[INTERVIEW] Essence Magazine’s Mikki Taylor Says Her Faith Steered Her In The Right Direction

For over 30 years, Mikki Taylor has been a staple at the iconic Essence magazine. Joining its staff when the magazine was just 10 years in publication, Taylor later became the beauty editor. She then went on to become beauty and cover director, and then transitioned into her current role as editor-at-large. theJasmineBRAND correspondent @SmithWorldWide caught up with Mikki Taylor to discuss the longevity of Essence,  the changes in print magazines, and how faith influenced her career.

Check out the conversation below.

theJasmineBRAND: Before, you were with Essence for such a long time. What’s been one of the biggest changes to the magazine?

Mikki Taylor: Well, the interesting thing about it is I’ve stepped into another capacity. So now I’m the Editor-At-Large. And what that means with Essence now is that I work on a lot of our Hollywood efforts. The biggest change is that we’re growing. We’ve got our hands in more places than one could ever imagine than when I stepped on board in 1980 that this is what the future would look like. So we’re touching lives in greater capacity. 11.5 million readers, that doesn’t include the dot com and all the other places we have our hands in. Essence is the truth. And to certainly just see the evolution of that is huge.

theJasmineBRAND: What’s one of the biggest changes you’ve seen in general as it relates to pint magazine?