SI INTERNSHIP

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED INTERN BLOG

One afternoon last week after checking and responding to emails, I logged on to twitter. One of my favorite people I follow is mj_day (she is one of the editors for Sports Illustrated swimsuit). I noticed that one of her tweets was her wishing she had an army of assistants. I looked at my schedule for the day to confirm I had the day off. Sure enough I did! So I sent a tweet to MJ offering my help in the office with whatever she needed. From filing papers to coffee runs, I was open to being her intern for the day. She accepted but also warned me that we HAD to work. There was no time to gossip and be silly (we are a little notorious for that hehe oops). After the “disclaimer” was made clear, I assured her I was very much willing to be her slave for the day-no funny business.

An hour later I walked into her office and it looked like a bomb of swimsuits had exploded. mj was at the middle of the mess, frantically taking calls and furiously responding to emails. Before she could tell me what my first task was, she haphazardly handed me the latest swimsuit portfolio coffee table book for a little sneak peak.....it was AMAZING!

My first intern task would require the collection of a box full of hangers that I would find in the swimsuit closest. I don't think you can truly understand how palatial this closet is- But when I opened the door, my jaw literally dropped as it was bigger than my living room. More startling was that it was packed full of bikinis! As you can imagine, I was taken aback and stood there thinking I was in bikini heaven.

When I finally made it back to mj's office we both sat on the floor and made our way through the sea of swimsuits. Then the gossip started ;) hehe! We sat cross legged across from each other and playfully talked about boys, our future and current projects, and Parker, mj’s son- possibly the cutesy little red head in the world who also dabbled in modeling-. Starring in a benetton ad! We headed back to the closet to hang all the swimsuits up and while there, I begin browsing through all of them, trying some on as we went. Even though mj had strictly instructed “no fun” I didn’t think this was in the job description! Oops!

At this point mj and I decided we wanted to go visit some of the other employees in the office. Our first victim- Scott novak, head of Sports Illustrated PR. We all started to catch up and talked about some events he wanted me like to be a part of. Such as going to a Penn state game and filming my SI booty camp training. After we left Scott’s office we decide to go to one of the hotshots in the office- Mark Ford, president of Time Inc. mj went into the office and casually asked if he wanted to meet her new intern. Little did he know I was one of his swimsuit models! Haha SUPRISE! We all chatted about the swimsuit trip to Vegas, the US Open and margaritas- you know the usual ;) haha. By the time we left marks office it was time for me to head home.

In conclusion I think it is safe to say that I'm not really made to work in an office. I don’t think trying on bikinis while running around barefoot harassing the president and getting Us Open tickets (thanks mark!) qualifies me to work in a corporate setting. I don’t believe having a serious gossip session with the editor and playing matchmaker will look good on my resume!

That was my story about my experience working as a Sports Illustrated intern for a day... wait I think I'm still wearing one of the bikinis ;)!!

jxx

MY SECOND CHANCE AT LIFE

On the afternoon of august 25, 2008 as I drove out to the Hamptons could have been the very last time I walked, talked or even been alive. That day marks a turning point as the trauma of what happened that day taught me a valuable life lesson. I was looking forward to a nice relaxing week with some friends. We were all walking out to sit on the deck at the house I was staying at and as I was not afraid of heights, I went to sit on the deck railing. As I began to raise myself onto the railing, I misjudged my strength and boosted myself right over. I landed 20 feet down onto the ground on my neck and was air lifted to the hospital.


Upon arrival the doctors found that I had bruised my lung and hip and broken the right side of my neck. For a while I didn’t realize how dramatic my fall was. It wasn’t until I started my physical therapy and was shown x-rays of the bone I had broken that I realized the intensity of the damage that had been done. The doctor told me how lucky I was that the bone I had broken in my neck was “the one bone you can break a hundred times and not have permanent damage". It wasn’t until then did it really hit me how incredibly lucky I was. I began to take inventory of my life-not thinking just about where my career was going, or how much money I was making, but about LIFE. How beautiful yet fragile and short life is. It seems incredible, but it took an accident and a near brush with paralysis to teach me lessons that I thought I already knew.



I realized that some people want to be your friend when you are on the cover of a magazine, or on the red carpet. But where are those people when you need help to get into a shower because you can barely walk? In a time of need your true friends surface and I learned that the people I thought were my true friends were the ones who were abandoning me when I needed them most.



After healing physically I still hadn’t dealt with the emotional aspect of healing. I started to question why me? What was it that I was doing right that I was blessed with a second chance at life? Why is it that I fell 20 feet and came out okay, but people can trip over a rock and die? I came to the conclusion that I can’t dwell on those things and have them make me sad. I started to weed through all the negative people that surrounded me and eliminate the negative energy that others brought. I know what you’re saying to yourself - easier said than done right? I’m not saying that I am happy go lucky every day. Life has its challenges, but I have learned to value the ups and downs.



It has been a year today and I have such a big smile on my face and the most amazing friends and family. I think that my second chance at life has taught me to try harder to share my positive happy energy and I hope that I can put a smile on others faces. Now I fully understand what it means to say "at least you have your health".

Julie
xx

I have a list of things that I want to try in my life at some point and trapeze was one of them. So, when modelinia came to me saying that they want to do a “get to know me” shoot of something I found interesting I said “why not trapeze?” they agreed! I was so excited I could barely sleep the night before and nervous that the weather was going to rain us out. When I woke up I found that we totally lucked out on the weather, it was beautiful out.

I arrived at 9AM to the trapeze school of New York located on the west side highway, which over looks the Hudson River. My trapeze instructor was named Dallas who prepared me before I climbed the 30 foot ladder to the platform. The first lesson was just swinging and hooking your knees on the bar and swinging. Seemed really challenging since I was even worried about just being able to hold on, I don’t have the best upper body strength in the world. So he just kept repeating that when I am up there it’s VERY important to do the movements when he says otherwise it may not be a pretty sight. Here I go.

I got belted, chalked and strapped in; I climbed the ladder to maybe the smallest platform for the 3 people to be standing on all at once. I some how squeeze myself into position. Toes over the edge, left hand on the ladder, and lean out with hips out, right hand grab the bar, left hand, ready....and jump! Dallas is calling out to hook my legs up and I couldn’t get it the first time but then I tried again, I got it. I’m now swinging upside down and its AMAZING! To let go you just tuck your legs in and you naturally do a flip and land in the net. After my first time to go I was on a high of adrenaline and wanted to keep going and learn more tricks. my next trick was to do the “split”, its basically the same thing as the first one hanging upside down but my question was, “when I let go I'm going to land on my head, I don’t know about this!” and Dallas assured me that I wouldn’t and I would land on my stomach. Still hesitant we practiced on the “fake trapeze” just so I could learn the position and get all my steps and placements right.

Here I go...tada I did it and I felt like I was flying!! next? the next trick to learn was to do the “catch” its exactly how it sounds, Dallas swings with me and catches me when I’m upside down.....AMAZING! The trapeze experience was so refreshing. it made me feel like I was flying through the air. I would have to say the hardest part of it all is the initial jump after that it’s not as hard as it looks.

After my lesson the teachers demonstrated more advanced tricks, their performance was so graceful and elegant, it was like a dance in the sky, but between you and I.....my arms are KILLING me today ha ha but I will be back for sure!!! ;)

Check out some of the pictures from my lessons....

jxx

F-Listed Interview: Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Julie Henderson

Appearing on Jimmy Fallon Tonight!

Hi guys. Tune in to Jimmy Fallon tonight and see who the target demographic is this evening ;0)
Xo

Hi guys welcome to my new website!! More updates to come!