Two weeks ago I started an internship at one of the fashion magazines I love the most: L’Officiel Brasil. I am responsible for the digital space, so I maintain the website and all the social medias active. It has been very challenging, especially because with only one week experience I found myself in the biggest fashion event of Latin America!
Since I know more about the Beauty universe, my guidelines (gente, não sei qual o melhor termo para ‘’pautas’’!) need to be focused on this. Great, I thought. I can do this. But when my boss put me in the middle of the backstage, I literally had no idea what to do. The backstage was full of models, hair and makeup stylists, photographers, press office (tem palavra melhor pra assessoras de imprensa?), journalists and me, static. And then a press office asks me ‘’Do you want to talk with Daniel?’’ – Who the hell is Daniel??? –And then she leads me to where four more girls were talking with him, and only then I understood what I needed to do. It was so simple. I just had to ask him about what he was doing for the model, which products he used and why, what was the concept behind. It was more job for him than for me, having to repeat the same thing all the time. Meanwhile, my boss was on WhatsApp telling me ‘’Bianca, you need to update Instagram faster!’’.
Fortunately, on the next backstage I knew who the makeup responsible was, the backstage was less full and I was calmer. The following days were getting easier, the social medias were getting more and better updates, I talked with all those people more easily and wrote the posts for the website more naturally, developing themes from all those things that were happening. (And oh my God, that week I lived what our teachers always tell us: everything can be a -pauta-).
‘’Which celebrities did you see, Bianca?’’, my mom asked me. I made an extra effort to remind some name she would recognize, such as an actress or model. Because the celebrities I were marvel was all that journalists that inspires and somehow helped me to choose Journalism. And I saw them all in the same day (almost at the same time!) Monica Salgado, Bárbara Migliori, Stephanie Noelle, Vic Ceridono, Vânia Goy… And Jout Jout! The saddest thing that happened. Jout Jout was by my side, I was going to talk to her, then she disappeared and I never saw her again. So, so sad.
It was while I was watching the PatBo show, listening to ‘’Under Pressure’’ being played in a concertina, that I realized how big it was what I accomplished. Being able to be in a place like that, surrounded by amazing people (some of them not so amazing, I’ll talk about it next) and observing everything through the eye of a journalist, means a lot to me.
Although we are going through this great moment of deconstruction of prejudices and gender equality debates, and fashion is step by step incorporating this, I noticed a huge contrast between these speeches and the people present on the event. Natura, a Brazilian cosmetic brand, were holding lectures during all the week, with subjects that are related to women, beauty standards and sexuality. Unfortunately, on the days I were observing, I didn’t see much people actually interested on the lecture. Subjects that matter so much to this moment we’re passing through, and most of them were too busy talking selfies, talking loud to each other, instead of listening. Not to mention some dialogues I heard, judging and mocking the way some overweight girl dresses. To me, this was by far the saddest thing about this experience. Even though I knew I would have to deal with this.
The highest point? On Friday, the last day, I was super tired and then my boss showed me the new edition of the magazine, with my name on it. From that moment I was officially part of the team. And I am so proud to be part of this <3