How She Became a Staff Writer at the New Yorker

The "New Yorkistan" cover of The New Yorker (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Talk about determination

.... and I was like, “How do you like your assistant job at New York magazine?” She got me an interview to be an intern there for the gossip column, the Intelligencer. And I got that.

My first day, Beth Landman, who was a columnist, says, "Call Alexis Stewart, Martha's daughter, and ask how she feels about the fact that her father is about to have a baby with another woman." And I'm 21 and I'm like, "Are you serious?" It was lots of figures who are now meaningless, except, of course, for the orange monster running the free world. It was people like that, people that low. I cried in the bathroom every day — it was just a big departure from anything I'd ever experienced. But it was a great first job for a reporter because it was just terrifying, hideous things and you had to do it.

I was clawing like a rabid cat — I was always clawing. I was like, I'm going to get a job where I write for a living if it kills me.