New Series! *(Aspirings) Who Inspire*

Contributor's note: Here at Lives of (Aspiring) Media Mavens, we're all about celebrating the accomplishments of our peers. Thus, we begin a series, (Aspirings) Who Inspire, bringing you profiles of young media professionals who not only aspire but inspire us all. So go ahead, read on, and brace yourself.
~Sincerely, BeeCee

Meet: Sammy Davis, Hearst Digital Media

As far as (Aspiring) Media Mavens go, this is the girl you want to be. She’s worked at Life & Style, Self and Glamour. She writes feature stories for Esquire, and she’s worked New York Fashion Week. She graduated from Temple University in May, and for the past few months she’s been learning the ropes at her current job—Assistant Editor of digital media at Hearst. And that’s not even half her resume.

Her name is Samantha Davis—Sammy, everyone calls her—award-winning editor and writer. Thursday evening, I dialed her up for a chat about work, life and…work. She graciously dished about what it takes to be successful in media.

Living In a Digital World
One of the first things Sammy talked about is what it’s like to work in the digital realm. As the Assistant Editor of Digital Media at Hearst, she’s got a list of responsibilities as long as her arm. On a daily basis, she can switch from comment moderation on Hearst’s Web sites to creating a holiday gift guide to making the rounds at each editor’s desk. And when the execs want to bounce ideas, they come to her. “It’s really cool because I’m 22, and my input is really valuable,” she says.

Sammy has worked on a number of print pubs, so she also had some insight on what it’s like to make the big switch. “Digital media is interesting because there’s so much money going into it right now, plus print media is more conservative. There’s always something new. You’re always asking, ‘Oh, really we’re doing that project right now?’” she says. “There’s so much creative energy in digital media because there’s a lot more opportunity for growth.”

How She Got to Hearst
Although she’s still in her early twenties, Sammy has held jobs that most journalists only dream of. She insists that her start in big media came from sheer luck, but I suspect it had a little to do with her talent and drive, too.

After she got to college, she got to work. “I knew I had to get an internship, so I didn’t wait. I interned my first semester,” she says. “I just had a collective understanding of what it takes to be successful.” After that first internship, she set her sights on the publishing capital. “Sophomore year I was just like, ‘I’m going to go to New York. I’m just going to do it,’” she says. She admits that she was still a little green at that point (“I had no idea what I was doing,” she says), but after knocking on a few doors, one of them opened. Life & Style magazine just happened to be on the other side.

That internship was a springboard into a noteworthy career—Draper’s, a London-based fashion business weekly, and Self followed. Sammy has also done work with New York Women In Communications and has been subsequently showered with accolades for her performance.

On Being AWKWARD
One of her greatest accomplishments to date is a witty women’s blog called AWKWARD, which she co-founded with good friend and colleague Erin E. The two aspiring mavens met last summer while they were both interning in NYC. As media pros, they know the industry landscape like the backs of their hands, and there just wasn’t anything out there that resonated with them. They are young and intelligent women, and they celebrate their imperfections. What magazine wants to tell you about that?

“There’s this empty hole in the media for women in their 20s, I woud even say online, too,” Sammy says. Referring to the self-help cover lines that are always telling us how to improve our ‘something’ or increase our ‘other,’ Sammy says, “The media tells you you’re not happy. They tell you how you feel.”

She adds, “You read men’s magazines, and they don’t tell them anything. They just assume they’re happy and confident.”

Thus, AWKWARD was born. A blog created just for us twenty-something women who don’t mind our love handles, the fact that we occasionally snort when we laugh and we never really grew out of that ‘awkward phase.’ All because, as the blog’s tagline reads, ‘Perfection is Boring.’

“It’s a platform for you to be yourself,” she says.

Not Your Average Media Pro
If you’re looking for a ‘queen bee’ type of story, you won’t find it in Sammy Davis. Straight out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, she’s a media professional that advocates investing in other people, not just networking.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself to meet people,” she says. “But not just to meet them to meet them, but to connect with them. And ninety percent of the people that you meet, it’s really easy to connect with them because they’re passionate about what they do, and you are too.”

Her biggest pet peeve about this sometimes cutthroat industry? “I hate that the industry thinks it has to be so competitive,” she shares. “I’ve never been mean to people, I don’t blackmail people, and look at me. I’ve done pretty well.”

She is also one of those rare New York writers who realize that there’s a whole world outside of the city. “Big media is so New York-centric. You know what I wonder sometimes? What does the girl in Kansas want?” she says. “I love the digital realm because I don’t have to fly to Kansas to get to know that girl.”

And there you have it. Sammy Davis just might be the girl you want to be, or she may be the media professional you thought never existed. She’s sharp, witty, stylish and…nice. Either way you look at it, she is raising the bar and making all of us mavens look at little better on the job.

To read Sammy's AWKWARD confessions, go to http://www.awkwardisawesome.com/.