my unconventional career path to fashion writing
career q+a: how I graduated college with student loans, quit a career in public health, started making money from writing, and if I'd ever work at a magazine or publish a book...
When did you know you wanted to work in fashion?
When I was 15, I won a contest.
It was a competition that FIDM held for high schoolers. I only vaguely remember the details, but we had create a paper collage that represented your dream major at FIDM and write a paragraph about it. As a Project Runway nerd, I made a collage about my fashion design dreams with magazine clippings, illustrations, buttons and ribbons.
I was over the moon when I won. The prize was a free yearlong subscription to W Magazine and a $150 gift card to Urban Outfitters (that was a lot of money for a teenage girl at that time!).
I think that was the moment where fashion went from something elusive and aspirational to something that felt like it was in the cards for me. I know external validation from a contest may seem like a silly thing to put so much importance on, but I really remember that as a formative moment.
What did you study in school?
I went to a liberal arts college in Southern California and took classes in a pretty wide range of subjects! Except science—that was never my strong suit (I took Biology of Garden Plants to meet my degree requirement). I loved art history so much and applied to the summer internships at Sotheby’s and Christie’s once I was qualified to in my junior year but never got as much as an interview.
My diploma says I majored in Economics. Which is true but also feels funny, like an inside joke between me and myself. As the first in my immediate family to go to college, I felt a lot of pressure to succeed. I knew that I’d come out of it with $45K in student loans and that really influenced how I viewed my job options. I was scared of the financial burden and chose my first job largely because of the salary because I wanted to pay off my loans as soon as possible. My last loan payment will be next year when I turn 30. Kind of wild to think about.
How did you start getting paid fashion writing work? How does it pay compared to influencer brand work?
After a few months of self-publishing on Substack and posting my writing to Instagram, I started getting messages from brands who were interested in copywriting and editors who requested interviews for fashion stories. Like if I posted something about the bow trend, an editor might see that on Instagram think “oh, she could be a source to interview for a piece our magazine is covering on the topic.” I think fashion media as a whole is so relationship-based and my opportunities have come from connecting with people where there is mutual interest.
No one goes into writing for the money. A brand sponsorship pays much more than an article for the same amount of time I put into it. Most publications don’t have big freelance budgets. For example, a product-based brand that asked me to create a video recently had budget of $800. Compare that to an article…