Television producer and journalist Khadijah Torbert recently decided to turn her journaling hobby into a business to help inspire people.

Her vision to start the journal business began after she graduated from Troy University in 2016, while she was struggling to find herself and heal from a devastating relationship.

“The vision for my journal line, ‘Worthy,’ started back when I was in college,” Torbert said. “I had a horrible breakup, and I really felt down about myself and I was just not feeling my best—I just didn’t know who I was after that breakup. One of my friends introduced me to the idea of journaling, which I used to do when I was younger. I got back into journaling in college and it helped me cope, heal — along with prayer — getting through that break-up and re-finding myself.”

Although Torbert had the vision of creating the journal line in 2016, it did not come to fruition up until four years after, in June 2020 to commemorate her birthday.

“I started research in November of 2019, I was trying to find answers to what it means to start a journal; like what are the processes, who do I need to get in contact with to build the materials, to get the content, and how do I get it into the hands of people,” Torbert said. “So, I researched all of that, and I officially launched [the journal line] this past June. I’m so proud of what it’s doing so far, it’s kind of blowing my expectations honestly.”

The Made Worthy Journal Notebooks currently include nine different journal types which are available on Amazon.

Like many others whose plans for the year got ruined due to COVID-19, Torbert also worried that the pandemic would affect the launch of her business, but she was able to get over it thanks to her mother.

“Back in January, I was determined to launch the business in June because it was my birth month. But then the pandemic hit in March and I was like, ‘Oh lord, I’m not going to be able to do it,’ but it was my mom who basically convinced me this is the time to do this,” she said. “We have all this civil unrest, inequality and the pandemic, and people will need a safe outlet to let out everything they are feeling, so they don’t go out and do something reckless. Those things resonated with me and were kind of the things that kept me going, and even if nobody had bought it, at least I would have known that I tried.”

Torbert is currently a news producer and reporter for WVUA 23 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

She began her career by joining the University’s broadcast news station, TrojanVision, as a sports reporter and she credits the news station for getting her prepared and setting her apart from her peers when it was time for her to start her career.

“TrojanVision prepared me and gave me hands-on experience when I interned in school and then in Tampa during the summer months at WFLA, where I got real hands-on experience with their very diverse sports reports team,” Torbert said. “And bringing that back to TROY literally [let me hit the] ground running in my senior year. Being able to produce a newscast before I graduated also set me apart, because without the experience I got from being in TrojanVision, I would have been more of a liability when I started to work for WVUA 23.”

To learn more about earning a Bachelor of Science in Multimedia Journalism at Troy University,  visit the program page on our website.