NOBODY’S PERFECT
Ex-NYLON EIC Gabrielle Korn Gets Real
Maybe more than most people, Gabrielle Korn knows that perfection is an illusion, something dreamed up to sell magazines, products, and clothes. And as a digitally native creative, certified millennial, Brooklyn Magazine 30 Under 30 honoree, and all-around-cool editor, she would know.
Her memoir, Everybody (Else) Is Perfect: How I Survived Hypocrisy, Beauty, Clicks, and Likes, publishing this month brings readers sharply inside her rapid ascent to the Editor in Chief seat at Nylon, the former print magazine (RIP) and contemporary website known for its cutting edge cool.
But as Gabrielle reveals, it’s not all about front row seats, exclusive parties, and snapping selfies with celebrities. This memoir-in-essays explores her life kaleidoscopically, honestly, and with a wry, self aware wit. From delving into how she comes of age, cobbles together a freelance living writing True Blood recaps and working at sex-positive Babeland, discovering her identity as a young lesbian, and scrappily making her way into the deceivingly glossy world of New York fashion, beauty, and media before striking out for greener pastures, nothing is off the table.
Even once she “makes it”, the challenges don’t stop there. Whether she’s wrangling for a salary that’s deserving of her tireless efforts and internet-savvy talent, dealing with the devastating shift of taking Nylon from the printed page and into a fully digital company, or actively broadening the concept of what’s cool to be inclusive of activists (and not just A-list celebrities), Gabrielle’s expansive hustle never stops.
Her innovative work at Nylon speaks for itself, with her team interviewing featured stars including Alison Brie, Awkwafina, Kiernan Shipka, Lane Moore, and Bebe Rexha, among others, with all of them taking a turn under the site’s revealing lens to showcase their influences, inspirations, and most offbeat hobbies (ASMR videos, elite trash scavenging, and making homemade slime, anyone?)
Along the way, Gabrielle doesn’t shy away from the tough stuff. From confronting her struggle and recovery from an eating disorder to familial battles with cancer, fumbling through bad relationships and savage heartbreak, and speaking truth about the irrelevance of Fashion Week and isolating trends, she brings a boldly honest voice to the millennial memoir field. With Gabrielle now taking a Netflix editorial role, 2021 will surely bring her wise perspective in a different and exciting way.
