Towards the end of last semester I entered a writing contest for Cosmopolitan Magazine. I was thrilled when, after over a month of waiting, I received an email saying I had won. Soon after that, I received another email telling me that they were offering me a summer internship! Yes, I did have a heart attack and faint!
I have been reading Cosmo since I turned thirteen and I pretty much always dreamed of working for some sort of magazine. Surprisingly, I was actually planning on becoming a teacher all throughout high school, but I was always interested in journalism, I just never even thought of it as a career. I quickly realized that journalism was the path for me, very shortly after entering college.
Before I knew it, there I was lining up at the front desk of ACP’s Park St building. An employee came and collected me and took me up to the Cosmo office. I was introduced to some of the staff and immediately sent on a coffee run. Before I could officially start I signed a confidentiality agreement and a survey asking what I liked or didn’t like about the magazine. What I don’t like about the magazine?
I like everything!!!
On my first day I organized some new products in the beauty closet, which is smaller than the mansion size I thought it would be. After that, I dropped off some pages of the magazine to prepress and transcribed an interview for a features writer.
My first day at Cosmopolitan went by very quickly, especially since I got an hour for lunch each day. I eventually met a former Cosmo Intern who was lovely and set my mind at ease because I was still very nervous. She also gave me some really great tips.
Day two started off with a coffee run. I made some copies, and shadowed a features writer while sitting in a meeting to discuss upcoming topics.
After lunch, I was given a list of shopping to do. It was delightful because any other time I’m going shopping I have to use my own money. Not that any of things I was buying were for me, but it was still exciting! My day ended with some transcribing for several models that came into the office for a casting.
By my third day at Cosmo I thought I had my routine down pat: Coffee, several trips up to prepress and production, etc. However, I was finally given a research task. I was asked to help research a feature on celebrity couples and come up with an idea for one of the sections in the magazine. I got to work on researching celeb couples and all the employees that looked over my work liked my additions and what I found in my research.
After being successful with that task, I ended up getting the chance to write a brief pitch for a story idea. I was really pleased with what I had done that day as I got more of an insight into feature writing at Cosmo.
The next few mornings, my task was to sort pages of the July issue using the ‘Grid’, which I knew was going to have Demi Lovato on the cover because I got a sneak peek at her feature story as well as her photo shoot.
The rest of my days were spent in the fashion department, organizing clothes into designer, then sorted and packed clothes had to be sent back to PR firms. It seemed like an easy task, but finding the item of clothing on an invoice and packing clothes is very time consuming! And with such a high turnover of clothes, the Cosmo Fashion Department is always in a process of receiving and returning clothes.
Every single day at Cosmo for me was by far the best. I don’t think I choose a favorite because they were all significant in their own way. I got to do and learn so many things. I had a really great time and got an insight into what the magazine world is really like. I would really love to do more work with Cosmo in the future, so we’ll see how things go!
My advice to anyone who is reading this is to just to do it. No matter where you want to work or what you want to do. Just. Do. IT! Take every opportunity you can get. It only takes one person to give you a chance for you to then forge your own path.
I took a risk by entering a writing contest and ended up interning at Cosmopolitan Magazine. If I can do it you can do it!
Photos by: HLCordell Photography