Inside the world of an Elle magazine meeting

"Both of you have good earring game today," somebody who I can't yet see due to Teams battling with the internet says to Farrah Storr, the Editor-in-Chief of Elle UK and Becky Burgum, Elle's Features Assistant.

"I have to, my fringe is playing up!" Farrah says. The lagging while Teams tries to catch up with everyone's 'I'm just getting comfy' movements means I only catch glimpses of dangly red and gold jewels from both.

I am currently studying journalism at university and this morning us students got the incredible opportunity to sit in on a meeting with the masterminds behind one of our favourite magazines.

There I am in the middle, looking as pale as ever. I swear I was having a lot more fun than my candid face portrays.

In the five minute build up to 11am, my course mates and I were frantically messaging back and forth: "are you in yet?" "it's telling me to wait - I don't want to be late!" "are you turning your camera on?"

I was nervous that my unavoidable bad hair day (I'm in the middle of deciding whether or not to grow out my fringe - you know the pain) and second-hand striped jumper were going to be out of place in a business meeting, but I was delighted to find that the atmosphere was fun and friendly as well as really insightful. Sara McAlpine, Elle's Fashion Features Editor puts it best when she says, "it's like having brunch with your mates."

From what I'm gathering, magazine meetings are a mixed bag of workshopping ideas, learning new things and of course, a few laughs about marrying someone off for the purposes of writing a new feature article.

One by one, with a little bit of toing and froing due to "getting lost in the metaverse," the team pitched their ideas and it was fascinating to see how a concept can transform into something bigger and better than it already was. As a student journalist, one thing that is drilled into you is finding that hook and angle. If you are lucky, it might come to you straight away but more often than not, it takes a lot of brainstorming.

The dynamics of everyone discussing each other's ideas with such vivid interest helped me in terms of thinking about my own work. It can be daunting to share your thoughts with a group but it seems as though that is one of the most beneficial things you can do.

Another thing that always seems to perplex me is that pretty much anything can be a story. While I do feel privileged to have been involved so I won't spoil that by revealing any inside scoops, I will say that it intrigued me massively to hear the variety of ideas going on.

I feel like the word 'inspirational' doesn't do the talent these women possess enough justice, but as someone who is still a baby in the life of journalism, I did feel inspired and in awe witnessing this meeting unfold.

Listening to people who are doing the job that you want to do is something I will never tire of. I will also never tire of the true saying 'you learn something new everyday,' because did you know that when you are choosing a sperm donor, they send you a voice note explaining why they are donating? I didn't. But I do now, courtesy of Lotte Jeffs, the Deputy Editor at Elle. Apparently his voice sounded lovely and Danish. So, there is a little anecdote for you.

It was such a rewarding and eye-opening experience and I definitely agreed with Lotte's, "I could talk about this all day."