Never underestimate the power of words, even if only 140 characters, because one tweet from DKNY PR girl landed me in NYC working with her PR team at Donna Karan.
This is that story.
Back in college, I remember riding the campus bus to class and scrolling through my Twitter updates. Alongside the other sleepy students of Indiana University, I would be in a world of my own reading stories from @dkny of meetings with Anna Wintour, insatiable coffee cravings, hilarious show requests and stories of this or that Celeb X. Looking up occasionally to check I hadn't missed my stop, I would imagine how different my life would be if the view outside that bus window wasn't a sleepy town but a bustling big city.
One ambitious morning, I decided to tweet my favorite Twitter user in hopes of gathering more information on how to snag an internship with Donna Karan. Being a person who likes the game more than the bench, I wanted to do more than wistfully read tweets from afar; I wanted to experience New York. To my joy & surprise, I was tweeted back a response of "Good Luck" with a contact of who to reach out to for internship inquiries.
A hop, skip and a few months later I received an email from Donna Karan HR in regards to my internship application. Not having a reference, experience or anything else to boost my chances; I had figured my application had never seen the light of day and so was surprised when HR called to schedule a phone interview. Even though it was a phone interview and PJ's could have made the cut; I dressed as though the entire Donna Karan PR department was sitting in my college apartment, legs crossed and waiting to judge their next applicant--of course with such high (imaginary) standards, the only fitting thing to wear was a pair of black, patent leather, Louboutin pumps. To explain why a college student, whose financial options usually came down to nights out vs. groceries, had a pair of Louboutins is simple--my mother, an avid Louboutin lover, shares the same shoe size as me and graciously gave up a pair of shoes to her daughter one night. That morning I wore my Louboutins and strolled around my apartment as I took the phone interview; whether it was my resume, my phone interview or the shoes--a few weeks later the internship was mine. I think it was the shoes.
The only predictable thing about life is how unpredictable it can be and to this day I find it amazing that a college student in Indiana, following the twitter of an anonymous @dkny, could end up in NYC a couple months later working at the office of Aliza Licht and her powerhouse PR team. My internship was a wonderful blur of setting up for Fashion week, tagging along for celebrity fittings, organizing (and falling in love with) the Donna Karan fashion closet and (of course) cliche moments like running around Times Square with garment bags. My immediate supervisors, Danielle Vreeland (@XxMsDV) & Catie Cambria (@catiecambria), were wonderful teachers and mentors and when it came time for my internship to wrap up; I delayed going back to Indiana just to stay an extra 3 weeks in New York to help out at the shows.
My New York internship blew the lid off my world; I not only met the man that would later become my fiance, but working in New York inspired my European adventure immediately after graduation, eventually leading me back to New York and bringing this story full circle.
Today, I still follow Aliza on Twitter but no longer as a student saddled with big dreams but instead as a woman working in media and sharing my own anecdotes of New York City life.
Of course, remembering where we started is just as important as enjoying where we are and although she may not know it, I want to tip my hat to DKNY PR girl whose 140 characters inspired the change I see today.
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