March 24, 2024

Kaitlin Menza on Telling the Stories of Women Whose Voices Deserve to Be Heard (Famous or Not), Writing Multiple Columns, Freelancing, and Living in Taiwan and Making It Work with U.S. Time Zones

43 minutes

I have with me the remarkable Kaitlin Menza, another contemporary of mine who has just done so much, it’s baffling. Kaitlin is another journalist whose byline has literally been everywhere you can think of: The Cut. InStyle. Conde Nast Traveler. Elle. Town & Country. Vogue. Marie Claire. Esquire. Business of Home. Rolling Stone. The Hollywood Reporter. Architectural Digest. Cosmopolitan. The New York Times. The Guardian. Time. Vanity Fair. Popular Mechanics. Have to say, I wasn’t expecting that last one, but it’s true! Kaitlin prides herself on sharing the stories of women, whether it’s celebrities you’ve heard of like Paris Hilton, or women sharing personal stories about life events they’ve been through, like the plaintiff in the largest-ever revenge porn case or a mom who was addicted to opiates. She’s spoken to politicians, like the youngest Black woman to serve in Congress, Lauren Underwood. Her stories are famously heavy hitting, like how the number of women in prison is up 1,260 percent in a generation. Now a freelance writer, Kaitlin has also edited for T: The New York Times Style Magazine, House Beautiful, Refinery29, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Business of Home, and Publisher’s Weekly, and she has been on staff at Teen Vogue, Glamour, and Seventeen, and while at the latter, wrote the first American cover stories featuring Zendaya, Kylie Jenner, and Harry Styles. Again—just an absolute dynamo. She has multiple columns now that she writes—“How I Travel” and “How We Pulled It Off” for Conde Nast Traveler, a column at Business of Home, as well as writing extensively about weddings for New York Magazine’s The Cut, which you know I am wildly obsessed with. Speaking of obsessed, Kaitlin was one of the first royal family podcasters—of which I am now one—and was one of the two original hosts of the hit show Royally Obsessed, which led to television appearances on Good Morning America, 20/20, and MSNBC, as well as in Argentina, the Philippines, Canada, and the U.K. After 13 years in New York City, Kaitlin relocated to Taipei, Taiwan in 2022, and we talk about that experience on the show, including how she manages doing business in New York City from all the way across the globe, while also being a new mom. This is actually a level of Superwoman that I didn’t know existed. How Kaitlin is able to get it all done, and done so well, is really, truly incredible. I can’t wait for you to get to know her.