How I Got Here: Journalist and author Elfy Scott on never dwelling on failure
image via @elfyscott/Instagram
words by Daisy Henry
“I think people have a tendency to conceive of ‘the media’ as some kind of monolith when actually it’s made of lots of individuals working really hard.”
Have you ever stalked someone on LinkedIn and wondered how on earth they managed to land that wildly impressive job? While the internet and social media might have us believe that our ideal job is a mere pipe dream, the individuals who have these jobs were, believe it or not, in the same position once, fantasising over someone else’s seemingly unattainable job.
But behind the awe-inspiring titles and the fancy work events lies a heck of a lot of hard work. So what lessons have been learnt and what skills have proved invaluable in getting them from daydreaming about success to actually being at the top of their industry?
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Welcome to How I Got Here, where we talk to women who are killing it in their respective fields about how they landed their awe-inspiring jobs, exploring the peaks and pits, the failures and the wins, and most importantly the knowledge, advice and practical tips they’ve gleaned along the way.
This week we hear from journalist, author, podcaster, presenter and content creator, Elfy Scott. Evidently, Elfy’s profession is hard to sum up in one word – it is, as she says, “a bit all over the shop”.
But from the moment she finished high school, it was clear she was a writer. Blogging on Tumblr soon led to freelance writing while completing a science degree. Across the span of a few years, Elfy built up a steady writing portfolio and went back to university to do her master’s in journalism, while modelling, travelling and playing in bands on the side.
At 31 years old, Elfy’s resume is impressive. She’s written a book (The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About: Exposing Our Untold Mental Health Crisis), had regular bylines in The Guardian, The Saturday Paper and Junkee, and stints in major newsrooms, and proved her resilience working in the notoriously turbulent media industry. “The rug gets pulled out from beneath your feet pretty regularly – projects get defunded, roles are made redundant and companies crumble,” she says.
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Fashion Journal: Hi Elfy! Tell us a little about who you are and what you do.
Elfy: I’m a freelance journalist, author, presenter, podcaster and content creator… it’s not easy to describe.
Take us back to when you were first starting out. Did you study to get into your chosen field, or did you start with an internship and climb the ladder?
It’s a little complicated, so bear with me. My career essentially started with the freelance writing I was doing fresh out of high school. I was already blogging a lot on Tumblr, which naturally progressed to the point where I was writing album reviews, silly feminist columns and interviews for various magazines and online publications.
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I finished a science degree during this era and then went back to freelance writing. After about two years, I returned to university to do a master’s in journalism because I wanted to upskill and demonstrate to the media industry I was already working in that I was a serious person (I’m not, but a postgraduate degree will give that illusion).
From there, my first real newsroom job in media was as a science reporter, which was a nice merging of my degrees. I think my early career journey was complicated by the fact that I was modelling and playing in bands all through my early twenties, so I was busy travelling and being an absolute ratbag for a long time. Ultimately, I don’t think there’s ever really been a clear ‘ladder’ for what I do, I’ve just continued to write, continued life in front of a camera and pursued things that I find interesting and meaningful.
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Have you faced any challenges in getting to where you are now?
I think the challenges I face are the challenges everybody in media faces, really. Journalism isn’t a particularly stable or high-earning career path and freelance journalism doesn’t really exist as such anymore because it’s so low-paid.
When I have worked full-time for media organisations, I’ve found the rug gets pulled out from beneath your feet pretty regularly – projects get defunded, roles are made redundant and companies crumble. It’s all a bit of a mess because we’re living in an era where people are largely uninterested in paying for journalism or content anymore and I don’t know if that will ever change.
As a freelancer, the last couple of years have been particularly difficult and I’ve been scrambling a bit from paycheck to paycheck. I know a lot of other freelancers are experiencing the same struggle.
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What do you want people to know about the media industry?
I think it’s important that people always keep in mind that lots of journalists are incredibly clever, empathetic people who are doing what they do because they’re driven by the belief that exposing some truth or telling a story can better the world in some way. I think people have a tendency to conceive of ‘the media’ as some kind of monolith when actually it’s made of lots of individuals working really hard and a lot of the work they’re doing is kind of indispensable for a functioning democracy.
What’s the best part about what you do?
In my work as a journalist, every day I get to learn something, speak to really smart people about that thing, speak to people with first-person experience, and then relay that information to people who will learn the same super interesting (sometimes important) thing that I have learnt. It’s a great job.
In my work as a freelancer, I get to pursue really whatever makes me feel fulfilled and creative. I love being in front of the camera or a live audience, experiencing something in real-time with a room full of people. I’m writing my second book at the moment and whenever I finish an interview for it I walk away absolutely pumped up with the thrill of getting to tell a really interesting story.
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What would surprise people about your role?
The taxes. Oh my god, the complications of a quarterly BAS statement if you’ve never had to do one alone. The amount of money I spend trying to get people to explain tax to me when I have about 5,000 streams of income and have to stay on top of them all. The nightmare of it.
What skills have served you well in the media industry?
One of the funniest skills that I think has served me well in my freelancing life is that I rarely take things personally. I picked it up from years of modelling and hundreds – possibly thousands – of moments of rejection in that career. You learn to let things slide after about a decade of somebody closely inspecting your face and body and going “Nah”. Whenever I pitch a project – and God, I’ve pitched a lot – that gets rejected, I basically never dwell on its failure. I just pick things up and keep going.
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What advice would you give to someone who wants to be in a role like yours one day?
I think a career like mine – one that is so all over the shop – is tricky and if you’re going to do it, you have to consider if it’s something you really love and believe in. You’ll be working weekends, you’ll be doing wacky shoots and travelling a lot, doing some absolutely absurd things and speaking in front of thousands of people while trying to never put your foot in your mouth (I have not yet perfected this). Also, your parents will never, ever understand what you do for a living and you have to be okay with that.
What about a practical tip?
Get on top of your calendar, stay organised and force yourself to leave the house. If you’re a freelancer and you haven’t left the house at least once today if only for a five-minute walk, you’re in trouble.
Keep up with Elfy here.
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