Amy Odell is the editor of Cosmopolitan.com, the largest community of millennial women on the Internet. She was named to the post in September 2013 and oversees all of Cosmopolitan’s digital presence, including editorial content, social media, and original video production. Odell is responsible for expanding the website’s editorial to include a wide range of feminist, political, and LGBTQ topics alongside celebrity news, and relationship and style coverage. Under her leadership, Cosmopolitan.com has more than tripled traffic to reach 36 million monthly unique visitors, Cosmo is the #1 channel on Snapchat Discover, and the brand’s social media following has increased threefold. Additionally, Cosmo was recognized on Adweek’s annual Hot List in both 2014 and 2015 as the “hottest magazine in digital.”
In 2016, Adweek named Odell a Young Influential, one of a select group of individuals acknowledged for remaking business and culture. In 2015, she made the Forbes' list of “30 Under 30” in media and was featured in Adweek as a “New Publisher,” one of 15 young innovators who will change the magazine business. In 2014, Odell was selected to Crain’s New York Business prestigious “40 Under 40” list, and included in the Business of Fashion 500, a professional index of people shaping the global fashion industry.
Prior to Cosmopolitan.com, Odell was an editor at BuzzFeed from 2012 through 2013 and is credited with the launch of two women’s verticals for the viral news site, BuzzFeed Fashion and BuzzFeed Shift. Odell began her journalism career in 2007 as a party reporter for New York magazine, where she ultimately became the founding blogger of the magazine’s fashion blog, The Cut, in 2008.
How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?
The most formative experience of my adult life was losing my dad when I was 27 years old. His death was completely sudden. We had no warning signs. The pain and difficulty of that experience is indescribable and it is still with me. If you’ve gone through it, you get it. If not, you don’t. It calmed me down a lot because even though I get stressed out sometimes, I’m always aware that nothing will ever be worse than that. Day-to-day things that might really bother some people – like someone saying something curt in an email – just simply don’t get to me. Why should I waste my time getting concerned about that stuff when it’s a blip on the radar of things that actually matter? Also, when something like suddenly losing a beloved parent happens to you, your priorities come into sharper focus. You become closer to your family. You build a life outside of work that’s incredibly meaningful to you. I think this has helped me to become a steady leader with a healthy perspective on what matters in and outside of work and what doesn’t.
How has your previous employment experience aided your tenure at Cosmopolitan.com?
I learned very different things at each of my previous jobs. At New York magazine/The Cut, I really learned how to write well and develop my voice as a writer. At BuzzFeed, I learned a lot about how to make content that’s popular on the internet. At Cosmopolitan.com, I’ve been able to bring together my knowledge of how to accrue a large audience with my knowledge of what makes a piece of writing great.
What have the highlights and challenges been during your tenure at Cosmopolitan.com?
The greatest highlight of my tenure at Cosmopolitan has been the team I’ve built and work with every day. I am fortunate to work with such an incredibly talented, funny, and smart group of women and men who want to tell stories that will (hopefully) lead to a more feminist world. It’s fun to come to work every day when you have such an inspired group of people around you all the time.
What advice can you offer to women who want a career in your industry?
Don’t do it for the “glamour.” I can tell when people want to work at Cosmo or in women’s magazines in general because they want to be able to take cool Instagrams, versus people who want to work here because they believe in our mission and have a passion that extends beyond themselves. If you’re just in it because you think it will make you look cool, you’re not going to get very far. Because you have to work so hard doing un-fun and difficult things to get to a point where you can bask in the glamour of this world. And believe me, the editors who do get to bask in the glamour of this world are doing so for 30 seconds a week, if that. The rest of the time, their heads are down and they are getting work done.
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in your career to date?
If you’re afraid, that probably means you’re doing your job.
How do you maintain a work/life balance?
When I take vacation, I don’t work. I take chartbeat off my phone so I’m not tempted to check on the site on my days off. I also go home at a reasonable time every day and have dinner with my husband just about every night. I choose to spend time on hobbies, like playing the piano. I read paper books so I don’t get distracted by work or sucked into emailing my team ideas at all hours of the day and night. It would be possible for me to work all the time, but there are times when I choose to stop.
What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace?
I could say so many things because I think about them all the time. I am troubled by the lack of women in the highest ranks of corporate leadership. I am troubled by poor maternity leave policies that make it difficult for women to take any maternity leave at all. I am troubled that many women cannot get the reproductive healthcare they need without undertaking enormous effort or expense, which will in turn impact every aspect of their lives, including work. I am troubled by the reality that if one person in a marriage is going to cut back or leave work after having kids, it’s more likely to be the woman. I am troubled by the wage gap and even more troubled by how much it increases for women of color. I am troubled that women have to try harder than men to come off personably to those they work with. What troubles me the most changes on any given day.
How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life?
You always need people in your corner to help you get to the next phase of your career, and this is increasingly true as you progress. I’ve been lucky to have a group of women I feel I can talk to whenever I’m considering a new opportunity or trying to advance in a given role. It’s important to have people in your industry to advise you, because your family and friends who aren’t in the industry can only understand it so well.
Which other female leaders do you admire and why?
Kate Lewis, who oversees editorial at Hearst Magazines Digital Media. She has expertly defined an absolute mammoth of a job description and navigates challenges with grace that I aspire to. Also, Donna Lagani, the publisher of Cosmopolitan, who inspires her team with an unbridled amount of enthusiasm and love for the brand. She has boundless energy and approaches everything with a “winning is the only option” attitude (and, of course, she always wins). Also, Joanna Coles, the Chief Content Officer of Hearst Magazines; she’s a true editor who has amazing ideas. I love how she infused ambitious, hard-news reporting into Cosmo when she was editor of the magazine.
What do you want Cosmopolitan.com to accomplish in the next year?
I want to continue our vigorous reporting on political issues Cosmopolitan.com has been doing for the past four years. It’s a pivotal midterm-election year, and there is a lot at stake for young people – women in particular. We aim to report on the issues (immigration reform, education, reproductive freedom, healthcare, etc.) through the lens of people who are directly affected by policy, and look forward to telling more of their stories through the election and beyond.