Teen Vogue Handbook: The Second Edition

 

Exciting news! Last Friday the second edition of The Teen Vogue Handbook: An Insider's Guide to Careers in Fashion launched! Our team worked tirelessly on it for months, and I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to interview the likes of Chanel Iman, stylist Micaela Erlanger, our very own Andrew Bevan, the Man Repeller's Amelia Diamond, and Nasty Gal's creative director Lina Kutsovskaya for the guidebook. There are some truly insightful profiles on some very talented men and women, and you can even get a glimpse of me on the page featuring Teen Vogue's most liked Instagrams! Who knew? (I sure didn't until I opened the book.) Buy yourself one here for good karma and even better advice.

Talk about coming full circle. When I first decided I wanted to be in the magazine industry and move to New York, I was told that the Teen Vogue Handbook was the first thing I needed to buy. I remember picking up a used copy at Strand Bookstore on a rainy day and pouring over it at a nearby coffee shop (I was unemployed and had plenty of time for these kinds of things). I remember a few tips that stuck with me: Karl Lagerfeld pointing out the significance of knowing more than one language (I immediately signed up for Chinese classes again), the importance of having a strong personal brand (I went home and wrote 5 blog posts), and the overall message that you just need to get out there and experience as much as you can as soon as you can. Now I work with many of the people featured in the book, and it's mind-blowing how far I've come since then. Not a day goes by that I don't walk past the Teen Vogue sign on my way into work and think, "Woah, wait, HOW did I get here again??".

Life's just crazy that way, I guess.

A 4-Day Work Week? Sign Me Up.

I just read the thought-provoking article, "5 Reasons It’s Time for a 4-Day Work Week," and I must admit, I'm convinced. The piece's main stance is that a shorter work week will make people a) happier and b) more productive. The idea is simple: By compacting the hours we have to get work done, we'll waste less time and be more efficient. And imagine having a FULL three days to reset, relax, explore, and live. A few US company have already employed the tactic and report "increases [in] both output and morale." There's also the interesting point that one less day of running electricity in millions of office spaces and one less day of gridlocked commuting would positively impact the environment.

When I got my first full-time job in NYC, it was the middle of winter. As I accustomed myself to a 45-hour work week, not only was I dead tired by the time I headed home, but the lack of sunlight and freezing weather didn't leave much desire to go to the gym, much less socialize. Happy hours? Forget about it (both figuratively and literally ha). I began to realize that the only time I felt like I was doing something with my life was on Saturdays and Sundays. Friday nights didn't even count, because I would go straight home and fall into bed. I promise I'm not as lame as this is sounding! (Just kidding I totally am.)

Needless to say, summer in NYC is a whole other planet. Getting out of work when there's still sunlight left makes it feel like a crime to head home. I've shifted my routine so that gym time comes at 6am (groan) and the infectious joy of summer nights has made me start making plans after work. Revolutionary! Now I'm getting drinks with friends on Monday night, watching a movie with the roomie Tuesday night, heading to a rooftop party Wednesday night, hosting a dinner party Thursday night, and--lo and behold!- going out on Friday nights. Weekends are no longer my only window to fraternize, so I can take things outside the city. This past weekend I rented a car with some buddies and headed upstate to Dia Beacon and Storm King (instas below). Usually I would suffer insane FoMo leaving NYC for so long- but I knew that whatever was going on in the big apple could happen again tomorrow or the next weekend, and life as we know it would continue.

Now as much as that sort of digressed into an argument against the before-mentioned case, my point is that even if you are living your work week to the fullest, it's still exhausting. Having three days to catch up on rest, visit family, or just learn to exist in a new city would raise one's level of living dramatically. Several other highly-productive countries already have the Mon-Thu rule, so let's say we give it a shot, eh?

Things I could do more of with more time: art appreciating.

Gold Heads

As many of you know, I went to Wash U to pursue a sculpture major. I ended up switching to fashion because sculpture is something that, no matter what, I'll always be doing regardless of my job. Fashion, however, was something new to learn and would open many more doors than sculpture would. Since moving to New York, I've been searching for the right career path in fashion, but sculpture is something I've consistently kept up with. I rented some studio space in Brooklyn in a beautiful facility with a wonderful community, and I've been spending a lot of my free-time there. I've working on sculptures that are a smaller version of what I did in high school/college  because I just don't have the storage for any more 5 foot sculptures! The process of making these guys is a rather long-winded one, as I have to sculpt them, wait for them to dry, bisque fire them, apply the white glaze, fire them again, then wait until I have enough of them to fill the small kiln (which I have to rent out) to high-fire for the gold lacquer. So all in all it's taken several months to complete all of these.  

Being in studio is my happy place as I just sculpt while going back and forth between listening to NPR to catch up on world news and serious deep-thinking time. The only problem now is forcing myself out into the polar vortex to get there. I'm also trying to decide/figure out the whole "making money" thing as a sculptor- so let me know if you have any ideas! (There are a few more pictures over at my website)

 

Working for Free

 I would just like to have a quick chat about the Condé Nast-internship debacle. To bring you up to speed, Condé Nast (big, important magazine company) announced last week that they are ending their famed unpaid internship program. This Refinery 29 article showed some of the reactions from people in the industry and I must say, for the most part, they make me angry. 

A reaction that makes sense:

One that does not and makes my blood boil:

To address the downside of terminating this program: Yes, having an internship at a magazine is a wonderful way to make connections, gain experience, and be in the right place at the right time for when an entry-level position opens up. It's a way to get your foot in the door without needing to have an excessive amount of previous experience. 

HOWEVER, there is NO reason why this "opportunity" should be unpaid. The industry's outlook on interns is that they are lucky to be there, they should be thankful that they've been given this chance  and they should feel fortunate and grateful. 

But let's look a little closer, shall we? Interns are completely exploited to do free work for these companies. FREE! Why is the practice of someone working 8-12 hours a day 5 days a week for a company without any compensation being seen by our society as the company doing them a favor? 

To have a full-time, unpaid internship means that you have to have the funds to pay rent in NYC, food and transportation without an income. The concept is 100% geared towards wealthy, privileged college students who can afford to do so. So then you might say that no one is forcing you to get an internship. But guess what? False. Internships are such a norm now that no one would hire you, even for an entry-level position, unless you have several of them on your resume. The worst part of this all is that, because unpaid internships are technically illegal, they "pay" you in college credits. So what if, say, you graduate college and still don't have enough internship experience (me)? Tough luck. No one will take you on because you are no longer applicable for college credit. But no one will hire you because you don't have enough internship experience. So this horrible cycle continues until you find a place that will let you intern ("let"??) for free.  

So moral of the story is, I completely support this movement against internships. Obviously Condé Nast will still need someone to go get their coffee, make copies and pack boxes, but whoever is doing that will now be getting paid. With such a huge corporation making a stand (not that this was a political statement on their part, more of a way to prevent future law suits) this will completely change the whole culture of pre-career careers. What will be the new internship? Will we revert back to the days of yore when you had an apprenticeship and learnt from Masters in a symbiotic relationship to hone your craft and add to their inventory? 

Last weekend I attended Teen Vogue Fashion University, and hearing the reaction from the other girls on this subject in our Facebook group was insane. The majority of them are in highschool and went to this workshop in the hopes of finding a way into the Teen Vogue internship program (a Condé Nast publication). Networking to the extreme, these girls were ravenous for tips on how to make your resume stand out, which the Teen Vogue editors were giving plenty of advice (because little did they know). Following the announcement, these girls were making the interns who are currently suing Condé Nast the enemies! In reactions not unlike slut-shaming, they were blaming the victims of exploitation as the demons who "ruined" it for the rest of them.  One girl wrote, "Two self-righteous people single-handedly ruining it for everyone else the industry. Sigh." Another added "This is so frustrating, like thanks so much to all the whiny lazy interns who made this possible" and "So many important people in the fashion industry started out as interns. This is horrible."

Well guess what, people ADAPT. This is not the end of the world, it will just mean that more PAID entry-level positions will open up that will need less experience.  

Agree? Disagree?

The Only Time Its Okay to Put Your Feet on the Table

Earlier this week, I conducted an interview for NYLON. Considering this was the first legit interview I'd ever given, I was afraid. I was very afraid. Okay so yes, it was a phone interview and yes, it was from the safety of my apartment. But still. Baby steps. 

 The morning of the interview, as I was sipping my "focus" tea and twitching uncontrollably, I was perusing TED Talks (as one does) and came across a little nugget of wisdom (and science!) that I actually used before my interview. And guess what? It worked.

Amy Cuddy gave a TED Talks on the power of body language. Now, I'm sure our parents have all grilled into our heads not to slump, cross our arms etc etc during an interview because it sends out messages of disinterest and boredom. But Cuddy discusses the influence your body language has over your own perception of self. If you don't have twenty minutes to watch the talk, that's understandable. But you close out of this to go watch a 30 minute puppy video, let's recheck our priorities (however, if its a puppy emergency, Ariella has some recommendations).  The long story short is that if you stand in power-poses before an interview, your testosterone levels will rise and you will carry yourself with more confidence and self-assurance. Well, count me in! Where were TED Talks when I was in middle school?!?

Twenty minutes before my phone interview, I'm literally walking around my apartment with my arms in the air, putting my leg up on objects Captain Jack-style and attempting to trick my body into thinking that I'm a BO$$. 

When my phone rang, I calmly answered and gave the best first interview of my life.

 Check it out below. Or, you know, don't.

P.S. If you don't watch the video, at least watch the 15 second clip at 1:25. Burrrrrn.

Want more TED Talks? This one is also really good: Jane McGonigal: The Game That Can Give You Ten Extra Minutes of Life 
(Just don't mind her outfit because I honestly cannot explain what she was thinking. Those boots.)