TU senior Danielle Frater spent last summer working with a major magazine in New York City, but she says it isn’t like the movies – it’s better.
“People think it’s like ‘Devil Wears Prada,’ but it’s not,” Frater says. “Everyone was in jeans, low-key and really friendly.”
While interning at Seventeen magazine last summer, Danielle Frater updated the Shopping Insider app.
Frater was a graphic design intern in the Marketing and Sales Department at Seventeen. She worked on events, designed signage and promotional items, and updated an app design for the teen fashion magazine.
She says her favorite part of her job was working on photo shoots.
“You have catering and you have models coming in and everything is so detailed,” Frater explains. “Everything has to be scheduled on point.”
What also made the experience great was getting to live in New York City. Frater stayed in a basement apartment in the Bronx with a family friend. She had to take two trains, then walk five blocks to get to work.
The long commute was worth it, she says, to experience her dream of living in the Big Apple.
“I don’t drive so it’s perfect to be able to walk everywhere,” Frater says. “My friend worked in the city so sometimes I met her after work and we’d hang out in Times Square.”
Even though Frater only spent a summer in New York, she says it began to feel like home. The Jamaica native could simply walk to a Jamaican restaurant to experience her own culture, or walk around the block to learn about someone else’s.
“The reason I love New York is because of the diversity,” Frater says. “Everywhere you go there is a different accent, a different language.”
In addition to learning that she wants to live in the city in the future, Frater also gained a new career path. By experiencing the business side of working at a publication, the graphic design major discovered that she wants to go into marketing and sales. It was rewarding, she says, to see her work come to fruition.
“I worked on a Keds Bravehearts event and though I wasn’t able to make it to the event, I saw it on Instagram,” Frater recalls. “All of my posters, fliers and even water bottles I designed were there. It was amazing.”
