After attending Clairbourn for her middle school years, Jessica attended Westridge School then moved on to UCLA where she graduated with an English Literature degree. Jessica first stepped into the success spotlight in 2004, when she co-founded a celebrity-fashion blog with her writing partner, Heather Cocks. The pair have since written two young adult novels and their most recent book, The Royal We, has been on a number of bestseller lists.
The alumni office recently caught up with the ever-busy Jessica Morgan to glean insights about her career, what it takes to succeed in her world, and why reading is so important.
Did you have any idea what you wanted your career to be when you attended Clairbourn?
I really didn’t — I don’t know if many twelve year olds have a great grasp on what they want to truly do with their lives, and nor should they! Plenty of time to figure that out. I did always really love to read, however, and I was always writing stories.
How did you get started blogging?
My writing partner, Heather Cocks, and I started our fashion blog on a whim — it really was always just intended as an inside joke, and then it took off! We had good timing, because when we began the blog in 2004, there weren’t nearly as many web publications as there are now, so we managed to get our feet in the door. Now, it’s much more difficult to get readers and attention, simply because there are so many blogs out there fighting for readership. We worked — and still do work! — very hard at it, but we also benefited from a bit of luck as well. We were not strangers to writing (we were both working in TV at the time, and were also both re-cappers for the now defunct website Television Without Pity), and at the time, it seemed natural to start a blog. But I never guessed that it would ever be read by anyone other than my friends.
Is there ever not a time where you’re not on the lookout for content to put on your blog?
Sure! Our blog is primarily focused on red carpet fashion, TV, and the royals. So I don’t find myself thinking about content for GFY when, say, I’m at the market — unless, by some miracle, I look over at the deli counter, and Halle Berry is standing there! I am always thinking about our next book project or the book we happen to be working on, though. Because the blog is reacting to what people say to, say, The Oscars, once I’ve responded to that, I can sort of put it away until I have to write our posts for the next day. But creative projects like our books do take up a LOT of brain space and a lot of creative energy.
How would you sum up your job in one sentence?
I spend a lot of time typing, and thinking.
What is the coolest thing that you’ve gotten to do as part of your job?
We have gotten to do a lot of cool stuff — I feel very fortunate. Our book signings are probably my favorite things to do, because I love meeting readers and they often feel like friends before we’ve even met them. As an author, meeting people who respond to your work is really wonderful, and I feel very very lucky that we’re able to do that. Heather and I also covered the front rows at New York Fashion Week twice a year. We wrote for New York magazine for several years, and last year, we covered for Cosmopolitan, and that is REALLY fun and great people watching. I love getting to go to Fashion Week to observe not just the clothes coming down the runway, but what all the celebrities and editors are wearing. It’s quite fascinating; I also got to interview Helen Mirren in September, and that was obviously a dream. In the course of our other freelance work, we’ve gotten to do some other fun stuff as well — we covered the Emmys red carpet one year, which was really exciting and interesting. In general, the life of a writer is NOT at all glamorous, but there are definitely moments that tip the scale away from my usual life of sitting around in jeans typing and eating a sandwich.
Do you have any projects in the works that you can share?
Our book, The Royal We, is coming out in paperback in May, and we’re trying to figure out our next project now.
You’ve had success with blogging, novels, being a somewhat newly minted Cosmo-girl, do you have any desire to attempt projects for the big (or small) screen?
The Royal We is currently being adapted for film by Lauren Graham (of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood), along with her Parenthood co-star, Mae Whitman. We’re not directly involved with the adaptation, but we’re VERY excited about it.
What advice would you give to students who want to be writers and/or bloggers?
I often get people asking me if I have any hacks to writing a novel, and the news is that I do not. My only advice is that you have to just sit down and write. You have to be consistent and you have to work hard. You cannot get into writing as a way to make money or because it seems easy, because it’s not. It’s often FUN, if you enjoy it (and are good at it), but it’s not easy and it’s often not lucrative, so you really really really have to want to do it. I would be a writer even if I weren’t getting paid for it — I always wrote stories, for myself and my friends — and I think that’s the key. You have to want to do it enough to do it just for yourself. As far as blogging goes, the key really is consistency. You can’t just write a bit here and a bit there, and expect your audience to find you. You have to make it easy for them to find you, and you have to have something new for them to read whenever they do. In blogging, you need to be able to come up with new content and turn it around fast — this is true for a personal blog, or if you write for a larger online publisher, like we do for Cosmo — and you need to make that new content well-written and grammatically correct, because there isn’t time for a lot of edits. Even if you are writing longer-lead journalism, a writer never has as much time as she wishes she had to polish her piece. So you have to get good at writing well, fast. My other advice, beyond writing a lot, is to read a LOT. Reading good writers will make you a better writer, but I believe that reading BAD books will also make you a better writer, because you’ll see what doesn’t work, and what you don’t like. So don’t get hung up on what you are “supposed” to be reading. Just read whatever you want — you’ll learn something from everything.
When you’re not working, what do you like to do for fun?
As you may guess, I read a lot! But I am also a huge sports fan, so I spend a lot of time yelling at the TV.
What is your favorite Clairbourn memory?
I really liked going to Clairbourn. I made a lot of good friends there — my friend Jennifer Wagner and I went on to be best friends throughout high school, and she was a huge part of my life during my formative years, and I am delighted that Clairbourn brought us together. I also very fondly remember playing the part of The Red Queen in a production of Alice in Wonderland. It’s quite a scene-stealer of a part and it was REALLY fun.
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