Have you ever flipped through a magazine and felt like they were missing your perspective on something? One girl, Ashley Falcon, felt like she and other plus-size women weren’t getting enough advice and support from fashion magazines. Rather than just complain, Ashley got going – she joined Marie Claire magazine as an intern, and soon she was penning her very own column for the publication. How did she make the leap from unpaid intern to full-time writer? One day, Ashley was sharing a cab with a Marie Claire editor. She mentioned that she had to work much harder than her more slender coworkers to find cute, appropriate work attire. The editor thought Ashley made a great point, and before long she was winning a huge following with her honest yet funny takes on plus-size shopping. The column, “Big Girl in a Skinny World,” is a hit.
Her first column addressed the gruelling quest for the perfect pair of jeans. She included three of her favourites that work for up to a size 24. That’s probably the first time those digits have appeared on one of the magazine’s fashion spreads unless it mentioned the model’s age.
The article is surprisingly and admirably frank. Ashley doesn’t just claim to be an expert, she offers her testimonial as an unashamed size 18: “I go through at least a few pairs of jeans every year, routinely wearing holes in the area where my thighs rub together.”
Ashley wrote that “It’s not easy being chic, but it’s an epic struggle when you’re a big girl.”
Oh, fashion interns. Not only does wanting to break into such a competitive industry usually mean you have to accept several unpaid or low-paid gigs in order to build up your resume, one fashion website is now pushing their free help even further. Fashionista.com, who (like many other fashion and beauty companies) relies on unpaid interns to help them cover the bases during Fashion Week, has asked their staff to go above and beyond the normal call of duty. Check out this section from a recent intern job ad they posted:
“We’ll need you at least two days a week until Fashion Week starts February 9th, during which we’ll need you more. How much more depends on your schedule, but you should be eager to skip class in favor of MILK. Our intern hours are officially 11 to 4, but again, once the week starts there’s no on/off.”
You heard that right, everybody: your unpaid job is WAY more important than your education! School is for losers! I’ll see you guys at fashion week.
Internships at fashion magazines are among the most competitive and sought-after internships in the world. However, one fashion intern might be in trouble after this story made rounds online:
Outrage at Grazia magazine after an intern sent out regularly to buy skinny lattes for the beauty desk announced at the end of her stint on the mag that she had in fact been buying them all full-fat ones. [Gawker via Media Monkey]
Or maybe she’s trying to subvert the paradigm and defeat the system from within? That would actually be awesome. If that’s true, she can be my intern anytime she wants.
Conan O’Brien was interviewed on his very own episode of Inside the Actor’s Studio, even though he isn’t an actor. One thing I really liked was that he talked about some non-showbiz stuff that he did, including a brief stint as a Capitol Hill intern. Conan worked for a short time as an intern to his district’s congressional representative, but his main memory of the experience was “making lots of copies.” He also cops to having had a bit of an entitlement problem, admitting he didn’t want to work his way up through the ranks but rather skip straight to the top. Oh, Conan, you adorable former “Simpsons”-episode writer, you. Why people preferred watching Jay Leno to this man is an absolute mystery to me.
I’ve always wondered what athletes do during their off-seasons. Do they play sports every day just to stay in shape? Do they hang out with their families? Take trips? Buy expensive things? Well, one athlete does something very unusual during his time away from the sport – Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Ross Ohlendorf spends his down time working as an intern for the US Department of Agriculture. And he doesn’t even get paid. Man, I feel like a total slacker right now compared to this guy, it’s not even funny.
Ohlendorf will be spending 20 hours a week this winter studying cattle diseases and their migration patterns. He works in a small room that he shares with another intern. “This one’s been, I’d say, the most exciting off-season I’ve had,” he said in an ABC News interview.
Bethany Cosentino loves music. Last year, she worked as an intern for cool music magazine Fader. Now, she’s the lead singer for up-and-coming band Best Coast and getting love from – who else?- her former employer:
She is now nearing full-on diva status with many, many jams under her belt and many more on the way. We don’t even remember that one time she FUCKED UP OUR COFFEE ORDER. JK we don’t send interns to get coffee, it’s the only time we get outside. But for real, if we had known Bethany, and her bandmate Bobb Bruno, were capable of music this good, we would’ve fired her instantly. “The people need to hear this!” we would’ve said as we pushed her out the front door. But we didn’t so we just enjoyed her non-musical presence for the short time she was here. And now we enjoy her presence wherever we can find it.
You can download a new Best Coast single at Fader or check out one of their videos after the jump.
Late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon needs an intern. But instead of sifting through boring applications and reading countless resumes, he’s decided to make the search a little more interesting. Potential interns have to submit a video of them saying nothing but “Oh, hello. I didn’t see you there.” Watch as some of the applicants get super creative with the contest:
Vanity internship alert! Walter Cronkite IV, the grandson of beloved anchor Walter Cronkite, has landed a fall semester internship at – try not to be too shocked here – CBS News. Specifically, he’s at their Washington, DC bureau. I assume this must mean that Cronkite (known to pals as “Walt”) attends college somewhere in the DC area, since he’s currently a full-time student. From Mediabistro:
At the memorial for his grandfather, Bob Schieffer talked about how Walt stopped in to his office the other day and asked, “What was it like when my grandfather was here?” Schieffer told him, “It was fun. We all wanted to be there.”
Fashion is a notoriously competitive field to break into – that’s why people are still willing to work for crazy bosses like Kelly Cutrone and Anna Wintour. However, it may be so competitive that even famous and/or rich people have to do grunt work. First, Tallulah Willis toiled away as an intern guest of the editors at Harper’s Bazaar instead of simply being handed a job or a column. Now, the New York Times reports that even famous Korean pop stars still have to start at the bottom:
Let us take the example of Sang A Im-Propp, who was a pop star in Korea before she decided, while on a business trip to New York, that she wanted to be in fashion. This was nearly a decade ago, and Ms. Im-Propp’s command of English was tenuous, but she enrolled at Parsons and in short order found herself an internship with Victoria Bartlett, a noted stylist and designer whom she admired and hoped would introduce her to the glamorous world of design. Instead, Ms. Im-Propp found it difficult to understand Ms. Bartlett’s heavy British accent, and at first she thought she had misunderstood just what Ms. Bartlett was asking her to do. Get cupcakes?
Not just any cupcakes, but the glossy butter-cream confections from the Cupcake Cafe, which is a four-block crosstown walk from Ms. Bartlett’s studio through the dodgy garment district, and it was freezing outside.
“It made me cry a lot,” Ms. Im-Propp said. “Vicky is an amazing artist, but she can be difficult.”
Could it be that fashion is actually becoming a great equalizer? I’d be a lot less demoralized about having to fetch coffee if the other lackey fetching coffee was a pop star. I’m just saying.
I get a lot of reader email, and I love getting to hear from the people who read STA. Sometimes that mail makes me laugh at a boss’ total stupidity or get mad about a backstabbing coworker, but only once has an STA reader email made me cry.
Yesterday, I wrote a post praising Elle magazine advice columist E. Jean for offering an internship to a homeless but incredibly smart and qualified woman who wrote in asking for career advice. It turns out that the letter-writer didn’t know her letter had been published or that she’d been offered an internship – until she read about it here on Save the Assistants.
“B.” is a regular STA reader/commenter and has submitted some great post ideas in the past. Her blog, The Girls’ Guide to Homelessness, is an engaging and eye-opening read. I’m so proud of her and her new gig (she starts her internship on September 1) and hope she’s able to take advantage of this great new opportunity. Mazel tov, “B.”, and your new boss sounds like one awesome woman. I’m honored to have had even the smallest part in helping this happen.
Fashion is a notoriously competitive field to break into – that’s why people are still willing to work for crazy bosses like 
