Danielle Jackson Found The Beauty In Following Her Dream

Danielle Jackson has always wanted to work in magazines. She, like many who find their way into clubs and organizations in college, had a goal in mind and was willing to put the work in to get there. By 19, Danielle recalls having her life planned out “to a T,” in hopes of being able to achieve the career she so eagerly yearned for.

But, the best laid plans often go awry, and Danielle learned quickly into her college career that grace and the ability to roll with the punches — especially in an industry like publishing — was a must.

“A lot of things didn’t go according to plan, and I blamed myself for that,” Danielle recalls in an interview with Her Campus in celebration of the 15th anniversary of HC. “I switched majors my second year and got rejected from most of the internships I applied to when I was a junior … I thought it was the end of the world at the time.”

However, what Danielle now sees as a “few minor setbacks” eventually brought her to where she is today, the senior beauty editor at Women’s Health. Read on to learn more about Danielle’s path to success in an ever-evolving industry, how her time with Her Campus prepared her for the role she’s in today, and the advice every future leader needs to hear.

Her Campus: Tell us a little more about yourself when you were in college. Where did you go to school and what did you major in? 

Danielle Jackson: I went to the University of Georgia (go Dawgs!) and graduated in 2016. I majored in English, minored in sociology, and completed a writing certificate. My career is something I spent a lot of time obsessing over as a college student — my dream had always been to work in magazines, but at the time, I was really afraid that future employers wouldn’t be as open to hiring an English major for magazine writing jobs versus people who actually studied journalism. (I’ve since realized that experience matters more than anything, but more on that later.) Since I wasn’t a journalism student, I wanted to do everything I could to make sure potential employers could see that I had the ability to write creatively, which is what led me to pursue a writing certificate and be heavily involved with my school’s Her Campus chapter.

HC: What was your dream job growing up? What about when you were in college?

DJ: I’ve always wanted to be a journalist. For a while I wanted to be an entertainment writer because of how obsessed I was with reading Us Weekly and watching all the pop culture shows that used to appear on VH1. After my first internship, I realized entertainment wasn’t for me, but I never wavered in my dream of being a writer.

HC: What was your role in Her Campus at your college?

DJ: During my freshman year, I started out as just a staff writer. By my second year, I was the chapter’s blog editor and by the time I was a junior, I was chosen to lead the chapter as the Campus Correspondent. I also became a national writer by my second or third year, and I was able to complete a remote internship with HC national during my last semester of school.

HC: Do you have any specific memories from your time in Her Campus? 

DJ: Around my second year in Her Campus, my chapter was chosen to host the Her Campus tour, something I didn’t even know we could do at the time. I remember us taking over Tate Plaza one afternoon, doing really fun giveaways and interacting with a bunch of other students who had never heard of HC. Because of certain rules at my school, we weren’t able to host another one, but it was such a fun day spent learning about all the brands HC was involved with at the time, and it was one of my earliest memories of even being a part of HC.

HC: Is there anything that you learned during your time with Her Campus that you still utilize in your career now? 

DJ: My time leading my Her Campus chapter really taught me how to work with a team. Leading a website or vertical is hard work, and it’s even tougher when you’re in college, you have little to no experience, and the people you’re managing are your friends. I spent my first few months as Campus Correspondent thinking that everything — from event planning to posting on social media to fundraising — was supposed to fall on me, and because of that, it was very hard to stay organized without becoming overwhelmed and letting certain responsibilities slip. I reached out to our previous CC for some advice, and she helped me remember that I had a team of people I could delegate tasks to for a reason. That sort of taught me the importance of spreading out responsibilities and holding people accountable for the work that had to be done. It wasn’t easy at all, but it was a helpful experience for when I started working after college.

HC: What advice would you give your college self? 

DJ: I wish I could go back and tell college me to give herself some grace. As a career-obsessed student, I remember being 19 and trying to plan my life to a T, from exactly the internships I’d take to the kind of job I’d have after college. Spoiler: a lot of things didn’t go according to plan and I blamed myself for it. I switched majors my second year and got rejected from most of the internships I applied to when I was a junior — the internship I did get was out of state and unpaid and I ended up having to decline the offer because of it. I thought it was the end of the world at the time, but I realized much later that these were just a few minor setbacks, and that my path to my dream job didn’t have to be linear nor did it have to look just like everyone else’s.

HC: What did the year after graduation look like? Did you find a job right away? What was that job? 

DJ: The summer I graduated, my mom got me a job as a receptionist at her office, so I moved back home to Atlanta and worked there for three months to save money before accepting a paid, post-grad internship at Entertainment Weekly in New York. Media internships were still largely unpaid (and required you to live in New York) when I was in school, so I wasn’t able to intern much in college. Because of that, I spent about 18 months interning at a few different places post-grad, and honestly, it was the best decision I could’ve made for myself. I still had a lot to learn and I didn’t think I had the experience yet to take on an entry level role. The pay wasn’t amazing, but I was getting by and I was getting assigned extra work from other publications whenever I could. By 2018, I got my first editorial assistant job at POPSUGAR, and I stayed there for three years.

HC: What did you learn from your first job out of college? 

DJ: My first boss once told me that no one will treat you like a leader if you don’t act like one, and that’s stuck with me for several years now. When I was an assistant, I had a hard time being assertive because I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my ideas; so it was hard for me to even picture myself being a senior editor one day. Now that I am one, I always have to remind myself that my input will always matter, I deserve to be here, and that if I don’t take my own accomplishments seriously, no one else will either.

HC: What is your job now? Can you describe what a day-in-the-life looks like? 

DJ: I’m currently the senior beauty editor at Women’s Health. Most of my role revolves around helping the beauty director create our editorial calendar, assigning and editing stories, onboarding and maintaining relationships with freelance writers, and project managing our beauty awards franchises. No day looks the same (cliché, I know), but each one usually consists of me checking emails to make sure I haven’t missed any beauty news or event invites from publicists, assigning and/or editing at least one story a day, staying on top of our budget and making sure our freelancers get paid, and attending market appointments and events.

HC: What is your favorite thing about your current job?

DJ: I’m pretty introverted, but what I love about working in beauty is being able to form relationships with so many other editors I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise. It’s really inspiring to be able to see the amazing work that your peers are doing at other brands, while also being able to relate to each other on how exhausting working in media can be at times.

For more Dream Jobs interviews with Her Campus alums, check out Celebrating 15 Years of Her Campus here.

• 15 Years Of Her Campus