When children are asked “What would you like to be when you grow up?” the answers are often police officer, firefighter, teacher or astronaut. Not for Tara-Lynne Pixley. Her childhood career choices were dancer, photographer or marine biologist.

However, after an intense high school chemistry class, her dreams of studying whales and dolphins on an exclusive island with her 50 children soon vanished.

Now, the 21-year-old Atlanta native is pursuing another love -- photography. As a child, she admired the photos in National Geographic magazine. These days she is the photo editor for The Famuan, the campus newspaper at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, Fla., and will be the copy desk chief for Journey, the campus magazine.

Pixley’s experience in journalism has expanded her perception of photography. Though she appreciates photojournalism, she realizes that portrait photography is her true passion.

“I don’t like to adhere to all the rules of reality,” said Pixley, a senior philosophy major with a minor in journalism.

Her interest in journalism began in high school, the Dekalb School of the Arts in Atlanta. There, she founded The Edge, the school’s newspaper.

During her junior year, she started freelancing for The Atlanta-Journal Constitution and other media companies. After graduating from high school as valedictorian and a National Achievement Scholar, Pixley attended FAMU for her undergraduate degree in hopes of going to graduate school..

Pixley admits that the hardest part of having so many hobbies is figuring out how she is going to manage doing everything she enjoys.

For now, Pixley plans to focus on her summer internship as a copy editor for the Daytona Beach News Journal.

MADIA BROWN