We Need Help: Now Hiring a Fashion & Beauty Editor and Staff Writers

feature image of rocket ready designs by molly adams via PHOTOESSAY: Queer Fashion Week

We are currently seeking a Fashion / Beauty Editor and Staff Writers on topics related to news, politics, social and feminist issues for Autostraddle dot com. If a candidate for the former also has skills related to the latter, well! That would just be fantastic.

Fashion/Beauty Editor

This is an independent contractor position — most of our Subject Editors have other full-time jobs and/or freelance work — and is a perfect fit for a creative and ambitious visionary who has limited time but is ready to jump into a leadership position without having to climb the ladder first.

The Fashion/Beauty Editor visualizes and oversees fashion/beauty-related content for Autostraddle.com. This includes writing and/or editing two posts a week, including a biweekly on-brand “regular” of your own, as well as corresponding with external stakeholders, vendors, Autostraddle staff writers and contributors on beauty and fashion-related coverage and content. You’ll also have the opportunity to contribute to group posts and write outside of your subject area as much as you’d like!

Covering fashion for Autostraddle is a unique and inspiring challenge, as our readers expect content with options for a variety of gender presentations and identities as well as body types and income levels. You should have some familiarity with masculine-of-center fashion for women’s bodies or be confident in your ability to find contributors who do. You should be familiar with both high-end and discount brands as well as contemporary fashion trends. You’ll also have the opportunity to coordinate larger fashion guides as well as themed weeks or months (e.g., bra week, underwear week).

You should be funny, hungry and ambitious, with a fresh perspective.

You should:

  • Be informed and on top of fashion/beauty trends
  • Be capable of being a competent photographer/model for your own fashion posts (having your own DSLR camera / photography experience is a plus — but if you don’t have a camera, we’ll buy you one)
  • Have some familiarity with basic HTML and social media
  • Have a command of grammar/spelling/fact-checking
  • Be obsessively detail-oriented
  • Be passionate about Autostraddle
  • Be reliable and accountable — the nature of a “virtual office” means we need a lot more “check-ins” than you might be used to

To apply:

Send us an email with your cover letter in the body of the email to: riese [at] autostraddle [dot], laneia [at] autostraddle [dot] com, rachel [at] autostraddle dot com, yvonne [at] autostraddle dot com and heather [at] autostraddle dot com. I know that’s a lot of people! Please make your subject line read FASHION EDITOR 2017, otherwise we can’t guarantee that it won’t be lost in our inboxes. This is very important!

This email will include:

  • You briefly introducing yourself, telling us why you wanna work here and how Autostraddle fits into your career goals, and what your schedule is like
  • If possible, any specific vision you have for the section (this isn’t required if you don’t want to take the time to develop one before getting the job, but if you’ve already got one, let us know!)
  • A resume attached as a PDF
  • 2+ links to writing samples
  • 3+ pitches for one-off fashion articles or ongoing regular columns
  • Link us to your instagram / tumblr / twitter / autostraddle profile / website as applicable.

Please familiarize yourself with the website and its target audience before applying. Most of our writers were Autostraddle readers before becoming writers here, but if our last round of applications was any indication, we’ll be getting more outside interest this time.

Previous Fashion & Beauty Regulars for your reference:

What’s In It For You:

Your vision for queer fashion and beauty coverage will be executed on the largest website for LGBTQ women in the world. You’ll help shape not only what this community talks about, but also how we talk about it. The voices you want amplified? They get amplified. The trends you want covered, even created? Done. It’s like being Master of the Universe, but probably a lot more fun.

Staff Writers are paid per post, usually ranging from $35 – $100 per post (mostly in the $35-$50 range) with opportunities for more on special occasions and room for advancement into higher-paying positions as those opportunities arise.

Subject Editors are paid in a variety of complicated ways, through a contract negotiated with the Editors. This usually involves a three-figure stipend as well as per-post payments for posts unaccounted for by the stipend. We will negotiate this with you! We wish we could pay you a million times more, but as an independently-owned website with a huge team on a tiny budget, we can’t — just yet. Queer women’s media is not a big money-maker!

You’ll also get free and discounted merchandise, gold A+ memberships, reimbursements for expenses, passes to cool stuff, and the opportunity to apply to be on the A-Camp Team (and thus be a part of camp for free) and killer recommendations.

While unfortunately none of us are making the wages we deserve, we’re passionate about the work we do and we genuinely find writing to be FUN. You’ll become a better writer, build a brand and a portfolio, develop valuable skills, make connections with brands and industry professionals, have the freedom to write about things you care about and connect with an engaged, passionate audience on a GLAAD-award-winning and very popular platform.

If this all this describes you AND you are interested in writing about news/politics/feminist issues, let us know in your application. That would make you just a splendid candidate and we could create a bigger role for you!

Deadline to apply: Thursday, March 23rd

Staff Writers

We are also looking for staff writers (specifically, QPOC staff writers) who are knowledgeable about and ready to report on current events in politics and social issues, as well as contemporary feminism, feminist activism and sociological studies.

Responsibilities:

You’ll be writing at least one article a week and one longer-form piece per month, checking in with us on Slack as often as possible, and also contributing to the A+ Insider or roundtables as requested. We know you’re not making a living here and probably have at least one other job, so we’re very flexible about your work schedule.

You should:

  • Be informed and on top of LGBT news and current events and have the ability to write about them quickly
  • Be comfortable coming up with story ideas on your own and pitching them to editors, although stories may also sometimes be assigned to you.
  • Be capable of delving deeply into a story, researching its background and thinking critically about it from multiple angles to write coverage of it that includes context and considers its implications fully.
  • Be comfortable reaching out to sources and confirming facts on your own, as well as with journalistic standards of sourcing and fact-checking.
  • Have some familiarity with basic HTML and social media
  • Have a command of grammar/spelling
  • Be obsessively detail-oriented and eager to hit the pavement/make phone calls when necessary.
  • Above all you need to be reliable and accountable — the nature of a “virtual office” means we need a lot more “check-ins” than you might be used to.

You should be passionate about Autostraddle, too!

To apply:

Send us an email with your cover letter in the body of an email to: riese [at] autostraddle [dot], laneia [at] autostraddle [dot] com, rachel [at] autostraddle [dot] com, yvonne [at] autostraddle [dot] com and heather [at] autostraddle [dot] com. I know that’s a lot of people! Please make your subject line read STAFF WRITER 2017, otherwise we can’t guarantee that it won’t be lost in our inboxes. This is very important!

Let us know your background and experience, what your availability is, what your areas of expertise are, and how Autostraddle fits into your overall life/career goals. Link us to your instagram / tumblr / twitter / autostraddle profile / website as applicable.

We also want you to give us five story and/or column ideas and provide a few writing samples, in the forms of links to your work online or attachments in PDF form.

Also, please familiarize yourself with the website and its target audience before applying — we’re LGBT women and nonbinary folks writing for the same, and in the past we’ve gotten applications from people who aren’t in those demographics and have no experience in writing for them, and we feel bad that they wasted their time! So maybe read the “about us” page before shooting us an email!

What’s In It For You:

Staff Writers are paid per post, usually ranging from $35 – $100 per post (mostly in the $35-$50 range) with opportunities for more on special occasions and room for advancement into higher-paying positions as those opportunities arise.

You’ll get free and discounted merchandise, gold A+ memberships, reimbursements for expenses, passes to cool stuff, and the opportunity to apply to be on the A-Camp Team (and thus be a part of camp for free) and killer recommendations.

While unfortunately none of us are making the wages we deserve, we’re passionate about the work we do and we genuinely find writing to be FUN. You’ll become a better writer, build a brand and a portfolio, develop valuable skills, have the freedom to write about things you care about and connect with an engaged, passionate audience on a GLAAD-award-winning and very popular platform.

If this all this describes you AND you are interested in the fashion editor position, let us know in your application. We might be able to smash these two projects together into a larger role, perhaps even a full-time job!

Deadline to apply: Thursday, March 23rd

A Note On Both Roles:

This gig won’t work for you if you’re not here for the team and the community. We’re not a bunch of satellites orbiting the web, we’re people who collaborate, learn from each other, grow together, and feel like family. We’re here instead of any number of other publications that would pay us more because we actually care, deeply, about making an impact locally and on the queer and feminist culture-at-large. (Well, and, we also like the editorial freedom.) The Autostraddle Network of current and former team members is vast and brilliant, and has enabled incredible creative collaborations, lifelong friendships, a pretty decent website, and the best camp in the whole wide world. This is your very special space to discuss your horrifying second-hand sex experiences, how to have no f*cks to give, why you say No to everything, your Lisa Frank enthusiasm and shit white parents said to you.

Often when we put out these calls, we get some backlash on social media about what we’re able to pay our writers and editors. We cannot say this enough: we want to pay more than we do but we can’t. Our other option is to stop existing altogether, and our continued existence remains both a minor miracle and my greatest life achievement. Last year, our expenses (read: paying our employees and writers) went up 47% but revenue only went up 17% — we survived with profit left over from 2015. Although A+ income has gone up, advertising income continues to plummet, camp profits will decrease due to the increased cost of our new site, and last month Amazon slashed affiliate commissions in half with zero warning. But we’re always hustling and finding new ways to make money and grow. We do pay our writers on time, and what we pay is on par with publications like Bustle and more than The Huffington Post, and they have literal MILLIONS of dollars at their disposal. You can also trust that I don’t make assurances I can’t keep — although per-post payments and salaries have gone up gradually over time, they’ve never gone down. I budget carefully to ensure I never have to lower payments/salaries or lay people off due to variations in the company’s financial health. We are family; I take that very seriously.

We are also desperately interested in applications from queer people of color! We cannot possibly overstate how interested we are in applications from queer people of color!

Please submit your application by Thursday, March 23rd. 

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!
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49 Comments

  1. Fashion and Beauty writing is my dream job for which I have little experience writing but tons of experiencing putting products on my face. Maybe one day I’ll stop being lazy and practice writing more regularly.

  2. Personally I would love to see a less western-centric queer and trans women fashion articles. Maybe stuff from Middle Eastern Jewish and Muslim women, a Trans woman from South America, or someone from Asia/India area for example.

  3. I had FOUR friends send me this posting, I’m ready LET’S GOOOO.

    *Goes off to plan the most bomb ass cover letter ever*

  5. Maybe it’s meant to be open to interpretation, but what kinds of writing samples are acceptable in terms of length/genre/etc.? I’ve been a student for the past few years so most of my recent writing samples are longer, unpublished, and written on academic topics. If you’re looking for shorter samples, is it okay to send an excerpt from a longer piece?

  6. I’ve applied for the staff writer role every time it’s been up, can I just send in an app with “please see previous applications”? :P

  8. I’d love to see the writers from She’s a Gent or I Dream of Dapper in this position. Looking forward to more masculine and androgynous style tips.

  9. Don’t get me wrong, I understand how much you make vs how much this site costs. But you are asking how to increase costs by asking for another writer instead of also asking for ideas on increasing revenue. Listen, you are ignoring the elephant in the room. That is incoming dollars not outgoing. Ask us the readers how you can help increase ad revenue. It can’t hurt. Listen maybe their is someone out there that might have the next big idea to make more ad revenue. You never know till you try.

    • Somehow I don’t think your patronizing comment is as helpful as you seem to think it is.

    • They recently hired someone to do exactly this!

      Also you don’t know if their staff is growing in number – they may well be replacing staff members that are leaving.

  10. I’m looking forward to more masculine style tips, especially alternatives to suits/checked shirts. And clothes from UK boys sections. And how to look older when you’re short and masculine and don’t produce a lot of body hair. And aspergers friendly tips re formal wear as I have touch sensitivity.
    Actually I realise I’m being selfish and asking someone to dress me here so, really, I’d hap grateful for any of this.

    • Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I get annoyed when the big fashion tip is “get clothes from the boys section”. I’m an adult sized adult, I can’t fit into children’s sizes.

      • Thanks Kayla :) I know we have banana republic here.
        Carman I’m an adult sized adult. I just happen to be 4″11. Why is that still adult sized? Cos I’m 28 and it’s my size…

        • Ah ok, yeah it’s probably something that’s difficult to hear for everyone: advice meant for people with different body shapes and sizes. I’m just a bit sensitive to comments to do with height. On the rare occasions people will admit in person that I’m an adult it always comes with side order of the person acting with skepticism about it. And personally I’m not used to that advice yet, which is probably because I don’t come on the site very much for fashion advice. It’s not much of a thing in the mainstream fashion world.

          I’d like tips from UK boys’ sections. The site seems to have a bit on US boys’ sections and I rarely fit women’s sections, let alone men’s. Or just in general, shops that serve short people whether that’s ‘kids’ sizes’ or ‘petite sizes’.

          I’m not fat myself but if it can also include things for plus sized people who happen to be short then I think that would be great. That’s probably a size which is very much not catered to and I know quite a few people in that position, although most of the people I personally know in that position dress femme.

          Ugh I hate fashion because everyone including me seems to come at it with their insecurities and then we end up disagreeing along the lines of what we look like rather than more substantial opinions. Maybe one approach by AS might be to offer some generalised fashion advice in terms of types of clothes/styles and then we can source the general items ourselves.

        • I am short and plus sized and have found that stores targeted to middle aged women have worked WONDERS because they’re more focused on fitting the bodies of middle aged women who want something straightforward rather than being super fashion forward, and tend to have more size options.

          Idk what the analog would be in the UK, but in the U.S. Land’s End has been my go to. All pants can be hemmed to your exact length, and they have decent plus sized options. I can’t get anything but basics from there (like khakis) and they can be a tad expensive if you’re on a budget, but I’d maybe give a place like that a try for your basics.

  11. Hey I’m super interested in writing about queer fashion but as a student I dont have time to be an editor. Should I apply as a staff writer?

  12. I will definitely be applying!! I am so ready to bring masculine-of-center, androgynous, and inclusive style and fashion writing to the masses!!

  13. Waiting for that meme content creator position to be posted

    Can’t wait to apply for that job

    Lol

  14. Is there any specific person or people I could email about a specific pitch question and situation?

  15. Oooo. I hope I can muster my courage (and overcome my fear of my looming triple coursework deadline) enough to apply.

  16. Honestly Riese,
    I’d write for you for free ;)

    #QueerEducatorArticles

    Toni, formerly known as Luna

  18. Hey guys, sorry to be a Debbie Downer but I’m unsure if you can specifically say you want to hire QPOC writers, at least in the US, where I’m viewing this. (Check out https://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/race-color.html#VIA1 for guidance, and check with your legal team). If I’m wrong, please let me know. I just don’t want to see AS go down in a lawsuit, like Gawker did.

    • I think it’s the difference between posting a position only availble to QPOC and saying you are especially interested in applications from QPOC.

      But obviously good to double check.

    • yeah, it’s pretty common now for companies that are interested in ~diversity~ to say things like “women, queer people, and people of color encouraged to apply” and this feels similar to those calls. i’ve seen it from big public universities in the more ~liberal~ departments so if they can do it, i feel p confident AS is in the clear?

  19. Should the Staff Writer application include a resume? Or is that only necessary for the Editor position? Thanks and good luck to everyone who’s applying!

  20. When you say Thursday, is it a specific time or timezone? Or just when it stops beong Thursday anywhere in the world? ;)

  21. If I’m applying for the editor position, do my writing samples need to be related to beauty/fashion or can they be about anything? Could it be a zine?

    • Your samples will show us your writing style/s and won’t necessarily have to be about a topic that’s relevant to the position or even this website, so a zine would totally work!

  22. I spent about four hours applying for this on Sunday and I am now having nightmares of my email somehow going in your junk mail or something and my dreams going unfulfilled because of a little oversight. Will you be sending out “got it thx” emails to those who applied? Should I be worried?

    <3

    P.S. Also I obsessively followed the instructions to the letter so I didn't send in a resume (for the Staff Writer position) but now I see you said it would have been nice! Is it ok that I didn't?

  23. I misread this and thought it was for April 23rd!

    I have a few writing samples and I’m a beauty specialist and educator of 10 years!

    This has always been my dream? Could I still apply?

  24. Hi,

    Will applicants receive any sort of confirmation message that their email has been received? If not, when will we know if we have received the position or not?

    Thanks!

Comments are closed.