Senior Features Writer
Cosmopolitan

Rosie M

Hi, I’m Rosie M. I’m senior features writer for Cosmopolitan magazine. Me and the features writer together, we write most of the features that are in there, so beauty and fashion are different sections, but we do all the sort of true life reports, health, money, careers, all those kinds of sections of the magazine.

00:00:25 Writing has always been my big thing, so I always kept diaries and things like that. English law is my number one subject and things like that. I was a bit geeky, to be honest. I used to stay at home and read poetry, you know. I was never a Cosmo girl when I was younger, but then that has made me extra proud of the fact that I actually work for Cosmo now. Anyone can do it if I can.

00:00:51 When I was sort of fourteen/fifteen, I was very, very into my studying, and I was desperate to go to Cambridge University, so I spent every minute studying. And then I didn’t get into Cambridge University, and I was really, really devastated, but I think it was for the best because I ended up going out more rather than sitting in my bedroom reading poetry and being a bit geeky. I went out, met loads of friends, went to York University, had a fantastic time, and it kind of really brought me out of my shell, so I think that was a real key thing that happened in my life.

00:01:21 After university I did a post-graduate qualification in publishing and printing at the London Institute, and I needed a flexible job where I could work part-time and adjust my hours because obviously I was having to go to college during the day, sort of three days a week. I lived with my mum and dad, and worked in the petrol station while I did my post-graduate qualification.

00:01:41 While I was at the petrol station, I wrote for the Texaco in-house magazine, which was distributed to staff, and I had a column called ‘Rosie Writes,’ which talked all about my day as a petrol station attendant. It was very exciting stories about things like people over filling by a penny in their petrol, but it was a great start because it did show that… it did show that I really was committed to working in magazines, and also I nearly got fired once because someone drove off without paying for their petrol, and when they looked back at the CCTV you could see my feet on the till, and the top of a magazine, because I was sitting down reading a magazine, because I just used to read all the magazines all day.

00:02:22 But, again, I read every single magazine in that shop, every single week, and it made me know the difference between all the magazines, which gave me really good grounding for the job I do now.

00:02:31 To get where I am now, I did, first of all, lots of work experience, which everybody has to do. Nobody particularly enjoys it because you often don’t get paid, and it’s quite difficult to juggle earning enough money to get to your work experience and earning no money, but everybody does it, and, you know, you just have to find a way. After doing my petrol station stint, I gave myself a month and I applied for every single job in the world – Canary Monthly – every job there was out there.

00:02:58 I applied for a job at South West News Service in Bristol, which is a news agency, and when I applied for it I didn’t realise it was in Bristol until I printed off the envelope. But when I printed it off and realised, I’d already done my application, so I thought ‘I’m never going to move to Bristol, but I might as well go for it,’ and I got an interview and I got the job. Once I got the job, I thought, well, I’d better move to Bristol then.

00:03:20 I think you have to have clear goals in I mind to get where you want to go. I think I always set myself a goal and then just did whatever it takes to get there, and once I’ve got there I do tend to sort of just relax into it and enjoy what I’ve done, and then eventually I kind of think ‘right, what’s next?’ and then move onto the next thing. But I think if you’ve got an image in your head of you doing what you really want to do, getting there is so much more easier and much more focussed. So every step I’ve taken in my career, I’ve thought ‘will this help me get to write on a magazine like Cosmo? Will this help me get there?’ So all my decisions have been influenced by that one goal. I’m so pleased I made it. It’s very exciting.

ENDS