Monday, October 17, 2016

An Interview with Kristina Rodulfo, Associate Editor of ELLE.com

Elle.com is one of the most prominent fashion magazine websites out there, and I had the pleasure of speaking with the associate editor, Kristina Rodulfo. She explained the challenges and benefits of her job, as well as the work she is most proud of. 


1. What's the best part about your job? 

I work with an incredibly collaborative, creative team who I learn from everyday. I’m constantly in awe with the way they are always three steps ahead of the rest of the internet and have had the best training thanks to them. I also love that I get to cover a variety of topics from social issues to celebrity  news to beauty and fashion trends, as well as explore different kinds of writing from employing humor in quippy, short blog posts to flexing my longform skills in a profile.

2. What's the hardest part about your job? 

Because it is a digital publication, we work long hours at an incredibly fast pace, and are always “on.” If some news breaks over the weekend or late at night when you might regularly be off work, you have to jump on and figure out how to approach it. That can mean a difficulty achieving a work-life balance, but at least you always have your team in the trenches with you. In the end, it is always worth it.

3. What college did you go to? 

I went to NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

4. What did you major in? 

At Gallatin we could create our own major–so I made Creative Non-Fiction, which was a combination of traditional journalism specialized with writing longform (think: personal essays, 5000-word profiles, etc) focused on writers in the diaspora, who wrote about their immigrant-hyphenate identities (like Edwidge Danticat). 

5. What's your favorite piece that you've written for Elle? 

It’s hard to pick from since I can write up to five stories a day! I think I really loved “Young Muslim American Women are Fighting Stereotypes with Self Defense.” When Islamaphobia  was taking root last year amidst the presidential election, I spent a day with a group of Muslim American women who not only gave high school and college aged women the leadership skills to fight back, but literal fighting skills in case of physical danger (an all too terrifying reality for many Muslim women). I produced a video and wrote this piece. 




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