los Angeles Times and I hope our stories resonate with our audience. My door is always open and I love hearing directly from parents about their experiences with parenting, what they feel is important and what other issues they think I should be writing about, including questions they have and would like answers to.

Jenny Gold, staff writer at The Los Angeles Times can be reached at jenny.gold@latimes.com

 

See below for articles written by Jenny:

Phoning for Medi-Cal help? You may face hourlong waits

LAUSD faces penalty for transitional kindergarten staffing violations 

LAUSD wants transitional kindergarteners to test, parents in uproar

Should I enroll my child in Transitional Kindergarten?