Australian magazine The Collective has been shaking things up and leading the way in print media since their launch in 2013, and their latest edition is no exception.
This month the magazine decided to feature local Australian talents who are making waves on a global scale. A new breed of creatives; the underdogs who you may not know by face, but definitely know their work. They a new generation of game-changers.
Eleanor Pendleton, cover star of the latest edition, is young, savvy and well respected in the beauty and digital industries. Eleanor has been reviving the traditional beauty landscape online with her beauty website and magazine, Gritty Pretty.
We caught up with Eleanor to talk about the cover, her global business Gritty Pretty, embracing the fans and rejecting the haters, and following her dreams.
On the cover of The Collective:
As a publisher, Eleanor says to go from putting together covers, to starring on one, is a strange feeling.
‘It feels completely surreal to be honest with you. I can’t really believe that it’s me.’
‘Sarah Jessica parker was just on the cover before me. I mean, no pressure or anything!’
‘But I am, at the same time, really, really proud.’
The magazine is sold in thirty-seven countries around the world, and has previously featured stars like Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, and Amy Poehler.
‘That kind of blows my mind a bit.’
On starting Gritty Pretty:
As a publishing mogul in the way of digital, when Eleanor started Gritty Pretty in 2009, she had created something really different to what was on the scene at the time.
‘It was kind of edgy!’
‘I was in magazines for a long time so beauty, it’s my thing. When I launched Gritty Pretty, I launched it because there wasn’t at the time any beauty blogs that were run by beauty editors.’
On relaunching gritty pretty:
After being picked up as beauty editor for In Style at just twenty-two, Eleanor was made to put Gritty Pretty on hold. But by the time she came back to it, the digital landscape had completely transformed.
‘It was original the first time around but it wasn’t not anymore. So I gave it a new skin, completely redesigned the whole thing from scratch.
‘I was actually on a business famil, and I don’t know if it was the fresh air… but I just thought it needs something. It needs something different that no one else is doing. So it kind of hit me like a lightening bold: no one’s doing an online magazine that’s only about beauty.
‘So I went home the next day and I called my girlfriend who’s a graphic designer and I said ‘this is what I want to do, do you want to do it with me?’ And we spent six months building the first issue.’
Gritty Pretty’s first cover girl was model Cheyenne Tozzi, and the publication has only gone from strength to strength since. Her most famous cover star, Lara Bingle, revealed her marriage to Sam Worthington and pregnancy to son, Rocket.
‘It crashed the website. That was a huge success for us.’
On the haters:
It’s the flip side of adoration. Despite having a robust fan base, and receiving endless praise, Eleanor has learnt that the ‘haters’, some visible, some invisible, come as part of the package. So how does she deal?
‘Those ‘haters’, they do exist. Do I care about them? No.’
‘I used to, it used to upset me and I’m not ‘gonna lie, I’ve had moment swhere I’ve cried because, it hurts. But I think it goes hand in hand with success. You have to expect that the bad will come with the good.’
On following her dreams and plans for the future:
I feel like for the first time in my life I’m doing what I’m meant to be doing. And everything that I’ve done in my career thus far… has kind of brought me to this place in digital so that I can do what I want to do. It’s a really exciting feeling.
The twenty-fifth issue of The Collective is available from today.
