Who am I?
My name is Alva Nordström, born in 2003, and I grew up in Stockholm. I have been a journalism student at Södertörns University since January 2025 and plan to graduate in January 2028.
I love everything that journalism has to offer, but above all, it is radio journalism, covering society and photography that draws me to profession. As a child, I got an early introduction to the world of radio when I worked on the programme Tusen modiga frågor, where I worked on recording links. That was where something really clicked. I began to feel that voices can truly carry stories straight into someone else’s everyday life.
I haven always written. As a child, I wrote a new story almost every day, often with the classic and appropriately dramatic ending: ”and it was all a dream”. That says just enough about both my imagination and stubbornness, which still follows me in my work today.
I am incredibly curious about people, society and stories.
When I’m not working:
Even though a large part of my everyday life revolves around my journalism studies, I do actually have a life outside of my studies too.
Lately nature photography has become a major interest of mine. I love travelling to new places and heading out on walks without either a map or a route. Just me and a camera around my neck, photographing anything that catches my eye. It could be a mailbox, a sleeping bird or an empty street – everything can carry a story.
In my headphones, it is usually grunge or rock, but when I need a break from electric guitars and drums, I often switch to something calmer such as swedish radio stations P1 or P4.
I also have (like many others) a weakness for true crime. Give me a well-made documentary about a historical murder case and I will probably have watched the entire series before the day is over. After that comes a spontaneous presentation where we can discuss theories, motives and everything in between.
My hungry brain thrives when it has something new to explore. My interests and hobbies are therefore almost as numerous as the number of days in a year. Right now, genealogy takes up a lot of my time. There is something incredibly fascinating about being able to follow relatives’ lives through old church records and archival documents. The best feeling has to be when a person seems to disappear from the records, but after hours of research and searching, they suddenly reappear in another archive. Perhaps it is this very drive that also draws me to journalism. The dedication to keep searching until a story becomes clear.
Ten quick questions:
1. If your life right now were a newspaper headline, what would it be?
Journalism student survives yet another deadline: Coffee suspected to be the hero
2. What subject could you talk about for an hour without any preperation?
Some kind of historical crime, especially the major ones such as Ted Bundy or the Zodiac. There is much that isn’t talked about enough!
3. What is the most random fact you know by heart?
A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue
4. If you could interview a fictional character, who would you choose?
I would probably want to interview Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series and confront him about how he allowed a child to not only repeatedly put himself in mortal danger, but also allowed several attempts to be made on his life.
5. What is the strangest thing you have Googled in the past week?
Vitium Organ Cordis – It may sound completely incomprehensible, but it was a cause of death I came across during my genealogy research, and I needed to understand what it was.
6. What small thing in everyday life makes you unreasonably happy?
When I open the fridge and realise that I have prepared meals, so I won’t have to either buy ready-made food or stand there and cook.
7, If your friends were to describe you in three words, what would they be?
Caring, smart, funny – According to a reliable source.
8. What was your latest ”rabbit hole” on the internet?
Learning how to knit mittens as a beginner.
9. If you could only ask every person you met one single question for the rest of your life, what would it be?
If you had to eat the same dish for the rest of your life, what would you choose? We all know it has to be a Swedish shrimp sandwich! It has so many delicious ingredients that you can adjust however you like.
10. What would you want people to remember about you after meeting you once?
What a nice and attentive girl! I could have met her again! – It is incredibly important to me that people feel comfortable in my company, whether they are my best friend or someone I am meeting for the first time.