Bloggers - you deserve fair compensation for your work! You’re good at what you do! Standing up for our rights as self publishers is something we all have to do together.
I first spoke to Jessica a year ago. She was one of the first Tumblr-ers I discovered and I immediately was drawn to her sense of style and her well, ability to create look on a VERY affordable budget—a skill I had managed to lose sight of. I spoke on the phone with her for an interview I was doing for one of my final journalism article I was writing and guys, she was charming and eloquent. To this day, I’ll send her a quick email asking her about her opinion on this and that and pick her brain a little bit. Back then I KNEW she would become “famous” and clearly her talent has led her to achieve great things. I’ve enjoyed watching her success and have to say, “I CALLED IT”. hahaha But the reason why I reblogged this was because no matter what conversation we talked about Jessica always stood firm on the whole “you shouldn’t be blogging/working for free” motto.
And that only goes to show that if you stick by something, people WILL recognize and respect your talent… and even better, you’ll get paid for it.
But seriously, after all my unpaid internships and even interviewing (please note POST-GRADUATING COLLEGE) for a few unpaid internship in the city, I decided to make the decision that I would end my “unpaid internship” career. It was hard because fashion is quite a different industry… one that doesn’t pay interns $25/hour (fuck you all my accounting friends). And Jessica said that if I didn’t value my own abilities and kept on being an intern, I would continue along that path on being an unpaid intern for the rest of my life.
So here’s to the uncertainty of NOT doing the whole internship thing anymore. I have to say, internships are great… when you’re in college. But, I’m hoping to moving on to bigger and better things.
