Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Bogen
Hi Julie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been in journalism my whole career. After interning and taking any freelance writing job I could get in college, I moved to New York City weeks after graduation to start as a social assistant at Refinery29. From there, I helped the brand develop it’s first editorially-integrated Pinterest strategy; made some appearances in the site’s short-lived, live pop culture commentary series; and wrote at every opportunity. I made the move from fashion to politics in 2016 when I followed my now-husband to the D.C. area for his Navy medicine career, and I was at Vox.com during the 2016 election cycle for the two years that followed. It was at that job I started really leaning into podcasts and audience strategy for those products.
I spent almost four years at The Atlantic after that, and then a little over two-and-a-half years at The 19th. Now, though, I’m full-time freelance, writing as much as possible and working for a select few clients at a time on audience engagement strategy for their social channels, emails, events, or podcasts. There’s one kind of wild card real estate client that I am SO excited about, and I’m definitely hoping to expand more outside of the news.
As San Diego residents, my husband and I live in Point Loma with our two little kids, and I’m trying to figure out the new balance of freelance life, making time for barre classes, and also finding new friends.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Honestly, the last 10 years as a professional have been smooth except for two things:
1. Covid parenting almost broke me. I was home with my daughter nearly full-time from March 2020 until January of 2021, while also trying to hold down a full-time job at The Atlantic (which, as you can imagine, was impossible even though they were super supportive). It was too much for me to work with a baby or toddler at home, even if I hadn’t been breastfeeding (which I was), or trying to support my spouse who was a doctor for Covid patients at the time. I look back at that period and get a lump in my throat all over again about the isolation, grief, and sheer overwhelm of it all.
2. I really burned out on managing people + audience engagement work this year. The endlessness of it — algorithm changes, evolving needs, trying to balance running a team and getting my own to-do list accomplished — just got to me, and I lost track of what I loved about the work and felt like I was on a hamster wheel of disappointing everyone. I’m taking a serious break from management in order to learn hard into writing opportunities, time-bound or task-bound projects, and actually taking time to enjoy my life.
Overall, I have been extraordinary lucky, but those two hiccups were some of my most difficult.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a writer, first and foremost. Sometimes, that takes the form of pitching, reporting, and disseminating a story that I am uniquely qualified to tell. My areas of specialization for that kind of work tend to include lifestyle journalism, military spouse coverage, stories about how our societal structures set certain groups up to fail (especially women), and also covering stories with a clear “why.”
Other times, being a writer means analyzing other people’s journalism, reporting, or research, and translating it for a given audience. Most often for me this means running social media accounts or helping support newsletters. I’d love to try out content writing for a non-newsroom organization at some point!
And, this isn’t writing, exactly, but I also specialize in audience engagement for podcasts and events, especially when there is or can be video involved. It’s underappreciated work but can make a big difference when it comes to reach and engagement for those products.
I’m known for my reporting on military spouses, my Atlantic article called “Mom brain isn’t a joke” about how our society has turned the suffering of mothers into a national punchline instead of treating it like the five-alarm fire it is, and my ongoing experience in podcast audience engagement strategy (especially for “Today, Explained,” “The Weeds,” and “The Ezra Klein Show” when the latter was still at Vox, as well as “The Amendment” at The 19th). On Instagram, my friends and family know they can always expect posts about sandwiches, office outfits, and blog posts about everything from pop culture to marriage and more.
What sets me apart is that I am not afraid to ask questions, I can get interested in almost anything, I believe in the utility of difficult conversations, and I prioritize underserved communities as much as possible in everything I do.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I am always looking for new writing opportunities, ways I can support podcasts or events from an audience engagement perspective, and to make new friends on Instagram. Reach out to hire me by going to juliebogen.com or follow me on Instagram at @julie.bogen.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://juliebogen.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julie.bogen/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-bogen-48292637/
- Twitter: https://x.com/JaBogen
- Other: https://bsky.app/profile/juliebogen.bsky.social
Image Credits
Jeremy Tauriac
