Now Hiring: Fat Girl’s Guide Fashion Columnist
We're seeking a writer with style and savvy
Image by Avoir Chaud
We are many things here at FGG: Active. Honest. Daring. Committed to our mission of challenging all fat girls to get out and live full and fabulous lives. But one thing we are not is particularly fashionable. Therefore, we’d love to add a tell-it-like-it-is monthly fashion columnist to our impressive roster, which includes: Michelle’s lick-your-monitor Foodie Fridays, Peony’s tantalizing Sex and the Single Fat Girl, and Charlie’s popular guy column, “It’s a Guy Thing.”
We pay $10/column, and if you can hang tight as we build FGG, we promise our contributors will be the first to benefit in raises and other perks. You’ll receive a byline, a link to your blog or web site, and a full bio on our contributor’s page.
Our ideal fashion columnist looks suspiciously like this person:
:: Your passion is fashion – particularly for overweight women – and you’re hip to all the best plus retailers and designers, Etsy shops, resale finds, DIY and professional tailoring, and sewing ideas. You dabble in haute couture, but your real expertise lies in practical but super-stylish plus-size fashion our readers can wear every day.
:: Your superpower is finding useful tips and tricks (especially easy, affordable tweaks that pay off big in stylish impact) that our audience can use. And you can present those tips in FGG’s signature upbeat-(and sometimes funny)-but-practical, no-nonsense style.
:: You’re able to review retailers, fashion lines, and related fashion products with a critical and informed but unbiased eye without diving down the rabbit hole of industry jargon. (What the heck does Pret-a-Porter mean, anyway?)
:: You’re able to efficiently gather accurate information and meet deadlines, but OK with being edited for spelling, grammar, content and style when/where necessary.
:: You subscribe to FGG’s core philosophies, raison d’etre, and editorial policies, know first-hand what it’s like to be an overweight woman with body image challenges, but also have the desire to do more, be more, live more.
:: You’re an experienced lifestyle and/or fashion writer/blogger, OR are an emerging writer with a strong writing style and an intimate understanding of plus-size fashion.
:: You have an eye for what’s fresh and unique, and/or can find a fresh/unique angle on just about anything.
What we are NOT interested in:
:: Angry, insulting (to anyone), “victim” or otherwise negative mentalities/material.
:: Excuse makers, serial deadline blowers or writers who need frequent prompting.
:: A writer who doesn’t consider it plagiarism if you “just kinda re-word content from other places a little bit.”
TO APPLY
Send the following to letters@fatgirlsguidetoliving.com by Friday, March 5, 2010:
1. No resume required, just introduce yourself, tell us why you’re the perfect FGG fashion columnist, and share why you’d like to write for FGG.
2. Links to two fashion pieces you’ve written previously, OR a sample column (200-400 words) that meets the criteria we’ve listed above.
We’ll notify finalists by March 9 and send along any follow-up questions we have, and select the writer that’s the best fit for FGG by March 12. We’d like our new writer to be ready to dig in within a week or two after coming on board.
If you know a fashion-savvy writer who fits the bill, send them our way!
So essentially you want a professional journalist with chops in the industry for $10 a month? That’s insane.
Hi, miss plumcake,
I started out as a stringer for a local weekly making $15/article covering high school sports. As a sports-impaired person, I learned so much from that opportunity and am proud of the work I did for that paper and grateful to that editor for taking a chance on a newbie. Years later, that editor recently came to me because he knew I was reliable and offered me work for his private firm writing for much better money. You never know where one opportunity might lead or into what it might evolve.
As an established freelance writer today, I wouldn’t take that $15 rate for most markets or topics, but for a monthly gig on a site I respect and a topic I’m passionate about, I might. It’s an individual decision, and we at FGG respect and appreciate that this opportunity isn’t for everyone.
Miss Plumcake — Thanks for your comment. I get why professional journalists or fashion experts would turn their nose up at that rate. If I didn’t have a platform/blog/book I was trying to promote, or wasn’t trying to get clips under my belt, I (as a professional journalist) probably would have, too.
The frank fact is, at $10 per post, our writers are making more than we as the editors/owners are writing for FGG. Every cent that comes in the door right now goes right back out to pay for content, hosting or other expenses, and, in many cases, that $10 comes out of our own personal pockets when it needs to. This is a shoestring operation, and we do it anyway because we’re excited about the growth of FGG and where it’s going, and believe in its future payoff for us and our family of columnists.
So our ideal fashion columnist right now is someone who’d like to attract some publicity for themselves/their blog/their platform, OR – someone knows fashion as a hobby and can write well, but hasn’t put those two together before and would like to give it a try at a blog they can grow with.