Life&Style Editors Frankie, Elizabeth, Estelle and Ellie look back at their year and offer insight into their roles in the section
As the academic year comes to a close, it will sadly soon be time to wave farewell to Life&Style’s 2019/2020 editorial team. We have had an absolutely amazing year full of life and full of style! Whilst we are very sad to say goodbye to our beloved section, we are just as excited to hand over the reins to such a talented team of new editors. To reflect on all our hard work, we thought we would put a reminiscent touch on our team’s closing collaborative piece and look back on Life&Style’s year.
Frankie Rhodes: Online Editor
Editing for Life&Style has been the most exciting thing I have done at University and has introduced me not only to a world of journalism but also a world of fashion and creativity.
As an online editor I work closely with Elizabeth, and we have a handy spreadsheet where we keep track of people’s articles so that we can divide the labour fairly. We can get 10-15 new articles each week during busy times, so it is important to stay on top of the work-load to ensure our content stays relevant.
The paper creates an opportunity for student work to be taken seriously, introducing us to a style of working that goes beyond our studies
When it comes to offering article ideas each week, I like to focus on controversial issues such as those surrounding race, gender and sexuality. Quite often a topical issue (such as the coronavirus for example) isn’t studied in reference to marginalised perspectives, so I try to make sure that everybody’s voice is heard. One of my favourite articles that I have edited recently was about Robert Pattinson’s photoshoot from GQ which he conducted from home, where the writer considered how creatives are adapting their skills during the lockdown.
I’ve been amazed at the opportunities that being part of Redbrick has offered me, for example I was lucky enough to attend a Q&A session last year with Alexandra Shulman, the former editor of British Vogue. The paper creates an opportunity for student work to be taken seriously, introducing us to a style of working that goes beyond our studies. I’ve also enjoyed being part of our lovely Life&Style team, recording a podcast together and organising socials to make everybody feel involved.
I’ll be staying on with Life&Style next year as I go into my final year, and moving to the print team where I hope to gain design skills and create some beautiful pages.
Elizabeth Winter: Online Editor
After joining Redbrick as a writer in my second year, becoming an editor for Life&Style was an incredibly exciting milestone. I had virtually no experience in editorial before, so this hands-on role has been a brilliant opportunity to develop a whole range of skills and dive into an industry that was new to me.
Whilst the role entails a lot of reading and editing articles online, it also requires a large amount of communicating with writers and other editors. There is a crucial responsibility when you become an editor to approach issues sensitively and appropriately as people look to you for guidance. Since we’re all students, we are all constantly learning and developing our skills in journalism, so complications are inevitable. Being an editor has taught me how to effectively work with people to help them improve their writing and ensure their message is put across the way they intended, whilst making sure everyone feels like a valued member of the team and knows their voice matters.
There is a crucial responsibility when you become an editor to approach issues sensitively and appropriately
This year has been pretty chaotic for all university students and Life&Style has given me a community of people and wonderful experiences to be positive about when everything seems up in the air. Being part of such an inspiring team of students equally passionate about ensuring our section is taken seriously and valued for the light it sheds on taboo topics has been one of the best parts of my university experience and one I will not forget.
University is an opportunity to learn more than what your degree teaches you, and Redbrick is a brilliant way to become a more knowledgeable and well-rounded person when you leave. I wish all the best to the new editors for next year!
Estelle Dragan: Print Editor
What an absolute honour it has been to co-edit the Print side of the Life&Style section. Ellie and I have really enjoyed working together as a team, and I’m lucky enough to have made three fabulous friends and professional contacts out of the role. I urge all Life&Style writers who fancy acquiring some incredibly rewarding editorial experience to run for an editor role next year!
Print editing has been a really great escapism from my university studies. As a joint honours finalist, I was originally quite worried about balancing my new role alongside my busy schedule. However, the Redbrick office actually became my much-needed shelter from the tedious library grind.
Every fortnight, Ellie and I slotted an afternoon into our diaries to edit the paper. The evening before print editing, we’d choose our favourite print-friendly articles between us, grammar/media law/content-checked the submissions, and authored engaging headlines and subs. Our print sessions entailed spending an afternoon in the Redbrick office using the Adobe InDesign and Photoshop software, where we’d (after about an hour of fiddling around with composition ideas and niggly technological issues), create our beloved fun-filled double spread. There is something exceptionally satisfying about seeing your very own creation in physical print, and, as a bonus, each paper is digitally uploaded onto Issuu, so you can easily link your portfolio of work to your Linked In or CV. I feel that we have done a fruitful job in rebranding the face of the section and allowing ‘peripheral’ topics to be politicised and brought to the foreground of people’s minds
Editing for Life&Style is also a really great way to stay in tune with trends, current affairs and important conversations in the lifestyle sector. We all get involved in researching and ideating article ops for our writers. I’ve particularly enjoyed getting to know our dedicated Life&Style writers at meetings and socials, and it’s been really insightful to see so many varied and diverse angles under which article topics have been conceptualised.
Over the years of my Redbrick journey, I have felt that Life&Style has often been ousted from political conversations and sometimes reputed to have little more than fashion or beauty content. I feel that we have done a fruitful job in rebranding the face of the section and allowing ‘peripheral’ topics to be politicised and brought to the foreground of people’s minds. From the rise of sustainable fashion to investigating the ways in which Afro hairstyles have been stigmatised in Western professional spaces, Life&Style reflects and interrogates countless perspectives on multi-dimensional issues.
Being a part of the Redbrick society has really embellished my university experience and the editorial role has provided me with a plethora of skills and experiences to talk about in job applications and interviews. To name a few, it has shaped me into a highly organised team player who can proficiently put a creative eye for detail in dialogue with readership expectations.
I cannot wait to see what Life&Style brings to the table in the future and I wish our lovely new editors the best of luck!
Ellie Silcock: Print Editor
Having been a Life&Style editor for two years now I feel this strong sense of love for the section, and for Redbrick as a whole. Life&Style quickly became its own little family, and the writers and editors alike can appreciate the passion and values that the section holds.
This time last year, Life&Style won the award for “best section” at the Redbrick Awards, something that we worked extremely hard to achieve. We had completed a total section overhaul; changing the section colours from pink to purple, trying to interact more with the writers and writing the most strong and powerful articles possible. As a result, when I started as a print editor this year, I was determined to uphold the legacy that was built and continue to help the Life&Style section positively evolve. I have not only met the most amazing friends, but also felt inspired and educated by the words our writers have written
I was so lucky to have Estelle, Elizabeth and Frankie joining the team, as they all shared this vision and passion for Redbrick and came along with a fresh set of innovative article ideas. We have had articles this year on subjects never spoken about before in Life&Style, and have really begun to open the conversation to real and topical issues. Eating disorders, mental health and STI’s may not seem like stereotypical Life&Style topics but we felt it was so important that these were spoken about openly and not treated as just taboo.
As a print editor, my role has involved making these articles into the pages of Redbrick, and Estelle and I felt that we needed to do the articles justice by creating fun and unique pages to showcase them. We were often found in the Redbrick office hours after we intended to leave, just making tiny little edits on the pages to ensure the pages were perfect!
Being a Redbrick Editor and being surrounded by such creative and inspiring people is one of the best things I have done at university. I have not only met the most amazing friends, but also felt inspired and educated by the words our writers have written, and how beautifully they have portrayed different situations through their writing. It was so lovely to get to know people at our fortnightly meetings, and also at the social earlier on in the year, and I would urge anyone thinking to write for Redbrick to just give it a go – you never know where it might take you!
Life&Style will always have a special place in my heart, and I can’t wait to see what Frankie and the new editors achieve next year.
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