After graduating from Harker, alumna Noel Duan (‘09) went to Columbia University for her undergraduate degree in art history and sociocultural anthropology, then attended Oxford University for her masters degree in women’s studies. She has written for numerous fashion magazines including Vogue and Seventeen and has even started her own style magazine, Hoot, at Columbia. Currently, she lives in New York City and works as an Assistant Editor at Yahoo! Beauty.

Winged Post: Why did you decide to pursue a master’s degree at Oxford and what led you to major in women’s studies?

Noel Duan (‘09): I became interested in gender studies and gender issues sort of late into my academic career at Columbia. The thing is, I interned at women’s magazines and my column at Columbia was called “You Write Like a Girl.” I was really interested in women’s media, and how we talk to women and how women think of themselves, so I applied to Oxford in women’s studies.

WP: What was it like to transition between living in New York City and living in Oxford?

ND: New York is very fast-paced. People are very competitive, and it really pushed me, but I was getting really burnt out after four years at Columbia and, honestly, four years at Harker. I wanted to learn and just be with people who wanted to learn, people that went to Oxford. It was really great to be with a bunch of feminists who wanted to change the world because they wanted to make it a better place.

WP: Did your experiences with research at both Columbia and Oxford impact your choice of career or path in general?

ND: My liberal arts plus research background has taught me how to go beyond just the surface of a story and to think critically about it, and I think that’s really important to any career, honestly, you don’t have to just be a journalist or a writer. If you want to be a businessperson, if you want to be a politician, if you want to be a lawyer, if you want to be a doctor, you can’t just take things at face value.

WP: What’s the thing you like most about your job at Yahoo! Beauty?

ND: I like that I get to write a lot of stories about women’s empowerment and confidence. People always dismiss beauty as something that’s frivolous. I don’t think that. I think people dismiss beauty, makeup, hair, skin care as frivolous because women are interested in it. The only reason why sports journalism is taken more seriously than beauty or fashion journalism is because men dominate that industry. I think there’s something really great about teaching women about how to feel good about themselves.

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on May 13, 2015.