Quarterlife Magazine

“What am I doing with my life?”

This existential question, once associated with the perils of mid-life, is emerging more and more among twenty-somethings at the beginning of their career. Plus, they’re dealing with it alone. Isolation is rife in the older segment of Gen Z, with reports showing that they are even lonelier than those in the over 70s bracket - a group historically at the epicentre of the loneliness epidemic. On a mission to make your twenties feel less isolating, Joy Molan and Emily Parker came together in 2018, setting up ‘Quarterlife’ - an online magazine they describe as for “confused 20-somethings” to shed some light on some of the issues getting to the younger generation.

Joy Molan and Emily Parker met as strategists at global advertising agency McCann London, and initially set up Quarterlife as an Instagram page, choosing a magazine format because it felt intimate for storytelling. Joy told us, “it can feel like you’re the only one going through all of this. Magazines help you feel like you're not the only one”. Since launching, they’ve done events alongside Boiler Room and gal-dem, grown to hundreds of article submissions and have been featured on the High Low. Their articles range from careers to life - featuring topics like furlough, being made redundant, being ghosted by your ex and article titles like ‘How I learned to love my unproductive lockdown’.

Where it started

Quarterlife started where most good things start: over a meal. At a local Greek restaurant, Emily and Joy ordered plates of Tzatziki and flatbread, and glasses of white wine, and started brainstorming. Emily told me: “We just opened a Google doc on Joy’s laptop and asked ourselves: ‘20 somethings - what do they need to know?’”. Joy added: “We realised that we all have these collective worries, questions and insecurities that are recurring and we must not be the only ones feeling like this. You just want a sense that it’s OK if you’re not perfect: it’s OK that you’re not getting up at 6am, having a kale smoothie and going on a crosstrainer”. Whilst there were recruitment platforms and career coaching, they found there weren't any magazines geared towards twenty-somethings, and there certainly wasn’t anything talking about the crisis you have in the mid twenties.

Launching Instagram first

They set up the Instagram first - a strategy they’d advise to others as it meant they had a lot of article submissions before they launched. “At first we got so many that I was drowning”, said Emily, “It was really topical. At the time, no other magazine was really doing it.” On the back of this initial interest, they also plucked up the courage to email some bigger publications to see if they could get some more traffic. One of those emails was to the High Low, a podcast aimed at women and downloaded 30 million times. They crafted the mission statement, considered every word of the email, attached their photo, and clicked send. And then they waited. 

They never heard back from them, but one morning Joy got an unexpected call from her flatmate: “Joy, I’ve pulled over on my bike, you’re on the High Low!” It was a whole minute’s segment about the magazine, and it led to hundreds of new followers on Instagram, and a lot of email interest: some people emailing with pitches, other people wanting to get involved. The emails rolled in for months afterwards. “Our advice to anyone starting would be don't be scared”, Emily said, “If you don't ask, you don't get, so put yourself out there and the worst that will happen is you’ll be ignored if they are too busy or not interested”.

Work and side projects help each other

As trained strategists, they were very digilent: “We had planning sessions every week at Burr & Co”, Joy said, “We’d have a coffee or something stronger and we’d test ourselves: what’s our brand archetype? What character do we want to be? What feels different?”. “We did a 5 C’s didn't we?”, Emily added, “Culture, consumer, category, connections and company.”

“We were also very fortunate to have a team that was really supportive”, Emily said, “We never felt like we had to keep it secret. There is always the question of ‘will someone think I am less committed?’. There's that old school mentality of ‘if you have time to do that we’re obviously not working you hard enough’, but our teams have never been like that. I am lucky to have a director on the team [at ITV] who really encourages side projects.”

In fact, working on a side project helped their work get better. They’ve used Quarterlife insights on work projects, built social media skills and found new angles for stories that have helped with their strategy day jobs. “You can actually draw on it for your daytime job to make your work even better” Joy said.

Plus, having a side project has helped them with a creative release. Joy said: “Having a sense of ownership over something was really enriching. It’s nice to have something that you can shape how you want, you don’t have to wait for approval. Especially when you’re junior and it’s very hierarchical, it allows you to get validation from other things.” Emily agreed: “In a big organization you are at the mercy of people’s diaries, decisions and fluctuating desires, but with this we can just make it happen. It’s so freeing and it gets your creativity going really quickly.”

Creating in a pandemic

The pandemic hasn’t been easy for many people, including Joy and Emily. They both took a break on their side project during the pandemic: “We were overwhelmed with work and life” Emily said. In the past, especially following the buzz from the High Low, they had been prone to overcommitting, only to find it suck the joy out of the project. “We made a 20 line item project management document following the High Low mention”, Emily said, “but at that point it got so overwhelming that we just didn't want to open the inbox”. Joy added: “We do it when it feels like an enjoyable task, we don’t do it when it feels like a chore or an extra thing on the to do list”. 

Being spontaneous can help, and being comfortable with things being imperfect. Joy said: “We post things without checking with each other. Social media is always a fun reactive thing - and it’s helpful to have a document with lots of templates. I love doing it on Sunday morning: I have a coffee and spend a few hours on it.”

The future of Quarterlife 

It is not set to be a full time gig, Joy said: “We both really enjoy our day jobs and it’s important to have secure income. But we also hope to grow the magazine with branded content and insight consultancy too, like the sponsored articles we’ve published with recruitment company TalentPool”. Emily added: “Anything we make at this stage is reinvested - I don’t think this will be a full time earner for either of us any time soon. We both want 360 full rounded, enriching careers”.

To check out Quarterlife head to their website, or follow them on Instagram.
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