[azmarks]

Except that Lauren says that she didn't write the story. https://mashable.com/article/facebook-teen-vogue-sponsored-c...

"At some point, Teen Vogue contributor Lauren Rearick was listed as the author of the story. When reached for comment, Rearick told Mashable that she did not write the article.

"That isn’t my byline," she wrote over email. "I didn’t write this story.""

[LeifCarrotson]

I don't think she wrote the article (to be clear, I also don't have any insider information on the situation). My conjecture (based on interactions with other journalists) was that the article was prepared for her by some Facebook PR firm as a draft for her to edit.

Maybe she'd decline and it would go up as sponsored/editorial content, maybe she'd soften it up a bit and write it as her own article, maybe (unlikely in this specific case, though it certainly happens in eg. trade journals) she'd sign off on the puff piece exactly as submitted. A representative from that PR firm would have called, met with, or wined and dined with her and offered it for any of the above options, perhaps with an incentive of an exclusive interview as a reward or just as a free piece of work for her to sell to TV.

I totally believe that Lauren didn't write it yet. She did write, for an example article, 'Kitsch X Justine Marjan Created a "Vote" Hair Clip' [1]. There's a significant chance that Kitsch or their PR firm contacted her and suggested that the clip might be something she's interested in writing about, perhaps including some sample copy. There's a chance she wrote that article entirely in a vaccuum, happening across an Instagram post, doing some research, making phone calls...but that's not the way most journalism happens today.