Cosmo, Cocktails, & Snapchat with Joanna Coles

This is Young Hollywood, and I'm Molly Argin in studio today at the bar, having a Cosmopolitan Happy Hour with the editor and chief of All Things Cosmopolitan. Welcome, Joanna Coles.

Thank you, it's fantastic to be here.

I think we should cheers to that.

I think we should. Cheers to you.

Cheers. We're both wearing the right color for this drink, too. We're in Cosmopolitan tones. That's strong. I like it. I like it very much. I'll have yours when you're finished. Oh, it's so great to have you here. I have to list your titles because your repertoire is amazing.

I thought you would. Well, I didn't know about that.

The current chief content officer of Hurst Magazines, who's also a board of directors for Snapchat, and a member for the board of women entrepreneurs, New York City.

There's always, I always think when I hear people introduce me, oh, goodness, I'd like to meet that person and then I realize it's me and I'm like.

Well, it's amazing. And with a repertoire like that, when you're not with us here at Young Hollywood, what is the average day for you as editor and chief?

Well, I think the fun part of being a chief content officer is there is no regular day, actually. I half the time I have no idea what's going to happen to me during the day, and it's always more dramatic than I expect. Um, but a Cosmo day is a bit like a dog day. It's seven times longer than any other day, and it's packed with everything from celebrity, beauty, fashion. You know, you can't you never know who's going to turn up in the office. One moment you look up and there's Kylie Jenner, then Michael Bublé arrives and he's going to sing for you. So, it's a sort of, it's a bit like a sort of being in a studio and at a fashion show all rolled into one.

I'm sure it keeps you on your toes with everyday being different. What is

I'm so badly on my toes, my calves never get a rest.

And and in heels.

And and in heels.

What is the favorite aspect for you personally about your job?

I think my favorite aspect um of having been a magazine editor is the contact with readers, and constantly talking to readers, constantly getting feedback. Uh we used to do wonderful reader nights at Cosmo, where a lot of these would be drunk. Um, but having that sense of what young women want to talk about in a place where they feel safe to talk about it. And Cosmo answers questions on everything from fashion, beauty, sex, love, how to negotiate your career. Um, and we do it in a way that feels like we're not looking down to you, but we are your older sister.

No, I grew up loving Cosmo because to me it really was the relationship handbook. And it still is, but you've been able to expand Cosmo, now not only being about relationships, but careers and uh health issues and women's issues and politics.

Well, when I was editing Cosmo, I felt that women were interested in everything, not just fashion and beauty, not only sex and relationships, but in fact, women are fascinated by all of it, and most women now are working hard, they're striving for whatever they want in their business, or whatever they want in their family. Um, but they all understand pressure, they all feel stressed, they all feel like they don't have enough time or enough energy. And so I wanted to put a little bit of everything into my version of Cosmo. Um, to reflect the modern woman and what's going on in her life.

Because I know you're on the board of directors for Snapchat. That's so cool.

So much fun.

Seeing how Snapchat handles things, how has that affected the magazine?

Well, I think one of the reasons I found Snapchat so appealing when I first started using it and when I first began to understand it was that the biggest or the most fun about Snap is that you're really just in contact with your friends. This isn't about you showing off to people, it's not about, you know, putting the perfectly curated photo out there. It's about putting your fun out there, you know? And just the silly conversations that friends have back and forth with each other, both when they're excited, when they're a bit tipsy, when they're having fun or when they want help from each other. And we have a brilliant team at Cosmo who work on it every day. And they know when you pick up your phone first thing in the morning, they know that you're probably hung over. That's what you're looking at. Yeah, and they know that it's wine time already and it's only 7:00 in the morning. And it's really fun, and it's nothing more than sort of feel-good fun. The magazine is the marathon, and we have one team doing that. We have Cosmo on Snapchat, which is super fast, and that's like the sprint. And you need different muscles, so we have great, really talented teams doing both. And I sometimes just feel like the coach with the stopwatch.

So let's talk about So Cosmo, the new docu series that's coming to E. There's so much that goes into a magazine and so much that maybe readers don't see. Are there any maybe positions or roles that are a little bit unappreciated or not really noticed from the public eye that you think, wow, this is really important and you're going to see that, and this is really important and you're going to see that.

Yeah, that's a great question, Molly. I think uh the market director in both in the beauty and the fashion departments are these are the people that scour the market looking for the new things, the great things, the things that don't work, which we're not going to cover. What you never see as a reader is the art of curation. You see Ruby Rose looking fabulous in a gorgeous pink suit. You don't see the work that went into selecting that perfect suit for Ruby Rose for that perfect cover. And that's the work that we're going to expose. Cuz really it's a show for anybody who's ever worked in an office. And when Parks and Rec and The Office went off the air, I thought, oh, there's no show about work, which is where most people spend their time. And what a lot of us spend our time thinking about even when we're not at work, right? And so we thought why not show our office, and I think you know, no matter where you've worked, you will recognize the challenges that all offices have.

And the personalities getting along. And yes.

Yes, absolutely. It's a lot about the characters, the personalities. They disagree sometimes, and how do you resolve your differences to come up with something that is bigger than the sum of all of you.

And what's been your favorite part filming so far? Cuz that's a new experience filming a filming a TV show.

It is, it is. What were we thinking? Um, I think watching the staff blossom, actually, and just watching them have fun. And after the initial few weeks, which were a bit nerve-wracking, sort of settle into the cameras and really begin to relax and and let people in. I mean, it really is going to be a different kind of show.

And I'm sure that's easier said than done.

Yeah, and you know, the thing is that most docu series and reality shows are people who have been hired or selected to be in a reality show and that is their job. We actually have our jobs putting out the magazine and the cameras are really much more fly on the wall. So you will see all the different comments that people make that didn't realize, they didn't necessarily realize it would be caught on on film. And spoiler alert, there are a lot of HR infractions.

Well, we'll be keeping an eye out for those.