Valerie Schönian was born in 1990 in Gardelegen, Saxony-Anhalt, and grew up in Magdeburg. She studied in Berlin and was trained at the German School of Journalism in Munich. Afterward, she embarked on the blog project “Valerie und der Priester” for a year, then moved on to ZEIT, initially as an editor for the Leipzig office, and later as an author. Her books “Halleluja: Wie ich versuchte, die katholische Kirche zu verstehen” (2018) and “Ostbewusstsein: Warum Nachwendekinder für den Osten streiten und was das für die Deutsche Einheit bedeutet” (2020) were published by Piper Verlag. She lives in Berlin as a freelance author.