Being rejected for a job or an internship happens to everybody at some point, no matter the profession. But in the journalism world, rejection is almost a rite of passage for young budding writers, as 21-year old Krystal Grow learned recently.

But Grow is an ambitious and aggressive intern for the North Adams Transcript in North Adams, Mass. and she was not about to silently sulk about her latest rejection. No, for better or worse, she decided to do something about it. And that's how she's become a story herself, a young champion to some and a whiny little kid to others.

"People are reading my writing, and they're not just reading, they're reacting," Grow wrote in a recent column for the Transcript. "It's absolutely terrifying and incredibly exciting. Maybe being an intern isn't the best job, but getting a response, for good or ill, from professionals, who were moved to words by your writing, is the greatest payoff a young journalist could hope for."

Grow's story started last month when she wrote a column for the Transcript detailing her recent rejection for a summer internship with Spin magazine. Coming off as cocky, confident, aggressive, naive and heartbroken, Grow's piece detailed not only her rejection, but also her persistence in trying to find out a reason why she couldn't get the job and Spin magazine's delayed (and annoyed) response.

"Last week, I was flatly rejected by Spin magazine for a summer internship in New York City," Grow wrote in her original column. "The rejection e-mail from Spin's editorial coordinator said something like 'after thoroughly reviewing all applications, we have come to a decision, and unfortunately you have not been selected.' All I heard was, 'you suck.'"

Grow talks about her passion for music journalism and how she had fulfilled all the necessary requirements. "I assumed I was a shoo-in and started looking for apartments in the East Village in my spare time," she wrote.

She also told friends she was moving to New York for the summer and tried to get a few of them to move with her. And then the rejection letter came and she was devastated. "I went home and cried until I passed out, then woke up and cried some more," she wrote.

After a while, though, Grow got angry and a little curious. She decided to pursue Spin and find out exactly why she had been rejected. After a couple weeks and a couple e-mail requests, a Spin official responded apologizing for the delay, critiquing her resume and telling her that she was being "snippy" in her request. And so Grow ended up signing on for another six month internship with the Transcript, which gave her permission to write the first person account.

Grow could not be reached for this story and Spin officials did not return phone calls. But the story doesn't end with Grow's column. When pundit Jim Romenesko caught wind of the story, he posted Grow's column on his popular Poynter Institute Web site. And the response was overwhelming.

Journalists from all over the country have expressed their opinions about the young journalist and her column, some supporting her for her courage and persistence and others criticizing her for over-confident and "whiny" column.

"This is precisely the problem with Ms. Grow and most of today's up-and-coming journalists," wrote Dean Tomasula in a posted response. "They think just because they 'love' the subject and really want the job, they should get it. Her attitude conveyed the message: 'I love music, I read Spin and you should give me this internship.' That's fine, but it does not demonstrate an aptitude toward good journalism."

"Why all the pounding on the poor kid," wrote Peter Goodman on the same message board. "You think she didn't realize that she had been na�ve? When she wrote about how she thought she was a shoo-in and had six - count them - six whole clips, and cried and cried and cried, that sounded like a neat bit of irony from someone looking back on her younger, dumber self. In fact, on the evidence, Krystal Grow is a good writer. On the self-analysis, she is learning about herself and the real world. From the willingness to hang herself out to dry, she's got guts."

Still, many questioned her choice to write a column about the incident and then post it online, where, in this day and age, word spreads quickly. As one reader wrote, "that sound you hear is 1,000 bridges burning."

In response to all of the discussion over her piece, Grow recently wrote another column, defending her original piece and explaining that she is not the arrogant, whiny, melodramatic young writer that she has been made out to be.

"Yes, I am inexperienced," she wrote. "I am, after all, only an intern. Yes, my reaction to rejection was immature and I'm embarrassed that everyone saw (or read) me cry. But I am not arrogant. There is a fine line between arrogance and confidence."

Grow goes on to write about her appreciation for the support some industry professionals have shown her as well as her surprise at the sometimes stinging criticism.

"Professional journalism is a tough game to play, and I am still in training," she wrote. "I am entitled to make mistakes, and will face criticism on countless occasions, but I will learn how to handle it. I won't, however, disguise my reactions to certain situations to seem older, more experienced or less emotional. I am a 21-year-old college student and intern, and I am deeply passionate about my writing."

Grow hopes that is enough to keep her out of "rejection" piles at newspapers across the country.