Hi, my name's Emily, and I intern two days a week at Girls' Life Magazine, where I write 3-5 articles a day for the magazine's website. You might've read the Girls' Life when you were a kid (it's for girls ages 9-16), or you might've heard about it from a recent scandal in which an angry dad at a library compared the cover of Girls' Life to the cover of Boys' Life and found it lacking (They're not affiliated in any way, and Boys' Life is published by the Boy Scouts of America as a trade magazine FYI!). Here's a picture of the comparison for reference:
As you can see from the tag at the bottom, even Amy Schumer got in on trashing the magazine's cover.
No matter what you know about the magazine, though, I can confirm that it's a fascinating, fun place to intern. Here are some surprising things I've experienced and learned since starting in January:
Just Because It's a Nationally-Distributed Magazine Doesn't Mean it Has a Large Staff
In the main office, located in Baltimore near Power Plant Live, there are 5 paid staffers who manage all of the content on the website and magazine, and one of them is the administrative assistant. That's it. Five people. There are, of course, a few people who write for the mag and don't work in the office, and the editor and chief deals with a few creative and business people in New York, but for the most part, 5 people decide and write almost everything.
I Intern With High Schoolers
Kids these days! Back when I was in high school, I was lucky to find work babysitting in my neighborhood. I definitely wasn't resume-building two days a week downtown. Working with crazy-talented high schoolers makes you realize there actually is hope for the next generation.
I Hear a Lot of Interesting Gossip
Want to know which current and former Disney and Nickelodeon stars are horrible people who've gotten tons of plastic surgery and refuse to be photographed on an entire side of their face? I know, but I'm not allowed to tell you.
I Get Free Stuff
Last week I got a pair of sunglasses with pictures of Sour Patch Kids all over them. This week I go a free pair of gloves, and my friend got some Axe body spray (Yes, they send products to a girls' magazine for some reason). We also get tons of beauty products sent to the magazine as samples. What doesn't get used gets sold off really cheap in an in-office beauty sale open to interns.
I Get to Listen to Famous People Talk to Your Boss
The other interns and I have transcribed interviews with Peyton List, Bella Thorne, Bethany Mota, Bailee Madison and Natasha Bure to name a few. Sure you might not watch their shows or listen to their music, but it's still cool to hear the inside stuff about being a child actor or musician that doesn't make the cut or is a little juicy for the magazine. Some interns even get to meet celebrities! One of my co-interns recently met Daya, and one of my friends who interned a few years ago assisted on the Ariana Grande photoshoot above.
My Writing Might Make it Into Print
I wrote some book blurbs that are going in the April/May edition (Check it out on shelves April 1st, guys!), and my boss got her start as an intern writing small pieces for the magazine.
Online Content is Extremely Important
Even though Girls' Life publishes every two months in print, the staff closely monitors online content performance. Quizzes are insanely popular, as well as poetry submitted by the magazine's online readers.
The editor and chief as Well as the Assistant Editors Read Comments on the Website and Know Certain Commenters by Name
If you think the internet is a cold and anonymous place, think again! We regularly talk about what got the most responses and how engaged commenters were on posts, sometimes even naming the frequent commenters who chimed in.
