Wednesday, Nov 4, 2015
Catching up with 2014 Cosmo Blog awards finalist and senior Rider student Tarah-Lynn Saint-Elien
by Karly Munoz '17
Last year, Rider University communication studies major Tarah-Lynn Saint-Elien was selected out of 46,000 entries as a finalist for a 2014 Cosmo Blog award. Her blog, Adorned in Armor, was chosen to be a finalist in the International Fashion Blog category for the U.K. version of Cosmopolitan magazine. Saint-Elien was one of two American bloggers hand-selected by the magazine.
“The feeling of being chosen was indescribable,” Saint-Elien says. “There are no words. It was just beyond exciting.”
Although Saint-Elien did not win the award, she still felt the opportunity was a great honor and is thankful for the support of Rider in sending her to London to attend the ceremony.
Since the awards, Saint-Elien has remained very active. She studied for a semester at American University in Washington, D.C., and has had the opportunity to work with people who have been involved in D.C. Fashion Week. As part of the program, she has met professionals working at ABC, Fox-5 and CNN and has made lifelong friends from the experience.
Saint-Elien has had three internships in radio, television and magazines, helping her discover what she is really interested in pursuing as a career. Although interested in fashion, she is not interested in the celebrity gossip that sometimes comes along with it. Her internship with Elle magazine has brought her closer to what she wants to do, which has become vital in deciding her next steps after graduation. “I definitely want to go on television.” she says. “ I want to talk about fashion, and I want to write about stories that are relevant, not just gossip. I love all news, but I’d love to passionately cover fashion.”
As the fashion intern this past summer, Saint-Elien worked with Elle, handling the fashion closet, bringing in and sending out clothes and organizing the beauty closet. She also transcribed interviews, which made her privy to interviews with Karreuche Tran and another with Rebecca Ferguson, who is in the latest Mission Impossible film.
Saint-Elien continues to keep up with her blog, striving to be different in what she calls “such a saturated market.” She uses her blog to get her name out in the world, feeding her passion for writing while having a platform to share her personal walk in faith and fashion sense once or twice a week. Saint-Elien enjoys focusing on being her truest self, and allows that to come through in her blogging.