Katlyn Smith: Staff Writer
A DuPage native, Katlyn Smith began writing for the Daily Herald in 2011 after graduating with honors from the University of Notre Dame.
The coolest part of the job? That your stories might inspire an act of kindness, even from far away. One reminder of that came in 2018 after she wrote about a charismatic Glen Ellyn kid with brain cancer who wanted to grow up to become a Secret Service agent. The next day, she got an email from that very agency about sending the boy a Secret Service memento.
To borrow from the Proust Questionnaire, her current state of mind is optimistic thanks to the Keanu cameo in "Always Be My Maybe," a new season of "Stranger Things" and a new "Star Wars" movie. She also is the proud owner of a lightsaber.
Her interests are extensive and representative of an old soul. The following is not an exhaustive list, but she has a fondness for classic movies, the God quad at Notre Dame, Tommy Lee Jones, "Twin Peaks," drive-ins (s/o to the Triple XXX breakfast special), county fairs and Lin-Manuel Miranda's Twitter pep talks. She loves both cats and dogs.
She also can be heard occasionally singing Dolly Parton songs with her editor. So she'll leave you with this Dollyism: "The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."