Over the summer I had the incredible opportunity to work for Pittsburgh’s WHIRL Magazine as a Fashion Editorial intern. For those not familiar with WHIRL, WHIRL technically has three publications: WHIRL Magazine, Edible Allegheny, and WHIRL Wedding Guide.

For anyone interested in the happenings of Pittsburgh—anyone who wants to know about the best restaurants, shows, stores, etc. in Pittsburgh—read WHIRL Magazine. Anyone interested in finding out more about local farmers markets, healthy recipes, and gardening should check out Edible Allegheny. Finally, if you’re planning a Pittsburgh wedding, you have to read WHIRL Wedding Guide. It lists all of the best venues, caterers, event planners, etc. in Pittsburgh.

Although each magazine is so unique, it all falls under one fearless leader: Christine Tumpson. As an editorial intern, Christine, WHIRL’s editor-in-chief, was my direct supervisor. She taught me so much about the world of magazines—and also about life.

When I signed on for the internship, I was a little afraid that it could easily turn into a sequel for “The Devil Wears Prada.” I had no idea what to expect. The employees at WHIRL that I had been emailing about my paperwork seemed nice enough, but I couldn’t get a good read on Christine. When I showed up for my first day, I was about 20 minutes early—trying to make a good impression. Christine hadn’t even come in yet.

Christine was the kind of boss that everyone wishes they had. She’s like the mom everyone wishes they had. She lives by the flow of the world and sometimes she’d send us out to the most interesting places on the most exciting adventures. On one of my first days, she told two other interns and me that we had to take the bike trail down to this bike museum and then to a café she loved.

We got lost, there was a torrential downpour, but by the time we found the bike museum, it didn’t even matter. We were soaked to our cores, but walking into Bicycle Heaven was like entering another world. When we mentioned we were from WHIRL, we were given a tour of their extraordinary bike collection and given a brief history of their work.

Once we were finished, we trekked back out into the pouring rain to Chateau Café and Cakery for a fantastic lunch. When we checked out at the register we were all given little coasters with Pittsburgh themed things on them. When they had my order ready, they called out, “Roberto Clemente Bridge!” I don’t know of any other restaurant that does this.

Christine’s focus for our internship was not just to familiarize us with magazines, but to familiarize us with Pittsburgh. After all, that is WHIRL’s goal. At least once a week, she’d send all of us interns out for lunch to some incredible restaurant in Pittsburgh so we could immerse ourselves in our city and build friendships that I’m sure will last our whole lives. She introduced us to stores that I never knew existed, and now cannot live without.

Throughout the course of my internship, I assisted in major photo shoots, styled and managed minor photo shoots, wrote blogs for said photo shoots, assisted in major events, distributed magazines, collected products from stores, assisted in editing the magazine, and so much more.

I got to walk into stores, pick out whatever I wanted, and leave with so many bags I couldn’t walk in a straight line (although I did have to return them after the photo shoots). I got to go to some of the trendiest and most expensive restaurants in town for lunch. I got to see Pitcher Park Memorial Skate Park before it opened. Through WHIRL’s amazing, annual One WHIRL Yoga Fest, I found out that I actually love yoga and want to get much better at it.

For one summer I got to live out my dream job and be part of a family unlike any I have ever met. As we like to say at WHIRL, it was a ‘whirl-wind!’

Check out the denim blog I did for them here!