Happy Black History Month from Hoot! To celebrate the month, and Black people in the creative industry, we wanted to take the time to honor and acknowledge Black Columbia and Barnard alums working as creatives and changing the game. Keep reading to hear from path-breaking Barnumbia graduates on how to make it in the industry as a Black creative.
As a Leo Sun, Aries Moon, and Capricorn Rising, Paris Parker-Loan has successfully created a space for herself in the industry where she can embrace her logical, ambitious, and unconventionally creative personality. Paris is a Columbia College alum, graduating in the class of 2018, who is currently working as a Social Strategy manager on the brand team at Co-Star Astrology.
Paris has always been drawn to the creative industry, and she was a Features Editor for Hoot during her time at Columbia. At Columbia, she was always coming across interesting and creative people, working alongside some of them at Hoot, and loved hearing about the things people were building or working on. While she doesn’t describe herself as traditionally creative, finding a zone that has made sense for herself within the creative industry has been very exciting.
“I enjoy the freedom that comes from working creatively, and, not knowing what each day is going to look like because so many different possibilities could emerge. I think there's also a lot of opportunities for really meaningful collaborations, different people, when they're working on creative things, which is something I definitely love about the work that I do now.”
During college, Paris primarily pursued marketing internships, utilizing her time to learn everything there was to learn and solidify her interests in marketing, brand development, and social media. Her first internship was at a large corporate company. Feeling that it was a bit too structured and rigid for her liking, she then interned at a small beauty startup where she found more freedom and responsibility.
“I was interning for the person who was in charge of all social marketing and partnerships and events, so I got to just experience firsthand all those different areas. And when you're working at such a small company, there were like 12 people, I really got to kind of learn everything and sort of step into a bunch of different roles, which is something I really like about startups and have enjoyed about working at a startup after college.”
Before landing her job at Co-Star, Paris had an interest in astrology. Her interest in astrology stemmed from her mother who was really into astrology as well. She was always super curious about her friends’ placements and personalities as well as her own. She came across Co-Star during her junior year of college, downloading the app, and following them on social media, where she would find the job opening that would eventually become hers.
“It’s a really easy thing to nerd out on and like, investigate further. And I think it comes to life when you're thinking about your friends and your relationships. It's very cool. People are turning away from organized religion and things like that. Astrology is kind of this thing that has united Gen Z, and like younger millennials, in terms of, helping us understand the world and each other, which I think is very cool. Everyone, I feel, these days has some sort of relationship to astrology, and I love like talking to people about what it means to them.”
Before working in social media, Paris was an outsider to the social media world as she did not own any social media accounts until college. However, she’s come to find social media to be extremely interesting and a great way to build a brand identity.
One of Paris’ favorite parts of working at Co-Star is the people.
“Everyone’s super into something, whatever it is. It’s a very intelligent and interesting group of people. I like that my position allows me to do stuff with everybody, whether that's our writers and astrologers, engineers, or our product team. Brand at Co-star kind of gets to fit into all of those different areas. I really do value the collaborative aspect.”
She enjoys the flexibility, freedom, and growth that you receive or see working at a startup. She likes working on something super different every day, being able to see the development of Co-Star as she joined when the company was quite small, and being able to influence and define how things work at a company,
Paris is very proud of how she has been able to carve out space for herself at Co-Star and in the creative industry.
“ I came into Co-Star working in a very different role than what I have right now. I applied for a part-time, office manager kind of role, which I knew was not what I was dreaming of doing. But I was like, ‘this company is really interesting. I want to get in the door, and this is what they have open right now.’ I applied pretty quickly and expressed where my interests really were and I was very open about articulating kind of the path I hope to have. I was promoted pretty quickly. I started just being nosy and learning different stuff that I was interested in, so that down the line, I was a really good candidate for other roles. That's how I got into social media because I just used to, like, help out the person who did social stuff before me. I've worn a bunch of different hats at Co-Star but I am proud of articulating what I wanted and where I wanted to go, and really being deliberate about making that happen.”
She encourages aspiring creatives to do their research and get really nosy about the brands, companies, and people who are doing work that they love.
“I look into everything, and I feel like it has really helped me, especially in industries that are not designed to welcome you in. You kind of have to go around and figure out how to get in.”
She also advises being prepared to seize opportunities when they come.
"You don't know what opportunity you might encounter. Being ready at that moment to jump on it can make or break where you go. If you're a creative, have a portfolio ready, have your website ready, whatever you like, just be ready to say, ‘This is me. I'm here right now. I want to be doing this thing.’ Especially in New York, you never know, when you go somewhere, who you're gonna meet.”
She stresses the importance of striking a balance between knowing who you are, what you want to do, and what you’re about, not compromising on that while being realistic. Sometimes, you may have to take a job or opportunity that may not be as glamorous or interesting, but is a step towards where you want to end up and you have to continue to hope that you will get there.
“Especially for black creatives, people will try to put you in a box. And that box is not going to be nearly as interesting or creative as the box you could create.”
She reminds aspiring black creatives in college to remember that are things that are more important than your actual coursework and encourages undergraduates to get involved in as much as possible and to make sure to find community and mentors.
One of Paris’ favorite black creatives that serve as her inspiration is Solange, who she feels is a true creative and multi-hyphenate.
