This is a message heard far more often in the spring, but Editor-in-Chief Carly Heitlinger casts this old preconception in a new light, and helps get every co-ed’s autumn off on the right, well-booted foot by encouraging a New Year’s philosophy in the fall: a clean slate and school-year resolutions. In Back to School, you’ll find examples of SMART (that is: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely) goals to make the semester less stressful and more personally productive. Like a brisk wind whisking red and gold leaves down the path before you, this forward-looking, big-picture, can-do attitude sweeps through the entire issue.
You immediately get the sense that SLM readers are expected to be young women with big dreams, a yen for beauty, and their faces to the horizon. That’s why pieces like Creative Director Paris Rouzati’s Bloggers Across Borders are so effective. Paris interviews two successful fashion bloggers living abroad: Soraya Bakhtiar grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, but has found her calling in London, and Malin Richardson spent her childhood all over Europe, but considers Stockholm, Sweden her hometown. As these young women share their inspirations, from style to business, we realize (again) that people are the same, exciting and kind and ambitious, all across the globe.
It is important, however, not only to be in the world, but of the world. Contributor Sarah Solomon promotes this sense of global responsibility in her profile of businesswoman Alexandra Taylor, 24. Inspired by the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign, Taylor managed to merge “fashion and philanthropy into something tangible to raise awareness about malaria.” Her success story is inspiring because she has partnered with institutions like the UN and Italian Vogue, but also because, you can tell, she’s only just begun.
The last few years may have been especially tough on America’s college graduates, but if you take the ladies of SLM, both the staff and their subjects, at their word, the best answer to a job market with a Closed sign hanging in the window is to make your own work, produce your own product, start your own business. of York Design Company makes and sells adorable needle-pointed cuffs; Inslee Haynes’ fashion-inspired sketches and watercolors have done so well, she’s opened her own studio!
Feeling optimistic yet?
And the best part is that women, while often naturally creative, are also good at networking and cooperating. When you work and play well with others, the benefits can be manifold. Entrepreneurs , 23, and Laura DiLibero, 25, share their story, Building a Brand, in this issue, too: the launch of two separate businesses, each rooted in personal creativity, and the way their collaboration has stimulated their success. SLM’s subjects aren’t only living by example. As Sarah Watson of Sarah Anne Watson Design says, “I’m a strong believer in passing on advice that I’ve received in order to help others.” You’ll find much sound, practical advice for young entrepreneurs in this issue. My favorite, from of Making Brands Happen, is: Break the rules and make your own.
Yes, in this fashion mag’s fall issue you’ll find velvet headbands and red velvet cupcakes, chic pocket organizers, and lots of bold, red-lipped smiles. (I just picked up my Clinique Cider Berry lipstick this weekend!) But better than that, you’ll find role models… inspiring tales from life down a different, less-traveled, courageous path: one where you’re the boss and you’re spending time and earning money doing exactly what you love to do.
Happy Fall from Sweet Lemon Magazine!
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