Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Class of 1994

anderson-lopez-outsideWho else but a Williams alum could have written the lyrics to “Frozen”? The evidence is all there. Only a former Ephlat could imagine really belting it like Elsa. Only the beneficiary of our distribution requirement could work into a Disney song the word “fractals.” And only someone who had endured four Williamstown winters could write that the cold didn’t bother her anyway. A double major in theatre and psychology, you instilled in your protagonists—both of them female—with inner lives hard at work on reconciling desires to conform and to flee and on learning how to harness one’s inner powers. Those themes, conveyed in your words, certainly resonated—with nine-year-old girls to be certain, but by no means just them. “Frozen” has become the highest grossing animated film in history, and its album hit number one on Billboard and was number one on iTunes in more than thirty countries. Professionally that’s hitting a high C. Frozen is now part of the world’s popular culture. And when it comes to writing earworms . . . uh, I mean uplifting, you-go-girl songs destined to be heard everywhere forever, it looks like you’re the queen.