One day, I really started to understand how all of the pieces of my life came together. The truth is, I have been working as a writer and a storyteller for most of my life. Here are glimpses of that story. 

I am a multimedia beauty reporter and social media editor using my journalism and curatorial skills to craft distinct narratives on beauty, pop culture, and the intersection of both. 

I was born in Long Beach, California. Months later, I drove cross country to my dad's hometown, Buffalo, New York. Growing up my mom was a hairstylist and later an interior designer; we had a hair salon in our basement. My dad, a basketball coach and later a pharmaceutical salesman. My grandmother owned a restaurant called Gigi's and I grew up around her, food, and knowing what community looks and feels like.

I have always been a writer and a talker.

I attended Emerson College and majored in Broadcast Journalism because it felt like the most natural extension of what I liked at the time; talking to people. This is when I interned at my local news station News 4 Buffalo, NBC News, and Parkwood Entertainment. At Parkwood, I learned how I could apply creative processes to my work in journalism. I also studied abroad, lived in a castle (???) for 3 months, and traveled to over 10 countries. 

After graduation, I moved to NYC. My first job was at Dateline NBC as a Program Coordinator where I was assistant to the executive producer and got involved with the digital team.

I became obsessed with news and social media and the intersection of both.

I later became Managing Producer of HRDCVR, a culture magazine reimagining who and what we cover and deem as relevant, and expanding that to involve storytelling of communities that are underserved in media, but shaping the cultural zeitgeist.

After this, I dedicated my time to working on thoughtful and viral ways to present news and content to people on the internet and IRL, for platforms like BuzzFeed News, Yahoo News, Teen Vogue, NBC News, and Vox.com.

During the first podcast "boom" I started, 'Am I Allowed to Like Anything?' where I talked to people about their work, their lives, and things in culture they were actually loving. I booked, produced, and edited the show myself. It ran until 2019.

I needed a change of scenery.

In 2017, I moved to LA. Quit BuzzFeed News, but continued to do freelance social media and curation work. I started to explore the world of beauty as my interest in the industry grew, and it dawned on me that I could apply all of the skills I learned in a newsroom to the beauty 🤝 PR media world.

Beauty is a global, multi-billion dollar industry. It should be covered with the same rigor as politics, tech, and sports (but we know why it’s not). Plus, I wanted to add something that felt unique to me. Something that felt designed to serve the everyday person, whether it be the beauty junkie or the person who didn't realize they cared about their routine haircut until COVID-19 came along and they were unable to see a barber.  

This is how the BEAUTY IRL newsletter was birthed.

By this time, I had talked to Megan Thee Stallion about her beauty pageant and Tracee Ellis Ross about being the real queen of wellness for The New York Times. I interviewed college students at HBCUs and PWIs who do hair in school as a means to support themselves while getting through school for Refinery29’s Unbothered. I reported on how braids defined the 2010’s and interviewed Chloe x Halle for the digital cover of Teen Vogue. I interviewed Dr. Fauci, barbers, and hairstylists about their shops as vaccination information centers, and community centers.

But my newsletter, BEAUTY IRL, is where I really thrive. BEAUTY IRL is a newsletter, where I publish a weekly curation of news at the intersection of politics and pop culture, and share my point of view. It happens to be on Substack. BEAUTY IRL is a practice for me in defining beauty for myself, through the topics, people, and conversations I believed it fell under. Yes, makeup, hair, skincare, and nails but also wellness, self-care, spirituality, gender, sexuality, women's health, athletes, and music.

Today, I am a reporter, writer, journalist, news curation editor, social media editor, copy editor, and really, the publisher. Encouraged by friends, I also see myself as an artist. As I started to outline my own experiences and notice patterns in my life, I realized they were right. I’m a budding DJ; I love disco and funk, and music is such a throughline of my work. And oftentimes, I feel the term “creator” is used as a notch down from artists, a way to keep some creatives from recognizing their true worth and power.

Recently, I founded Studio Symoné, a creative media lab telling beauty stories at the intersection of politics and pop culture.

It is an agency for me. I needed to create my own world and space to experiment, make media, tell stories from my lens, and share with the rest of the world. 

The first project is Studio Symone the podcast. More specifically, it’s a video podcast streamed LIVE that examines today’s culture through the lens of beauty. We discuss the latest beauty news at the intersection of politics and pop culture. It is my newsletter come to life.

If you’d like to learn more about how to partner with Studio Symoné, reach out to info@studiosymone.com.