25 February 2009

zainab slemang

Zainab, 20, is a UCT student doing her Honours in Media Theory & Practice. Here’s what she had to say about her intern week at seventeen…

guillotines and paper cuts – day 1
So this morning, I was driving around the city quite aimlessly. Well, I wasn’t completely without an aim… I was trying to locate the seventeen offices, but being the direction-less buffoon I am, I drove past the road I was suppose to turn down twice before the brilliant idea of actually calling someone occurred to me! I’m not usually nervous or shy but by the time I made it to the reception area (late by exactly three minutes), I was feeling a little queasy. What I was expecting, I can honestly tell you I don’t know. As soon as I got upstairs, Liza, the managing editor, put me to work. If there’s one thing I enjoy it’s being busy, and for the next three hours I was content with typing up data. After a quick lunch break, I got back to work typing out sales figures then cutting them out and pasting them on their appropriate covers. The cutting proved a bit of a mission – not only am I unable to use a guillotine but apparently a craft knife proved quite difficult a tool as well! Luckily for me, no one seemed to notice how uneven I had cut the paper. All in all, my first day as a seventeen intern was not too bad and I even managed not to make a complete idiot of myself!

“the book”, a birthday and a meeting – day 2
Remember in Ugly Betty where Betty accidentally takes the holy grail of the magazine world (aka “The Book”) home with her and then promptly loses it? Or maybe you remember Miranda’s insistence that her first assistant hand-deliver “The Book” to her home each evening in The Devil Wears Prada? Well, today I got a chance to behold the glorious object known as the mock-up or “The Book” (Don’t you just love saying that?). While seventeen’s mock-up is not as glamorous as Mode or Runway’s, it definitely is an eye-opener (and I’m totally stoked because I got a sneak preview of next month’s issue already! It’s a good one, so look out for it). Reading the notes written on the pages of the mock-up as well as getting a chance to sit in on the signing off of the March issue showed me just how much hard work goes into the making of your fave mag. So much attention to detail is given – there was even a debate about the model’s eyes in the fashion spread, I kid you not.
The entire seventeam also sang Happy Birthday to Jill, the Digital Intern, who turned 21. Thanks for the amazing cake, Jill! The rest of my day was spent surfing the Net, paging through some of the huge collection of incredible seventeen magazines from all across the world and attending a brief production meeting where Khwezi, the editor, and Liza addressed the April issue of seventeen as well as the agenda for the upcoming week.

mac navigation and other lesser-known things – day 3
Today was pretty busy. The Internet application froze on the Mac I was working on, so after freaking out that I’d broken the machine (have I told you I’m technologically-challenged as well?), I eventually asked Ashleigh, the layout designer, for some help. Luckily she didn’t find it a silly question (if she did, she kept it to herself). Later the team held a features meeting where I was allocated a few tasks, one being to go off in search of the contact details for all the major mobile companies. My task was simple enough – find cellphones that could be comparable to the iPhone. The difficult part came next: getting the contact information of each company so we could ask them to send us a mobile phone or two to test (and play around with – LOL). Research can sometimes become tedious, especially on the Internet where you have to sift through millions of useless facts before coming to something useful. I managed to find some useful numbers! You can also find LOADS of useful things on www.seventeen.co.za - like celeb gossip, fashion and beauty tips, health advice and more!

phone calls with a side of sushi – day 4
Thursday morning and follow-up calls need to be made. Thing is, no one I need to speak to is answering their phones! Is it too early to call people? Maybe, but I need to get some good quotes (and a few numbers too). I eventually, through sheer persuasion caused by panic that I wouldn’t get anything done, managed to convince a few friends to email me the relevant stuff. Whew! With that done, I settled into the day’s research and later took a quick break for lunch – some good old avocado maki. Being the brilliant multi-tasker I think I could be, I attempted to pour wasabi sauce over my sushi while sending a text message. Needless to say, the wasabi landed on my dress (thankfully black) and the text in someone else’s inbox. Guess it was just another day, another wacky moment at the seventeen offices. I did manage to get through to quite a few cellphone people. Some just said they’d get back to me but with Carmen’s help (the features writer) we managed to get at least one to send us a new phone! Wow!

putting it out there and saying farewell – day 5
After a few days of thinking about a topic I could write on for my soapbox assignment, I was finally struck by some inspiration. I’ve written about many things over the past few years and one of the few articles I am extremely proud of is a piece of narrative literary journalism (or creative non-fiction), which I wrote for my main senior research project in my final year of varsity. The piece told of my interactions with a group of refugees, with a focus on three individuals, whose lives had been affected by the horrific xenophobia attacks that had taken place all over the country. It focused on their thoughts as well as their future plans. In my interactions with them I was struck by their humility and the way in which some of them readily forgave their attackers. Why I digress like this is to show that I believe that my writing can have an impact on the lives of others in the same way many of my favourite writers and journalists have changed my perceptions of things through their work. That is why I chose to write my soapbox on something I hope to incorporate in all of my future work: peace journalism.

My internship has gone extremely quickly. I have to admit it’s been a new and different experience and I learnt a lot about how the magazine is brought to life by the amazing team at seventeen HQ. I know I’ll definitely be looking out for the next issue of seventeen so that I can be reminded of my time here!

hard at work doing some research!

sticking up sales figures (they look pretty straight to me!)

11 February 2009

natalie and chanel (part 2!)

Day 3
Natalie: Today was great. We started out sorting more job bags. It felt like an endless pile but we probably just took so long because we wanted to look at almost everything in each bag! When we were done, we helped update the celeb list – it was quite funny because even if they were famous, but not good looking, Chanel didn’t want to write them down, so I had to watch that she wrote down every one, even if they weren’t her type. He he. After lunch we drove to the photo shoot, and I started to get little butterflies in my tummy, I’d never even watched a photo shoot before, let alone be in one! When we got there I relaxed though. Everyone was really friendly, and I got my make-up done which was awesome, I felt new :P. I was really nervous when I walked in front of the camera, I had no idea what to do but the photographer helped me through it and it turned out to be a lot of fun! For behind-the-scenes pics on seventeen's fashion shoots, check out www.seventeen.co.za
Chanel: Emptying out job bags is so interesting as we get to see each page in its different stage, until it is approved. Wow, your English has to be impeccable… I guess I’ll have to concentrate in English a bit more – it’s not going to be easy… that teacher sucks the life out me! No pain, no gain! At the photo shoot everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun. They have so much clothing just sitting there, I was soo tempted ☺ just joking. It was pretty exciting to see how the fashion side of the mag is put together. I don’t think the fashion department is for me though, you could put me behind a computer the whole day and I’m a happy camper.

Day 4
Natalie:
Today was a nice, relaxed day. We sat and read through a whole lot of international magazines looking for guys and girls whose names could go onto the celeb list. And I had my packet of sour worms so I didn’t even feel like going to lunch – I was just so comfortable chilling here at the mag. I think if I had a job like this I'd never have a frown on my face again.
Chanel: Today, first of all, was dead hot!!! Everyone is so friendly and even if I don’t go into this field (not likely) I want to learn the design side of things just because I’m passionate about it. Every morning I understand wanting to come to “work”, it’s not a drag. Even though it’s behind-the-scenes, I rate that this a lot better than being any kind of model. Our list of celebrities is almost done… regrettably Natalie made me write everyone’s name down. I also wrote down every hot guy's name ☺.

Day 5
Natalie:
Last day today ☹ can’t believe our week is already over! It was such a great learning experience and it really helped me decide what I want to do with my future. This morning we came and were the only people here for a while cos everyone had gone for the seventeen team photo. When they came back we went to UCT with Carmen (features writer) to ask guys on campus what the deal-breaker is between girlfriends and hook-ups (It’s for a story in the April issue). I think we met the world’s most shallow guy today. He said a girl has to be hot to date her – that’s it. I nearly smacked him! Other than that we found some guys who were decent and nice. Back at the office we had to steam iron some clothes for the Nike shoot, where we burnt ourselves millions of times and envied the girls who get to wear such nice clothes. When the girls are finished getting their hair and make-up done we are going to the beach to watch the shoot. Can’t wait to see how it’s done. ☺ Thanx seventeen for having us. It was awesome!
Chanel: Awh ☹ It felt so permanent being here. I love this place. This morning the office was so quiet but we sat uploading photos on Facebook. The computer we use has a camera on the monitor with a whole lot of effects on it so we’ve taken like 80 photos. Our little trip to UCT was fun except for this one guy who wouldn’t be a sport… gosh. We met these really nice guys who said a bunch of nice, not so confusing stuff. Anyway we’re going to be off to the Nike photo shoot soon. Thanks to the whole seventeen team for having us, they made us feel so welcome☺ Have a good 2009!

Natalie striking a pose for the fashion story!

Steam ironing clothes for the Nike shoot


03 February 2009

natalie and chanel


Natalie and Chanel, both 17, from Benoni, are spending the first week of Feb at seventeen HQ in Cape Town! Here’s what they’ve been getting up to so far…


Day 1
This morning we got up early (way too early!!) – I guess we were just really excited. We’re staying only a few blocks down from seventeen’s offices, so it’s a five-minute walk, but we left early just in case we got lost again. We were extremely early – our intern day only starts at 10am – so we went to KFC for breakfast, they were supposed to open at 9am but they weren’t…gosh! We did meet a cute guy who was also waiting :p. When we got to seventeen, we saw the kind of people that came in and out the door and they looked really chilled so we weren’t worried at all. Our first job was to sort out the seventeen magazines from all the different countries, we had no idea there were so many, we thought only us South Africans had the privilege of being able to buy seventeen every month, but apparently not… guess everyone needs a little seventeen in their lives☺.
After that we looked at the February dummy book and had to write letters about any topic that we wanted.

Natalie: It was really hard to pick one article to write about because they were all so good. But I found one that I related to, so I wrote on how sports can change your life. I thought it was pretty cool that we get a say in what we did and didn’t like about the issue… I loved it all. Since I was 12 I’ve wanted to become a desktop publisher and work for a magazine. Now I’ve got the opportunity for a week and I’m not nervous at all. I wanted to see if this was something I’d really enjoy as much as I thought I would and I’ve decided from the first minute of being here that it is. Everyone looks so happy here, it looks as if it is more fun than work. And if you enjoy your job you never have to work a day in your life.”
Chanel: “I take Design at school, this is my last year and then I’m done with school, but Design has taught me the sorts of things I’d use in this industry. This week ahead may just help me decide if this if what I want to do for the rest of my life. I love design and after today I think it would be cool to be a designer. I don’t think its possible to get bored if I worked here. You get to guide the youth of today, how amazing is that?!” Today was just awesome☺

Day 2
Today just flew by, before we knew it, it was lunchtime already. Today we had to sort out things for recycling… seventeen also do their bit for the environment☺. We also did some filing and then went to lunch. When we got back, Carmen, the features writer, had arranged for some boys to come into the office and smell all these different shampoos for a story in the April issue. They each had to choose the one they liked and had to say why. Wow, there was chocolate, watermelon, kiwi and another one that smelt like medicine!
Chanel: “I had a lot of fun today, its really interesting how the office works like a well oiled machine, everyone has their part to do when it comes to the magazine. It’s amazing to sit and watch how the magazine is put together, its not quite what I thought it would be.
Natalie: Today was awesome! I spent most of the day watching the things the girls do. This is almost too much fun to be called a job :P And the amounts of products sent here to be tried out is amazing. It was quite funny to watch the guys pick the shampoo they liked and to come up with a reason as to why. The fashion department are short one reader for tomorrow’s real girls shoot so they asked one of us to help out, which is going to be something remembered ☺ Can’t wait for tomorrow!
For behind-the-scenes pics of seventeen's fashion shoots, go to www.seventeen.co.za

Sorting out seventeen's library!

Helping out with recycling!

With the boys at their shampoo test!