MTV, magazines, and Maine do not have much in common besides beginning with the letter "M." For Joanna Buffum '11, however, they comprise a majority of of her resume.
The first M, MTV, came into her life this past summer, which she spent in New York City.
"I was an editorial intern for MTV World," explained Buffum. "My bosses treated me like an editorial assistant though, so I got to do work that interns don't usually get to do. It was a great learning experience."
Buffum's MTV responsibilities included attending concerts, helping out at a music video shoot, and launching two international websites, MTV Desi and MTV K-Pop.
"K-Pop focuses on Korean pop music," she said. "It's a huge scene over there. They're basically going through what we went through with *NSYNC and Britney Spears. They have all these teeny boppers—it's crazy!"
MTV Desi, in a similar vein, targets Bollywood and South Asian music audiences.
In addition to blogging about the international music scene, Buffum went to see Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Robyn, Kelis, Dan Black and Far East Movement and reviewed the concerts for MTV World's main website, MTV Iggy.
"MTV focuses a lot on being part of the crowd rather than being a distant observer," she said. "You have to write about what it was like waiting on line outside and various banter between audience members...little things to let readers know what it was like to go to the concert. Because of this, the reviews ended up being really long, especially the Robyn concert because I had to write about the four artists and my separate experiences with them."
These assignments came easily for Buffum, who is an English major and anthropology minor.
"I have always loved reading for pleasure and writing gives me a similar feeling of satisfaction," she said. "I tend to write with a sense of humor, and it's a good feeling when you realize you are laughing out loud as you're writing. I like being creative, and reading and writing are good outlets for me."
This passion for publishing led Buffum to encounter her second M—OK! Magazine.
"I just kind of fell into it," she said of landing an internship with the company in the summer of 2009. During her internship, Buffum met Windsor Hanger, then a Harvard senior with plans to start an online magazine for college women called Her Campus.
"I was the only intern at OK! who was interested in writing for [Her Campus]," she said. "It seemed really abstract at the time, but I decided to apply for it anyway."
After an arduous application process, Buffum began writing articles for the publication, which won the Harvard Small Business Competition.
"The founders of Her Campus argued that magazines target every age group besides college women," she explained. "Seventeen is too young and Cosmopolitan and Vanity Fair have career-based articles that college women can't really relate to. A huge demographic wasn't being targeted with specific content. So the whole concept is that everyone in the company is in college and articles are written by college students our age."
With a national correspondent position secured, Buffum, with the help of Sarah Vallimarescu '12, brought Her Campus up north to Maine, where the magazine commenced its Bowdoin branch last spring.
"Right now we have eight writers and each do their own recurring column," said Buffum. "Sarah and I upload photos and text to the website and see how many hits articles are getting. We are also trying to get a club charter to get funding for T-shirts and other Her Campus paraphernalia."
Buffum finds writing for Her Campus fun and rewarding.
"My editors usually give me a lot of leeway to be creative with my assignments, and I really appreciate that," she said. "For example, when assigned an article about open relationships in college, I turned it into a metaphor about a unicorn and made the article have a fantasy theme. Most publications probably wouldn't be very happy about that, but my editor loved it."
With Her Campus off to a strong fall publication season, the future looks bright for Buffum.
"When I graduate, I want to do magazine journalism, and Her Campus has been great for exploring web opportunities," she said.
With MTV, magazines, and Maine in her back pocket, her dream has a good chance of becoming a reality.