Tiana Sirmans is always looking to gain knowledge about her chosen profession, journalism.

I met the 8-year-old TIME For Kids reporter after giving a “Pitch the Press” presentation at Wilmington Library, where she asked me about Technical.ly’s youth coverage during the Q&A — very professionally, with notepad in hand. That was when I realized that this wasn’t just a kid along for the ride with her mom, Tiffany. Tiana meant business.

So how did a young girl from Pleasantville Elementary in New Castle become a national reporter for the junior version of one of the nation’s top magazines? We asked her five questions about it:

1. How did you become a TIME for Kids reporter?

I had lots of experience interviewing people and asking people questions, and from there I knew I really wanted to go into journalism, so my mom and me started looking for ways to get me more exposure into journalism. We came across the TIME for Kids contest, and from there I had to do two assignments. I also had to do a video about the “Top 5 Amazing Things About Myself,” which were: I’m a great listener, my curiosity, I can do baking and have a jewelry line, and one of my favorite things to do is hula hoop and read, which I call hulareading, and I invented it myself.

They really loved my articles, and so I became one of 10 kid reporters for TIME magazine for kids, out of 300 entries across the country.

2. What has been your favorite story/experience being a TIME for Kids reporter?

One of my favorite stories was interviewing the co-director of Disney’s new documentary “Penguins,” because one of my dream jobs was to go to Antarctica to cover penguins. So I finally got a chance to do my dream job. And one of my favorite experiences was learning cinematography.

3. What would be your dream story?

I’m a big fan of Kevin Hart and I would really love to interview him, because we have things common, even with me being a kid — like his birthday is two days before mine, he has a single mom like me and he’s a hard worker.

4. Who have been your biggest influences?

My biggest influence has been my mom. For all that she’s done for me and helping to do TIME for Kids so that now I can be a journalist and report on all these different things — and with that, I’ve been able to meet so many different journalists and reporters that do what I do.

5. What do you have planned for the future?

I want to be a chef and I also want to start my own talk show, and I’m going to be doing some podcasts soon, so those are my main things.

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See Tiana in action here, as she interviews Chef Joyce on her Fresh Start with Joyce cooking tour in early April: