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!)
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