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More great Q&A with Letitia Burrell, freelance stylist and the creator and editor of DuJour Magazine. This time around I asked a bit more about breaking into the industry as a stylist, and more about running the magazine as well. If you missed the first part of the interview, be sure to catch it here.

What’s the toughest part of your job?

Wow, the toughest part of my job is Dujour still being rather obscure with too low of a budget to accomplish what I know DUJOUR can accomplish…..but most importantly probably anonymity. I can’t ever get to be who I really am 100% of the time because the fashion world is just so crazy like that. I’m a college degree-less, Jamaican-American, 20-something living in a small studio apt. outside of NYC. That description doesn’t really get you far in anyone’s eyes. I definitely wouldn’t be the highlight at a power luncheon. Battling daily insecurities is the worse. Having long, highly productive phone calls only to finally meet someone and have them judge me, which translates into them judging the magazine. The truth is that no one has done what I do in the same circumstances I did it in, and lived to tell about it. Being the first is always the most brutal because people will always hover over you with a critical eye, waiting for you to fall. But I can’t help it. I know what I want and I go after it, and it doesn’t take a genius or millionaire, hoity toity, 40-something Caucasian women (or gay man!) to make a successful magazine. It just takes passion, guts, and sleepless nights! And its unfortunate ya know, that most mags started by young black publishers either have a big naked butt on the cover (Vibe) or are solely for other young black people (Essence). I happen to have damn good taste too, just as much as any Elle or Bazaar editor, and I really don’t have an answer as to why there aren’t more successful black editors, but I guess I am willing to get the first rock thrown at me to pave the way. But yeah, it is definitely a really, really hard uphill climb to deal with.
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