Inspiring Conversations with Sophia Gragg of The Luna Collective

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sophia Gragg.

Hi Sophia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started my business, The Luna Collective back in 2018 when I was 19 years old. Collaborating with fellow creatives has always held a special place in my heart, and the concept of curating has intrigued me for a long time. I started Luna from a simple desire to chat with artists I admire and shine a spotlight on creatives deserving greater recognition. While my deepest passion lies in music, I wanted to bring together different creative elements and talents into one community.

It’s been an amazing five years – I really had no idea what I was doing when I first started, and I’ve learned so much along the way. I went into everything so blindly, and I’m really glad I did. I started off with the help and support of just a few friends and collaborators and focused solely on creating a print magazine.

Fast forward to now, I oversee a team of over 100 writers, photographers, and editors and get to work with so many amazing creatives. In addition to our editorial print magazine, we create other print projects and online content as well as host online and in-person events all over.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I’ve definitely encountered my fair share of challenges, but each obstacle has been a valuable lesson that allowed us to move forward. As I mentioned, I was pretty clueless about what creating a magazine and business would entail – none of what I was doing was covered in my college classes or internships so I often felt a little alone in a lot of what I was doing.

From figuring out inDesign and printers to writing a million cold emails to publicists and managers and learning how to book venues – all these skills were acquired on the fly. I’ve been fortunate to connect with individuals who recognized the potential in both myself and Luna and am forever grateful for their support and help.

I no longer feel like I’m alone in this journey and get to work with an incredible team on pretty much all of our projects now. I never thought I would be leading a team as large as ours and have people literally all over! Definitely have come a long way from doing it all in my college apartment at USC.

As you know, we’re big fans of The Luna Collective. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
While the short answer is The Luna Collective is an online creative platform and magazine, we’ve become so much more than that. Our focus lies in music and film photography but we feature all sorts of creatives through our online and print content. We are always creating content and finding opportunities for our community whether it be submission opportunities, online educational events or in-person concerts or art shows.

I take great pride in the incredible community we’ve found and get to engage with through all of our work. Whether it’s individuals tagging their Instagram photos with #LunaCollective and submitting to our magazine or people coming out to our in-person events, we get to work alongside our readers all the time, which is a really special feeling.

I want readers to know we are always brainstorming ways to better support the creative community. We’ve been doing this for five years and aren’t slowing down anytime soon. We’re continuing to lean into more submission and educational opportunities and I’d love to bring back some grants for creative projects as well – stay tuned!

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I grew up in a musical household, and my love for music was always supported. I remember making an agreement with my parents in high school that if I kept my grades up I could start going to concerts during the school week. I knew from a very young age I wanted to engage with the music industry as more than just a fan.

At the same time, I have always loved working with a publication. I joined the yearbook staff in middle school and kept that up all throughout high school (I then switched to a newspaper in college). I was shy a decent amount of my childhood but quickly shifted into more leadership roles and found myself being the founder or leader of a lot of clubs/organizations. I’ve always loved connecting and working with others towards bigger projects and goals.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thelunacollective.co / sophiegragg.com
• Instagram: @itssophielol / @lunacollectivemag
• Linkedin: /sophiegragg