Sheridan Road Magazine: A Media Goddess
Wilmette native Julia Allison has created a name for herself in New York’s media industry. She gives a lot of credit to her time at New Trier High School, where she gained her indefatigable ambition.
By Evangeline Politis
New Trier graduate Julia Allison seems to be involved in every aspect of media in New York City. Over the past few years, she has done nearly 400 television appearances on networks such as Fox News and CNN. As a talking head, she has discussed everything from Britney Spears’ custody fight to American Idol. Julia is also a dating columnist and special correspondent at Time Out New York. She has done public speaking on personal branding and personality-driven marketing and is the cofounder of her own Web site- the focus of most of her efforts these days. Julia was appropriately named the “most famous young journalist in the city” by New York Magazine, and has thousands of people reading her blog every day.
In high school, Julia was equally involved. She was on the air at New Trier’s radio station, in Latin Club, on the debate team, the president of Animal Protection Club, an opinion columnist for the New Trier news, ran the turnabout dance through the Global Exchange Club, even “attempted” to synchronize swim for two years, and the list goes on from there. “I was an overachiever, but I wasn’t very good at it,” she says jokingly.
In school, she always enjoyed literature and English classes and hated math (she actually finagled her way out of taking math classes past sophomore year). Though she claims she was horrible at it, one of her favorite subjects was debate. Through this outlet, she honed in the public speaking skills she now uses every day.
Her favorite class was an Advanced Placement course called Great Books in which the students analyzed the meaning of famous literary pieces. Ironically, she didn’t love her journalism class, which was very traditionally taught. “My teacher believed that the steps to become a newspaper journalist are very resolute and intractable. I ignored every single one of those steps and thank God I did. Otherwise, I think I would be stuck at the metro desk somewhere,” she explains.
She does look back fondly at her opinions column in the New Trier News, an outlet very similar to her blog now. She wrote about all sorts of student issues, such as peer pressure, what to wear to a school dance, and even how turning 18 made her feel old-a subject the twentysomething laughs at now. The column actually kick started her writing career and Julia has had a column ever since.
After graduation from New Trier in 1999, she went to Georgetown University, where she majored in political science. While she received an incredible education from Georgetown, she still says that New Trier prepared her for things that college didn’t. “New Trier was a bastion of relentless ambition. It was all focused on getting into the right college, but it was all the same ambition that fuels me today in New York and it’s just directed toward a slightly different arena. I have to say, I didn’t necessarily see that even at Georgetown. There were ambitious people there, but I swear to god, nothing like New Trier,” she says.
She explains further that there is a certain level of achievement expected from New Trier students. Many of her close friends from high school went to schools such as Stanford, Johns Hopkins, and Columbia and have all succeeded admirably. She compares her friends to her other people her age who are getting married and having kids. Julia’s friends, on the other hand, are finishing up law degrees or graduate programs at some of the top institutions in the world- “the normal for New Trier,” she explains.
Like the rest of her New Trier classmates, Julia is making quite a name for herself. Her primary job at the moment is as the co-founder of NonSociety, “which is what we like to describe as the next generation’s multimedia magazine,” explains Julia. “And it’s 100 percent personality driven.” The Web site www.nonsociety.com provides a view into Julia’s life through her blog, which she updates daily with pictures, quotes, links, and movies. Her two best friends, Meghan Asha and Mary Rambin, also blog on the site- Julia writes about dating, Meghan about technology, and Mary about fashion. This fall, the three women launched TMI Weekly, www.tmiweekly.com, where they chat about subjects like “Snacks Without Shame” and “Awesome Gadget Gifts” in a roundtable setting.
Julia wonders how high school at New Trier would have been with the social networking Web sites and blogs. “It would be really interesting to see how the internet would have changed my high school experience. I wonder if there’s a blog chronicling the social lives of teenagers. That could have been fascinating … or terrifying!”
