Tuesday, January 27, 2009

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The Internet is truly the gift that keeps on giving. Now, in a break from our regularly scheduled programming, we present to you...

Charlsie. The Musical.

Well, actually, it's just Charlsie, but one of our intrepid—nay, ineffable—tipsters uncovered the online homes of NonSociety's newest intern (and writer for College Candy): Tumblr 1 and Tumblr 2.

Truth be told, we sort of feel bad for the girl. She seems nice enough, if a bit naive, but what college junior isn't? In fact, she has expressed a distaste for all things fake:

I don’t like pretentiousness. I don’t like fake attitudes. Just be real.

Then what the hell are you doing with Julia Allison, girl?

But we digress. Here is how Charlsie's tale begins:

Dear NonSociety,

My name is Charlsie ****** ******* and I want to be your next intern. I am determined to intern for NonSociety because quite frankly, I admire all three of you as strong and determined women in today’s media and society. And to be even more honest – I want my life to be close to what you all have when I graduate college!

This past summer I was an intern for feminist authors and owners of the speaker’s bureau, Soapbox Inc., Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards in New York City, along with interning at CUNY’s Feminist Press. Although my internship experience exists mainly through feminism, I want to broaden my horizons and work in the field of media. I am an English major dedicated to writing, creatively and as a journalist. The world of pop culture fascinates me, and I want to jump into this area as much as I possibly can.

Currently, I am a rising junior at Hollins University (a small all women’s college in Roanoke, Virginia). My university has a program in January called J-Term where I can go on a trip abroad, work as an intern somewhere, or take one class on campus outside of my major. Originally my plan was to go abroad for the month, but after reading about interning for NonSociety, that is all I would like to do. Seriously, I cannot think of a better intern opportunity for me! I cannot think of a better way to spend my January short-term.

Why would I be a perfect intern for NonSociety? I am familiar with the city of Manhattan after this past summer, and my flexibility and eagerness to work will always be available to all of you. I am very passionate and enthusiastic about all I do, and once I become a part of a project or get assigned a task, I won’t stop until it is done perfectly. I plan to plan, meaning that I am always planning and organizing anything in my path. Organizing events is easy as pie. Want your wardrobe arranged? I can do that too. Need some phone calls made? My communication skills serve me well; I am professional and tactful. My ability to catch onto new things helps me in any situation; I can get past any obstacle. I am 100% responsible for my education, and being so responsible and dedicated to achieving the most out of my college experience, I can assure you that I take any job seriously.

Now why would I really be the most fabulous intern for you during the month of January? I seriously will do anything. I will walk 41 blocks in the pouring rain wearing brand new Nine West flats that cut the backs of my feet and give me blisters that bleed more and more with every block I walk all while carrying an umbrella, a ten pound red and yellow basket filled with books that clashes with my outfit, and a $200 vase of flowers if you tell me to (I’ve already done this, and somehow survived). I will fetch Sugar Sweet Sunshine or Magnolia cupcakes for Julia, on command. And match each cupcake she eats with one for myself, of course. I will amuse you with my college stories that somehow scare everyone else I know – including those in college. I will give my honest opinion, and probably make you laugh by doing so. I will perform any pop song at the drop of a hat and endorse all lipdubs, especially those of the Disney kind. I am a professional animal sitter, so Lilly and Mason would be fine; I babysat Gloria Steinem’s diabetic cat, Galahad, for a week while house sitting for her. I can talk anyone into doing anything, including exchanging a six year old MacKenzie Child’s goblet for a newer water glass. I would be comfortable being in front of the camera, and I would have no problem completing any silly task while filming. Not only am I responsible and dependable, but I am an optimist who believes the glass is always filled to the top. Interning for NonSociety would be an amazing opportunity for me, and I would love to help you all out while getting a peek into the world of all things media.

I understand you are looking for someone long term, but for the month of January, I promise to be the best darn intern ever. And maybe, if you like me enough, I could come back for the summer. You will not be let down.

Eager & enthusiastic,
Charlsie *******

I wrote this back in July or August, hoping that I could get an internship with NonSociety. They told me they wanted someone long-term. I got an internship with CosmoGirl instead. And then the economy killed it. But isn’t it funny how things work out?
Yes, it is funny, Charlsie. Here's what she's been up to as Julia Allison's personal slave:

  • Before the meeting began, Julia gave me some tasks to do. I am going to look into starting an internet store with NonSociety merchandise, as well as starting to collect the demographics of NonSociety’s readers. I have found the actual intern-esque tasks to be pretty interesting, so getting more tasks doesn’t bother me at all, really.

  • NBC is starting what Gawker deemed it as “a female-foucsed quasi-marketing agency,” which will be featuring 22 women from Meredith Vieira to Tori Spelling. Of course, NonSociety wants in on this because they have taught classes on this kinda stuff before through Unilever, A&E executives, Microsoft, and MIT’s Sloan School of Business. So, I spent a good bit of the day trying to contact someone at NBC who could direct me to a contact #/e-mail for this panel. I had no luck, so I e-mailed the NonSociety producer, Megan Alagna, and she ended up finding it for me because she apparently knows e-mail tricks that I do not know in my young intern age. However, I want to learn them because they will not only serve me well in my life, but as an intern elsewhere one day, too. Tomorrow morning, I am drafting a letter for NBC and they will be sending it out. Lovely.
  • Earlier this week I sent an e-mail to this headband maker that Julia likes, L Erickson bow headbands, and they e-mailed me back saying they would love for her to wear their headbands. Thank God. I was nervous that we weren’t going to hear anything back. I still have a couple more e-mails to send out for those. I seriously cannot believe how much free stuff is sent out to editors, writers, celebrities. It’s all about marketing yourself to their advantage, and I’m amazed by how easy it is and how smart it is.
  • Other intern duties today involved me booking Julia a bus ticket down for the inauguration (she has 2 tickets because she used to work as an intern, I believe, on Capital Hill when she went to Georgetown) from New York City to D.C. Apparently she is flying from D.C. to San Francisco, so I think she may be gone for the majority of next week.
  • The moderation of Question of the Day may be one of the most annoying yet addicting things. People write the craziest things, and then I delete it. And then they write it again. And then I repeat deletion. It’s an on-going circle. I kinda hate it, but I kinda love it at the same time.
  • What have I been doing on this Monday? Searching for the most premiere matchmakers in all of Manhattan, of course. Julia is doing her column for Time Out New York on matchmakers. She is going through three different matchmakers and going on a date with a guy that each matchmaker picked. Three dates, one week - all set up by three different matchmakers. Julia needed me to find the last (and I still may need to find another one because one of them is being less than flexible) one, and luckily, I found this woman who was very enthusiastic and eager to work with us.
  • I also looked into some brands that Julia is interested in using for TMIWeekly and in photoshoots, such as specific headband and bow makers, Juicy Couture, and e.vil horoscope t-shirts. The usual took place too: moderation, e-mails, and drum roll please…I finished the list of 300+ Questions of the Day. I can’t believe I was able to come up with that many questions!
  • Julia forgot her business cards, so I saved the day and went to her apartment and sent them overnight. She’ll get them tomorrow. Even though Julia and crew are in Las Vegas for the CES conferece, I have had so much work that it has all worked out. Not bored. Not lingering with thoughts of ‘what am I doing at this internship.’ It has worked out beautifully.
  • I returned stuff to MAC today, Laura Mercier, and I attempted to return at Betsey Johnson, but they do not take back accessories. I woke up this morning with a terrible cold, and it has pretty much dragged me down all day.
  • This morning, I went to pick up a metallic gold dress by Jill Stuart from Julia’s doorman. Then I went down to the store in SoHo and exchanged the size to something smaller. The lady on the phone gave me a hard time, but luckily, once I explained that it was for Julia and that the head of PR for Jill Stuart approved it, she changed her attitude.
  • I also have to complete book requests (which I did before at my old internship), keep track of the products NonSociety uses and send thank-you follow ups, become a liaison with companies, help make the press kit, start a demographic survey, orangize reader/fan e-mails, and run errands.
  • This is actually the list of things I need to do while Julia is away, on top of all the other work I have like creating an internet store, e-mail companies about their brands, seeing about getting tickets to the premiere of Confessions of a Shopaholic for NonSociety, etc.
  • This morning I got a phone call from Julia telling me that she left her purse in a towncar last night, so I called around D.C. trying to find out if anyone turned it in. Luckily, about an hour after she called me, someone returned it to her. I guess good people do exist in the world.
  • This morning, Julia e-mailed me and asked me to pick up one of her headbands from Time Out New York, which is where she writes her column. She also asked me to print all the biographies of every single speaker at the Digital, Design, Life conference in Munich, Germany. I had to do all of this by 1pm, which was not enough time, especially with the printing of the speaker biographies. I kept calling Julia to explain the situation with the speaker biographies, but I couldn’t get in touch with her.
It's all been worth it, though:

I text Julia and asked what a good restaurant would be for Dillon and I to eat on our last night. She told me to call Aquagrill in SoHo, and ask for Carrie and let her know I was Julia’s intern. We ended up getting a table for two at 9:30pm. Perfect.

The food was absolutely amazing. Our waitor treated Dillon and I like complete crap until Carrie, who I am guessing is the manager, came over and introduced herself to me and said she was so happy to meet me. We talked about Julia and she was very, very nice. After that, the waitor changed his service and attitude. I hate that pretentiousness, and this restaurant has pretentious written all over it. However, it was so good.
Charlsie is on her way, thanks to the Julia Allison School of Journalism:

I have decided that having a press kit, articles about you in the New York and LA Times, and a column in a well known magazine can get you far…far enough to get free stuff, which I think, is good enough for me. Being able to see the behind the scenes of journalism today is very interesting because there is a lot of extra work that goes into it. Writing articles and being a “writer” is one thing, but if you want to be a little more established than the rest, there is a lot of work to do such as turning yourself into an image/brand and keeping up with the latest and greatest in the fields that appeal to you.
Sigh. There is so much more, including a particularly fascinating post about us, the haters, but really, this sort of makes us sad. So we leave it to you to dig through the sludge. Be sure to share your favorites here.

£

52 comments:

  1. Wow. I now realize that Charlsie is the perfect fit for Nonsociety. A bad writer who's into excessive navel gazing and a fierce persecution complex.

    Charlsie, it's "waiter," not "waitor." It should be "Dillon and me," not "Dillon and I." Manhattan isn't a city.

    If your dream is to be a writer, save yourself the time, energy and tears, and just find some other career goal.

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  2. Awww, she's kinda sweet. The stuff about being hated on campus almost made me cry.

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  3. Oh. My. God. This character could not be any richer if she was completely imaginary and her blog was written as fiction. I'm only on the second page but the story about driving all over town to pick up Julia's headband... well, I don't think I need to read any more. I feel so, so sorry for her, poor naive little thing.

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  4. Charlsie, you seen nice. Someday you will look back on this and cringe.

    And then, someday after that you will look back and laugh.

    p.s. Sorry to hear about the abuse from your peers at school.

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  5. What a complete idiot. No wonder she's the perfect comment deleter.

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  6. In tumblr 1 picture 4, we now have definitive proof that Julia borrowed the intern's red tights.

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  7. Aw, as someone who has worked as an intern at a blog before, I feel for her. At least it seems like Jules is treating her nice-ish. I wish this girl would dish more dirt.

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  8. Poor girl. I really feel sorry for her for being so confused. She seems to be aware of feminist ideas but has not made the connection that Nonsociety promotes some very unhealthy ideals.

    She was hated on campus just like Julia. Hmm... notice a pattern here? Persecuted girls banding together to give a big F U to the world. Do they not possess the self awareness to realize that if they are so universally hated there might be a reason why? I don't understand it, especially with this girl. She seems relatively normal and has a cute little boyfriend that visits her in NY. Why would she demean herself by agreeing to being an abused intern?

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  9. Might want to "shut your trap" Charslie! She leaks why these ladies are really in "journalism today" --

    "I have decided that having a press kit, articles about you in the New York and LA Times, and a column in a well known magazine can get you far…far enough to get free stuff, which I think, is good enough for me. Being able to see the behind the scenes of journalism today is very interesting because there is a lot of extra work that goes into it."

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  10. Charlsie: "Despite feeling crappy, I managed to get pretty far ahead in the archived Questions of the Day, and I am close to finishing the moderation of them."

    So you moderate old QotDs, too? Thanks for clearing that up, Sleazy One.

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  11. You know what?
    Read her whole post about the headband.
    Then look at her as a young naive girl who wants to do good, with a sweet heart/
    Seriously guys.
    She is NOT the enemy. Please don't use this forum to diss her. She's not the evil one.

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  12. Um, Charslie? You're not doing a very good job. These girls never answer advice box and QotD has been overrun with fakes comments Mary, Julia, Meghan and you.

    "I had a meeting at her apartment, where we discussed my internship duties. I will be managing the NonSociety “Question of the Day” forum, along with the “Advice Box.” I will remind the girls of NonSociety (Meghan Asha and Mary Rambin are the other two bloggers) to answer the “Question of the Day” and answer advice questions aimed at them. I am also going to come up with 300 questions for “Question of the Day,” which must be completed by the 12th! Since the boards have a lot of negative comments, I am going to clean them up while helping improve the correspondance of the NonSociety community."

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  13. Is this real? Honestly it sounds like a satire. If it is real, well, wow, is all I have to say.

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  14. It is very, very real, Inef.

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  15. The story she wrote about the homeless man is more real and sincere than anything written by the people she works for. She could do so much better!!

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  16. I do feel bad for her. Especially because her f*cking bosses are MORONS. Anybody ever heard of pre-moderated comments? She wouldn't have to spend so much time deleting comments but just filter through what IS legit if they pre-moderated everything. WOuld probably save Charlsie a little bit of grief in case she falls behind.

    WHile Charlsie shouldn't be our victim, I do think it's hilarious that they hired an intern to clean up their site so they don't look so ridiculous to the untrained eye.

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  17. Shes gonna use this experience as what NOT to do. She's a thousand times smarter and more educated than the 3 twatwaffles she interns for.
    She's outshine them greatly in the future.

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  18. I mean I know you guys are posting the blog you found but I couldn't help but wonder if someone wrote the blog as a joke? I guess that is too miuch work for anyone to do as a joke but my God

    "I have decided that having a press kit, articles about you in the New York and LA Times, and a column in a well known magazine can get you far…far enough to get free stuff, which I think, is good enough for me"?! !

    Unbelievable.

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  19. Hollins University: A Virginia Private Liberal Arts College
    Hollins University offers women's undergraduate and coed graduate programs with a liberal arts focus

    that explains a lot

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  20. Is Charlsie pregnant? She looks as though she's about six months along and has just confronted dear ol' mom back in Roanake with the bitter truth. Perhaps Mary could write an op-ed on Charlsie's unfortunate condition?

    Or are we being had here? Charlsie's tales of running around Manhattan the City to obtain free consumer goods for the ridiculous pink lady seem too, too outrageous!

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  21. i dont know whats worse that they are using her like a slave and paying less

    or that she writes better than mary and meghan while having all these tasks, and describes them with greater detail and explanation than any nonsociety post ever ... hmmmm

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  22. BTW--- QOD comment raid feb 1rst!! LOL

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  23. They might throw her a used lipstick or free lotion they get from a PR rep but judging from Julia's call for interns in the past, they pay her NOTHING. Julia promises them media connections but doesn't tell them she's burned her bridges long ago.

    I can't figure out this girl. Charlsie seems nice and relatively normal, and she writes at a passable level for a college student (about 100% times better than Mary or Meghan) so I don't understand why she is subjecting herself to interning for people who are less intelligent than she is. Running all over town to pick up a headband? That's just demeaning. From the looks of it, she even completed some sort of women's studies focus or internship or something so I don't understand how she can not see how anti-woman nonsociety is. Maybe she's using it as a case study and has gone undercover?

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  24. so if charlsie does all the work, going across town etc, why is julia still 2 and a half hours late to TMI tapings? why is she so busy?

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  25. See, this is the problem. Ellie, you're right that she seems nice and normal, and with a little bit of hard work and some time spent at a real internship, really learning her craft, she could be successful. Maybe.

    But she doesn't *want* that. She is just another poor soul taken in by image that Julia Allison and company project. Charlsie says herself that "writing articles and being a 'writer' is one thing, but if you want to be a little more established than the rest, there is a lot of work to do such as turning yourself into an image/brand and keeping up with the latest and greatest in the fields that appeal to you."

    She wants the free stuff; she wants the "glam" lifestyle the Trio of Banality espouses. It's sad.

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  26. Julia's late because she's purging after a binge.

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  27. "if you want to be a little more established than the rest, there is a lot of work to do such as turning yourself into an image/brand and keeping up with the latest and greatest in the fields that appeal to you."

    I see the future and it's Julia Allison America: When Free Stuff Is Good Enough.

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  28. Rough translation of the German article performed by me, not by a website. I've edited it down a bit.

    An It-girl is someone who is pretty, goes to parties, and is well known. Paris Hilton is the archetype. Julia is the it-girl for the world of media. "I'm a media personality in the USA," she says. She blogs, twitters, posts videos, and hosts a show, which all together she calls a "lifecast." Her personal blog gets 10,000 hits daily.

    "It's all an experiment to show people that there's more than one way to live," she said at DLD. She wore a glamorous dress, long brown hair, and red pantyhose.

    On her lifecast she talks of parties, which dresses she wore, and her experiences on dates. She posts to Twitter at least ten times a day. A sample: I'm watching the Inauguration with a bright pink coat on.

    Julia's omnipresent, and does it all. She lipdubs The Litter Mermaid. She and her two best friends attended CES, and together, they call their site Nonsociety.

    "Many people send me e-mails to thank me for talking about the things that I cover," she says. "For example, I wrote about my struggle with bulimia, and received hundreds of positive e-mails in response." But not all the responses are positive. "It's painful and embarrassing when people insult me."

    She often on an airplane, which her site attests to: Las Vegas for CES, NY for fashion week, and back and forth from San Francisco for her birthday.

    "Women are told that they can be interested in fashion, make-up and manners, or physics, math, and feminism. I'm interested in all of it," she says. This is some ground she doesn't share with Paris Hilton. Perhaps she's somewhere between Paris Hilton and Ayn Rand.

    She rarely characterizes herself as a real-life Carrie Bradshaw, but here is the proof: both write sex columns, meet up with friends, go out with rich men, and attend one hip party after another. But Julia's life is real.

    She's been on TV 400 times. People say mean things about her on Gawker daily. As Wired so correctly put it, she's famous for being famous.

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  29. Here's the brief translation: Julia Allison tries to be everything to everyone, but is very little indeed.

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  30. you people are sick.

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  31. all i have to say right now is:


    JACK POT.

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  32. nm---looks like charlsie's taken down all NS-related posts. booooo no fun

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  33. it was fun while it lasted.

    If all this stuff she gets is for free and not really stuff she BOUGHT or CAN AFFORD, then how is this a "real" "life"? How am I supposed to be jealous of your event going and dresses and friends if I know they are all fake? That's cool for Sex and the City--maybe--but it's much more of a sad situation if your life is fake, IRL.

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  34. The other interns' blog seems to be still up: http://samantopol.tumblr.com/

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  35. This post is a gem: http://samantopol.tumblr.com/post/71473104/remember-dont-think-too-much

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  36. She deleted her Tumblr. I feel bad for the girl, she probably was not prepared for this to happen, especially considering that people are body-snarking and laughing at her. I don't mind making fun of Julia & Co. since 90% of their success is based around sites like this and people trashtalking them, but some innocent and obviously naive intern with good intentions? Sad.
    I'm not blaming this blog or anything, since you guys aren't making that much fun of her, but let's hold back on comments about her appearance, OK?

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  37. I agree with 8:36. This poor girl had no idea she was selling her soul for this shit.

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  38. i agree, this poor girl is naive and has good intentions. she doesn't have the life experience to see through these three twits. she doesn't deserve the snark.

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  39. Can someone explain why the NS stuff was taken down? Did Julia demand it or something?

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  40. There are comments about her appearance? I think she's pretty. Far prettier than her slave-master, that's for sure.

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  41. I think she is pretty. She is obviously young, and it shows in her writing. When I was 20years old I could have been swept up in the JA world pretty easily too. When she is older, she will look back and realize that NS was petty and unsubstantial. In the meantime, let's give her a break.

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  42. In an uncharacteristic moment of kindness, I would like to make a humble suggestion: that Charlsie's last name be deleted from this page and not posted again (unless she turns into a total twat, like Julia).

    Otherwise, when she snaps out of this and tries to get a real internship (or real job) and her potential boss Googles her, this is going to pop up as almost the only entry for her name.

    All fun and joking aside, her association with NS and skewering here could prevent her from getting a real job, and I don't think any of us wants to do that to her.

    In my opinion, we can keep criticizing and even mocking what she does at NS, but I don't want to destroy her future.

    So if you remove the L****y (appears once) and N*****c (appears twice), it won't be easy to hang this NS shit on her in future Google searches.

    Of course, it's up to our host(s)/hostess(es), but I'd feel better if this could be done.

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  43. NonE, to be fair, Charlsie is the one who posted her own full name on her tumblr. It appears here only as a rebloggging of the letter she chose to make public. Speaking as an HR manager, I do take into consideration the types of things that people choose to publish on the Internet about themselves, but I would NEVER hold someone responsible for things said about them by others (especially random comments). That would be unfair (and unethical).

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  44. Charlsie is a cutiepie. Def not ugly, fat or anything like them other chicks. She seems a bit misguided in her thoughts, but who wasn't at age 20. Def no match for Jules and her conniving ways. I too think it would be good to take out her last name, just to save the girl some face for the future.

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  45. Point well taken, Anon @ 11:29. I definitely see your side and understand the importance of hiring managers getting a true picture of candidates. But she did take down her intern blog, albeit after her takedown here.

    I don't know about anyone else, but while I'd love to see this NonBusiness fail, I don't want naive kids having their lives ruined as well.

    Julia Allison/Julia Baugher/Julia Allison Baugher probably has THE worst Google profile in the world (and I think that adding a string of Julia Allison Julia Allison Julia Allison Julia Allison Julia Allison Julia Allison Julia Allison to posts might bump up the Google results for this site), but I don't want Charlsie's life ruined just because she's a naive kid who was dazzled by bullshit. Julia has ruined enough lives as it is.

    As usual, just my humble opinion.

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  46. I predict poor Charlsie will end up learning a lot from her internship. Can you imagine the texts/e's/phone calls that child has been getting today? One shudders to think.

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  47. I agree that Charlsie was misled and did nothing wrong. However, I don't think she should have highlighted her dog sitting and personal fetching skills on her cover letter to NS. It doesn't sound like their "interns" have frequent interactions with the girls, so saying you'll do their dirty work is basically offering yourself up as a personal assistant, not an intern. It sounds like Charlsie had some media experience. I wonder how she got suckered into working with JA.

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  48. Seriously, she's being treated like dirt. When JA found she had an extra inaug ticket, she should have taken Charliselie.ies.

    Anyway, I would just like to complain about her heavy-handed QOTD delete policy. The question was about which career mistake you regret most, and she answered that she'd wished she'd picked a better school, that the one she is at currently doesn't have a good "foundation," whatever that means. I responded to her that over time she will realize that what college you went to doesn't have that much impact on your life after school--it's more that you went to college and were able to complete a degree program. College life is no match for real world experience.

    It bothered me that she deleted my comment (after I had made several helpful suggestions about writing better questions for that section) because she previously claimed only off-replies were taken off. Mine was a direct response to hers so it can't have been that reason. Instead I felt she was editing away the things she might not agree with or want to hear.

    In that way the JA taint is already upon her--and she's too young to cast her life on such a course without experiencing all its possible options.

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  49. 10:04 above: I think she read what you had to say with the QOTD answer and deleted it because it didn't have anything to do with nonsociety directly; it was geared more towards her and not the other girls

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