Anna Moors: "I want to tell stories that count"

"My mother attached great importance to me growing up politically informed and mature," Moors mentions. It was her early development of political awareness that prompted her to get involved while she was still at school. "The desire to get involved has been with me my whole life," explains Moors. Away from her traditional career in school politics - she was active as a class and school representative and on the student council - she submitted an application to her home town of Herzogenrath to declare a climate emergency, which the town not only declared, but has been acting on ever since. Identifying with the values and the idea of social democracy, Anna Moors also joined the SPD. "But I never held any far-reaching offices, instead my focus was on getting involved locally and experiencing democracy in a party," explains Moors.

Her involvement in school politics brought her into contact with political science. A teacher, who had recognized how much energy and enthusiasm Anna Moors brings to everyday school life, nominated her for the German Student Academy programme. She attended the course "#Politics: From the news to online activism". "I already knew beforehand that I wanted to study. But it wasn't until the Student Academy that it became clear that I wanted to study political science," says Moors.

So she applied three semesters in advance for a place on the PAIR Bachelor's course at ZU. "I also decided to study at ZU because it was important to me not to commit myself to one discipline, but to enjoy as much freedom of choice as possible," adds Moors, who was the first and only one in her family to go to university.

Between finishing secondary school and starting university, Anna Moors completed an internship in the office of an SPD member of parliament. "In conversations with friends, I had noticed that they were very interested in taking a look behind the scenes of the German Bundestag. That gave me the idea of starting my own TikTok channel called Hinterzimmerpolitik (Backroom Politics) to report on my daily work as an intern and thus give my generation a better understanding of everyday political life in the Bundestag," reports Moors, who not only achieved six-figure views with her stories, but also received the "Golden Blogger" award in the "Best Political Blog" category. And yet she admits that it is not in her nature to constantly put herself in the spotlight. This realization, her studies and new projects ultimately led her to deactivate the TikTok channel.

By then, however, the channel had attracted enough attention - including that of a well-known political consultant, who in turn tipped off the head of the newsroom at the Willy Brandt House, Carline Mohr. However, Anna Moors was unaware of this when she asked a ZU alumna about potential practice coaches and the name Carline Mohr was also mentioned. At a meeting between Moors and Mohr in Berlin-Kreuzberg, an agreement was reached: while the former agreed to join the campaign team of SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz, the latter agreed to provide the ZU student with advice and support as a practical coach - including the advice to work as a freelance communications consultant. And that is exactly what Anna Moors has been doing for just over three years. She has now advised more than 50 members of the Bundestag, the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, various state parliamentary groups and individual MEPs on their public relations work. "Being self-employed has taught me a high degree of self-organization and given me a feel for the challenges and opportunities of strategic communication," notes Moors.

Anna Moors' role in the 2021 Bundestag election campaign included accompanying Scholz at public events, preparing content for social media and placing it in a way that was appropriate for the target group. "During this time, I learned that every person has an interesting story - and how to tease it out of them," says Moors, who moved to the office of SPD member of parliament Armand Zorn a few months later as a research assistant for public relations. In the meantime, she also worked as PR manager for the activist group EndEndoSilence, which campaigns for better care for those affected by endometriosis.

In order to gain an economic perspective on public relations, Anna Moors is currently working as a student trainee for a strategic communications consultancy. At the same time, she regularly writes a column for the specialist magazine politik&kommunikation on topics that concern her as a young woman in the industry. "With the column, I also want to articulate my demands on the industry and initiate a discussion about the fact that the sovereignty of interpretation of our work should not only lie with those who work in management, but also with those who work at an operational level," explains Moors. Anna Moors and Nina Weise founded the Young Political Communicators Club (YPCC) to create a space for young communication talents to get to know, challenge and support each other. This includes networking events as well as the first mentoring program for political communicators in Germany.