Taking a Bite of the Big Apple's Magazine Industry
Heather Muir '06 is the聽beauty director at聽Real Simple Magazine聽at Time Inc.聽She聽graduated from Pitt-Johnstown with a Bachelor of Arts degree in聽communication, with a focus on public relations and marketing, and moved to New York City where she landed a job as a beauty editor at聽Cosmopolitan.
She's been a regular on Sirius XM's Cosmo Radio and co-authored a beauty book. Advancing through the highly competitive publishing industry, she moved on to聽Seventeen聽as beauty editor and then to聽Allure, the country's leading women's beauty magazine with 7.2 million readers. As the beauty director at聽Fitnessmagazine, Muir helped women look and feel their best by delivering smart, easy-to-achieve advice on incorporating beauty into every aspect of their active lifestyle.
In addition to keeping tabs on the latest product news and industry trends, Ms. Muir has interviewed celebrities including Beyonc茅, Justin Timberlake, Heidi Klum, Eva Longoria, and Usher. She served as a beauty source for local television news programs across the country, and her blog posts have been picked up by Yahoo, Yahoo Shine, and New York magazine鈥檚聽The Cut. She is a go-to authority for newspapers including聽The New York Times.
As speaker at Pitt-Johnstown's 2012 Commencement, Muir emphasized the importance of stepping out of one's comfort zone and seizing opportunities, telling graduates:
"Remember these five things:聽
"Follow what truly interests you.聽
"Be kind to people.聽
"Play up your best feature.
"Leave your comfort zone.聽
"And by all means, as often as possible, make a fool of yourself."聽
During her junior year at Pitt-Johnstown, Heather completed an聽internship聽at聽Self聽magazine. After graduation, she received an email message from a contact she had made at聽Self聽magazine, inviting her to interview for a position at聽Cosmopolitan. She has been working in the industry ever since.
"Pitt-Johnstown provided me with a solid foundation to enter the magazine world,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hanks to my innovative聽communication聽courses, I built the necessary skill set and confidence to excel as an editor in the beauty field."
Muir currently resides in Marlboro, NY, with her fianc茅.