Life of an Intern

As I've mentioned in previous posts and videos, I'm a intern this summer! I'm not sure I want to entirely disclose all the details about where I work, etc, but I still want to share as much of my experience as I can.





I started work on May 4, 2015. My commute to downtown is about one hour and ten minutes. So I leave around 8:30 and I don't get home until 6:30... so it's been feeling like long days. Overall my experience with being a big city has been less surprising and exciting than I expected it to. Don't get me wrong, I think its great. But maybe I hyped it up a bit too much? Let's just say its probably more fun if you have friends around to enjoy it with.


The work itself has been fine, as well. Similar to my experience with the city, its alright, but not as exciting or as surprising as I had previously thought. It has certainly been challenging too. Warning for any other bloggers and possible future interns: people will not always like your writing. Most times they won't. And it can be really hard to adjust from doing creative writing solely for yourself, to doing it as a job. Writers block is a lot more common when you know someone will be judging what you write.

As for my time off, I've mostly been hanging out where I'm staying, with my boyfriend's grandmother. Which is great- we get along really well, and I always have someone to play Scrabble with.

I'll be back next week with some beauty related posts, and I hope to keep you updated with how my summer is going. Feel free to let me know how your summer is going in the comments!

Until then,

My Return to the Online World

So, it's been a while. I have unfortunately left this blog vacant for far too long (has it really been more than three weeks?) and I apologize greatly for that. Stuff has really been going crazy in my life since I posted my April fashion blog favourites, including leaving school and moving to Toronto for the summer (!!). But, now that I am getting more settled in my new life as a fashion intern (more on that later) I feel able to return to blogging at a somewhat normal pace.






But, I have some new plans for this blog. Which will only really be sorted out as I start to execute them. Brainstorming ideas recently has led me to thinking about a possible new side project, as well as redefining the goal of this blog. I feel like I've been a little scattered with my posts in the past few months, and I really want to hone in on the vibe that I want. So you can expect some changes coming in the next while (hopefully).



Until then, I want to update you more on what's been going on in my life, including, as I said before, becoming a fashion intern! I'll be letting you know what's up with that more in a later post. So, you can expect to see me again on Friday, as usual.

I hope you all have been well in my absence, and I can't wait to see each other again more frequently.

Until then,

New Year, Same Blog

Happy New Year! 

First of all, happy new year everyone! I hope you all had lovely holidays and a splendid time with family. I was certainly busy with family and friends over the holidays, which is why I was not posting nearly as often as I had planned. 

But, now the holidays are over and I am back to school. I hope to resume posting to this blog as frequently as possible, but unfortunately I can't guarantee that. Since I'll be starting new classes in university, it's hard to know exactly how much free time I'll have to work on the blog. That being said, I hope to post at least some small updates - I'm not gone forever, I promise. 

So, that's all I have for you today, I'm afraid. I should be back soon with a fashion or beauty related post. 

Before I go, I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog this year. When I started posting more back in October I had no idea it would take off as much as it has, so thank you for your support. I will be seeing you all soon. 

Buffer Festival

On the weekend of November 8-10th, Toronto hosted the first annual Buffer Festival, a Youtube film festival show casing content from creators hailing form San Fransico to London and back again. I had the privilege of attending this event on Saturday November 9th. I left for the conference around 7:10AM and use multiple means of public transit before finally arriving at the TIFF LightBox in downtown Toronto to receive my lanyard and tickets.

The first stop of the morning was a 9:00 showing of Youtube sensation Charlie McDonnell's work- including short films and comedy sketches. This event was hosted by Michael Aranda and Charlie himself, in which they discussed the production of the videos, as well as Charlie's experience as a "famous" Youtuber. Shortly after this screening, a meet and greet was held at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre, where fans of the British Youtube star could meet Charlie and have their photo taken with him. After waiting in line for just over an hour, I had the privilege of meeting Charlie and taking a photo with him. The experience wasn't exactly what I was expecting. After having been watching Charlie's videos loyally since about 2006, I was expecting to be a bit star struck when meeting him, but what I actually experienced was more similar to catching up with an old friend. Youtube is such a unique form of media. Unlike film or television, when one watches a Youtube video, there is a real sense of relationship and conversation, and with social media websites like Twitter and Tumblr, the relationship between creator and fans can become even more real.

After stopping for a short chat and a photo with Charlie, I moved on to the next screening of the day, which was a screening of short films and discussion on their production, with, once again, Charlie McDonnell, and Khyan Mansly, two prominent short film creators on Youtube.

Later on in the evening, I attended my final event for the day, which was a seminar called "Fandom Factor" with Alex Carpenter and Jimmy Wong, which discussed the effect that fandoms had on content creation on Youtube. (A note for those who aren't internet obsessed: fandom = fanbase, or the community that surrounds a certain book or film series, i.e. the Harry Potter fandom.) This was definitely my favourite event of the day as it was very intimate, being held in the small Maple Leaf Theatre in the basement of the CN Tower, and very informative. After the seminar was over, I had a chance to talk with and once again, get a picture with one of my favourite Youtubers, Alex Carpenter. I had a similar experience as I did with Charlie: I wasn't scared, or star struck, it didn't even feel like the first time I had met Alex, and I could tell from the excited conversations and the hugs and greetings from other fans, I wasn't alone in this feeling. Youtube content creators build such a special relationship with their audience, through their videos, through responding to comments and tweets and e-mails, so much so that the more appropriate term for fans and viewers might be rather, friends.

At the end of the day I found myself walking down the damp Toronto streets at dusk, toward the bus that would eventually take me home, reflecting on the amazing community that Youtube has become. Since the community's inception in early 2006 to how far it has come now, in 2013, the same values remain: creativity, and relationship building. Although Youtube continues to grow and become more of an industry than a community, my main hope is that next year, I can return to Buffer Festival and make the same comments about the events that I attended and the people that I met as I did this year... And I have a strange confidence that I will be.

Ottawa

My family just arrived home from our trip to Ottawa. Overall it was a very standard touristy trip, so I don't have much to say about it. But, I took a couple nice photos that I wanted to share with you. Enjoy!

One Direction

So, as previously stated many a time on this blog, I recently went to see One Direction in concert. It was a pretty good time.

The show started (after much waiting through commercials played on the jumbo-tron) with Five Seconds of Summer, a new boy band from Australia. They have a very Jonas Brothers circa A Little Bit Longer sound about them. They were decent enough, but honestly, I have enough bands to fan girl over, so I'm not in the market to pick up another one. But I appreciated them none the less.

Finally, after more and more waiting, the main attraction hit the stage and AHHH HARRY WAS SO CUTE and AAHH LOOK AT NIALL DID YOU SEE THAT but mostly just AHHHHH.

That concert was so unbelievably loud. I have been to many a boy band concert but I don't think I have ever attended one so loud. I mean, usually fans at least make an effort to listen instead of scream the entire time, but, whatever. It was a good show.

One of the most impressive parts of the concert was the set. They had these amazingly huge screen backdrops to the stage which played either live clips of the boys, or really nice typography of lyrics, or animated backgrounds. For example, the London sky line, or the boys as cartoon super heroes! It was really cool.

This was another really neat part of the show. The boys stood on a platform held by cables, moving along, soaring above the crowd. They ended at a square platform quite close to where we were sitting actually.

Overall, it was a really amazing concert and I'm really happy that I got to go, especially considering I didn't think I was going to be able to until my friend, Anna, offered me her extra ticket and we got to go together. It was a very fun experience, 10/10.

And that's all I have to say about that.

-Katie

Camping

I believe the verdict is in. I am terrible at blogging everyday. In my defence, I have been quite busy. For example, this past weekend, I went camping.

So on Friday evening myself, my boyfriend and our five friends stuffed ourselves into a van and headed west, to the beach. We camped at Point Farms provincial park, on Lake Huron, and it was a grand old time.

We arrived, set up our tents and then went down to the beach to hang out for a while, we got there just in time for the tail end of a beautiful sunset. It was lovely, spending time with friends and singing the occasional camp song. Later, we went back to the camp site and played "Never Have I Ever" before going to sleep, or at least attempting to.

The next morning we woke up, and I made breakfast for the whole group, as I did the entire weekend. This trip, which I planned and facilitated, really made me appreciate my parents efforts more. All my life, each summer we've gone on a camping trip, and in my early years, we only ever had tents. I commend my mother for her amazing skill and patience for cooking out of a trunk of our car for an entire week. I had enough trouble with it for a single weekend.

Everybody hanging out, waiting for dinner to be ready. 

The cooking part isn't even the beginning of the difficulty. It's the not killing anyone part. Within my friend group, there are three people with life threatening allergies, as well two people with lactose intolerance. We have a vegan as well, but she couldn't make it this past weekend. Anyway, the point it, trying to cook for people with the risk of them going into anaphylactic shock is quite horrifying. The bright side is though, I made it through!

We spent the majority of the afternoon on Saturday at the beach, and then when we all got tired, as teenagers do, we went back to the campsite to have a nap.

Dan and me on the beach, one of us trying to hide from the UVA/B rays. 

After an afternoon nap and dinner, we headed back to the beach for a sunset stroll, and more camp songs. With the sun dipping bellow the horizon, and the fresh breeze in the air, it really felt like summer. Often, when school ends and the summer holiday begins, I put a whole lot of worry into whether or not I'll have adventures during my time off. I want to go places and do exciting things, because if I don't, I feel like I'm wasting my youth. But, I think on this trip I realized something about adventures, it's really not where you go, it's who you go with. Despite the fact that the campground we stayed at was less than an hour from home, and along a beach that I've been visiting my whole life, the trip was still as fulfilling as if I had gone to Hogwarts and returned (well...) because I got to spend the time with some of my best friends.

I think probably one of my favourite parts of the trip was when we all spent some time on the beach in the evening, and after the suggestion of Dan, we all put our hands in the middle of our huddle and cheered "friends!" The best part of it all was that some people walking by heard us and immediately burst out laughing, one of them yelling back to us, "that was cute!" Yes, yes it was cute. 

All in all, the weekend was really an amazing time, and I'm so glad to have spent it with these great people. If any of you are reading this, which is sort of unlikely, you're all super cool, and I'm so glad that we're friends, for most of you, I've only known you for less than a year, but I still feel so welcome in our little group of friends, and I'm so excited for all the future adventures we'll have together. 

Here's to a great summer, and many more, 

-Katie

History of the Boy Band

So this is an article I wrote for my school newspaper a while back. I really enjoyed the topic and thought the piece turned out pretty well so, naturally, I thought I'd share it on the internet! So, without further ado, a brief history of the boy band! 

             The boy band is one of the most famous archetypes of western pop culture in the twentieth century. From The Beatles to The Backstreet Boys, boy bands have made a huge impact on our society over the years. Their music, (sometimes painful,) and their fans (always painful) define them as the trend-setting, scream-inducing young boys that they are.

            These boys have been a huge influence on youth since the early 1960’s making teen girls squeal at their very sight, and annoying, and baffling teen boys, until their fifteen minutes are up.

            The influences that boy bands have on society have changed over the years, as well as their longevity and quality of music, but a few things have stayed the same. Surprisingly, the differences between the fan girls of the 1960s and the ones that exist today, (i.e myself) are minimal. Consequently, the boy bands, despite the change in trends do remain relatively similar. To fully understand this, we need to go back to the beginning. The point in time when the boy band climbed out of the primordial ooze and began it’s evolution into the billion dollar industry it is today. This journey began in a city in northern England, where a young John Lennon suggested the idea of starting a band to his friends. After several years and a few rejections, (such as the infamous one from Decca records) The Beatles were formed and became the most popular musicians in the world. These four lads from Liverpool drew young girls from all around, their popularity sky-rocketing, re-creating the buzz that Elvis once did, and re-introducing the world to the fan girl. Ever since this historic time period, the hype around boy bands has been labelled Beatlemaina, after the legendary band, and the craziness they brought about.

            The next time this mania hit the world was in the early 1970s when singing and dancing groups such as the Jackson 5, The Partridge Family and The Bay City Rollers took the eyes off The Mother Country and the invasion of boy bands that hailed from there, and onto the talent that America yielded. These groups became fabulously popular, all thanks to the hoards of teenage girls that loved them.

Bands throughout the following decades were met with the same teenage enthusiasm, which only grew stronger through the popularity of television and eventually, the internet. Pop acts such as Menudo, N`Sync, and The Backstreet Boys were next to follow in the long line of teen idols.

With their catchy tunes and cute hair-dos, these boys made teen hearts melt -and records sell- thus marking the point in time where boy bands turned into a billion-dollar industry.

Since then our society has been graced with the presence of musical artists such as The Jonas Brothers, Cody Simpson, Justin Bieber, and most recently, the modern British Invasion that includes the likes of Ed Sheeran, JLS and One Direction.

Throughout the past half century though fashions have changed and music styles have evolved, the dedication of the fans has been constant, and so has the ability of the boy bands to make their fans swoon (and buy concert tickets).

So what have we learned from this history lesson? That cute boys, hyper-emotional teenage girls, a catchy tune, and clever management is the recipe for a whole lot of influence, and even more money.