Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasmine Perrier.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jasmine. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Originally French, I grew up in a small town located in the center of France — almost everyone knew each other there and there weren’t a lot of opportunities in the entertainment sector. As a kid, I’ve always had a lot of imagination and I was fascinated by Hollywood. It is no surprise that I was picturing my dream life in Los Angeles at that time. When I was younger, I wanted to become a journalist and interview people I admire. I think it was during middle school that I started trying to find a way to get into this world that felt unreachable to me. I literally didn’t know it inside out, and I was just a teenager so I thought no one would take me seriously. Between middle school and the end of high school, I used to run different personal blogs which have helped me shape my perspective on the path I wanted to pursue.
Eventually, I published the very first interviews I conducted by email with some actors and musicians, and it was already a huge deal for me! After I graduated from high school three years ago, I moved to Paris where I studied communication and I launched at the same time a magazine called Grumpy Magazine whose I’m the founding editor-in-chief, which ended up being one of my biggest accomplishments up until now — to my very great surprise because it was initially something I started randomly just to see what could be done with it. Even if I don’t reside in Los Angeles (at least yet), I have to pinch myself when I realize that thanks to this magazine, I get to work with people across the world that I’ve always looked up to. It’s like a dream come true, in a way.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has definitely not been a smooth road, and I’m still challenged everyday. First of all, when I began I couldn’t really invest in my magazine because I had no income. I was just a 18-year-old girl who was aiming to follow her dreams. I recently got my bachelor’s degree and still don’t have any proper budget to fully cover the magazine’s activity, which can sometimes be challenging — especially when it comes to producing our photoshoots. As a consequence, I usually spend a lot of time finding partners willing to sponsor us. But I’m very lucky to rely on a wonderful team of contributors who are committed to supporting our collaborative process and are passionate about the projects we develop together. I’ll never be able to thank them enough for everything they do.
At the beginning, I also didn’t have anything to show publicists or managers when I was sending interview requests, and I knew no one in the industry so it took some time to prove myself. In addition to that, I’ve been on my own for quite a long time before people find out about Grumpy Magazine and let me know their interest in doing something with me. Today I still manage most things from social media to the design and public relations, but I have a friend of mine in Paris who became my assistant and helps me with the production of the shoots and emails among others, because at some point I felt burnt out by responsibility and couldn’t handle everything on my own anymore. It’s important to know our limits and being now surrounded is definitely helpful to overcome the challenges.
And because a huge part of my work is done with people who are based in Los Angeles, it’s never easy to deal with the time difference. For instance when it’s 9AM in LA, it’s 6PM in Paris so I often have to stay up late (sometimes until 4AM — Paris time) to make sure we don’t waste time and urgent requests are managed in a timely manner.
On a more personal point of view, I’d say the biggest struggle I’ve had to face so far remains to balance my student life (which thankfully I’m now done with), the magazine and my attempt to find a “real” job at the same since the magazine can’t pay the bills yet. Anyhow, I just want to keep growing naturally and I’m aware it involves to go through trials and errors. But I try to keep in mind that roadblocks are only there to challenge yourself and make you stronger and that things happen for a reason.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Grumpy Magazine story. Tell us more about the business.
Grumpy Magazine is a quarterly digital and print magazine that I initially created to get out of my grumpy mood. I usually say we are located in Paris because that’s where I’m currently based, but most of our content is produced out of Los Angeles, or sometimes New York.
We work on issues and stories which feature creative figures from the worlds of entertainment and fashion, from actors to musicians and designers. We are very particular about producing genuine content and aesthetically pleasing a modern take on traditional staples. We aim to offer interviews and photoshoots that we want as authentic as possible. We are so grateful for the support we get from our followers on socials and readers. We’ve recently celebrated our 3-year anniversary and received a ton of thoughtful messages. Some people shared how much they appreciate our work and when you know all the hard work that go into our projects, it’s truly rewarding to hear such thoughts. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the connection we have with our ever-growing community. I think that’s a strong part of our identity and I definitely want to keep that thriving.
In addition to that, one of the reasons why I founded this magazine was to find myself opportunities to grow professionally. Because we are often required to have experience when applying for a job, but people who are willing to give us that experience are quite rare. Therefore I wanted the magazine to be above all a platform for the next generation of passionate creatives who stand out through their great eye and visual understanding. Today, I feel blessed to be surrounded by many young artists who trusted me enough to join me on this crazy adventure and became my friends. I even involved some of my university pals in the process. I like to tell them, “we are all in this together,” because as a young adult myself I know the struggles that any other young adult has to go through in the professional world to prove themselves. I have to say, when I see people from my teams getting the success they deserve, I feel like a proud mom.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I’m only 21 so I’m certainly still at the beginning of my journey and have plenty of things that I haven’t discovered yet and have to learn to keep moving forward. However, I don’t think I would want to change anything because each step, whether it was good or bad, has taught me something valuable.
I have some moments I’d like to pinpoint because they got me where I am today in my life and business. But one thing is certain: I feel very lucky that such opportunities came my way at some point of my life.
In 2015, at the time I had the blog that came before Grumpy Magazine, I went to Los Angeles for a full-immersion stay which lasted two weeks. I was 17 and it was my first big trip abroad without my parents, and my first time in LA so I figured I’d try to set up an on-camera interview for my website while I was in the City of Angels. After several failing attempts, a manager from agency Luber Roklin Entertainment had ultimately gotten back to me to inform me that their client was interested in meeting me. I had reached them out about an actor from “Teen Wolf” which was THE TV show I was following at the time. So we coordinated everything, locked in a date, set a location, and I ended up doing my first on-camera interview right next to Hollywood. We filmed it in the meeting room of his agency office, I remember that there were movie posters on the walls, it just felt surreal.
What’s funny is that back in 2015, I had also tried to schedule an interview with actress and singer Laura Marano during my stay in LA, but her publicist had told me they had to decline due to tight schedules. I would never have thought that we would connect a couple of years later. We’ve worked together twice now for Grumpy Magazine and we’ve actually kept in touch ever since, even if we’ve never met in person yet and every time we talk over the phone, our lines disconnect just before we say goodbye. But she is one of my favorite people!
As a final say, I’d say I’m definitely proud of every project I get to produce from start to finish with my amazing teams. There are so many experiences that I’ve lived through the magazine and that have truly changed my life. It’s wonderful to see that today, we can be connected to the world in one single click when you are not able to move around. I might live in Paris, but a part of my heart is in Los Angeles with all the incredible people and artists I get to connect with. Now I’m about to enter a new chapter of my life, and I’m eager to see what the future has in store for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://grumpymagazine.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/jazzieperrier
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jazzieperrier
Image Credit:
Allegra Messina, Raul Romo, Valheria Rocha, Derrick Freske
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