An Interview with Maggie Seidel: Her Campus at Brown President

SOPHIE JAEGER

Sophie Jaeger: Can you start by telling me a little bit about yourself and background?

Maggie Seidel: I've always had a passion for writing. When I was a little kid, I would write a lot of stories. From there, I would say my interest in writing has blossomed through school and different extracurriculars that I did that helped me kind of establish different types of writing, or different types of writing skill sets. I think that in large part is what has led me to want to join Her Campus. 

SJ: Can you tell me about Her Campus and Her Campus Brown? 

MS: Her Campus is an international organization that is woman-founded and really woman-centric. It's an online publication, outlet, and resource for college students to interact with their college peers and also get advice on topics like health and wellness, style culture, news, and school-related kinds of happenings and things to do.

SJ: Can you tell me about some of your outside partnerships? Are there any new and exciting things on the horizon?

MS: Absolutely. I now serve as President of Her Campus, and so I'm becoming more and more aware of how we get these partnerships and what they look like. Last year, when I was a writer and a freshman, I was part of the distribution of our Fenty Beauty samples and the YSL Beauty samples, but I didn't know much about how we got the partnership per se. Now being in the role I am. I see that we get outreach from these brands through Her Campus, the organization, and then specific chapters can sign up and apply to get different deals. On the horizon, we have a partnership with Valentino and Arm and Hammer. Then [we] also have been conducting personal outreach to local vendors and specifically to stores on Thayer Street to collaborate with them to publicize their food and services and there's a mutual benefit for us. We also have a collaboration within the pink coming up soon. 

SJ: What criteria does Her Campus Brown consider when selecting small businesses to partner with, and how do you ensure alignment with the values and mission of your publication?

MS: I think we're really conscious of the fact that we're at college-centric publication and woman-centric as well. So we ended up doing this outreach and kind of researching which companies we think would be a fit for Her Campus at Brown. We really keep in mind the fact that most of our viewers and readers are women. and they are Brown students as well. The reason, for example, that we reached out to In the Pink is because a lot of our market for our readers overlaps and intersects with their market, so I think we're really looking to find those synergies.

SJ: What initiatives or strategies has Her Campus Brown implemented to ensure that female students have a platform to voice their opinions and experiences?

MS: We have planned a lot of social events, and we also make sure to meet once per week to connect about article ideas. I also think the fact that we present our article ideas but also invite all the writers to bring their own ideas and write on any topic of their choosing definitely fosters a sense of self-confidence and creativity that we're really hoping to achieve in our group.  

SJ: What has your favorite brand partnership been and why? 

MS: That's a hard question. I use all three products that I'm still thinking of to this day that we've partnered with. My favorite though I think would be the YSL Black Opium Perfume because I love perfumes.