Not-so-average: Erica Wong - Associate Copywriter & Freelance Writer

When asked ‘who are you?’ Erica Wong simply stated who she is as a fashion professional: a full-time copywriter and freelance writer.

How did you get to work in fashion?

“When I was eight years old I used to ask my dad a whole bunch of questions. And then one day, he turned to me and said ‘maybe you should think about going into journalism, because you talk a lot and you ask a lot of questions’. “Those words have always subconsciously stuck with me,” said Wong.

She started to realize that journalism was something she wanted to do and when she was 16 years old, she said to herself “let’s try it.” In addition, growing up with a mother who wore unique designs, designs Wong would play dress up in, sparked her love for fashion. “It was so much fun to me that you could be as creative as possible with garments.” As she grew up she refined her writing skills through journalism programs and her parents were pushing the agenda of hard, everyday news. “I found it to be boring to [talk] about political views,” said Wong. “Between our household magazine subscriptions and my mother’s style, it just started to click for me. I knew I was going to end up in a fashion space of writing because I found it enjoyable.”

So she created a website called Zarrid where she started to blog her outfits, fashion shows, current style trends, and photoshoots. In an attempt to see if fashion journalism was the route she wanted to take, Wong purchased tickets to Couture Fashion Week (CFW) by Andres Aquino located in New York. She attended this event annually from 2012 to 2017.

She added that as she kept returning to CFW she realized that she felt the most alive when connecting and interviewing designers. With that said, she continued to say that it was an easy choice to pick fashion journalism as a career.

“I interviewed models and the designers, and I just had this rush like wow I’m really in it. I’m really on the field like all the other reporters,” she said. During college she could no longer tend to the stories on her website so she deleted it in 2018. However, she did want to continue writing. So she decided to focus on receiving her degree in Journalism, “but I always knew that I wanted to come back [to] fashion.” Wong received her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, and a minor in English and Rhetoric, from the University of Central Florida - located in Orange County, Fla. - in 2019.

After graduating and returning to New York, Wong pursued small roles but ultimately found a niche in copywriting, leading her to work for a small start-up jewelry company as a copywriter during the pandemic. “I knew it was temporary as it was just a part-time job but I felt that my tool was being a writer, and it needed to be sharpened,” she said. “I had two options: I could wait until a dream fashion job would open up or I could work with what was on my radar. I felt that if I stopped now, then where would I end up? I [would] probably just have to do something that I truly hate, and life’s already tough. This helped me prepare for the industry I wanted to be in.”

“So that’s the mood and moment I was in. I kept going and going, and then I landed this role,” Wong added.

What’s your current fashion job?

Wong is currently the associate copywriter at Fullbeauty Brands, an umbrella company housing over 16 plus sized fashion brands. She has been with the company for three years now. Two specific brands Wong works for under the Fullbeauty Brands umbrella, are Woman Within and Intimates For All. “Since we are an umbrella company they just put you wherever they need you.”

“Once I got hired it was a confirmation that I’m on the right track,” she said. “Fashion is something that I’m passionate about. Personally, I feel like your style is your imprint on life. You get remembered by something, and I always want to be remembered by my fashion. So why not make a career out of it?”

What does an average work day look like?

Her work days vary due to her duties. Under her role, Wong writes for the brands’ catalogs and websites. She stated that the week starts off pretty slow. But as the week ramps up, mid week, Wong is usually working on “the book” which is the catalog. “We do about 82 catalogs a year and each catalog consists of about 100 [or] 120, sometimes 140, pages,” she explained. “Between every week I’m editing well over 500 pages a week, and sometimes it’s gotten to the point that it’s been 1000, I’ll edit it line by line.”

As she’s editing, she’s also going through marketing emails for the other brands she works for. “It’ll be whatever sale is coming up, like right now we’re technically ramping up for Labor Day [Monday, September, 2]. So there’ll be Labor Day treatments that I’m getting ready to create.” As a customer of an online brand one may get a marketing email saying ‘“Cute Top!” “Thanks, it was FREE!” with a sale attached; “That’s what copywriters do. We’re creating it with the marketing team, but we are the brains behind the catchy slogans. The marketing team provides the marketing promotion.” By midweek she’s completed the marketing emails, and the next day she works on the catalog and editing for approximately a day and a half, sometimes two days.

Afterwards, it’s just meetings. “Because the biggest thing in fashion in general is planning for the next season,” Wong said. “Most times when people in the industry meet, when you’re working for a brand, you’re always talking about ’this is what Q3 is going to look like’ and ‘this is what Q4 is going to look like’ and ‘the merchants need to go over this with the copywriters to make sure that the merchants get the new items first.’” When it comes to merchants going over plans with Wong, they give her the full description of the new items.

“Once it gets into my hands then I’m romanticizing that copy to make it enticing for somebody to want to buy it, or even if it’s not enticing, at least it’s truthful,” she said. Wong added that copywriting is, “the part of fashion journalism that we don’t think about. It’s writing for an everyday brand and fact-checking, social media posting, blog posting and so much more.”

A word of career advice

Wong emphasized that she loves her job as a copywriter because “it gives me a chance to be connected and truly leave my imprint on the industry.” And that’s what it’s all about. She stated that to do this, you have to love it. “It’s a labor of love. If you do this, just know that you can’t half-ass. You always have to push yourself deeper than what you think, because at the end you’re always like, ‘damn, I did that.’ I pushed myself to [a point] where I can feel proud,” she said.

Additionally Wong said that she thinks it’s best to pursue copywriting in the corporate setting because a person not only has the opportunity to move up the ladder within the corporate space, but “you can still make it a lucrative business.” She continued to say that if one decides to pursue the freelancing route, “have another job,” due to the financial state of the world. Whether it be a full-time or part-time role, she said, having multiple jobs as a freelancer ensures a more stable income. Wong added, “Freelancing is a place that allows you to build a clientele. I think it’s important for young people, and anyone in this industry, to have a rolodex of clients as work ebbs and flows especially in this economy. Inflation has hit us and we, as people, need to be able to increase our income to combat the price of life right now.”

Furthermore, Wong advises to remember that it’s a journey - a slow and steady journey that is always worth the grind. And the grind starts with applying for internships because companies need evidence of why they should hire you.

Wong, herself, went through many and said it’s because “internships are literally your gateway into your career or else it’s very hard.” Nonetheless, keep in mind that “anything that you were willing to put your all in, you are always going to get good things back.”