Media, Darling: Glynnis Mapp

Glynnis Mapp is a fashion sleuth, word nerd, self-described foodie, wannabe globetrotter, dog-lover and audiophile. She loves bubblebaths and a good fashion coffee table book. She is a Toronto-born journalist who has lived and worked in Paris, covering haute couture and menswear and womenswear pret-a-porter runway shows. She has also lived, worked and studied in New York (Columbia University). Her editorial work has appeared in ELLE Canada and on ELLECanada.com, National Post, TorontoLife.com, Corduroy, FLARE, FLARE.com, iVillage.ca, HuffingtonPost.ca and Lookbooks.com

She is the editorial director at her website, FashionTK.com and is the associate editor at Canadian digital magazine, The Kit. 

Glynnis currently lives in Toronto, Canada.

Twitter: @glynnismapp, @TheKit

Did you always want to be in the media? If not, what other careers were on the horizon?

Without trying to sound intellectual (or disingenuous) I have truly always wanted to be a writer/editor/media type. For a moment, I had thought of being a backup dancer for Beyonce but that dream never seemed to pan out as I had wanted it to. I sometimes think I could be a comedienne—Kristen Wiig style. Saturday Night Live, are you listening?

Where would you like to be five years from now? 

Oprah-status would be nice. (Kidding, Oprah). I’d love to keep on humming along as a writer and editor. Writing a book would be fun, too. Maybe even more than just one. Maybe writing said book(s) from a grand apartment in the Marais in Paris. #asif #pipedream

Any advice for people getting started in your industry? 

Be a consummate professional, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Have fun. Go to fancy parties if you’re invited. Try to crash the parties you’re not invited to. Make high-profile contacts early, meet them for coffee dates, make them your mentors. Get an internship and try to be a keen (but not annoying) intern. Start a good blog.

What are your favourite media outlets, not including your own?

The news nerd in me loves listening to NPR.com radio streams, that with a cup of coffee in the morning is a pretty good fix. When I’m on deadline, I listen to my favourite French music-meets-fashion site, Kitsuné.fr. French techno makes end of day so much easier.

Best interview you’ve ever had? 

DSquared2 designers, Dean and Dan Caten, on the Canada’s Walk of Fame red carpet in 2009. So charming, so handsome. They had me at “Hey!”

Worst? 

I sort of interviewed Alec Baldwin while in a bagel shop in Manhattan’s upper west side. Well, not exactly interviewed him, but I was witness to some questioning. It’s a long story. Anyway, it ended up being less than fruitful encounter (no Barbara Walters-style Q&A, not even close) but a hilarious story to tell at cocktail parties. Ask me about it next time you see me at one.

Best advice you’ve ever been given? 

If you don’t ask, you don’t get. My motto for my entire career has been to ask for things. It’s the essence of reporting, really.

What rule(s) do you live your life by? 

The Golden Rule. Not kidding! 

I hate? 

100% fat-free anything. Seriously, what is the point?

I love? 

Wasabi peas. And yoga.

Reading? 

I’m re-reading Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. Such a great read. If you don’t think that China will take over as a financial superpower and that everyone will be hooked on a super apparatus (think iPhone on steroids) in the near future, you’re crazy. Huh!? Just read the book.

Best place on earth? 

Playa Del Carmen, Mexico in January. Go there to escape Canada’s coldest months and tell me you don’t think it’s just amazing too.

Dinner guest? 

Ryan Gosling. For all the reasons you think.

Hero? 

My Mom. Beautiful, goofy, stubborn. And I’m my mother’s daughter.

Favourite app?

I’m really into Flipboard, I downloaded that app on my iPhone a few weeks ago. It feels tactile without actually being literally tactile. Right?

Pool or ocean? 

Ocean. Period. 

Voicemail or email? 

Both. Since texting and email is all anyone ever does, it’s a treat getting a funny voicemail from a friend I haven’t heard from in a while. A witty email gets me going just as much though. I have the funniest (and smartest) friends and our email threads are the stuff of would-be Tina Fey novels. Well, more like Candace Bushnell trying to be Tina Fey, but you get the idea.

Media, Darling: Chantel Simmons

Chantel Simmons is the Hair Editor of The Kit and a beauty expert on The Marilyn Denis Show. After graduating from Ryerson’s Journalism program, she got a gig proofreading at the Toronto Sun, and quickly learned that accompanying the male photographers on the Sunshine Girl shoots at Cherry Beach paid better than finding typos in the paper. It was then she realized she must really like words. 

She has worked at ELLE Canada, TV Guide, Elevate and Sweetspot.ca and has written for FASHION, Best Health, MoneySense, Maclean’s, FoodNetwork.com, WNetwork.com and HGTV.ca. She’s also the author of two bestselling novels, and teaches magazine writing and editing at Centennial College in Toronto.

All this is just a front for the fact she’s a stage mom to her cat, Mr. Baz, who has appeared in exactly one film, but has a whole wardrobe of costumes in case he gets a call from George Clooney.

@chantelsimmons

@thekit

www.chantelsimmons.com

Did you always want to be in the media? If not, what other careers were on the horizon?
I always wanted to be a writer and I’ve always been a magazine junkie (isn’t that what the space under beds is actually for?). So when I discovered I could marry the two – and never have to buy another mascara – I was sold. Though when I was five I was sure I was going to be a cashier. I could really man a plastic till back in the day.

Where would you like to be five years from now?

Doing more of what I do now. And getting a few novels closer to having a whole shelf full of my books at the bookstore. (I just hope there are still bookstores in five years.)

Any advice for people getting started in your industry?
Say yes to every opportunity (within reason). You never know where it will lead.

What are your favourite media outlets, not including your own? (i.e.: what do you read/listen/watch?)
The Grid, The National Post, The Globe & Mail, Marie-Claire, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Ted Talks. And for real news, TheBloggess.com and Dear Sugar’s advice column on TheRumpus.net.

Best interview you’ve ever had?

Anyone who surprises me.

Worst?
Hilary Duff. It was a phoner, and every question I’d ask her, she’d repeat to her publicist (who was clearly sitting beside her in the car). The publicist would then tell her what to say and she’d repeat it to me. I felt like saying, “Why don’t you pass the phone to your publicist and we can get this over with quicker.” In fairness, she was really young at the time.

Best advice you’ve ever been given?
It’s never too late to be what you might have been.

What rule(s) do you live your life by?
Success is 99 percent hard work and 1 percent luck. And always pack a sweater.

What’s the most important tip you can give PR pros:
Include prices in the press release. It saves us both another round of emails.

Best experience you’ve had with a PR pro? We love to hear about #wins. 
Too many to mention, but a few things that make me love certain PR reps on a daily basis: knowing the magazine they’re pitching, coming to the rescue within minutes to help me meet a deadline, and being understanding that sometimes, things get cut. It’s not the product, it’s just life. (Okay, sometimes it’s the product.) 

I hate?

Rudeness, negativity, raccoons, pants without back pockets.

I love?

Wittiness, getting mail, exploring new places, Chateau de Bourgogne cheese, the perfect manicure, those crinkly laugh lines around the eyes, the word “swoon”.

Reading?

On my Kindle right now: The Forgotten Waltz, And Then Things Fall Apart, and Ellen DeGeneres’ “Seriously…I’m Kidding”.

Best place on earth?

A hotel room. It usually means I’m on vacation.

Dinner guest?

Anyone who says yes to dessert.

Hero?

My parents.

Favourite app (or whatever you are downloading these days)?

GPS. I have zero sense of direction.

Pool or ocean?

Ocean. Salty air, bare feet, beachy hair.

Voicemail or email?

Email. I have a thing for written words.

Media, Darling: Doug Wallace

Doug Wallace is a Toronto-based writer, editor and independent media relations contractor, principal of Wallace Media, and associate publisher of content for the new digital beauty magazine, The Kit. He also works with some of the city’s top creative agencies to produce advertising and business-communication solutions, and custom lifestyle publications.

Previously, Wallace was content management director of Wish magazine, and executive editor of Fashion and Fashion18 magazines. He has experience in radio, television, print and new media, in the fields of fashion, beauty, food, travel, home décor, music, film and entertainment. He may very well be the only editor you know who has gone to PMB School, and he’s the ONLY writer you know published in Pig Latin. No guff!

 Photo by Jessica Blaine Smith. 

Twitter: @TheKit

What was your favourite class in high school? Why?

I never really had a favourite class; school was always just a task that needed to be carried out. I guess I could say English, because the literature was such an eye opener. Sexual connotations seem to be everywhere, I remember thinking.

How did you get your start as an editor?


I worked on the other side first, as a music publicist in the international department of Virgin Records in London, catering to foreign journalists who all wanted their five minutes with Boy George or Jazzy B or Maxi Priest! Upon my return to Canada, I started writing about music for Venue magazine, then became music editor there, then managing editor. And now the list is very long.

If you weren’t a Media, Darling, what would you be doing right now?

Likely writing for television, which is where I started out in the early 1980s. If I had to switch careers tonight, my reincarnation would be as a travel publicist or marketer, preferably for somewhere where the SCUBA diving is good.

Pitching or follow up: Phone or email?

Definitely email.

We know irrelevant pitches, calling you the wrong name and eight follow-ups are no-no’s; what else should publicists avoid doing?



Not working out in advance how I might use the information they’re giving me in my magazine, and pitching me THAT. Spending money on paper kits that I just throw out. Not taking no for an answer.

Sunrise or sunset?


Sunrise.

Scents?
Vetiver, cypress wood, patchouli, new car

Cookie?
The gluten-free shortbread my husband makes.

Flower?

Azalia.

Ticklish?

Definitely, but more so on one side than the other. (Stroke?)

Shower or bath?


What a girlie question, honestly. These are all quite girlie!

Film?


Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark with Kim Darby and Jim Hutton.

Crush?


Ricky Martin.

First job?


My first media job was writing radio commercials for CKY/CITI in Winnipeg. I was 20 and thought I was QUITE something!

Inspiration?

Tequila.

Media, Darling: Janine Falcon

Janine Falcon is a freelance writer and beauty geek. As a past beauty editor at Canadian Living and Homemakers magazines, she’s now the Face Kit editor of the new digital health-and-beauty mag The Kit, and the founder/editor of BeautyGeeks, an award-winning blog. She’s appeared on Canada AM, Entertainment Tonight Canada, and Steven and Chris; written for Best Health, Fashion and Glow magazines; and been quoted in newspapers such as The Toronto Star, National Post, Vancouver Sun, Edmonton Journal and Ottawa Citizen.

The Kit
Beauty Geeks
Twitter: @TheKit; @beautygeeks

How can someone grab your attention with a pitch?
It’s got to be an easy fit for one of the publications I write for. It also has to be unique or exclusive. Writing the same feature everyone else is writing is… uninspiring.

What do you find most useful when dealing with public relations professionals?
Good humour and a positive attitude. Plus, appreciation when a PR somehow comes through on ridiculously short notice!

What is the biggest mistake PR professionals make?
Incomplete press materials. Perfect press packages include newsworthy details, pricing, availability and product, if applicable. Pulling the old omit-the-price-so-someone-has-to-get-in-touch move makes us move on quickly to the next product instead, the one that came with all the information. (A 24-hour online source of high- and low-res images would also be helpful!)

When it comes to makeup and skin care, we need to examine texture, scent and efficacy to decide whether we can recommend it. Unfortunate things can happen otherwise: in a magazine several years ago, a beauty editor recommended a mascara designed to darken lashes for three days. She tried it after the magazine went to print and discovered the stuff was awful, super-tricky to remove after the three days. And when the story came out, she got letters from annoyed readers.

My pet peeve
More general than strictly PR-related: I’m a grammar geek as well as a beauty geek. “I wish I WOULD HAVE known” hurts me, it’s so wrong. I first started hearing it about eight years ago; now it’s terribly common. The correct way to say such a thing is “I wish I HAD known”.

I also have major issues with the misuse of the word “myself.” For instance, “just call Staff or myself.” Nope. You can’t call “myself” – I’m the only one who can call myself. But you can call Staff or ME.

Geez. I’m such a geek.

Any other thoughts you’d like to add?
I’m pretty lucky. I work with so many pros who are on point, crazy-smart and reliable, and I’m in an industry full of talented and supportive friends. Amazing.