Jenni Savin

From investigating cultural trends to real-life hard-hitting stories, Jennifer Savin is a pivotal member of the Cosmopolitan Features team and has got herself in some sticky situations in her investigative pursuits. In our conversation, Jenni indulged me in her writing journey and how she got to work on one of the most recognised publications in the magazine world.

From the comfort of our homes, Jenni was rocking her signature Mac red lippy and we began by chatting about Jenni’s desire, pre-covid- to slow down and how this pandemic (as extreme as it sounds) was the way to accommodate that. Not taking away from people’s negative experiences of lockdown, this period allowed Jenni to take a step back from the hustle and bustle.

As the daughter of a military man, Jenni always moved around military base accommodation and settled for the majority of her life in Essex. Going on to study English Literature and Media at University of Brighton, Jenni worked part time jobs during this time and then following graduation (2013) moved to France for a kitchen role working for the Sultan of Oman – Jenni just decided to causally drop this into conversation.

It was during this time that Jenni kept up her blogging to ensure that she kept on writing, and had dabbled in writing for online platforms to make sure she was continually writing. Whilst in France a friend from her part time jobs, Isabella Silvers (who is now a writer across Hearst) encouraged Jenni to apply for a Features Intern for Cosmopolitan magazine – this was a full time and yearlong opportunity at Cosmo.

“I spent every night after work for a week working intensely on my cover letter”

Beginning the long application process, Jenni got to work and put in the hours on her cover letter, critique of the issue and 5 ideas for the publication. This application process became the catalyst for her to move back to the UK, where she realised if she wanted to be taken seriously for a role in journalism, she had to be available. So back to the UK she came and began working in a pub as an evening job. With her head in the game to pursue her writing career, Jenni was attending networking events, writing and applying for all the opportunities she could.

Two months after the initial application stage, Jenni heard back from Cosmo and was invited to create a mock up for the magazine as the next task. It was not easy. Whilst she was waiting to hear back from Cosmo, Jenni had managed to get herself work experience at Closer Magazine, as a result from the networking events so had that under her belt too.

After submitting the next task Cosmo reached out to Jenni with an opportunity to cover the current features intern.

“I didn’t realise they were kind of testing me to see if I’d be right for the role”

After four months since the initial submission, Jenni finally bagged herself the internship at the magazine and began her journey into feature writing. Although the application is much more streamlined now, it wasn’t all plain sailing for Jenni at the time. Going through a period of severe anxiety and a really tough time. Following her recovery, her passion for mental health lead to her writing pieces for Women’s Health and as her writing portfolio expanded so did her opportunities.

“I was so fixated, it was like I was stuck in a cycle of googling things, I was convinced I had a brain tumour or cancer, I just wasn’t functioning”

Following the change of editor, halfway through her internship, Jenni was offered a full-time position on the Features Team and began working writing her book The Wrong Move which has now been published. Paired with her experiences of renting in London, Jenni crafted a thriller which has now led on to her working on her second book at her own pace. I for one loved hearing about Jenni’s writing journey and am looking forward to see what the future is going to bring for her.