To say that Melissa Walker is one of the coolest women in the world might be an understatement. She was on the masthead for Seventeen and ELLEgirl, frequently writes for Teen Vogue and Glamour, and has penned three fantastically adorable novels. As if that isn't enough, Melissa teamed up with fellow ex-ELLEgirl editor, Anne Ichikawa, to create I Heart Daily, a website that can only be described as the ultimate teen magazine in the form of a daily e-mail.
Melissa is, in short, my hero and I was beyond elated when she agreed to partake in a Q & A, much like the one I had the honor of doing for I Heart Daily last month. Enjoy!
Why/when/how did you start writing I Heart Daily?
Anne and I both really missed working for ELLEgirl, and we would often email each other links to things we thought were cool and we wished we could write about again. Then we realized that we could! So we created I Heart Daily and launched it in December.
What's a typical day like for you?
They're all really different, but they usually involve: the gym, some writing on a book project, lunch, iced coffee, some writing on a magazine story, Oprah, some writing or editing for I Heart Daily, some blogging for melissacwalker.com and readergirlz.blogspot.com, and lots of emailing.
What do you love to read (websites, books, magazines, etc.)?
I read all of the above. My google reader is OUT OF CONTROL, but I love to visit it and pop in to a few blogs to leave comment love or just enjoy the posts. I read magazines on the subway and books before bed. When I say that out loud it sounds totally OCD compartmentalized, but it's true. I fear the New Yorker--I can never keep up--but somehow I always have time for US Weekly. Is that wrong?
Favorite places/ways to shop?
I probably get a package a week from Gilt. I'm obsessed. It needs to stop. Brooklyn boutiques along 5th Avenue and Smith Street always draw me in. I also love vintage stores--and those must be shopped in person. My favorite is The Family Jewels on 23rd Street.
What's on your wish list right now?
A wedding dress! I've actually bought a few options that I need to tailor to be the right look. I'm like Andi in Pretty in Pink, except that I'm not going to sew it myself, and I hope it'll turn out prettier than her dress did. (Sorry, Andi!)
But wedding aside, I'm wanting some spring boots to take me through the pre-flats days of NY Spring (i.e. 50 degrees). Anyone have any spring boot suggestions?
Why is the web thriving while magazines are struggling?
I think magazines just aren't evolving to suit their readerships. There are a lot of old ideas being tossed about, but the world is so different now, and people live online. You have to find them where they live, which is what good websites do; they fit into people's lives.
What do you love about working online after years in the magazine industry?
I love that we're not slaves to timeliness (who cares if something came out last year? If we heart it, we heart it!) and that we aren't beholden to the "pretty" standards of lots of magazines. If a girl doesn't look right, she doesn't get featured, no matter how much she's changing the world. BOO. I also love the immediacy of responses--readers twitter to us, email us and facebook us as soon as the newsletters go out, telling us what they think about the posts. It's awesome.
Any advice for girls who love to write?
I wrote a post for seventeen.com about this. Can I share that here?
What are you "hearting" today?
I'm working on Thursday's I Heart Daily post about an amazing girl from Liberia named Lovetta, who's 15 and is creating jewelry out of bullet casings and raising money to open a healing center for other people affected by war. Support her if you can!
Thanks a million, Melissa!
