About Liz Vaccariello

Liz is a mom, wife, New York Times bestselling author, and now editor-in-chief, at Meredith Corporation. I met Liz close to six years ago, when I moved to the burbs, and I didn’t know a soul. She immediately welcomed me and my family, into her home for our block’s progressive dinner-party.

Next, she invited me to join her book club, and since that time, there have been benefit dinners for our school, backyard barbecues with a lot of corn hole tossing, and so much more with the Vaccariello’s. I’ve been in awe of Liz, since the first time we met, and thankful she’s here with us today for the Babble Box podcast. Thanks for joining us, Liz.

Liz Vaccariello: 00:43 I am so happy to be here. That was such a lovely intro.

Sherry: 00:47 I know, but you welcomed me with such a lovely welcome. So glad to have you here. Thank you.

Liz Vaccariello: 00:53 Oh my pleasure. We have to have another progressive dinner party, that’s for sure. That reminds me.

Sherry: 00:58 I know, I know. Well, we have a block party coming up soon. So maybe after that. So, I just kind of want to go back to the beginning, because you have, obviously, there’s so much we want to learn about you, but my dream in college, and this may date me, was always to work in magazines.

How did you break into that industry, and how did you kind of pave your way, in such a competitive market?

Liz Vaccariello: 01:24 Oh my goodness. How do I answer this without boring everybody to death? I think I was very lucky in that I always knew even in college, I went to the University of Michigan, that I wanted to be a writer, and that I wanted to write for magazines as opposed to newspapers. So, all of my internships, my early jobs in Cleveland, Ohio, where I grew up, they were all focused on magazines. So by the age of 26, I was actually, God helped me, I was named editor-in-chief of Cleveland Magazine, at the age of 26.

Sherry: 01:55 That’s amazing.

Liz Vaccariello: 01:56 Yes, I was so humbled by the job, and grateful, and I asked for consultants to help me with the investigative reporting pieces and everything. So, when I moved to New York, my husband’s a photographer, and he moved to New York before I did, and when I finally got it together, to go to the big city, I knew I’d have to sort of take a several steps backwards and start over.

Liz Vaccariello: 02:20 I wasn’t going to be editor-in-chief, and so I was very, very nervous about that change. But, I was hired as an articles editor at Fitness magazine, which is owned by the Meredith Corporation. We have subsequently shut that magazine down, actually, several years ago. We morphed it into Shape. But, I was there for seven years, and then I left after that, to be editor and chief of my first national magazine, which was Prevention magazine, the health and fitness and weight loss book. I did that for five years. I was the editor of Rachel Ray’s magazine for a year. Then, when that company sold it to another company, I stayed on, and I was the editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest, the biggest magazine in the world.

Liz Vaccariello: 03:07 And again, every step of the way I’m like, how is this happening to me? I have the best…, Like I just felt so blessed to have these wonderful brands to be able to tell stories, and inspire people, and influence people, with journalism and with storytelling, and with these great platforms. And, I rejoined the Meredith Corporation, about three years ago now, as editor-in-chief of Parents magazine. And I run the Parents network, so all of the brands here, Parents, parents.com, Parents Latinas, Ser Padres, Parenting, Fit Pregnancy and Baby, all of .com, all of those sites report up into me, as well. And then I also have certain editorial director role, so some half of the magazines at the company report in to me as well, which all that means is that I’m like doing expense reports of [inaudible 00:03:58] is the editor-in-chief of InStyle. I’m like, “Oh, she’s having lunch with Nicole Kidman. Approved.”

That is amazing. How do you go from juggling so many titles, and responsibilities? You’re bouncing around from your editorial roles, to overseeing InStyle, and Real Simple. How do you deal with all that?

Liz Vaccariello: 04:19 I always like to, I think we all divide our day, based on what’s more important or we should, right? And I divide my job, the time I spend professionally, based on what’s most important, but also, where I can add value. I have such an amazing staff, and team, here at Parents, and so I let the creative director, oversee the art in the magazine. I check it off, and I weigh in, and I approve and disprove, but I let my… I delegate the making of the magazine pages that hard, hard work really, to the people who do it best. And then, like I said, for the other magazines, I think where can I add value? And I think I spend a lot of time studying trends, in the marketplace, trends among millennial women, trends among American women in particular, but millennial moms specific to parents, but also Gen Z consumers.

Liz Vaccariello: 05:21 Because as Meredith, as Parents magazine, frankly looks at the future of our readership, it’s Gen Z. Like, my children are at the end of Gen Z, and the first Gen Zers, are starting to have kids now. So they’re moving squarely into our space. So I look at beauty trends, and fashion trends, and home and travel, and all of that through the lens of how’s the conversation shifting? How are people reacting to products, and themes in the market place, and ways of doing things. How are they talking to each other? What language are they using? So, I’m big into research, and I’m big into social listening for that reason.

I’m so curious because, from the influencer perspective, we get more and more requests from millennials, millennials, millennials, but could you pinpoint for us, what’s the biggest trend differentiator between Gen Z, and the millennial?

Liz Vaccariello: 06:24 I would say Gen Z, for me it’s these people were born digital natives. Millennials transformed into digital natives, but Gen Z consumers never watched network television, or had a cable box. They may never have gotten a newspaper into their home. And so, that says a lot about how they’re consuming media. So I would say that’s the first thing, is that they are very much digital natives.

Liz Vaccariello: 07:00 The second thing probably has to do with their world view, and a lot of it has to do with climate change, and natural products , and whether they be food products or beauty products, climate change. This generation is mad. This generation is taking action, and their need to be good global citizens, and leave a smaller footprint, is really driving purchase intent, in a way that it never did before. So, I would say those are two of the bigger themes among Gen Zers.

Sherry: 07:33 It’s so interesting, because I’m still so old school, that I just want to pick up a magazine. Like that excites me and I’m like, “What’s wrong with me?”

Liz Vaccariello: 07:41 Well, the good news is, of course, I wouldn’t want to work for a community newspaper. I think that medium is dying, but print is not dead. Magazines are not. Radio never went anywhere when television came along, and really the magazine readership among millennials and Gen Z, is very, very strong in that the brand loyalty in particular, goes very, very deep among even millennials and Gen Z. They welcome a magazine into their home, not necessarily to pass the time, because the phone does that, or to follow the news, because they’re getting that digitally. But they still look to magazines for inspiration, for me time.

Liz Vaccariello: 08:27 Think of your favorite magazine. Think of the one that you put next to your most comfortable chair, or next to the bathtub, or if you get on a plane, many of us buy our favorite magazine as sort of a treat for ourselves. And so, the print is very strong, and really has a role, in terms of influencing people. When people read something, and particularly when people read something on paper, the neurology has actually shown, that they retain it, that they have a longer amount of interest in it, et cetera. So, I could do a whole podcast on print not being dead, but [crosstalk 00:09:08].

Sherry: 09:07 No, no, I’m sure, I mean, I do find, and I have this debate all the time with my mother, like does it count if you listen to a book? And I don’t think it does, but everyone else does.

Liz Vaccariello: 09:18 Yeah. It does. You’re getting storytelling. I had this debate with my children actually, because my children are like… I walked into the room one day, and they had YouTube on, and somebody on YouTube was reading aloud the book that they were supposed to be reading in class, and I was like, “Oh, my God. This is what it’s come to. So…

Sherry: 09:40 Yeah, I’m sure you did not appreciate that. Sidebar, I kind of failed at our book club, but anyway. Okay, so I have to ask, we keep talking about influencers, and influencers, and obviously is there celebrities in authors, and politicians, but you’re someone with a lot of clout.

How do you define the term social media influencer?

Liz Vaccariello: 10:03 You know, one of the things I did when I came to Parents, about two years ago, I redesigned the magazine. We had only had children and toddlers on the magazine, on the cover of Parents, for 90 some years. And I said, we are a magazine for the mom and for the dad. And so we put parents on the cover, celebrities, but mainly influencers. And so, I have a really specific perspective when I look at who might be on the next cover of Parents, for example. I want people who set a good example, who are the right age, and et cetera. I want to show diversity. I want to show what America… when you see 12 issues of Parents magazine, I want you to see different skin colors, different family make-ups, gay parents, straight parents, single moms, single dads, etc.

Liz Vaccariello: 10:54 But when it comes to the influencer, I want somebody who’s either driving the cultural conversation, and a good example of that might be Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day! She was on our September issue, last year. She’s somebody who’s influenced, she’s the designer behind Color Factory, for example. She’s somebody who, there are a lot of people who are like Jordan Ferney, or like Joy Cho, who was another… She has a line at Target. Those people have sort of set the bar for these bright colors, and this playful approach to design, and surrounding ourselves with life and energy.

Liz Vaccariello: 11:36 So, I look for that. If they’re driving literally trends, they’re influencing trends, number one. But number two, would be anybody who’s driving conversation. I look at people’s feeds, I look for, not necessarily likes, but comments, and engagement with the audience. Is the influencer him or herself, responding to those comments. Is a conversation happening? And then a good example of that was Katie Wilcox, who was our cover in August of 2018, 2018 yes. And she’s all about body positivity, and models who are not size… Not plus size models, and not size two models, but like this middle ground of size eight, size 10, size 12 women, getting models into media that represent that.

Liz Vaccariello: 12:34 So to me, that was influencing. That was influencing moms. I would look at people who have something to say. Shaun T.’s a third example. He and his husband, Scott, were on our cover last February, with their two boys, who were born via surrogate. And Shaun T., the level of conversation around the fact that they were our first gay couple on the cover, I think spoke more about Shaun T.’s followers, and the level of adoration, and connection that he has with his followers, than it did about us putting a gay family on the cover. People were just thrilled that Shaun and Scott were getting this moment in the spotlight.

Sherry: 13:23 I definitely think that it’s really interesting to see that Instagram is considering removing the like button, but that’s engagement, and the conversation is definitely the number one metric for looking at influencers, and how we select the right influencers. So, it’s definitely something that we do as well.

I guess my next thought with that is, looking inside your inbox, and I’m sure that not only from influencers, but you probably received so many pitches a day, from brands and publicists, and I’m obsessed with inboxes.

So what does your inbox look like? How does someone get a response from you? How do you filter through all the emails?

Liz Vaccariello: 14:07 Oh, [Sherry 00:14:09], You’re all about boxes. Email is, so it sounds crazy to start, somebody who works in print, talking about old school, but email to me is so old school, I just do not have time to respond to email pitches anymore. So, what I will do, is I don’t delete them, but I will forward them to the appropriate editor, but I have to admit, I don’t have time to sort of respond and cc that editor. So oftentimes, the publicist, or the influencer, or somebody who’s pitching me doesn’t know that I’ve forwarded it, but I do send it along to our lifestyle editor, our craft, food, pregnancy, baby, toy, whatever the editor, whatever the beat is. I forward forward that on. I’d say, in day and age, DMs and IMs are one of the best ways to get attention, or to comment on my feed.

Liz Vaccariello: 14:59 I don’t mean to like sound self-serving, but to comment on the Parent’s feed, to comment on somebody want to get attention from, or have a conversation with. Sometimes people like to read what their followers and what their community thinks about their post, or about their picture, or whatever. So, I will often, I’ve developed friendships of people I’ve never met in real life, via Instagram… Professional friendships via Instagram, via the comment section in a post. So, that I think can’t be discounted. It seems, I think 10 years ago, you might’ve said that that’s not professional enough, but I mean who has time? It’s like opening the mail. I opened up my actual hard mail, once a month. I got out like I’ll go through all the emails maybe once a week. So, the fastest way is often the quickest way.

Sherry: 15:56 I’m always too shy. Like there’s certain people that I would want to reach out to, but I’m always like, “No, I don’t know if I could do it.” So, glad to get that tip from you. I might start doing it more often.

Liz Vaccariello: 16:08 Social media, it’s kind of anonymous, you know? If I don’t want to engage with you, I won’t respond, and so no harm, no foul.

Sherry: 16:19 Yeah, that’s true.

Liz Vaccariello: 16:20 So, I don’t know.

Sherry: 16:20 Well I am, obviously looking. I follow you on Instagram, and to me it’s like there’s, it’s perfect, your personal account. There’s work, there’s family, and there’s fun, but this is kind of all new.

How did you adapt to being not just in the spotlight in print, but just 24/7 you’re on?

Liz Vaccariello: 16:44 Well, first of all, you don’t have to be, as we know, we don’t, you don’t have to be 24/7 on, you can time posts. Although I don’t do that. Instagram, I literally do in the moment. My assistant doesn’t do it. I do that, because I find it to be a creative outlet for me. Like I said, like I have people who get to do the Parent’s Instagram, and get to make the Parent’s cover, and all that. And so, to me it’s creative to like do insta-stories or whatever. So I would say that I do it in the moment. I do it enough so that it’s easy to do. Like I don’t think, okay, I’m going to spend an hour tonight working on my post, because first of all that’s, nobody wants that kind of, they want authenticity, they want it to be a little raw, and that’s what I want the magazine to be.

Liz Vaccariello: 17:29 I want Parents to be for all moms and dads who are exhausted, and just want to get dinner on the table, and the kids to sleep. Like, we’re not about this perfect atmosphere. So, on social media, I try to reflect that, and try to show myself not just in my perfectly made up editor’s ladder picture, where there’s a fan, and 17 people helping me look pretty. But it’s also like just me standing in line in the middle of the night with my daughter, to get into a concert, like when I’ve had two hours of sleep, because that’s real life, right?

Sherry: 18:04 Yeah. I see…

Liz Vaccariello: 18:04 The other thing is I pick a platform, and I think you’ll find this with many people. Some people are Instagram people, some people are Twitter, some people are Pinterest. I just don’t think unless you are a full time influencer, which your audience is, your customers are. But I’m mostly Instagram, and a little Twitter, but I don’t do Facebook, and I don’t do Pinterest. You just can’t do it all. And TikTok, I just watch my girls do TikTok and YouTube.

Sherry: 18:32 Yeah. I mean for us, for me it’s like we work with the influencers and we’re fully engaged in them. But, I’m very discreet on Instagram too. Like I kind of stay out of it. But, so, again, going back, you’ve mentioned your girls a few times. I see that there’s been a lot of concerts that you’ve been going to lately, but they’re remarkable.

You have twins, 14 year old girls, and just they’re skateboarding, and doing hoops and running businesses, and how… It’s so hard to raise children.

How do you raise such daring, and bold, and creative kids in today’s environment?

Liz Vaccariello: 19:12 Oh my God, it’s, you know, part of it’s luck, but I have to stay two words. Steve Vaccariello. I hit the husband lottery. He is a photographer, as I said, but when he’s not on a shoot, he’s home. His office is at home. And so, even though we have a nanny, we have help. We have babysit… That’s the thing that not enough people show the world. Celebrities, not that I’m a celebrity, I couldn’t do this if I didn’t have full time childcare coming to my house. I’m not driving a child to daycare. I have a husband, or a babysitter, who’s doing that heavy lifting, and is doing the grocery shopping, and the laundry. And so, that’s how I’m able to do it. My job is big enough that I can’t even ask for 50/50 parenting from my husband, from my partner. I have to ask for 80/20 parenting. Like, I’m there on the weekends, but Monday through Friday, I’m all in. Until dinner time, I’m all in on the job.

Liz Vaccariello: 20:13 And you know, certain things fall by the way. So you have to give credit, where credit is due. If it’s either a spouse, if you’re lucky enough to have a partner who’s chipping in, if you’re privileged enough to be able to afford paid help, or if you’re resourceful enough to find your village around you to help, neighbors, et cetera, that’s one thing. And then also, to know that you can’t really do it all. Like, it has to be good enough. I’ve missed the first day of school, a few times. I was in China the first day that my girls went to preschool. I was in town for, for kindergarten. But it’s like… And they survived. It’s okay. Like I’m there, they know that I’m there for them. I show up for the big things, and the little things, and the time that I do spend with them, I make sure it is quality time.

Liz Vaccariello: 21:08 And I know we’re not talking about like parenting per se, but there’s this fascinating study that I love to share with anybody who’s a parent, and that is researchers asked a room full of children under eight, they were between the ages of five and eight. If you could change one thing about your parents, when they’re around you, what would it be? Or, one thing about your parents, what would it be? And most of the parents themselves thought that the children would say that they wished that they were at work less, but an overwhelming majority of the children said that they wished their parents were in a better mood, when they were home.

Liz Vaccariello: 21:58 So it’s the putting the phone down. These kids like as young as five, six, seven, eight. They want that quality time. They’d rather have one good hour with you, where you’re happy and focused on them, then the seven hours that you think you need to spend on the floor playing Legos.

Sherry: 22:18 Yeah, no, I see that. I see with my son. He has a new game, pillow hockey, and it’s like he doesn’t care if I do anything, but if I play pillow hockey with him for a half an hour, then he’s thrilled.

Liz Vaccariello: 22:28 Done. Yeah, you’ve checked the mommy box.

Sherry: 22:31 Exactly.

Liz Vaccariello: 22:32 For that afternoon.

Sherry: 22:35 So you know, this has been so… Thank you Liz., I have one last question, that I always ask

Name an influencer in any vertical, that you love to love, and hate to admit you follow?

Liz Vaccariello: 22:48 Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. I did know this is coming. Okay, that I love to love… Boy. Well, I love to love Jenny Mollen, and that is, she’s been on our cover. She’s become a friend. She’s become a columnist. She’s an author, and totally raw and real out there on Instagram, just complaining because Oh my God, she has a whole weekend in front of her, and her husband’s out of town, and the nanny’s not coming, and what she going to do with two little kids? Like that’s real, that is brave to be able to like curl up in the corner, and be freaking out in front of [inaudible 00:23:26]. So, she’s hilarious though. I love to love her. And what’s the second one, the second question?

Sherry: 23:31 No, that’s it. You love to love, and hate to admit you follow.

Liz Vaccariello: 23:34 Oh, I don’t hate to admit I follow her. I want everybody to follow Jenny Mollen. Who do I hate… I follow all the bachelors and bachelorettes, [inaudible 00:23:42] paradise people, because I had this little corner me that believes it’s all real, and that is true love, and that they will all find something, and it’s like I meet photographers who’ve shot them for People magazine, and I’m like, “Don’t tell me. I don’t want you to tell me anything. I want to believe the love.” And when they have babies, like I love all that stuff. So, [inaudible 00:24:02].

Sherry: 24:02 Well, there’s a show you should watch. It’s called, did you ever watch Unreal?

Liz Vaccariello: 24:06 No.

Sherry: 24:07 Well, you should watch it. It’s about the like that kind of stage show, a dramedy.

Liz Vaccariello: 24:11 Oh.

Sherry: 24:12 Yeah. So. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Liz. It’s always lovely talking to you, and I’m sure I will see you very soon, and just thanks for being on the show today.

Liz Vaccariello: 24:25 I loved it. I loved it. I love you, and I love Babble Box.

Sherry: 24:28 Thank you so much. Bye.

Liz Vaccariello: 24:31 Okay, bye.