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Good read, thanks!

I watched Julie & Julia a couple of years ago and it was so emblematic of turn-of-the-millennium optimism about digital culture. If The Devil Wears Prada represents the formalized entry into NYC media-sphere via the right (and brutal) internship, then Julie & Julia represents the internet era fantasy of rising from your anonymous cubicle job into the same media-sphere by the awesomeness of your blog. I never watched Sex and the City so I can't comment much on it, but I don't think one has to have seen it to conclude it, more so than those two movies I mentioned, played a huge role in making a generation want to become writers, especially NYC writers, especially NYC female writers.

On the male side of this equation, have you ever watched Bored To Death? If not, I'd highly recommend it because it's very funny to watch Ted Danson play a clueless 80s relic--a NYC magazine editor who still thinks his collapsing industry can support lunch expense accounts at the Four Seasons--while living in the late 2000s. Instead of gowns and champagne, this NYC writerly fantasy has three-piece suits and Scotch (and weed).

I've often read about how journalism used to be a lower-class profession, whereas now, it's dominated by elite college grads and nepo babies. That, combined with the influences of the fantasies listed above, can't have been good for journalism's image. I write, and am sympathetic to writers, but I too always rolled my eyes when Twitter would explode with circle-jerky elegies and odes whenever some Buzzfeed clone would shut down, as if some Ivy grad's inability to make a good living by penning thinkpieces about Netflix shows was one of the greatest injustices of our society.

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LOVE Julie & Julia - what a great reminder I’m due for a rewatch! I had never thought about that film’s contribution to this trope but you’re totally right - Julie does represent the rise of the self-assured digital blogger well! I watched that movie as a young adolescent, I’m confident it’s somehow related to this Substack situation I have going here in an indirect way.

Haven’t watched Bored to Death but would be really interested in checking out the male version of this trope. I find that in most films I’ve seen starring male journalists, they’re usually representing the types of journalists these women want to be (I.e. reporting on “real” subject matter, like Watergate in All the President’s Men).

I share your sympathy for writers and your eye rolls at the Twitter circle-jerk elegies, it’s an odd time to be be working in media - journalism especially it seems!

Thank you for your comment! :)

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Thank you for this. As a former fashion editor, I related to the idea of chasing a dream that was never as glamorous as that depicted in films.

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Thank you so much for reading! Glad you got something out of this <3

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Aug 1, 2023Liked by Madison Huizinga

I can relate a lot to your own story, even if I'm just at the "love essay writing in high school" bit. What you said about ambition has completely changed my view! So thank you for this

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Thank you so much for reading <3, I’m so glad you were able to take something from this!

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Jul 30, 2023Liked by Madison Huizinga

Well done!!

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