Alumni Spotlight: Lydia Torres, Class of ’23

What are you up to right now?

I’m currently working as an Associate Marketing Manager at a toy company called Playmates Toys. Playmates Toys manufactures toys for brands like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Winx Club, Godzilla x Kong, and other popular IP. Each day there is different, and I appreciate that my position provides a variety of tasks. Sometimes I’m writing instructions for a new playset and other days I’m on a Comic Con panel about upcoming toy releases. On a more personal note, my husband and I will be moving to Stanford this fall as he starts law school there. I’ve lived in Los Angeles for most of my life, and I’m excited for the new experience. I’ll also continue to work remotely for Playmate Toys while there.

How did your Creative Writing major prepare you for the challenges and opportunities in your current field?

Since beginning my job, I’ve learned that marketing is all about communication, whether that be within your team or consumer-facing. As an English major, my classes prepared me to communicate clearly and creatively. Those skills have translated into almost everything I do at my job.

For example, if I’m asked to create content for an upcoming marketing campaign, I know how to edit captions’ tones so that they best fit the demographic. Something geared towards a younger audience on YouTube will be very different from a post for older Reddit users.

Marketing also involves working with many other teams for packaging, licensor approvals, sales, product development, and more. From workshops, I learned how to positively receive feedback and apply it in a meaningful way. Similarly, I know how to provide constructive criticism to others if needed.

And of course, my major taught me how to creatively write. I use that skill to communicate storylines and features on action figure packages, new campaign ideas in a PowerPoint, or even daily emails.

It’s impossible to compile everything I learned in my major into one short response, but I felt it prepared me to succeed in my field and many more. It’s difficult to think of a career that would not be benefited by the knowledge of how to best analyze and communicate the written word.

Based on your experiences, what advice would you give to students feeling uncertain about their post-graduation path?

In my own experience, I’ve seen that the skills learned in an English major are very flexible and can be applied to many different jobs. When I started thinking of what career I’d like to pursue during my undergrad, I initially thought I was limited to roles like editor, publisher, writer, or something similar. While those are all great careers, that list is pretty short. My advice would be to look outside writing-specific jobs and you’d be surprised by how applicable your major is. For example, my mother studied English, and she’s now a teacher. My aunt also studied English, and she’s a therapist. Some of my former classmates have become social media managers, museum curators, and health educators. Though these paths may not be explicitly tied to writing, they all use the lessons learned in the English major.

Are there any specific courses, professors, or resources within the English department or USC that you’d highly recommend to current students?

The classes I looked forward to the most at USC were my writing workshops. I don’t think I truly realized how lucky I was to get constant feedback on my writing from such talented peers. I would recommend to current students to stay in touch with the classmates in your workshops. I still meet monthly with some of the people I met in those classes, as we continue to write outside of work.

While the English major courses were always my favorite, I tried to push myself to try something new during my time at USC. I ended up taking a Photoshop class that I thought would be a fun couple of credits, and I surprised myself by using those skills almost every day. I’d recommend trying something a little different that could complement the other skills you’re learning in the English department, because USC has a lot of interesting courses to offer.