My Experience Interning at Grazia Magazine

Many people seem perplexed whenever I tell them I plan to spend my summer holidays interning. Summertime is usually synonymous with relaxing, rejuvenating, holidaying and most importantly: resting. However, I am one of those odd individuals that often gets bored whenever I relax too much and I find myself getting restless if I don't have productive things to do (yes, I know, weird.) Despite the fact I will soon be embarking upon my year abroad, during which I endeavour to gain a wealth of experience, I still wanted to intern this summer in order to get my "foot in the door" and network within the fashion industry.

As you may already know, if you have read my previous blog post, you will know I spent 2 weeks interning at Sheerluxe. Whilst this was an insightful and genuinely interesting experience, I was still hungry for more, which led me to secure a placement at Grazia Magazine. I sent my CV via an advert online and to my delight, I received an offer to intern very soon after sending my application. I happily obliged and was very much looking forward to joining the fashion team for a further two weeks experience.

The Bauer Media offices are situated in Camden Town (the commute was much less cumbersome than Wandsworth Town) and on my first day, I luckily managed to escape needing a pass to get into the building by slipping in the door behind someone else; trying to make myself not look like anymore of an outsider and attempting to swagger in like I'd been working there for years (was quite proud of myself for this... could I be the next 007?). The offices had a somewhat similar atmosphere to Hearst (offices I interned at last summer), but with much smaller lifts (disastrous for claustrophobes) and a sort of edgy-monochrome-Camden-Town-esque colour scheme going on with a few millennial plants dotted about the place. I was taken up to the 6th floor; the top floor on which Grazia operates and met Charlotte, my supervisor for the next two weeks.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover I wasn't going to work alone in the fashion cupboard as there were 2 other interns manning the job. Two photoshoots were in preparation so it was "the more the merrier" type of attitude and I certainly wasn't complaining - it’s always fun to have people you can natter away to (or in my case, ramble on until everyone in the room’s ears are bleeding.) For the first week, my main tasks were to unpack and sort all of the incoming call-ins for the upcoming photoshoots and to compile trend research for upcoming features. I relished in the delight of being constantly busy and there certainly was never a dull moment. I had to accompany some chairs to the set on the Friday and found myself having a much too profound conversation with the cab driver - but it was an interesting experience and the drive through London was also rather scenic.

Me second week mainly consisted of returning all of the items from the photoshoots back to their respective brands. Now, me being a neat freak and organisational whizz, this task was actually a fun one as I worked methodically to get the clothes and jewellery returned to the correct places (although it was difficult for me to have to return all the Chanel products... I had become too attached). This week was tremendously hot and it was necessary to have the fan on at full blast to stop me from melting into a complete puddle on the floor. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed being a busybody working away in the realms of the fashion cupboard and satisfying my inner neat-freak.

My experience at Grazia was a thoroughly positive one and although I wouldn’t say I learnt more than I did at similar internships last year, it was incredible to be able to work alongside the editors and comprehend the company culture. I also met some other fabulous interns with whom I hope to stay in contact! Thank you so much Grazia, for having me!

No more internships, though. I’m done. For now.