Heya,

So a bit of a different type of post today. Being in my last year of Sixthform and therefore last year of school, I am having to make some very important decisions as to what I am going to do after I finish school... There are so many options out there, and I'm not going to lie, I've struggled to know what to do. I know what I want to do as an end result, but achieving that is the problem... The options:

UNI

APPRENTICESHIP

GAP YEAR /WORK

My career goal is to work within a fashion company within the social media environment, and I have sent off so many enquiries to multiple Fashion Companies and Magazines to gain experience in this field. The fashion industry is commonly known as difficult to get into, having an extremely competitive market, so I feel as though this may be the best way to put my name out there.

I have had past experience of this being a successful method, as last year I was offered a week’s internship at Hello! FashionMonthly after emailing looking for Year 12 Work Experience. During my week there, I developed my organisational skills, whilst sorting and organising the Fashion cupboard. I spent long hours doing this, but seeing all the amazing shoes, clothes and accessories ahead of season for both designer and high-street brands made it so exciting! I was then able to walk through Oxford Street looking at the window displays saying “I’ve seen this before”. I also got the chance to help plan the ‘Agenda’ section of the magazine for the big October Fashion Issue, looking through multiple press releases and catalogues, scouring for items that spoke the key trends for Winter 15.  I also developed my knowledge of the fashion industry and brands, whilst also learning the different stages of production, the roles within the magazine, and the ways in which magazines are publicised, i.e. through social media. To get to my placement each day I had to travel quite far, relying on trains, followed by a walk, but it was well worth it. Laura, the Fashion Assistant at the magazine, and the rest of the HFM team were all so lovely and welcoming and made sure me, and another intern on work experience were happy at all times!

I have always been interested in working within Fashion since I was pretty young, maybe 9 or 10, but back then all I wanted to be was a fashion designer, constantly (and I mean constantly) designing cute little collections, and creating my own boarding schools (Mallory Towers was my fave book series when I was a kiddie) and designing their uniforms for every little part of the school! But I began to see past designing when I came across fashion magazines. Once I had discovered these I was hooked on the focus of fashion and the journalism. Leading me to want to become a fashion journalist, but being a fairly shy teen the idea of broadcast journalism or going out to speak and interview at events did not appeal, and so I began to wean off that idea when I thought this was an integral part of the job. I realise now it’s not so much, either that or I’m not so shy anymore, however this lead me to starting my blog.

So jump forward to around October 2013, I’d been thinking for a while about starting a blog and so I made my first Blogger account.  But I was really nervous as to what other people would think so left it empty for about 6 months until I plucked up the courage to write my first post, which has now accumulated well over a 100 views. I followed this with my first tutorial, how to create a hair bow. Looking back on my old posts I realise they were not all that great. I used hardly any words and the format was very basic, however I feel that eventually they started to take good shape after I developed a schedule and became more involved in the blogging community.

So far my blog has bought about many opportunities for me, including my involvement in the new social platform Soapbox, a vlogging app whereby its members can post short tutorial videos concerning fashion, beauty and style. I was contacted to become a partner/creator for the channel, which I excitedly agreed to.

I have a few goals for my Blog, both long-term and short-term:

 My involvement with blogging has also allowed me to realise that social media plays important and enjoyable part in my life and blog, which encouraged me to think, what if I could have a career in this? That’s when I discovered Fashion Media. Fashion and beauty labels and magazines will hire people to be in control of their social media, promoting the company and discovering the new and best ways of reaching the audiences.    

So that’s my story and goals, now just to decide how I can achieve this…

 Love Emily x