How The PR Girl Manifesto Created A Platform For Female Collaboration
August 19th was an afternoon filled with goodie bags, sweet treats, and cleverly named cocktails. Most importantly though, it was filled with girl power and networking.
The PR Girl Manifesto hosted its first ever launch party, “Hot Off the PRess (HOTP),” where new friendships, partnerships and business ventures together cultivated. The PR Girl Manifesto is a company that provides aspiring or current female publicists and media mavens with the resources to connect with one another.
With the public relations world being so small, it’s sometimes difficult to feel like you stand out from your competitors. However, this environment encouraged collaboration to become the new competition—a world where there is enough space for all of us at the top, diminishing the feeling of having to be the only winner.
As business cards were passed around, I was able to speak to a few guests of honor and gain an insight of their careers in media and PR.
Kay Brown is the Media Content Creator for the online news outlet Betches; a site written by millennial for millennial women. “Betches is a media publishing company. We have pop culture news articles that are focused towards females, all written in our vernacular. We have two New York Times bestselling books and a podcast called, Betch Slapped. We also have newsletters that go out three times a week called The Sup. It’s all political, but it’s also written in a way that you can understand,” said Brown.
Head over to their Instagram to get your daily dose of relatable funny memes, scour their website for news about your favorite reality TV stars, and subscribe to their newsletter to become the political genius of your friend group.
As if one powerhouse woman wasn’t enough, Janelle Langford, creative director and founder of Suite Public Relations told us how the term “girl boss” isn’t needed when your work proceeds your gender. Langford has worked with well-known brands like Miss Jessie’s and Lexus, and also partners with smaller local brands to help them gain the proper and worthwhile exposure both on and offline.
“I don’t subscribe to that terminology, I think it’s a trend. I’m just an entrepreneur. I think as women we do have different adversities we are going to experience, and then as women of color, possibly. What’s interesting is just to be a really great entrepreneur, and if you’re a really great one [entrepreneur], nobody’s going to know what the gender of your business is and in some cases they don’t need to know,” Langford said. It’s just a reason to write something in pink.”
As the day progressed, there were more and more women exchanging ideas and information, getting to know the guests of honor, and gushing over freebies.
Madisen Theobald, 23, is living her dream in New York City working on the digital team at Conde Nast. On her own time, Madisen is a jack-of-all-trades and specializes in web, resume, and logo design.
“Honestly, I feel like I’ve had to hustle a lot and had to teach myself a lot of the business because I knew I had to stand out. I knew in this industry that’s what you need to do.” Theobald told us.
She oversees and coordinates a group of 140 employees in the Advertising Operations, Revenue and Product sector of Conde Nast Co/Lab and gets the chance to have her own Facebook Live fashion segment at Conde Nast Entertainment’s The Scene.
When asked about the adversities being a young women coordinating such a large group of employees, Madisen told us, “Sometimes it’s hard, because sometimes it’s as simple as ‘Can you help me learn how to do this?’ Then it goes all the way up to ‘Can you help me with this proposal?’ So it really does range. I really love it, they all include me as if I were on their own team.”
The day ended with long goodbyes, contact info and social media exchanges, and last minute photo ops. As HOTP winded down, it was safe to say that the event was both inspiring and beneficial.
Whether or not you subscribe to the term “girl boss”, there’s no denying that HOTP was a breeding ground for the future of successful female entrepreneurs and collaboration.
