What is Making it in Manhattan?

Oh hi there, welcome to Making it in Manhattan. If you’ve been a long time reader or follower, thank you for being here alllll these years!!! If you are a new follower, reader, podcast listener, subscriber- I’m so happy you found me!!!! I thought that it might be time for a little reintroduction. Oh but not to me, you’ve probably seen my face in my closet unboxing a crazy ruffle top or vintage bag, the girl with the big glasses. But I thought it might be time for me to do a little reintroduction of Making it in Manhattan. Oh, what is Making it in Manhattan? Well, I’m glad you asked. Where should we start? I guess from the very beginning.

It all started in 2015…

I was working at InStyle Magazine, I was 23/24 and a fresh young face in the fashion industry. I went to college and studied fashion and decided I wanted to be the next big magazine editor. But enough about me, where did Making it in Manhattan come from??? Well, it was a summer or early fall day and I was sitting at my cubicle in the Time Inc. building in Midtown. I was thinking about my job, how much I loved it and how much I was learning…and then it hit me. I wished that I had a guide book, something or someone that could’ve told me about all of the ins and outs of the industry even before I started. You see, I didn’t grow up in a fashion family, I didn’t know anyone or have any connections. When I started out it was just little old me and Google, yes Google was my bestie for finding contacts and reaching out to people for jobs. I was sitting at my cubicle thinking about all of the mistakes I had made, all I had learned so far and wished I had had something, some sort of guide or person who could've given me a heads up. Told me the dos and dont’s. Like DO bring your resume on an interview (how was I supposed to know???)don’t get discouraged by all of the rejection (there is a lot). You get the deal. I started looking online at fashion books, many of which I had already read and realized they were all written by people much older than me at the time. People who had had long and Uber successful careers in the industry- people I hoped to one day be like. BUT there were no books written by beginners for beginners. Yes, I still considered myself a beginner, and though I had a few years in the industry under my belt, internships at Anna Sui, Marie Claire, and one job at Teen Vogue before landing my role then at InStyle, I was still just a beginner just starting out. So, gusty, little 23ish year old me in that very moment decided I AM GOING TO WRITE A BOOK, ummmm excuse me young Caroline??? Man was I GUTSY! And I also told myself, I am going to write a book and it is going to get published. It’s wild how confident I was back then, blind optimism some might call it or manifesting your dreams others might say, either way, I’m thankful for that young little girl because otherwise we wouldn’t be where we are today.

The Name…

Believe me, people always tell me, wow the name Making it in Manhattan is so good- I really just got lucky. I started brainstorming names, ideas, beginners guide, how to make it, were all things that flashed through my brain. And as I sat there running names over and over through the screen all I could hear in my mind was Frank Sinatra singing “New York, New York.” And you know the line…..” if I can make it there, I’ll make it, anywhere….” that line kept playing over and over again and again. I tried to silence it, drown it out by the clicking of my computer keys but nothing was working. And that’s when I typed out four words that changed my life…Making it in Manhattan. And BOOM! It flowed so well, rolled off your tongue and that was it, the name of my book! Okay, so I have a name and a book concept, where do I go from here????

The Making of Making it in Manhattan…

After I locked in the name I started writing. Once I got a few chapters drafted I had a friend look it over who gave me some incredible feedback and then I started reaching out to literary agents. Now I want to be very honest here, I did not have any sort of following at the time. Maybe a few thousand followers, I was not an influencer, I was just some young girl working at a magazine with an idea, an idea of trying to help and inspire the future fashion generation through a book, a book that felt like your best friend, or your best friend’s big sister was giving you this super secret special advice on how to make all your dreams come true. My point being, it was super hard for me to get a literary agent. Most people I reached out to ignored my emails and those I did hear from told me they didn’t think they were the right person for the project. I probably emailed 60 literary agents before I heard from the one that said yes, that eventually became my literary agent for Making it in Manhattan.

The Blog…

After I signed with my literary agent the work was just beginning. She gave me deadlines, notes, read over my work and gave me lots of feedback. Eventually she was the one that urged me to start my blog, the one you are currently reading right now called Making it in Manhattan, as a place where I could start writing, sharing my story and my advice before the book even came out as a way to build a readership. Starting the blog is what sort of shaped Making it in Manhattan into what we know today because aside from just writing career advice stories and personal essays I started interviewing people in the industry who I admired as a way to also share their advice with others. That’s what ultimately inspired my podcast!

The past few years and future…

Since 2015 when I first came up with the idea of Making it in Manhattan the book, the brand has taken many different shapes through the blog, podcast, Instagram and TikTok. My hope was that as my personal career grows, Making it in Manhattan could grow with it. An ultimate dream of mine? A scripted TV show or movie called Making it in Manhattan, sort of an Emily in Paris meets Legally Blonde and Sex and the City. I think that could be so fun. Or a Making it in Manhattan reality series documenting the hustle and bustle of my life in the city, attending fashion week, recording my podcast, working on photo shoots to give you guys an inside glimpse into the real Making it in Manhattan world. Either way, Making it in Manhattan has been my baby since 2015, on that day sitting behind my cubicle at InStyle. Thank you for being on this journey with me and always supporting me and inspiring me to be the best I can be. And though that fiery young Caroline who believed she could write a book and do absolutely anything has faced a few road blocks and a lot of rejection over the past nine years, she’s still in here. She’s just a little more realistic. Which is good and bad. I’m thankful for how fearless that girl was, how she believed she could really do anything and be anything. I think now that I am here living the dream she always wanted I just wish I could hug her and thank her and tell her that everything would be okay. But then again, I think that unknown is what kept her hungry, kept her going, that idea, the idea that we all just want to Make it in Manhattan.

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