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Rowan Chetner

Rowan J. Chetner is an opinion writer at the Tufts Daily. Rowan is a senior studying psychology and can be reached at rowan.chetner@tufts.edu.

Rowan
Viewpoint

Life is a bit, so you might as well commit

By Rowan Chetner | May 14

As I prepare to graduate from Tufts, I find myself reflecting on what I’ve learned over the last four years. I’ve learned an incredible amount academically, grown emotionally and matured as an adult. Still, the piece of knowledge that grabs my shoulders and shakes me, screaming, “I am the most important!” is my new, glimmering mindset. Over my time at Tufts, I have realized that our perceptions of “reality” are often fake. As such, why not commit to living authentically, despite what others may think of you?

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Viewpoint

JoJo Siwa: Misunderstood

By Rowan Chetner | February 6

JoJo Siwa is undoubtedly one of the most cringey — and hated — artists of our generation. Her music video for “Karma” earned the most dislikes of any YouTube music video by a female artist in 2024, and the comment sections on her songs are constantly filled with animosity, with comments such as, “Gonna play this at my funeral so people would be jealous im in the coffin” under her most recent music video for “Choose Your Fighter.” Although I agree Siwa is eminently cringy, I believe people are often too quick to judge her. Too many allow their discomfort with her persona to overshadow any attempt to understand her.

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Viewpoint

I’m happy I stopped trying to love my body

By Rowan Chetner | January 22

I spent the night before I left for winter break crying to my friends. I opened the floodgates, ignoring my anxieties and sharing my recent body image issues. I have come incredibly far with my efforts to eat and exercise in ways that nourish, not drain, my emotional and physical health. However, in the weeks leading up to winter break, whispers of inaccurate and harmful rhetoric about food and exercise from a little invisible creature had been getting louder, and its presence had been creeping upon my shoulder more frequently.

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Opinion

The problem with perfection

By Rowan Chetner | December 10

With December coming to a close and the headlights of 2025 racing toward us, many are beginning to think about their New Year’s resolutions. Some of us will be vowing to hit the gym, eat healthier or spend less time on social media. While these common goals are valid and attainable, the idea that we should transform ourselves into our ‘best possible versions’ is both damaging and impossible. This mindset of “personal optimization” is not just an issue during New Year’s. We live in an age where self-improvement is seemingly everywhere. An atmosphere of optimization feels as if it’s closing in, attempting to morph us into something we believe we should become.

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Viewpoint

We need to say ‘No’ to a ‘Just Say No’ drug education approach

By Rowan Chetner | November 7

Dying, nearly dying or jail — these were my only outcomes, I was told, if I were to have a sip of alcohol or experiment with any other drug. In high school health class, I remember playing an online simulation in which I was a high schooler attending a house party. Every time I decided to drink, the simulation would either flash forward to my avatar rotting in jail or lying in the hospital on death’s door. Everyone in my class was told this. All our unique identities, backgrounds and futures — all reduced to the consequence of one “idiotic” decision.

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Viewpoint

Our conversations about mental health: helpful or harmful?

By Rowan Chetner | October 25

Over the summer, I listened to an intriguing podcast titled “Are We Talking About Therapy Too Much?” In it, host Jerusalem Desmas talks with Dr. Lucy Foulkes, a researcher at the University of Oxford, who is concerned that movements around mental health awareness are not unilaterally beneficial. After listening to Foulkes’ argument, I began thinking more critically about the ways mental health is discussed in our generation and specifically at Tufts.

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