NYC fashion intern diaries - Episode 79
Last week, I spoke on a virtual panel for Barnard’s career department about freelance careers, and it brought me right back to my days navigating internships, NYC rent, dream magazines, and garment-district steamers.
The students on the call were a mix of soon-to-be grads hunting for jobs and others looking for their first internships, and it reminded me of just how formative those early experiences were.
So today, we’re revisiting all six of my college internships across fashion and publishing — what I did, how I got them, what I learned, and how each one ultimately shaped my career path.
Create & consume:
What Austen is creating this week: autumn in New York vlog - Central Park, making pumpkin bread, signal awards winners party, behind the scenes of shooting content.
What Austen is consuming this week: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. It’s a story about friends who decide to design a video game together
In this episode:
Hunter Bell — fashion design internship
Landed this one through a very “six degrees of separation” moment: my friend’s dad’s tutee’s mom owned a showroom featuring Hunter Bell.
Interned for two months—I commuted from New Jersey and spent three days a week in the garment district.
I did everything: sample sales, mood boards, showroom tasks, social media help.
I even helped with the Fashion Star winner's sample sale.
One vivid memory: I was steaming dresses inside a factory on 38th Street when I got the call that I got off the waitlist to transfer to Barnard.
What I learned: I did not want to be a fashion designer—but I learned so much about production, pace, and how the industry actually works behind the scenes.
CollegeFashionista — style guru internship
My only remote internship that was basically college-era street style blogging.
My “beat” was Barnard/Columbia and I walked around campus photographing people’s outfits and writing short features.
Loved that it was remote and flexible, it felt more like blogging than anything else.
Winter was hard because…everyone is bundled up in parkas.
What I learned: I loved the independence of working on my laptop, organizing ideas, and taking inspiration photos. It helped me get more comfortable photographing people and sparked tons of new blog ideas.
Marie Claire — fashion closet intern
My first magazine internship in the summer of 2014 and still one of my most nostalgic.
There were so many interns that summer; I supported two fashion market editors, Rae Boxer and Jessica Minkoff.
On night one, we stayed until midnight—truly an initiation into magazine life.
Learned the entire fashion closet ecosystem:
Bulletin boards with story inspo
Pulling from PR agencies
Steaming, dry cleaning, and returning samples
A highlight: I asked to help at an Ariana Grande cover shoot for the October 2014 issue and I ended up on set!
If you watch this clip, at :20 seconds I’m pretty sure I’m holding a bra in the background.
Nina Garcia was creative director at the time.
I lived on Barnard’s campus that summer.
What I learned: I loved magazines, but fashion closet tasks were very different from the conceptual, creative work happening on the fashion features side.
Nylon — editorial intern
Got this one because my friend who also went to Barnard passed me the email of the hiring editor—networking really matters.
Submitted two writing samples: one blog post from my site and another from a Barnard publication.
Scored my first two digital bylines and was listed as a contributor in the May 2015 issue with Dakota Fanning on the cover:
Style Inspiration from 90’s TV Characters
Typical intern tasks: transcribing interviews, organizing the archive room, assisting editors.
Got to know the staff and loved the team culture.
The office was shared with Nylon editorial and Socialyte, which was an early influencer/talent agency.
What I learned: I loved the creative freedom of an indie publication. Less red tape, more flexibility, more room for interns to actually contribute.
Cosmo.com — fashion & beauty intern
After two print internships, I wanted to experience the digital side—what the TV show The Bold Type refers to as “the dot com.”
This was a summer 2015 internship, three days a week.
I lived on campus and received a Barnard grant because it was unpaid.
The office wasn’t in the Hearst Tower—it was in another building next door called The Sheffield.
I had some really fun bylines (most have vanished from the internet likely due to SEO updates).
Sat in on pitch meetings, helped with digital shoots, and organized beauty samples.
On the last day, interns could take whatever products they wanted from the beauty closet.
What I learned: Everything clicked—I loved writing digitally, tracking trends, and bringing visual stories to life online.
New York Magazine — editorial intern
My first paid internship during the spring of 2016, two days a week.
My friend Devon helped me get the interview (she still works there!).
I made $8/hour or $16/hour when transcribing interviews and because it was paid, I was finally able to quit my retail job.
This team was the most traditional “journalism” environment I’d worked in—very reporting-heavy.
I got more bylines and attended real New York Magazine events.
What I learned: I loved the serious editorial structure, but missed some of the fashion-meets-fun atmosphere of Marie Claire, Cosmo, and Nylon.
A quick note on money and reality
Out of all six internships, only one was paid and to support myself, I worked retail at Free People.
This is still a huge conversation in media and fashion—the reliance on unpaid internships creates major barriers for anyone who can’t afford to work for free.
I hope the industry keeps moving in a more equitable direction.
Where it led: my first job
After all of these internships, I landed my first full-time job at Nylon, which kicked off the entire trajectory that eventually led me to becoming a content creator today.
I actually have a full episode about my career path from Nylon to full-time creator life.
And if you want an episode dedicated specifically to what it was like to work at Nylon and later Interview magazine, I’m happy to do that too.
Summary
Looking back on my six NYC internships reminds me just how much those chaotic, exciting, very-unpaid years shaped my entire career.
Each experience, from steaming dresses in the garment district to writing my first real bylines, helped me figure out what I loved, what I didn’t, and how the fashion and media world actually works behind the scenes.
I hope this episode gives you a little peek into that era and maybe even some inspo if you’re navigating internships or early career decisions right now.
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