Writing internship
It was the most boring thing she could find, she didn't want to go to Hawaii to bake with babes and learn how to cheer, that felt like giving in, but with a gun to her head, the smart girl made what she thought was the smart choice. Is there a more boring, mundane sounding word than "internship"? The ad seemed harmless, and promised both "pay" and "perks" whatever that meant, if nothing else this could help her get into a good school when High School was over, that time was coming sooner than you would think. So she picked it, and a week later she was in New York, with a tiny apartment about to work on a magazine for which she only had a serial number and an address. She made her way from her place that day, into her job, at Teen Cosmo.
She wasn't the only intern, they had a few, none of them like her, these were all girls picked for their blogs and fashion know how, as she looked at her peers she knew they were picked because their tumblr's were "super cute". Still when it came to giving a writing sample, she failed where they succeeded, because when it came down to it, she didn't know anything about this at all. This was the reason that during that summer Jade read over 800 fashion, make up, jewelry, celebrity gossip and "tips for" columns. While Jay would have been learning how to build a computer from scratch, Jade was learning how to build a wardrobe, and learn was all she did, about how to match different reds, about evening make up vs day time, about hair, she learned the science of what makes something cool, how to be hip, and most of all, how to judge when she saw something if it was in or not. and after a couple weeks she found that she liked the reading, she began to understand it, and finally a whole new world opened up to her.
There were also the perks, the pay was just enough to get by in the city, but the perks were amazing. The day she found out about "samples" was her second week on the job. They weren't about to give the nice stuff to a high school kid, but they did let her have a dress that was considered on the edge of going out of season. It was the nicest thing she had ever worn. By the end of the summer, she had traded out all but three of the things in her suitcase for new "samples", not just of clothing, but of perfume, nail polish, hair colorings, and even jewelry.
By the end of the summer she was running circles around the other girls, and had even written something which they said they would look at for the next months issue. It was an article about make overs, and how to do one to yourself, she had used herself as a case study. The glasses were gone, she had made sure after a bit to diet and only taking the stairs to lose some weight, resulting in her being able to fit into a size smaller than the other girls, which meant she got the better samples, which meant she stood out, which meant people wanted to follow her. She had gone in a summer from back of the pack to head of the class, where she belonged, all from a little bit of study and hard work. By the end of the summer gone was the girl who didn't know how to dress, or do hair or make up, who didn't care about popularity, gossip, or reading or writing anything that wasn't science fiction or fantasy. In her place was Jade, the girl who knew how to get what she wanted, the girl who could look at a thing and tell you how and why it was cool, some people follow trends, Jade knew how to set them. Jade was finally cool.
