What's Your Story?

So why are you working your butt of this summer as an unpaid intern? Below you'll find my reason and my story for why I am. **Note: This is the essay I wrote to win the $1,000 of Ed's Trust Fund. (copyright is mine) Use it as an example to write your own 500 word essay and apply!


Tired Of Not Knowing What
You’re Supposed To Do With Your Life?
Find Out How One Girl’s Teenage Tantrum
Turned Into Her Life’s Calling


My obsession with magazines all started at the dramatic age of 13 when my dad grounded me for two weeks for throwing a temper tantrum, and a phone, at a family dinner. No one at dinner that night thought that my dad’s punishment would transform his little girl into a fashion maven.

After spending the first two days of my so-called solitary confinement of life without phone or friends, I decided I needed something to fill up my time. That’s when my childhood creativity kicked in and transformed my blank bathroom walls into a canvas. Every day I would come home after school and start ripping out fashion stories I loved, celebrities with unique looks, and models I adored (I knew Adriana Lima was going to be big even back when she was doing editorials for Seventeen!). Due to my precise cutting skills and refusal to post pictures just to fill up space, this project took way longer than two weeks. Even longer than two years. My grand project took a total of three and a half years.

Ever since I had my bathroom wall epiphany, I knew that I was meant to work in the industry, but I still didn’t quite know how my talents converted into a title on a masthead. In high school I found my fit as the editor-in-chief of the yearbook and up until my third year in college I thought it was my calling. After spending a summer as a fashion intern at Glamour, my passion for photography and fashion was revived. But I didn’t quite see myself as a Market Editor. So I poured through fashion blogs, magazines, and even Anna Wintour’s biography to find my place in the industry. That’s when I discovered Stylist by Sarah Mower. I devoured the pages of photography and learned how some of the world’s greatest stylists also served as creative directors. I finally understood how my eye for a certain look, my intuition about certain trends, my background with InDesign and my love of art all pointed towards a career as a creative director.

Since this “aha!” moment I have started to piece together my idea of what makes a good creative director. I changed my plans to study abroad in Madrid and begged my parents to let me study art and French in Paris. For five months I immersed myself in the French culture because I know a good director must understand the ins and outs of the world’s fashion capital. I now look at the world through different eyes. I am always on the lookout for prime photo shoot locations and look to architecture, paintings, and trends to inspire new designs and angles for a magazine.

My dad’s normal solution for handling a boy-crazy 13-year-old turned out to be a not-so-normal event in my life. My love for fashion magazines has taken me on a winding journey. And just when I think I have it all figured out and know what to do with my life, I am introduced to new aspects of the industry that I love. Yet I know that I am on the right track to living the life of my dreams.