Why It Took Me 4 Years To Break Into Editorial

Spoiler Alert: It Was My Own Fault

I started my editorial career in 2017 at the age of 25, unfortunately. If I was a tad bit more ambitious, less shy and a little less lazy, I’m sure I could have landed a job sooner after I graduated from college in 2013. So what stopped me?

Honestly, I was running from rejection. I remember I had this elaborate plan to email all of the top magazines I wanted to work for to get my foot in the door, but as my graduation date loomed closer and closer the emails just never seemed to happen. Looking back, I recognize my procrastination for the anxiety that it was, but at the time it just looked like I wasn’t taking care of business. So I never sent the emails, graduated and reported to work at my retail job as usual for the next 4 years.

Now during this time, I didn’t NOT do anything pertaining to my future career. There were moments of intense longing to do anything that was not retail, so I landed a few paid internships and wrote for my friend’s fashion magazine occasionally. But, it really wasn’t until I finally sat myself down and committed to applying to ONLY editorial jobs that my career officially started.

You see, when I was younger and avoiding rejection I thought I had all the time in the world to start my career. So, I put things off for longer than I should have. When I finally started applying for editorial jobs in Chicago, I got an Assistant Editor job at Associated Publications writing for Sophisticate’s Black Hair and Sophisticate’s Hairstyle Guide in less than six months.

I swear that quick turnaround was God, the universe or whatever you call it, telling me to not get in my own way again and so far I’ve tried to stick to that. It’s been 5 years as a full-time writer/editor and now I’m ready to tackle my next scary career hurdle…freelancing. 😂