This interview has been edited for clarity.
I kind of got into journalism through blogging actually but it was definitely a natural progression from working on issues of social justice and realizing that I was working in a vacuum of people who worked inside a system and understood that things were wrong but no one outside of those experiences knew what was happening. I realized that and I got really interested in the idea of storytelling and how the media impacts what we have access to, what we think is possible for ourselves, and the kind of communities that we actually care about and prioritize.
And that impacts politicians and what they decide where money should go and what policies should be. I think that the early part of my career, and a pretty substantial amount of it, was really working in social justice spaces whether it was teaching or working with movement leaders and organizers to kind of transition into working on communication strategy and how do we change. We’ve seen this really big change over the last ten years. From when I started writing to where we are now we actually have publications that have entire sections dedicated to racial justice or gender and things like that. I think that’s a really big shift and that’s change. I mean it didn’t stop Trump but it’s changed how we have these conversations.
I think I have a bit of a calling to writing. I have a lot of anger and emotions to work through and a lot of that felt like it was good to channel into different places. But the place where I truly felt like I found my voice and felt like the place where I had something to contribute that really cultivated at feministing.
My creative process. Gosh. Creative process makes it sound like this really sexy thing And then I sit down and drink an orange juice and edit this thing, but it’s not. It’s pretty ugly I think a lot of it is a calling. I see something happen and I have a really clear vision of what the story is.
I see what’s happening and see how people are talking about it and I feel really clear about what right now, teen vogue has to say in that moment or what I have to say in that moment. It’s either finding a writer who can say it, working with an editor to make it happen or writing myself. I would say that it’s not necessarily my creative process per say but more so the gut reaction to what’s happening.
In times when I’m not motivated and not feeling good about myself I find if I read someone who really inspires me it’s always sparks something for me.
Yeah absolutely. I guess I’ll start by saying I’ve always had a sort of wrought relationship with my South Asian identity. Part of that is because I came up in justice spaces and I was really disappointed in how the South Asian community and Asian community, more broadly, grappled with interracial issues. I did not feel that South Asian leaders were outspoken enough about the oppression of Black people and of Latino people.
For years we’ve been dealing with immigration issues on the border and hearing South Asian cousins say well they should come in legally like we do and things that were really just ungenerous and very disappointing . I was very wary of fully committing to the identity without the caveat of that doesn’t mean I’m a pawn in this race of pitting different ethnic minorities against each other.
That’s definitely been a part of me figuring out my South Asian identity. And then I think the other side of that is the external piece of it where I want to be respected as a writer and a thinker and an leader and an editor outside of just being a South Asian woman.
I recognize that that’s who I am and that’s important but I’ve been elevated to the position that I’ve elevated in and that’s opened up opportunities for other South Asian women who are coming up behind me. But it’s also I should be receptive in my own right as someone who contributes to this space and has things to say and that kind of stuff.
Teen Vogue actually transitioned into writer about politics two years ago. They really came on the radar after Lauren Duca wrote a column about Trump gaslighting America and systems of abuse and what it means to be gaslit by a man. That went viral.
It was also Phillip Picardi, who’s not the Chief Content Officer, who runs Teen Vogue and Them. He’s very passionate about justice issues. He has observed publications that were doing this and spoke to young people and realized this is what young people are interested in. They’re interested in Zayn and Gigi but they are also grappling with the world that’s really unjust. And, they’re grappling with finding their identity in the time of Trump.
As a resource for young people it was our responsibility to start providing information for them to navigate the world around them. They did that without a ton of expertise on staff. It’s been amazing, but, my role is to come in and professionalize the quality of journalism that were doing and the depth of what we are doing because with it’s an amazing team.
Yes, being a woman of color in charge of Teen Vogue is important. But at the same time I built the skills to actually do this job, my identity is not what made me stronger at that.
I have 10 to 15 years of experience building diverse newsrooms and elevating stories of disenfranchised people while still holding true to our journalistic ethics. I think that’s really where Teen Vogue is. It’s a really great place to be. Because it is a culture magazine at the end of the day so we get a little bit more flexibility than a traditional news organization would get. That’s pretty much my dream scenario where we take what’s happening in the world and we create something that’s meaningful and makes meaning of what’s happening for our readers.
My favorite part of the job is definitely ideation. It’s creating stories that I feel really excited about. I think also elevating the voices of writers who have been historically left out. I think that’s what’s most exciting to me. My other favorite part of the job is being able to indulge completely in fashion, in a way, unapologetically. I’ve been a fashion girl forever so it’s really fun to be like ‘and now it’s my job.’
Well if I’m honest, I’m really good at management but I frickin’ hate doing it. I’m very patient and auntie-like but I find it exhausting. No one likes management and nobody likes being the person who’s always saying no.
Almost all of my conversations all day are serious and it’s so annoying. Something that I love but I’m not good at is all the visual artistic stuff that we do. I wouldn’t say I’m not good at it because I’m good at coming up with ideas but I’m so inspired by our art department and they ways they visualize how these stories are going to come to life. It’s something that I just love and want to get better at.
I think this is an ongoing discussion. I feel two ways about it. The first is, I’m sorry, but there needs to be diversity. Your newsroom has to reflect the issues that your covering. If not, then you’re effectively not giving the right voice to the right people. At the end of day, diversity helps every part of the business experience. Whether its building communication or understanding but also when u have people who reflect the communities you are trying to cover you get stories you wouldn’t normally get. I think for many reason that my first priority always.
I think the second thing is, you know, we are in a really interesting time right now where there is more people of color journalists than we’ve seen before. But not all of them have a beat about race. They want to write about other things. To me, it’s really important to develop skills and we don’t tokenize our writers. When I was at Mic, one of my favorite writers, Zak Cheney Rice who you must check out, he is a young Black man and his areas of expertise are islamophobia and indigenous issues.
To me, That’s actual progress. He can write about race and he can write about Black and White race relations but his expertise is not necessarily that. To me that’s the goal. That’s where we want to get to, when we don’t tokenize people of color as we bring them in.
Figure out what it is that u want to say and do and find the best way to do it. I mean it’s hard because I didn’t take the traditional path. My path is instructive because it shows there isn’t just one path to get to where you want to go. I didn’t go to journalism school or come up from a small newsroom. I worked on several different things and came in as a bit of an outsider.
I took every opportunity that was handed to me. I took every single one of them. I would say that the biggest thing is to not act like you’re too good for something. Try things out even if they don’t seem like the right fit.