Kate Betts, award-winning magazine editor and author of My Paris Dream: An Education in Style, Slang, and Seduction in the Great City on the Seine, gives us an honest account of what it takes to follow your dream.
By Susan Devaney
Kate Betts during her time in Paris
After you finished university, you seemed so determined to follow your dream of becoming a journalist and moving to Paris, why?
I think my determination came not from the fear of failure, but the fact that I was coming out of a university that was still very driven, full of high-powered kids, who in my perspective seemed to know where they were going and what they were going to do with the rest of their lives. And, it was very much a part of the programme at Princeton that you would get through four years and find yourself and your future. So, the prospect of not fulfilling that promise terrified me. I was also competitive, so I thought if everyone else knows what they’re doing, I’ve got to know what I’m doing, too.
Why did you pick Paris and not New York City?
I did feel very passionate about Paris; I was very passionate about the French. I loved French history, French culture and the French language. I knew I wanted to live in Paris, but the whole career part of the equation was up in the air. When you’re 20 or 22, you’re naive enough to think that everything will work out – and that’s the great thing about youth, I guess. Would I do the same thing today at my age? No, because I’ve been there and I know what the stakes are, and I know what the potential is, and it’s really, really tough.
Kate Betts photographed by Noa Griffel
Your book is a very open and honest account of you coming of age in Paris. Did it scare you to write it?
Well, that was one of the reasons I wanted to write the book actually. The biggest reason was that I’d saved all these journals and memorabilia from that time: letters, articles, notebooks, agendas and photos. So, that’s why I knew I could ultimately transport the reader and me back to that time. What was really inside of me was that I wanted to tell my story, and during the course of my career, people had very much told my story for me and projected onto me what they thought I was or should be – that’s a very uncomfortable feeling for a journalist. I just felt like that wasn’t who I was and it wasn’t so easy. People would say ‘oh, she went to Princeton then Vogue then Harper’s Bazaar’, like it was just leap frogging from one lily pad to the next, and I wanted to tell my story for young kids coming out of college or even high school, that it’s not that easy. You have to work really hard, and it doesn’t always work out. And you learn the most actually from those moments when it doesn’t work out, because that’s when you really have to find your resolve and your sense of self.
For many years, you worked with Anna Wintour at Vogue. What do you think was the greatest lesson you learned from her?
You know, I was lucky, because I had a lot of freedom with her. And she basically let me do whatever I wanted – that was a great management lesson. If you have people working for you, who you really trust and who meet all of your expectations, then you just let them do what they want to do – they did that.
You’re taught in school to have a career plan… do you think that’s achievable?
I mean, people hold onto this idea that if I do this, then I’ll get that, and no career is a perfect linear trajectory. And if it is, then you’re not going to learn much. If everything is handed to you, if you have to follow someone else’s idea of the right path, then you’re not really going to feel successful.
Kate started out in the industry by working for WWD in Paris
What did you learn about yourself in your twenties?
Well, I think in the twenties that idea of getting lost to find yourself is such an important lesson, because there is this incredible pressure to figure out who you are and set your course, and make sure you’re on the right track. I don’t think you necessarily have the emotional or analytical capabilities in your twenties, and certainly not the experience to know that. I think it’s important and it’s impossible to just let everything go and get lost and so on and so forth. So, I think it’s a really great lesson. The other lesson I think is really important in your twenties is that you really do have to work hard for success. There are no shortcuts and there’s no such thing as luck. It’s hard work.
Read the full interview in our October issue of MOJEH.
