From a Uni Newspaper to Paris Fashion Week: Lola Carron on Making It Work

What do you do, and for how many years have you been working in your field? I'm a journalist. I started in 2023 when I was feeling quite lost in my degree and couldn't figure out how to turn the things I was passionate about into a career. I started as a fashion journalist, moved into food, and now I'm a music journalist too - my three favourite things. These days I do a combination of all three, though I'm mostly focused on music and food at the moment.

What did you do post-high school? Do you have a degree? I have a BA in English and an MA in Journalism. I only did the Masters so I could keep earning through my student loan while getting as much experience as I could and build up my writing portfolio, and in whatever free time I had I did as many internships as I possibly could.

What do you wish someone had told you when you were starting out? That you can lie your way into things. Maybe not the most traditional advice, but I didn't apply for so many things - or just wouldn't even consider them - because I'd talk myself out of it before I'd even started. I don't have exactly the right qualifications, why would they even bother with me. All of that. Obviously not crazy, unrealistic lies - but you are the only person who is going to get yourself places, and you have to do everything you can. If that means telling a few white lies to get yourself in the right rooms so you can prove yourself once you're there, do it.

What does breaking into your field actually look like - what are employers really looking for? Personality. You can tick every single box on a job description and still not get it - you need something that makes you stand out from everyone else who also ticked every box. Journalism especially is so people-based. You're writing for people to read, you're interviewing someone and you want that to be an enjoyable conversation for them, you're at events, you're in meetings. Your personality doesn't have to be loud or crazy - you just have to be confident in yourself, and that comes across more than people realise. It's also so much about marketing yourself and building relationships. And in the age of AI, I genuinely think employers are looking for people who aren't just after the easy route - passion matters, and you can tell when someone has it. There's no point committing to a career you're not actually passionate about. It will feel like the longest job in the world.

If you don't know where to start, I'd find someone who's currently doing the job you want and look at their career history on LinkedIn. It sounds simple but it genuinely works - it shows you a realistic path from where you are to where you want to be, and that can make the whole thing feel a lot less impossible.

Any advice for young people who want to do what you do? Send emails. So many emails. Just find people's email addresses (LinkedIn is your best friend for this) or just email the company's email address and it will get passed onto the right person hopefully. I would spend my days off from university just sending out cold emails to anyone asking for work experience or a job or advice. Also it's not what you know it's who you know, don't be afraid to ask people to help you or put you in touch with people. You have to get good at marketing yourself.

What do you actually do day-to-day - what does a typical week look like? A typical week is me and my laptop, honestly. Lots of emails, usually two articles on the go at once, so there's plenty of back and forth with editors, rounds of edits, and dragging my friends into reading drafts before I submit them. There's also outreach to people I want to interview or write about, events to attend, and somewhere in between all of that, my little side hustles. The main one right now is co-founding a queer supper club in London - we're aiming to launch in September, so there's a lot of prep and outreach going into that. It's my first time running a business, which is terrifying and exciting. Keep your eye out for it!!

What is the most exciting thing you've done/encountered throughout your career? Anything abroad always feels a bit unreal to me. Paris Fashion Week was incredible to be part of, and then getting to interview and dine at the Michelin-starred restaurant GAA in Bangkok while I was backpacking around Southeast Asia - those are the moments where you just think, wow, all the stuff I do on my laptop is actually real. That feeling never gets old.

I also got sent TruFru PR, which for me was my "I made it" moment. No trips required for that one, just a very loud scream in my flat.

8. How did you get into your field? Was it a straight path or did it take a few unexpected turns? Very much not a straight path. I started in 2023 feeling completely lost - I was studying English and convinced myself my only passions were shopping, fashion, and writing in my journal, which didn't exactly scream career prospects. My best friend was like "you could be a journalist?" and I kind of laughed it off. But I'm a very impulsive, everything-has-to-happen-right-now type of person, so once the idea was in my head that was it. I decided I wanted a career in fashion and immediately gave myself a mission: get to Paris Fashion Week. It was three weeks away. I found the schedule, emailed every contact available on Google, got a LinkedIn Pro seven day free trial, and told anyone who would listen that I was going to be in Paris anyway and would be happy to be an extra pair of hands if they needed one. A lie, obviously. But a productive one. I got one response from a haute couture brand, two nights before they wanted me to start. So I booked a flight and flew out the next day. I spent the next week in Paris.

When I got home I wrote a piece for my uni newspaper - "How to Survive Fashion Week Without a Fashion Degree" and after a while it got picked up by a small magazine, and it just kept going from there.

What's the best and hardest thing about working in your industry? The hardest thing is probably that written word was a dying art with everyone's attention spans getting so low with TikTok etc, so to get someone to sit and read an article was hard. But I think with Substack and BookTok taking off and becoming so trendy, people just want something real again. I also think anything creative can be such a saturated industry so it's hard trying to make people spend time on you or appreciate something you create.

But the best thing is sharing opportunities with my two best friends who watch me on my laptop all week and keep me sane and support me. Anything from a dinner or an event or a press trip, my first thought is always "can I bring a +1?" because I love making our lives fun with the things I get to experience due to my job.