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| Christy Haubegger:
Founder and Publisher Latina magazine
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 | About Christy Haubegger |
| Mexican American Christy Haubegger started Latina magazine when she was 25 years old after she graduated from Stanford Law School. She was adopted by an Anglo family when she was very young. and grew up in Houston, Texas. |
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| The Interview |
GCD: What do you do as the publisher of a magazine?
CH: I spend most of my day "supervising," which means doing everything from looking over editorial ideas to approving what finally goes into an issue. I spend a lot of time doing advertising sales and working on the not-so-glamorous side of things, but it's easy because I believe so much in what we're doing. What I really enjoy is the opportunity to spend time with the young women who work here. I pride myself on trying to make this a good place to work.
GCD: How did you come up the idea for the magazine?
CH: I went to law school because I wanted to change the world, and I thought a law degree would be a good tool to do that. The idea for the magazine came up because it was something I believed someone should do, and no one had done it by the time I graduated. I thought I might as well give it a shot, and if it doesn't work, I can always be a lawyer.
GCD: How did you actually launch the magazine?
CH: I wrote a business plan which is sort of like a blueprint for the magazine. I had to go out and raise the money, but I also had to learn how to do create and run a magazine. I had the opportunity to spend some time at a few different magazines and follow the editors and publishers around to find out exactly what they spent their days doing. That was incredibly helpful.
GCD: Did you have any role models or mentors?
CH: The woman who was the editor-in-chief at Essence and the woman who, at the time, was the editor-in-chief at Family Circle. They were both very supportive. When I was growing up I didn't see a lot of people who looked like me in magazines or in movies, so I didn't have a lot of role models. Nobody ever told me that Hispanic women could be astronauts. If I had heard of Ellen Ochoa, I might have thought I could be an astronaut! When I realized I might have the opportunity to change that, I thought I have to try. I didn't want another generation of women to go without that.
GCD: What do you think has helped make you successful?
CH: I love it when I'm being challenged. That sounds kind of silly, but when no one expects you to do it, you have a lot of freedom. My parents gave me a very strong sense of who I was. The fact that other people may have thought that young women, or Hispanic women, weren't capable of things was meaningless. I felt I could do anything I wanted. They told me that every single day and I really believed it. That sort of confidence is something that has been very valuable.
GCD: Besides your parents, did you do anything as a teenager that helped you to become confident?
CH: I played sports, and I was involved in a lot of activities. When I was in college I was a tour guide at the Texas State Capitol. After that job I had absolutely no fear of speaking in public. Whenever a group needs someone to stand up and talk, I'm fine doing that. That has been very handy. |
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