College graduate breaks even with comical diary

  Villard Books Angela Nissel is the
author of "The Broke Diaries."

By Andrea Dingman
Daily Bruin Contributor

Being broke pays.

Angela Nissel might not be putting her medical anthropology
degree from the University of Pennsylvania to much use, but
she’s already made quite a name for herself as the author of
“The Broke Diaries: The Completely True and Hilarious
Misadventures of a Good Girl Gone Broke,” just released from
Villard Books.

Nissel began writing “The Broke Diaries” when, upon
returning home from an internship with Dateline NBC in New York
City, she was greeted with an eviction notice on the door of her
Philadelphia apartment.

“I was so broke,” Nissel said in a phone interview
while on her book tour in Atlanta. “I had used all of my
little bit of savings at the internship to survive.”

Despondent, Nissel had to find a way to relieve the
pressure.

“I was just so broke down, I was like, let me start
writing,” Nissel said.

Nissel decided to begin chronicling her daily misadventures and
posting them on the Internet. The original “Broke
Diaries” can still be viewed online at
www.thebrokediaries.com.

“At first I was just writing it for myself, just a sane
way to keep perspective on things and make myself laugh,”
Nissel said.

The entries covered such unpredictable events as a fight over a
place in a Wal-Mart checkout line, being given a free food stamp,
swinging free meals, and getting free textbooks. The entries
quickly gained Nissel a loyal following.

“Once people started reacting to it, I started writing for
other people,” she said with a laugh. “I didn’t
take as much care to make sure everything was spelled right as it
was in the book, because I was like, “˜Man, you guys are
getting this for free!'”

Two years after Nissel began writing the diary, she received an
unexpected message from Villard Books, which wanted to publish her
journals.

While the overall tone of “The Broke Diaries” is
unabashedly comedic, Nissel’s motivation is not simply to
entertain.

“I want people to take the time and say, look, even if you
are broke and come from a poor family, at least you are in college
and that’s so much more than a lot of people get the chance
to do,” Nissel said.

“But also, I really tried to call attention to, without
minimizing the laughter, how a lot of college students take their
position for granted,” Nissel continued. “There are
students who are really struggling and can’t afford
textbooks, and people trip out over things like, “˜We should
have more choices in the cafeteria!’ It’s like, come
on, let’s get our priorities together here.”

Nissel’s next adventure begins this week as she moves to
the West Coast to begin a screenplay of “The Broke
Diaries.”

Far from being beyond her broke mentality, Nissel said she is
happy just enjoying the perks of her newfound fame.

“Hopefully we’ll get a movie or TV thing going but
for now, I’m enjoying this free meal stuff!” Nissel
said. “I’m in a hotel room right now, and I’m
like attacking the minibar. I can’t believe it, they
didn’t ask me for another credit card. I have Kit-Kats all
over the place; I would never eat this much if I were at home, but
it’s free!”

Nissel, however, will never forget the lessons she learned as a
broke college student who had to sweet-talk her way out of an
electricity bill and paying the entire 35 cents for a packet of
Ramen.

The lessons she learned while enduring such embarrassing moments
still help her in her newly un-broke life.

“I’ve taken from being broke in college, an
understanding of what’s important because now I’m out
in L.A., in Hollywood, and I’m dealing with a lot of people
who are still so sad even though they have all of the things that I
thought would make me happy when I was in college,” Nissel
said. “You don’t even want to be around
them!”

Nissel’s experiences living on Ramen and avoiding bill
collectors have taught her not to take life for granted and that
material possessions do not equal happiness.

“The things that really matter are just the little things
like friends and laughter,” Nissel said.