WILLA BENNETT
Editor-in-Chief of "Cosmopolitan" and "Seventeen"
After making "HighSnobiety" into a brand to be reckoned with, Bennett is employing her sixth sense for virality as Editor-in-Chief of "Cosmopolitan" and "Seventeen," breathing new life into dusty legacy media.
NAME AN INFLUENCE OF YOURS THAT MIGHT SURPRISE PEOPLE. The Wizard of Oz. Something about stepping into a completely new world and making it your own has always stuck with me—maybe that’s why I love reinvention so much. (And maybe why I insisted on dressing like Dorothy for an alarming amount of time as a kid.) I grew up addicted to early-2000s Internet culture. I came up in the era of chaotic Tumblr fandoms, hyper-personal LiveJournal essays, and niche forums where people wrote with zero filter and maximum passion. That kind of raw, unpolished, emotional storytelling shaped the way I think about writing today. I love stories that feel personal—like they were made by a real person with a real perspective. I love writing that leaves me thinking about it the next day. And the days after.
WHAT’S YOUR TRADEMARK? A commitment to wearing ties and menswear in a way that makes people wonder if I’m about to give a very important lecture or start a band. I’ve always been drawn to the tension between polished and irreverent—pairing something classic with something completely unserious, whether through fashion or the way I approach my work.
“"I came up in the era of chaotic Tumblr fandoms, hyper-personal LiveJournal essays, and niche forums where people wrote with zero filter and maximum passion."”
WHAT’S ONE BOOK, WORK OF ART, OR FILM THAT GOT YOU THROUGH AN IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE? Twilight, because it hit at exactly the right time. But also Portrait of a Lady on Fire—a film that understood longing better than anything I’d seen before.
DESCRIBE A RECENT CROSSROADS AT WHICH YOU FOUND YOURSELF. Balancing reinvention with legacy. Cosmo has such a strong voice and a rich history, but media is constantly evolving, and the way people engage with brands now is so different from even three years ago. I’ve had to navigate how to push the brand into new spaces—social, digital, cultural—without losing what makes it iconic.
in your life?
