She's been slandered by Sarah Lawrence College students as a "Botox bitch" who sold out to the man. For three months she scoured the country fact-checking the deaths of 10,000 AIDS victims for The New Yorker. And 17 years ago, a failed typing test prevented her from nabbing a position at Rolling Stone.
No wonder New York Times Style section reporter Alex Kuczynski considers herself "a public figure with a thick skin."
The 39-year-old journalist and author spoke about her career to an audience of about 40 students and faculty at Fisk Hall on Monday afternoon. The event, "Style and Substance: Reporting on Popular Culture," was co-sponsored by the Medill School of Journalism, The Center for the Writing Arts, Communications Residential College and Northwestern alumni as part of the "Literature of Fact" series.
Kuczynski shared anecdotes about her reporting experiences at an array of prestigious New York-based publications, including The New York Times.
Kuczynski currently writes "Obsessions," a column that runs 15 times per year in T: Style Magazine, The Times' newest supplemental magazine. Her first book, "Beauty Junkies: Inside Our $15 Billion Obsession With Cosmetic Surgery," came out in October 2006.
She described her career as "extremely lucky" and "a combination of preparation and opportunity."
At 22, Kuczynski took her first stab at the industry by applying to work at Rolling Stone, but was rejected due to a flunked typing test.
"In retrospect, Rolling Stone wouldn't be the right place for me, but at the time it seemed perfect; it was my Bible," she said.
Her journalistic career began a few years later with a three-month fact checking position at The New Yorker. Kuczynski simultaneously pitched stories to one of her favorite publications, The New York Observer, a weekly society newspaper.
Kuczynski said she wrote "a lot of weird stories" at the Observer, including an investigation of flesh-eating bacteria on everyday objects such as pay phones. Kuczynski joked that she is "partially responsible for the rising popularity of Purell hand sanitizing wipes."
Spring Break
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