For “collegiettes” at Ohio University and elsewhere looking for a “guide to life,” Her Campus has provided two years of online content.
Online publications such as Her Campus are popping up on college campuses across the country, including OU. They typically have a national base and branches for participating colleges.
Her Campus is one of the publications with an OU branch.
In 2009, three women studying at Harvard University founded the national branch of Her Campus, which they developed while working for another publication. Two years and more than 150 colleges later, Her Campus has exploded as a hub of information for students looking for advice and a few giggles.
Amanda Hawkins and Rebekah Meiser, both 2011 OU alumnae, founded the OU branch of Her Campus. While Meiser was working on the national site, one of the co-founders, Stephanie Kaplan, expressed an interest in starting an OU branch.
Meiser grabbed her best friend, Hawkins, and together they structured a site geared toward OU students.
“(Her Campus) is a community of young women trying to help each other and learn from each other,” said Taylor Evans, current co-editor of the OU Her Campus page and a junior studying journalism.
Articles on the site cover topics ranging from upcoming events and quirky OU news to the best campus cuties, Evans said.
The mission of Her Campus is to “define and provide a model for the future of online magazines, to fill the hole in the media marketplace for media that responds directly to the needs of college women, to serve as a career launching point for the nation's top college journalists and to connect companies with college students across the country in creative ways,” according to the magazine’s website.
OU Her Campus staff members are still working to get the word out about their site. Last year, the magazine hosted a party to attract attention to the publication.
“Her Campus is a great way for students to get involved,” said co-editor Hillary Johns, a junior studying journalism. “We don’t compete with other university publications, and we are pretty laidback. We choose our own content and can post as many stories as we like.”
In the past year, the staff of OU Her Campus has grown from about six members to more than 10. The publication is still welcoming new staff members, Johns said.
“We want readers to know that we are here,” Johns said. “Her Campus is not considered an official university organization, nor is it listed on the Scripps page. We are here for the readers. We write to them and relate to them because we are them.”
bl171210@ohiou.edu
