1.Hi Lottie, tell us a bit about yourself – what are you studying, what are your interests?
I’m a third-year Classical Literature and English student. I adore travelling, but during university-time I normally amuse myself with reading, baking and writing… I’m the Managing Editor for the Human Rights Journal as well as the co-editor for Lippy. I think this basically sums up the kind of things I’m interested in!
2.Tell us about how you first got involved with Lippy.
I started writing for Lippy when I saw the society advertised in the Union in my first year. I remember going on the website and loving the kinds topics and issues covered (everything from fashion to politics) and being so impressed by the standard of writing that was being produced. I also spent quite a lot of my time in hospital that year due to medical reasons; I used Lippy as a creative outlet to keep me involved with the University, despite not being able to attend lectures that often.
3.What made you decide to run for the Co-Editor position?I applied for the role of Political Editor at the beginning of my second year on a whim, just because I felt that I had nothing to lose! I didn’t think I’d get the position but I thought the application and interview process would probably be beneficial to me in the future… luckily I got the role though! The following semester I went through a similar thing and applied for the Print Editor role for the summer 2012 print edition! I felt that I was gradually becoming more and more a part of the society and I had so many ideas for the magazine that I decided to just go for it and apply as Editor! I’m so glad I did; all of us on the committee didn’t really know each other that well to begin with and now we’ve all become really close.
4.What does the role entail?
This is a self-learnt process and I think Scout (the other Editor) and me are constantly discovering more about what our role actually entails. I find that I’m constantly glued to my phone, checking emails or Twitter. I think I must check the website at least three times a day. The committee help to coordinate the Marketing meeting, who are in charge of promoting the society and magazine. We coordinate the Exec meeting, which is where all the various Subeditors get together to explain what they’ve been up to that week – ie. Music Editors getting press passes and distributing them to writers etc. We also help the Web Editor coordinate the writers’ meeting, where we brain-storm article ideas. This is my favourite part of being Co-Editor because I love discussing contemporary and controversial issues. We also oversee the whole of the production of the print magazine, which is published each semester. Throughout all of this hectic-ness we always find time to arrange a social, so we get a chance to hang out with all our members. And somewhere between all of this I am actually doing a degree!
5. How do you balance this out alongside your studies?
I don’t really know! I’m joking; it’s a lot of hard work but it’s so much fun that I’m really happy to do it. I’m sure my uni friends must hear me complain at least once a week about my work-load, but I wouldn’t change any of it. I’ve always been pretty good at time-management as well, so I guess that’s a bonus.
6.Any big plans for the society?
We’ve just come to the end of our launch campaign for this semester, which has been amazing fun! The campaign has been #makeyourmark or alternatively ‘give us a kiss with your favourite lippy’, where we’ve been asking people around university to come and kiss our enormous Lippy sign that we’ll be displaying at our launch party on Friday 29th November in the Union’s Old Bar! The launch party will be where we’ll be selling our autumn/winter 2013 print edition of Lippy! The theme for this semester is ‘Roots’ and if I can be so bold to say so myself, it’s a pretty amazing magazine!
7. How can people get involved?
You can find out all about Lippy by visiting our website: www.lippymag.co.uk. Here you’ll be able to read all of our articles and find out what kind of content we like to publish. By going to the website you’ll also be able to find all the relevant email addresses if anyone would be interested in contributing themselves; whether as a writer, marketer, designer, photographer etc!
8.Finally, what are your plans once you graduate? Where would you like to be in a year’s time?Like most students, I keep changing my mind on what I want to do once I’ve graduated. My dream career would be something diplomacy related in the Foreign Office… so I’m hoping the Civil Service will accept me on to their graduate scheme (it’s very competitive though). My short-term plan is to remain in Leeds and do an MA… I’m not quite ready to leave university yet!