The Norma Rae of trainees mode

  "I wanted to stay in their offices for 15 years," she said. "I was so ready to give him everything I had. I could not imagine that my dream was real."

At 27 she was older than the average student magazine. After graduating from Ohio State in 2010, Diana spent a year working for a pharmaceutical company in Columbus, Ohio, to save it can afford to live in New York as a volunteer - a concert she had heard was a necessary first step in order to get a job in fashion.

"That would be my only ticket for the industry," she said. "I do not have unlimited resources. Would I take the time of sentencing. Would I remain of the people in mind."

And it is not because it is itself to become the next Melanie Ward, stylist they worshiped. Sued in February Wang the Hearst Corporation, the parent company of Harper's Bazaar, not to pay for his work. Including about 3,000 graduates Hearst - The study, which hurt the company has accused federal and state labor laws to be as a class person and perhaps decided early in 2013.

In May, Wang New York one last look, then returned to Columbus with her boyfriend of five years. You did not read a fashion magazine since January. "I have so completely turned his back on the fashion last year," she said. "It's hard to believe how much I loved him, because I do not even come close to these days. Go wrong for all these things, it was just so hard."

Columbus on the phone, Wang described as small and calls the way she dresses "tomboys". She has straight black hair and wearing little make-up except for the occasional slash of bright pink NARS Schiap. Both clothes they love like a teenager - his favorite eBay is in autumn 2006 lavender silk Prada dress with gathered panels contain complete or green Balenciaga Fall 2007 Jacket. Now engaged, she lives with her boyfriend and works part-time as a fundraising strategist and social media for a nonprofit that promotes local cuisine.

After completing her four-month internship in December, it did not immediately firebomb his fashion career. She tried to find a job, but her boss Bazar said he did not give a recommendation. "He said," I do not think you're ready, and you should make another internship, "she said, however, she interviewed for some positions in newspapers and public relations, but not one of them you could not bear the thought.. do another internship in January, announced his ambition to work in the industry she loved - and began to legal measures.

"It was a month of terrible for me," she said.



"The experience we've all worked through was so outrageous," she said, "and that's the kind of thing that students do not tell their personal circles. He was very derogatory. They could not not inform their advisers, which they have in their education. "

Wang employment Bazaar, which she says she has done five days a week from 9.00 to 20.00 clock, was to follow thousands of handbags, shoes and jewelry borrowed the magazine photo shoots. She made it no less than eight other students, sending pans 30 to 40 per day and help, submit expense reports. She answered the phone accessories director, writing the name of the complainant, and you hold it, so that his boss could decide whether to take the call. This is the default unpaid work in the fashion industry - and critical operations.

"Can not find this in all areas," said Rachel Well, Outten & Golden associated with the firm representing Wang. "You would not have unpaid internship at a Duane Reade store, even if they learned heavily on retail. But have these bags in areas such as media and film, where it is the way the industry has operated for a very long time."

Wang was blinded by his entourage, including sitting next to Joanna Hillman, Editor of Senior Market. "It is the goal of a large number of pictures street style," says Wang. "It was unbelievable. I never thought I'd find myself sitting in a cube next to Joanna Hillman."

But she was also on the edge all the time. "I was so uncomfortable and stressed," she said. "It was difficult to understand the people, as a student can be emphasized, however, publishers always emphasizes that it was a real job, and if it was wrong or if it did, it was my fault."

She remembered a wild night, when, after the editors had left the office, she unpacked a trunk accessories, cloth wrapped packaged piece, dig a unique chain lost. Or torture practice to get through a subway turnstile with seven sacks in his hands. She was irritated verify independently the tasks of operations, such as hand-held with new shows from the editors of Fashion Week. "I do not feel like you are working in shipping and receiving," says Wang. But she never feared his days in the Hearst Tower, on the contrary, she thought, "I'll go and knock," she said.

Guidelines of the U.S. Department of Labor that unpaid internships must education and "in the interest of the students." (Wang What was eligible to receive college credit is a controversial part of the combination). Googling "trial student 'has led to a lawsuit that claims two students who had worked on the set of Black Swan, that Fox Searchlight violated minimum wage and overtime laws. It was administered by Outten & Golden and is currently building all internships include Fox Entertainment Group. "I realized that the stories were very similar," she said. "They want to do so bad that you can not say no. Would you just keep your head down and work. They are so excited to be in the presence of these people, and you want them to remember you, and You can not say no, because then you will be Blackballed. "

Since Outten & Golden agreed to take the case of Wang, trainees Hearst Esquire, Marie Claire and Redbook joined the movement.

Outten & Golden Hearst wants to pay his former trainees of back wages, overtime and other damages, an amount that "we certainly do not believe is symbolic," Well said. The Company does not expect that the process. Students: full end courses-for-free work, but hope it will encourage other companies to change their policies to pay interns take them academic credit cards Indeed, Fox has changed its policies now earn $ 8 to $ 10 per hour. This month, Gawker Media abolished its program regularly offers unpaid internships and fellowships in writing now. (New York magazine internships are paid or for academic credit.)

"The case against Hearst, albeit controversial, increased levels of interest for companies that already have a sense that their glamorous image served as insurance against this kind of thing," says Susan Scafidi, director of the Institute for Law Fashion Fordham Law School. "A million girls would kill for this job, but it only takes one to make a complaint."

Hearst claims that the study is "baseless". In a statement prior to the cut, said Hearst, vice president of the company Paul Luthringer communication "is deep within the law and offer young people a close-up of the company magazine 'stages of the company.

Others criticized Wang and his colleagues to question students failing to meet the "process" and pay their fees, unpaid internships, they say, are a rite of passage. Anderson Cooper pulled his black swan trainees RidicuList Anderson Cooper 360: "When it comes to training, it seems that there is a very simple dos and don'ts," he said. "Do not try to learn as much as possible. Try not to make contact, and perhaps not to pursue these contacts." Asked about internal complaints within one month trial grabbed headlines Wang, Vogue Director Grace Coddington Create replied: "I think there are many students who feel quite right you think we owe them something.".

Try more than Fashion Week rolls by Wang, not about what she has lost and to accept his new role thinking. Since the filing of the complaint, she heard Bazar trainees who served with him. "She said, 'I'm glad you did, and I hope you win," she said. "I always want to be in this industry, but I am tacitly support".

"I am confident that I will win," she said. "What they did, they would never stop. While I was there, they talked about the prestige of Harper's Bazaar in your resume, as if it did a justification for all the work you've humiliating. It was never to stop . "