Blog

Stereotypes My Friends Have About
My PR Internship

Ever since I started my internship with Post+Beam a month ago, I’ve gotten some pretty interesting comments from my friends and family back home in Indiana.  All of a sudden, everyone thinks my life in California as a fashion PR intern is one big vacation.  Don’t get me wrong – my internship is pretty amazing.  But I’m hardly the party PR girl or Samantha from Sex and the City.  I debated keeping my mouth shut and letting everyone believe I spend each day planning and attending the most fabulous parties in LA, but there is so much more to PR than party planning.  I am fortunate to work with great, very hard-working, and supportive girls who go above and beyond the stereotypes.  Here are some examples of the assumptions my friends have made about my PR internship that have made me laugh.

 

 

“Read any good magazines today?”

For some reason, my friends believe that an internship in fashion PR is associated with reading style magazines all day.  It is true that the Post+Beam office is filled with beautifully organized magazines, but they are of great importance to our job.  We have the magazines on file as a way to keep track of our brand’s placements each month.  It’s really exciting and rewarding to skim through and see our clients’ products on the glossy pages!

 

 

“So do you, like, try on clothes all day?”

The show room at Post+Beam is full of incredible clothing, shoes and beauty products.  As much as I’d love to spend all day playing dress-up, my daily schedule is a bit more demanding of my time.  I do, however, get to spend a lot of time working with the samples, which is the next best thing to dress-up.  As an intern, I assist stylists who come into the office and help them gather any samples they wish to take for a shoot or editorial.  Once the stylist has made his or her final decisions, I am responsible for checking each sample out of our inventory list using a program called Sparkle.  The same goes for when a stylist returns the samples; I have to make sure each one is accounted for.  This is a big responsibility, because it’s important to be very meticulous so that none of the items go missing.  We also make it a priority to make sure our samples are clean at all times.  I even have my favorite samples that I like to recommend to stylists.

 

 

“Can you get me some free stuff?”

One of the perks about being a PR intern is the occasional opportunity to try and sometimes take samples of different products.  However, by no means is it a free for all where we can take any clothing item or beauty product home with us.  The products are neatly organized in our show room so stylists can easily browse through each brand and pull the samples they need.  The chic little room offers several different brands of clothing, makeup, accessories and shoes.  A stylist could essentially pull together an entire look solely from our show room.

 

 

“Your life is not real.”

This is a comment I have received from several people, and I’m still not sure how to take it.  Yes, I’m in Los Angeles in the heart of the fashion industry, the land of celebrities and loving every second of my internship and this city.  But yes, I get annoyed when I get stuck in traffic on a daily basis, and my main priority is working hard and learning as much as I can at my internship.  It’s the real deal.

 

Even though I have only been an intern at Post+Beam for a month, I am pleasantly surprised and thankful for the great deal of responsibility I have been entrusted with.  I have quickly learned how to write professional blog posts, articles and e-mail pitches.  I now know how to monitor the websites and social media accounts of fashion bloggers and recognize when they are wearing our clients’ brands.  Most importantly, I have become more confident in myself and my skills as a writer and communicator.  The stereotypes my friends and family have about my internship in fashion PR make me laugh, but they only scratch the surface of what it actually entails!

 

Kelsy Ralph