Thursday 23 February 2012

My week at Bliss

So the last few days have been pretty crazy...crazy and amazing! And they've gone way too fast for my liking!

After transcribing interviews for the first 2 days, I finally got to move on to what I've been most excited about doing: some writing!

My first task was to do the website's love horoscopes for the next week...Never have I used the words "crush" and "fit lad" so many times! Check the horoscopes on the mybliss website http://www.mybliss.co.uk/ next week, written by yours truly (I may have been a little biased and made sure my sign, Taurus, has a particularly lucky week...).

Next, Bliss intern Alisha asked me to write a few questions for an interview she is doing tomorrow, with new singing show The Voice's judges and presenters! The Voice is already huge in America and the UK version will be hitting our screens on BBC1 next month.



The lovely Holly Willoughby and Reggie Yates will be hosting and the judging panel will be made up of Jessie J, will.i.am, The Script frontman Danny O'Donoghue and Tom Jones. With stars like that on the show, you can imagine it wasn't hard to think of questions! Pretty crazy to think that Jessie J might be answering questions written by me!

One huge advantage of a week at Bliss is being the first to hear about exciting new beauty products, music and book releases. There are constantly packages containing exciting new goodies landing on the desks - we even got sent some of the new kitkat flavours to try (Lent? What's lent?!)

Today I was asked to write a couple of reviews for some new music for the mybliss website. One of the new music videos was cool new dance tune Back Foot by HeavyFeet and Nate James. Check it out here: (the intro on the website was totes written by me)

http://www.mybliss.co.uk/tunein/music

So tomorrow is my last day at Bliss (boo!). I'll have to make sure I make the most of it!

Love,

Anna .x.

Monday 20 February 2012

Interviews with JLS and One D? All in a day's work...




So I was lucky enough to bag a work placement at Bliss magazine, which is not only amazing fun, but also a great opportunity and a fab start to trying to make it in the world of magazine journalism. Naturally, the first thing I had to do was blog about my first day here at Bliss...

Yesterday I travelled down to Tunbridge Wells, where the Bliss head offices are and after a coach journey and 2 trains, I finally arrived at the little hotel, my home for the week.

Staying here alone for the week meant my first challenge was going out for dinner alone. This involved awkwardly trying to act like I was 'on business' and not like I'd been stood up, by taking a book and obsessively checking my blackberry...After I'd eaten (3 x faster than usual) I decided to get a good night's sleep in prep for day one!

After a hearty breakfast of blueberry muffins, I scaled the huuuuge hill which leads up to the Bliss offices, feeling slightly nervous. Luckily I was greeted by the very friendly senior writer, Lucy, who showed me where everything is and where all the back copies of magazines are kept. I even got made a cup of tea! Definitely had been anticipating that that would be my task all week!

So my first job was to look through all the day's newspapers and to pick out any relevant stories relating to young people or celebs. The only rule: 'Ignore all of the sport section and the heavy political stories'...No problems, there! 

A few hours into the day, Lucy asked me if I fancied transcribing an interview with none other than JLS boys Marvin and Aston! Unfortunately I didn't get to meet the boys, but I think this would have been a bit too much excitement for day 1! However I did learn some first-hand gossip about the boys, from talk of underwear, to Aston's tattoos.



After a coffee during my lunch break, I returned to finish my JLS interview and was promptly offered the task of transcribing an interview with One Direction's Zayn! 1D are definitely my guilty pleasure and with Zayn being my fave (and also 2 years my junior, but let's ignore that) this was another 'job' I could definitely live with doing! In addition to this, the interview was all about fashion and shopping...who knew Zayn loves to indulge in a bit of retail therapy?



So now I'm back in my hotel room, feeling happy but exhausted. But most of all, I feel safe in the knowledge that this is definitely the career I want! Maybe one day I'll get to do the interviews myself! Watch this space...

Love,

Anna .x.