Ep 178 - Meet Jen Anderson, ASCP Skin Deep Magazine Editor

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0:00:38.2 Maggie Staszcuk: Hello and welcome to ASCP's Esty Talk. I'm your co-host, Maggie Staszcuk, an ASCP's Education Program Manager. 

 

0:00:52.5 Ella Cressman: And I'm Ella Cressman, licensed esthetician, certified organic formulator, ingredient junkie, and content contributor for Associated Skincare Professionals. 

 

0:01:01.4 MS: We have an amazing guest joining us today, Jen Anderson. Hey, Jen. 

 

0:01:05.3 Jen Anderson: Hi there. Thanks for having me. 

 

0:01:07.8 EC: Hey, Jen. [chuckle] 

 

0:01:09.9 MS: So Jen is the editor of ASCP's Skin Deep magazine and AHP Indie Stylist Magazine. And we're really excited to have you today to tell us what you do and what we can expect in the next issue of Skin Deep. But first I wanna know about you, and I think there's a lot of listeners who think this is probably the coolest job on earth, it's like a dream job, beauty editor skincare magazine. So how'd you get here?  

 

0:01:37.5 JA: That's so true. I get that a lot where people are like, "You have the best job." And I don't... It's just a job, but it was my dream ever since I was 12. I was like, "I'm gonna be an editor." So I got my journalism degree from University of Wisconsin, go Badgers. And then I lived in New York City for about five years. I got my foot in the door as a writer and an editor. I spent a lot of time in the beauty industry as a copywriter. And then I moved back to Colorado in 2020, the year of COVID, and I spent some time as a copy editor for a health magazine. And then it brought me here where I could do both the health side of skin, but also the beauty side of skin, which I love. 

 

0:02:21.6 MS: It's great. That's so cool. So in your opinion, what does it mean to be the editor of an industry publication?  

 

0:02:30.3 JA: It's different. When I was in New York, I got a lot of experience on the consumer side of things, which... That's its own thing. But with... In this kind of industry facing magazine, it's all about the members and making sure that the members are connected to the world of beauty in a way that makes sense to them because they are the ones that are connected to the consumers. So I love that, it's great. 

 

0:02:54.3 EC: It's almost like they're a little bit ahead of the trends and such. 

 

0:02:57.8 JA: Yes. 

 

0:02:58.0 EC: So staying on top of those topics or those ingredients or those modalities, which has gotta be fun. And I think now too, with even different influences from our industry, we more than ever need to be leaders as far as being professional as estheticians or skincare therapists. That leadership, that navigation, the captains of the skin ship, if you will, need to be on us. And so as a leading industry publication, 'cause I think the Skin Deep is such a well respected publication, is key. How was it to step into that role knowing the status of this magazine Particularly?  

 

0:03:41.3 JA: Like a huge weight on my shoulders. 

 

0:03:43.4 EC: Was it?  

 

[laughter] 

 

0:03:45.7 JA: Yes. And I didn't wanna mess up either, but I also knew that it was a huge opportunity for me to dive into the topics that I care most about, that I know other estheticians care most about, that I wanted to put out there, and really do the best job I could to present it and be that trendsetter like you were saying. 

 

0:04:05.2 MS: Absolutely. Do you have a favorite topic right now?  

 

0:04:09.2 JA: We just... This is near and dear to my heart because we just did it in the winter issue, but we talked about prenatal skincare and I think that's so important. And now I wanna do like, "What do you do when you're a brand new mom, you're still recovering?" All of that. I think that'd be an interesting topic. 

 

0:04:25.9 EC: I think that's an interesting topic as a professional, because we are oftentimes like, "Well, can't do a lot. We can't do a whole lot." This is what I tell my clients, "You're gonna be a hot mess for a little bit, but there's options." And that's important for the professional to understand that there's options that you can still address with a lactating mom. It's more than that though. It's not just that part, but it's the emotional part... 

 

0:04:51.2 JA: It is. 

 

0:04:52.1 EC: The lack of sleep that has an effect on the skin. It's the hormones rebalancing that have an effect on the skin, and it's also, your world is upside down after that. And so where do you find the time for self-care, as we've talked about recently?  

 

0:05:07.1 JA: That's what I was just gonna say. It's almost like that's even more important after childbirth, is finding that time for yourself, treating yourself. Those are the clients that really come in for the self-care. 

 

0:05:18.8 MS: So what are your future plans for Skin Deep?  

 

0:05:22.7 JA: Right now I'm trying to build our author pool. So we have some wonderful authors, like Ella, who contribute every issue and we love them. We don't wanna get rid of them, but I think there's so much opportunity to find authors who specialize in specific topics that we haven't really dived into yet. That's my big one right now, is finding more authors, diverse topics, diverse backgrounds, but I'm also looking for really cool topics to get deep into. So those are the things that are planned for the next coming issues, and especially for the spring issue, which is fun too. 

 

0:05:58.4 MS: Super exciting. Hold up. So are you saying that there could potentially be a member that could contribute professionally, like writing in?  

 

0:06:08.3 JA: I know. It's shocking, right?  

 

[laughter] 

 

0:06:10.8 EC: No, that is so exciting. 

 

0:06:12.6 JA: It is very exciting. We love the members who know what they're talking about and who want to write and share it with the world. 

 

0:06:17.1 MS: You guys, did you hear that? [laughter] That's exciting. That is so cool because it gives a voice. 

 

0:06:23.9 JA: It does. 

 

0:06:24.8 MS: That is an amazing opportunity. How would they go about getting in touch with you if they were interested?  

 

0:06:33.2 JA: So easy. You just email editor@ascpskincare.com. I get lots of pitches, but I try my best to respond to all of them in some way or another. And like, "Tell me what you're passionate about." That's what I'm really looking for, is people who have something that they want to write about because they love it so much. 

 

0:06:50.1 MS: So we talked about prenatal skincare, it's one of the things you're passionate about. Are there other things that you're bringing to the magazine?  

 

0:06:58.7 JA: Like I said, I come from more of a health background, so I want to bring in more of the approachability of health to our readers. Because I think that sometimes there can be so much jargon and confusion in what health... Healthcare writing can be very hard sometimes, and so bringing that in a more approachable way is something that I really wanna focus on across, not just in features, but across the whole magazine too. 

 

0:07:27.5 MS: That comes from an influence of working with the health magazine?  

 

0:07:28.9 JA: Yeah. Because that was my main job when I was a copy editor there, was making sure that what we were writing about made sense. It's like you have to, not dumb it down, but you have to make it make sense to the person who doesn't have a [chuckle] education in health. 

 

0:07:46.8 EC: I think we do that as professionals. We have exactly what you're talking about. We have to do that to our clients, with our clients. We have to make them understand a complicated thing like alpha hydroxy acids, how they work within the skin. Sure we could spit out the medical definition or the histological process of how they work, we can talk about melanin and the melanin-induced transcription factor and how that works, but this doesn't mean anything to them. So we have to be able to break it down and give an analogy of some sort, whether it's a visual or an imaginary analogy, experiential so that it can be absorbed. And so that is a very important thing that I think the magazine would provide as well. 

 

0:08:31.5 JA: Yeah. And especially you don't want your clients to be going away and not fully understanding what you were teaching them and then go home and mess up their skin because they're not doing something right. [laughter] You don't want that. 

 

[laughter] 

 

0:08:44.9 JA: "You told me. I didn't really understand what you were saying, but I did this. Is this right?" 

 

0:08:50.0 EC: Yeah, no. 

 

0:08:51.0 JA: No, it's not. 

 

[laughter] 

 

0:08:54.3 EC: Yeah. Absolutely 100%. And honestly, as an aesthetician, sometimes an introduction to the subject even. Even though we're trained in skin, an introduction to the subject that is simplified is important because then we can deep dive and we can take it a step further or do some more research or something of the sort. 

 

0:09:12.5 MS: So I know that we have a lot of listeners who maybe aren't members. Do they have access to Skin Deep Magazine?  

 

0:09:19.5 JA: Yes. All of our issues go online as a digital magazine, so they can access the content there if they're not members. However, our members get this shiny print magazine, which is so much fun to flip through. So I think that's a huge perk of our membership. 

 

0:09:37.0 EC: Hold that thought. We'll be right back. 

 

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0:11:04.0 MS: Okay, here we go. Let's give get back to the podcast. 

 

0:11:09.5 EC: As a contributor for the magazine, one of the things that I like is that I will take something that's complicated, I'll write it in my way. And what you've done with it is you're able to add visual elements, whether they're emboldened paragraphs or they're emphasized in text size or there's photos or culling out of text. And those are... Once I write it, sometimes I'm gonna be honest with you guys, sometimes I write it, and I've told you too, I'm like, "I'm not quite sure if there's... Let me know if you want me to change anything. I don't know." And then you'll send me the proof and I'm like, "Whoa! [laughter] This looks... 

 

0:11:44.6 JA: "This is cool." 

 

0:11:46.4 EC: "So good. It's mind blowing." 

 

0:11:49.1 JA: We have a fantastic design team. The designer who works on Skin Deep, Amy Rowe, is so great to work with because she understands ahead of time how to make it visually enticing. And that's not my specialty, so I don't know, [chuckle] she does the magic, but it really does it. We take it from a Word doc that could not look that magical to begin with and then send it over to Amy and she will work with us to pick the images that just feel right, that have the amount of aesthetic pleasure in a photo, but also guides the reader to understand from that more clinical aspect. So we try to include both diagrams, but also really beautiful editorial photos. And I think it's that finding that fine line and then putting it all together. And then, yeah, we send the proofs over and it's like, "Whoa! My article's actually great." 

 

[laughter] 

 

0:12:48.9 EC: And I think what it does is it speaks to different learning styles too, in a different way, which is important when you're trying to teach, which is what the magazine is doing, it's conveying something. So you're teaching but it hits a bunch of different learning styles. 

 

0:13:00.4 JA: Yes. Yes. 

 

0:13:02.3 EC: And is it, for you, exciting to read different parts of the industry, like about different subjects on the industry? Do you guys, you and Amy, learn along with us? [chuckle] 

 

0:13:12.7 JA: I learn something new every day. It's great. I love my job because I'm constantly reading about things that I'm so excited about. I actually contribute editing to the ABMP Massage and Bodywork Magazine as well. And I don't know anything about massage and the human body and I come away with so much knowledge because of it. And the same with skin, I don't know as much as our experts who are writing on these topics. And then every time I'm learning something new and I can add on and add on and it's great. It's really fun. 

 

0:13:41.2 MS: So how do you pick the themes of the magazine? So like how do you pick the subject matter of the magazines? I'm sure that you have to really consider a lot of factors. 

 

0:13:51.1 JA: Sometimes it naturally falls together and you... Like last issue it was a lot about communication, how you can communicate with your clients and how you can do it in a better way, how they can communicate with you in a better way. And then we had our prenatal piece that just kind of was like a nice little bow on top because it's like, "How do you communicate with your prenatal clients?" They might be nervous to be there, they might not know if they can be there. So that one just... It just kind of came together at the last second. This next issue is all about our esthetician of the year, which is fun. We do it every year. So some things we repeat every single year and other things just come together naturally. 

 

0:14:31.6 EC: And you can't tell us who that person is yet?  

 

0:14:34.8 JA: Not yet. 

 

0:14:35.8 EC: Oh my gosh. 

 

0:14:37.0 JA: But I'm so excited. [laughter] We chose our esthetician this year because she has a wonderful story of giving back to her community and inspired me to be a better person. So I think that her story is gonna really inspire a lot of people. 

 

0:14:51.8 EC: I can't wait for that. I can't wait for that issue to come out. 

 

0:14:55.9 MS: And each issue also has some standard columns in it too, right?  

 

0:15:00.9 JA: That's correct. Every issue we have our columns in the very front. We have Beyond Treatment that talks about our business marketing, obviously Ella's column about ingredients, good and bad. We have our skin physiology, which dives really into the science behind skin. And then one that I recently introduced is an interior design column that helps/tips on how you can make your space look better for your clients so that they wanna be there. I come from a background of being really passionate about interior design, from just like my home. I love making my home look great. But like you said, it's so important because if you want your client to be relaxed, they're not gonna be relaxed if you have really harsh lighting and too loud music and nothing's comfortable in the waiting area. They come to you because they wanna relax and have a day for themselves. 

 

0:15:57.8 EC: Or my place to be squeezed or scraped or... [laughter] Therefore, loud music in our... 

 

[laughter] 

 

0:16:06.5 JA: Totally. Whatever's gonna distract them, right?  

 

0:16:07.0 EC: I'm just kidding. [laughter] we do like, "What do you wanna listen to?" And one of my, surprisingly, one of my clients in the morning was like, "Yanni." And then another gentleman client was like, "'90s hip hop." I'm like, "Sure. [laughter] Whatever it takes." 

 

0:16:20.0 JA: Relaxed Pop music. 

 

0:16:21.0 EC: It's all about you. "Latin Pop." [laughter] "I got it. Took me a second." 

 

0:16:32.5 MS: Fantastic. Jen, we loved having you on the show. Thank you for joining us. Now listeners, we wanna hear from you. Are you reading the hottest magazine in skincare? We want to know. Share with us on social media through Instagram, Facebook, or by emailing getconnected@ascpskincare.com. Thank you for listening to ASCP Esty Talk. And as always, for more information on this episode or for ways to connect with Ella and myself or to learn more about ASCP, check out the show notes. 

 

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