If you haven’t heard the name Jayne Appel, then you haven’t tuned into ESPN or Sportscenter in the past month, because her name is everywhere. Appel, senior at Stanford University, has taken the college basketball world by storm over the past four years.

As an All-American athlete, Appel has led the Stanford Cardinal to the Women’s Final Four for the past two years. She has more basketball awards than one can count, was one of Glamour magazine’s 2009 Top 10 College Women, and was the number 5 draft pick of the WNBA, picked to play for the San Antonio Silver Stars.

Basketball has been her life, but basketball isn’t the only arena that Appel dominates. With her bleach-blonde hair, notorious neon pink painted fingernails, and constant carefree California attitude, Jayne Appel is just another girl ready to make her place in the world. And as a recently graduated senior (due to that whole WNBA draft thing), Appel has officially entered the real world. Okay, so maybe instead of a 9-5 desk job she’s playing a sport she loves, but she is just as scared about life post-college as the rest of us.

Since most girls our age haven’t seen their dreams become reality yet and don’t have their own Wikipedia page or Facebook fan site, I wanted to sit down with Appel to ask her some questions and pick her brain about life after college. Read More »

"Dear Prof: I'm totes writing you in my undies."

Texting and chatting online has surely affected the way we communicate. If a friend doesn’t respond to a text within 10 minutes of me sending it, I immediately assume he/she has gone Amish. What did people do when there were no cellphones or AOL chat? Communicating must have been exhausting. You mean you had to wait at home to receive a phone call from your boyfriend in hopes your father wouldn’t answer?

Beyond waiting for the phone call, texting and chatting online has surely affected what we say. The term OMG wasn’t created from sending letters through the Pony Express; it was most likely created in the depths of an AOL chat room BSBLuvr who found it exceedingly difficult to express her love for ‘Shape of My Heart’ over and over again. Since then, abbreviating words (AKA ‘chatspeak’) has made communication easier for all of us. But apparently some people can’t seem to understand when this language is approp (in a drunk text to a friend) and it’s inapprop (in an email to a professor).

Yeah, it may seem totes obvi to you, but it seems that many students are taking their AIM lingo to class and their professors aren’t LOLing. In fact, they’re getting pretty pissed. And who wouldn’t when students are starting their emails off with, “Yo, teach”? (For realz.)

OMG. WTF? Didn’t college learn you better than that? Read More »

[I used to show you how to pull off runway trends in the series "Rock the Look." In this new series, I'll be taking a different item you probably already have in your closet each week and showing you three new ways to wear it. After all, the best shopping tip anyone will give you is to only buy pieces that work with something you already own. Last week we worked the blazer, and this week we're moving on to the basic white blouse.]

As a college student gearing up for a summer internship or office job, you might not have a very expansive work wardrobe. Maybe your parents footed the bill for a few new professional outfits, but after the first week of work you might start feeling like you’ve run out of things to wear.

One thing you most likely own is  a white blouse, like this one from Gap. This top is so basic, there are a million ways to wear it. The good news? You may already have a couple of the other items in your closet too! Here are three ways to wear a white blouse (Click on the pictures to get all the shopping info!): Read More »

[I used to show you how to pull off runway trends in the series "Rock the Look." In this new series, I'll be taking a different item you probably already have in your closet each week and showing you three new ways to wear it. After all, the best shopping tip anyone will give you is to only buy pieces that work with something you already own. Last week I glammed up the basic black tee, and this week we're moving on to blazers.]

You probably have a blazer.

Your mom made you buy it and now the only time you pull it out of your closet is for job interviews and funerals. Other than that, it just hangs there and takes up space that would be better suited for a new pair of sweats. But your basic black blazer (like the one pictured right, from Old Navy) can be very stylish and versatile!

Wear it during the day to your internship for a mature (but not “old”) look, or to dress up a pair of jeans on the weekend.

Here are three new ideas for rocking a black (or whatever color you might have) blazer. Read More »

If any of the producers of What Not to Wear ever happen to read this article, please accept my personal cry for help and send me to Stacy and Clinton asap.

Though I can usually throw together something appropriate for work or special events, about half of my clothing inventory consists of utterly ridiculous garments. It doesn’t help that I’m sentimental and can’t discard my prom dresses five years later, or that I’m waiting for certain trends to come back (though I’m pretty sure sparkly, sleeveless, turtleneck sweaters were never in style to begin with). And it definitely doesn’t help that I went through a goth/punk phase that a small part of the “professional” me desperately wants to revert back to.

As we all get ready for back to school, many of us will rummage through our closets and get rid of last season’s most shameful shirts, skirts, dresses, and pants in order to make room in our tiny dorm closets for upcoming styles (that we will undoubtedly regret in 2009 or 2010).

Here are some of my particularly embarrassing items.

1. Drawstring Khakis

I think that any pants that don’t have a numerical size should be left alone. So, why I bought these “Size L” drawstring pants with floral embroidery at the bottom is beyond me. They don’t go with any shoes, the trim is tacky, and they are so baggy that they make my ass look like a misshaped Volvo. I used to wear them to lounge around, because a lack of a waist obviously equals comfort; however, I made the mistake of wearing them out of the house one extremely hungover day. In public. With friends. My friend turned to me and said, “If you ever wear those pants again, I will cut them off your body.” Point taken. Read More »

I’m a hard worker and always have been. I started working when I was 14; I printed out cheap flyers advertising my babysitting capabilities and threw them in every mailbox in my town. I had my own little babysitting gigs and was doing quite well for myself; at $4.25 an hour, I thought I was making the big bucks.

As I grew older, I expanded my professional resume with retail positions, internships and jobs geared towards my career interests. I came out of college and now have a full-time job (and this super fun writing gig to keep me sane on the side) and am working towards getting the things I want for myself in life.

I consider myself – and many women just like me – to be a part of something new: the New Generation of 20-Something Women. No more relying on a man to determine financial status, stability or success; we are independent and have our own individual goals. Our own plans. Our fate in our hands.

Growing up, I learned that if you want something, you need to rely on yourself to get it and not someone else. I am taking that theory into account and notice that more females these days are too. Years ago, women were expected to find a man, get married, have children and keep the household. Rather than growing up and looking for our Mrs., 20-something women today are looking for a job, life experiences, travel and, most importantly, a life for themselves. Read More »

It isn’t always easy to find new friends after college.

Unlike freshman year in the dorms, the real world doesn’t provide you with a place filled with hundreds of people just like you looking for new people to drink (and hook up) with. Well, I guess that might happen if you move to Murray Hill in New York City, but for the rest of us that just isn’t a reality.

It seems that most of us make our new real-life friends at work. Which makes sense; we spend so much time at the office (and, oftentimes, need a few drinks afterwards) that it is only natural to get close with the people alongside us. For the most part this is a good thing; there are many times when the only thing motivating you to get to the office is the opportunity to see your buds.

But what happens when things go a bit too far?

Last week I mentioned a friend of mine who explained to me his love for morning sex. Well, that friend also happens to work with me. Actually, I work for him; he’s my boss. Now, this isn’t as creepy as it sounds; he is only 29 and we do hang out socially. But, as I work here longer we get closer and closer the line between personal and professional continues to blur. Read More »

I love pretty little things.

I really love pretty little things with a purpose. So imagine my glee when I happened upon the adorably named Moo.com, a website dedicated to “printing things from your stuff”.

Although the crafty folks at Moo will make lots of cute stuff from your uploaded pictures, my favorite product of theirs are the MiniCards.

For $20 you get 100 colorful mini cards (about half the size of a normal calling card) packed in a reusable plastic box. They can make the cards look nice for you, or you can pretty them up yourself with up to 100 different images. With six lines of available text on the back, these adorable little information holders are my new must haves. Read More »