I read “If You Have To Cry, Go Outside” during a few train rides commuting to New York, where I held my first PR job. The book offers an inside look at the fashion PR world and is an autobiography of sorts of reality star Kelly Cutrone’s. Between her self-made religion, affinity for wearing all black (a trend I took on myself in my first post-grad year working in the Big Apple), and being a small-town, upstate New Yorker-turned-TV celebrity, I was hooked.
All the glory and challenges that I experienced while working in the New York PR scene came back to me when I read Kelly Cutrone’s recent quote in Larissa Faw’s recent article in Forbes, “Why Millennial women are burning out at work by 30.” In the Forbes article, Kelly says:
“[Young women] need to learn life is a marathon, not a sprint. College is nothing more than a baby-sitting service. These students are totally unprepared for the real world. The reality for women who want to work in PR is that they are going to be working with 24 catty [women] who will backstab and compete with them. No one will say thank you. You will eat lunch at 5 p.m. It sucks and it’s hard work.”
Looking back on the highs and lows of navigating this business and thinking about Ms. Cutrone’s quote, ask yourself: Do you think your college professors were mere babysitters; Do you think you’re prepared to run a marathon; What does the reality of your PR world look like?
