Alumna Mia McNiece pursues her passion for journalism through People Magazine

Emilee Ray

Staff Writer

McNiece is a senior staff writer at People magazine, a role which entails inter- viewing celebrities and covering red carpet events, such as the Oscars, Golden Globe Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards. During these kind of nights, she gathers quotes and details about the event. Another major part of her job is seeking out interesting stories about people and proposing them to the magazine. She writes about one story a week and edits stories on a daily basis, McNiece said.

“Usually a celebrity will do an inter- view with People to promote a new film they have coming out,” McNiece said. “For example, last week I interviewed Alicia Vikander about her new movie “Tomb Raider” and in preparation for the Oscars, I interviewed many of the best actress nominees.”

La Vista helped McNiece tremendously to become as successful as she is now, she said. It helped her to realize that writing is what she loved to do and that she would love to get paid for it. She also enjoyed the camaraderie with the other people on staff and how they all worked together to put out a paper, she said.

“I’ve loved writing since I was very young,” McNiece said. “I remember I had my first poem published in The Beach Reporter when I was in elementary school. Seeing my name in print was such a thrill back then and it still is today.”

McNiece started writing for La Vista her during her sophomore year at Costa and has been writing ever since. She worked on her school paper, The Daily Nexus, while attending the University of California, Santa Barbara and interned at other local Santa Barbara newspapers. After college, she began interning at Variety Los Angeles, until moving out to New York to work full time in their main office. She later moved to work at US Weekly. McNiece became a staff writer at People in 2009, after work- ing at Variety magazine for three years.

“At Variety, I often covered movie premieres and found it to be a very exciting job, but at People, I get to do more in-depth interviews, which I really enjoy,” McNiece said. “Also, most of the people I interview have fascinating lives and great stories to tell.”

McNiece said that working at People has been interesting and enticing. Jane Fonda has given her lessons on relationships, Jennifer Garner offered her tips on motherhood and Meryl Streep once gave her career advice, McNiece said.

“I have greatly enjoyed my time at People,” McNiece said. “I love writing and interviewing people and hearing about their life experiences.”

McNiece plans on being a staff writer for a while, most likely at People, where she aspires to improve her writing and continue to produce more stories.

“I would give students the advice of internships.” McNiece said. “That is really what helped me the most because I was able to practice writing, meet editors and learn a lot about the business. I also ended up getting jobs at all the places I interned so it was a great way to get my foot in the door.”