Rosella Eleanor LaFevre is not a Princeton student or a Princeton graduate, but she has been a supporter of Her Campus Princeton for quite some time. Rosella LaFevre is a rising junior at Temple University with an inspressive number of journalism experiences and internships under her belt. However, the most inspiring accomplishment of Rosella’s is her magazine M.L.T.S. “M.L.T.S.” stands for “Most Likely to Succeed,” but Rosella has informed us that it is definitely taboo to call M.L.T.S. “Most Likely to Succeed Magazine.” “Perhaps this is a silly distinction,” Rosella says, “but it’s important to me.” M.L.T.S. is a quarterly publication; issues are published in March, June, September, and December for an audience of career-driven collegiettes™. It is the perfect resource for any Princetonian hoping to jumpstart her career in college. M.L.T.S is divided into Most Stylish (fashion), Most Beautiful (beauty, health, and fitness), Most Loved (love/relationships), Most Valuable (college/careers), Most Entertaining (film, music, and literature), and Features (cover stories, fashion editorials, and long-form journalism). M.L.T.S’s first issue launched in June, and I do have to admit that I read it cover-to-cover. Today, I’m excited to share Rosella’s reflection of her work as the editor-in-chief of M.L.T.S:
My first publication, RoZgIrl, was a 20- or 30-page magazine I wrote (mostly by myself) and reproduced 10 times on my family’s copy machine. I even handled the distribution myself, handing out copies of the magazine to my 6th grade classmates. Since the creation of that magazine in early 2003, I’ve been dreaming of the day I might create and run my own magazine.
Now I’m in charge of M.L.T.S. Magazine, a quarterly publication for young women in college who are preparing for their futures. Our first issue launched on June 6, 2011, and we’re working on closing our second issue, which will launch on September 5.
The idea for this first came to me in July 2010. I found myself wondering why I shouldn’t run a magazine. I’ve interned at and written for lots of other publications, including Temple University’s newspaper The Temple News, regional two.one.five magazine, Philadelphia RowHome Magazine, the internationally-distributed Motivos magazine, and JUMP, a new quarterly magazine covering the music scene in Philadelphia.
I had witnessed the rise and fall of some of these magazines and knew that while I may not have the business know-how to run a magazine, I did have the determination and the ability to seek the advice of other knowledgeable business owners. Plus, I figured, I didn’t need the business acumen at the very start – and in fact, I’m only beginning to gather information on creating a business plan and running a successful magazine.
The idea percolated for some time – after the first promotional photo shoot my friends and I threw together around 2 a.m. on a July 2010 morning, I only thought about the magazine in passing. Finally, in March 2011, after my internship at two.one.five magazine, I decided to work toward making my dream a reality.
First, I started a blog on WordPress, posting pictures from the first ever photo shoot we completed. I started a survey on SurveyMonkey to gather information about my target market. I began promoting the Facebook fan page and began tweeting.
Next, I began recruiting writers, emailing the head of my school’s journalism department and posting on Ed2010’s national website.
It all started to come together, especially when we got local singer/songwriter Jessi Teich and her fiancé, photographer Nema Etebar to agree to do the first cover shoot. That day and our recent shoot for the second cover with Lori Wilson are some of the most rewarding experiences of putting this magazine together. One of the biggest reasons I love journalism is that I get to meet amazing people.
Another rewarding experience has been sharing my knowledge of journalism with aspiring writers. I’ve really enjoyed guiding them toward interesting approaches to the raw ideas they bring to me, and helping them find experts. Some of the skills I enjoy putting to use on this job are ones that I never really knew I had. I used to have trouble deciding how to write a piece and where to find experts. Now, I’m finding story ideas left and right and always thinking about who might be a good source.
My parents think it’s foolish of me to attempt this, and they have discouraged me from legitimizing it (by forming an LLC or a corporation), but they really don’t know how much my skill set – and my confidence level – has benefited from this “experiment” even in the short amount of time I’ve been at it. And knowledge of this is what keeps me going even when my loved ones question my decisions. Even if M.L.T.S. Magazine failed – and for me, failure is definitely not an option – I will have gained knowledge in every aspect of running a magazine; from managing writers to producing editorial and art concepts, from reaching out to press representatives to arranging photo shoots, from doing the layout in InDesign to promoting the final product, I will know a little bit about everything (and hopefully, a whole lot about some things).
These skills will be invaluable no matter where I go from here and I really look forward to making a name for myself in the journalism industry.
While you’re checking out M.L.T.S, be sure to check out this piece Editor-in-College.
Photo Credit to Michele Elaine Hannon.