Alanna Martine Kilkeary FCLC ‘16: On Writing Your Way Into the Beauty Industry
By Maddie Katz
Perfecting the art of a crisp winged eyeliner requires a similar sense of precision and decisiveness as penning an upcoming article. Luckily, Alanna Martine Kilkeary, FCLC ‘16, has managed to master both skills with ease. Tuning in via Zoom from her boyfriend's apartment in “the wild west” of Queens, NY, Kilkeary exudes a radiant warmth intensified by her autumnal outfit as she gets ready to spill the Pumpkin Spice Latte on how she balanced her time as an English major at FCLC with internships, running a literary inspired fashion blog, and ultimately turning her dream of writing about beauty into a reality.
Layering a cranberry red sweater over a white tee, accessorized with silver hoop earrings, it’s clear that fall inspired fashion still lives rent free in Kilkeary’s mind despite her current role as Beauty Editor for L'Oréal's Makeup.com and Skincare.com. As a writer for these sites, Kilkeary emphasizes the inclusive nature of beauty and is a champion of “embracing who you are and embracing your identity and pulling out that confidence through the way you’re wearing your makeup.”
She first tried her hand at writing within the beauty and fashion sphere when she founded her blog Killer Queen during her freshman year at Fordham. Paying homage to her Tumblr roots, Kilkeary began her blog out of a “want to create my own space.” Inspired partly by the famous Queen song of the same moniker, Kilkeary wanted to be bold in her blogging debut while also offering “a nod to how wearing clothes and wearing makeup is very performative.” Drawing from her high school days of performing in a Shakespearean acting company, Kilkeary takes very seriously the connection between beauty, fashion and one's presentation of self. Her love of the Bard knows no bounds and his quotations often make a delightful appearance on the fashion section of her blog. Carving out a small corner of the internet for “the very niche group of people who are interested in storytelling and characters and its connection to fashion and performative fashion” has enabled Kilkeary to seamlessly integrate her love of literature into the beauty and fashion landscape.
Fordham’s location in the heart of New York City offered Kilkeary invaluable access into the nitty gritty of the fashion industry. Her first foray into the fashion scene came about after a chance encounter with an Argentinian journalist who took her on as a photographer after they chatted on the sidewalk during fashion week. Back when fashion week was held at Lincoln Center, in Fordham’s proverbial backyard, the fashion industry was practically yelling for Kilkeary to come out and play while testing her photography and writing chops. “Since McMahon is right there, I used to get dressed up, walk down, and have my DSLR in my hand and start taking pictures of people walking outside” she says, “then people would take photos of me and then it was this thing that I would do every time fashion week rolled around.”
Kilkeary continued to hone her writing skills in fashion by writing for the publication the Lala, now Her20s at HerCampus, which is an online publication with the goal of empowering college women. “I highly recommend any students looking to break into the writing world to do one of these online sites like HerCampus or the Odyssey,” says Kilkeary. Many of the connections she forged online ended up being invaluable in later securing internships at publications like Harper’s Bazaar and Rolling Stone.
Her time as an English major also offered her the flexibility to pursue her creative writing endeavors while indulging in a rich study of literature. Kilkeary recalls being excited to take literature classes while also leaning into her desire to pursue journalism. During her junior year, she joined the Observer and went on to contribute to the campus publication as a Features Editor. Around that time Kilkeary took a class with Elizabeth Stone, professor of English, whose work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine and The Chronicle of Higher Education, and fondly recounts her advice, “if you’re going to be a writer, you need clips.” This advice stuck with Kilkeary as she worked towards accruing bylines from the likes of Harper's Bazaar and Teen Vogue.
The image of her Harper’s Bazaar interview outfit is still etched in her memory as she recalls how “I will never forget this outfit.” She dressed for success in an Italian black and white lace top, perfectly cuffed black pants, patent leather loafers and a red pocketbook: needless to say she got the internship. “That was the first time I got the door opened to beauty,” she says, and she liked it so much that she interned for eleven months throughout her senior year.
After taking some time off, Kilkeary then took on a post-grad internship at Rolling Stone, dabbled in copywriting and contributed beauty articles to Teen Vogue before landing her current position. Nowadays, Kilkeary is excited about the future of branded content within the beauty industry. “We’ve just dipped a finger in what I think is possible for editorial and branded work in the future,” she says, “I think brands are going to want to become their own wheelhouses.” With the implementation of in-house content creation, brands are able to engage with customers in new and exciting ways while responding to ever changing beauty trends. The possibilities are endless when you foster genuine connections, get to know yourself and are open to saying “yes, and,” says Kilkeary.
Any remaining advice? “Make a blog. Make the Instagram account. Make all those things and then just trust timing.”