Features Intern Belinda is Ready to Start

I arrived at the seventeen Magazine offices at 9:50am, ready to start my eight-hour day as a seventeen intern. My heart was racing with excitement as the cab dropped me off outside the Naspers Building in Cape Town. Not knowing what to expect, I walked through the glass doors that opened up to the seventeen offices and beyond those doors, I was faced with an average-sized office space of little cubicles and desks where the various contributors to the magazine sat, busily working their magic. I knew from the moment I walked through those doors that this is where I wanted to be. Following a warm and friendly greeting by the magazine's deputy editor, Jessica Manim, I, along with the other interns, was introduced to the rest of the team and seventeen's editor, Khwezi Magwaza.

The walls are adorned with posters of previous seventeen covers and being in the middle of Cape Town's CBD, the view is a city lover's dream. After the introductions, we were assigned working spaces and then given assignments for the day, such as this blog, as well as for the end of the week/internship, which include various articles and little tit-bits that we have to write for the magazine.

We then had a meeting with Khwezi (the editor) where we were briefed on our assignments as features interns. We were given a breakdown of what we had to do for the magazine and we spent some time discussing issues of seventeen from other countries such as Malaysia, USA and Mexico. It was interesting to see how other countries interpret the same magazine. We also discussed how the South African version competes with the rest in terms of style, covers and content.

After getting briefed on our assignments, we were sent to lunch and then back to work for the rest of the day. The office grew quiet as people began furiously typing and clicking away at their computers.

I've done job-shadowing and work-experience before but this is my first internship and although it's only the first day, I love it! I like being given responsibility instead of sitting around watching people do their jobs and I’m loving being able to intern for a magazine that’s whole image is about fun, laughter, youth and just living and loving life. I think that most of the people who work in the magazine also embody that image which makes the whole interning experience worthwhile. I'm keen to see where the next four days will take me and what I will learn from being a part of the seventeam for a week.