Debut of the Month - Katie Sise ( The Boyfriend App)

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Debutante Profile

Name – Katie Sise

Debut – The Boyfriend App

Genre – Contemporary

Website– HERE

Facebook -  HERE

Twitter - HERE

Katie Sise is a New York City-based author, jewelry designer and television host. Her jewelry has been featured in major magazines like Vogue, W, Elle, Lucky, InStyle, Self, People, and Marie Claire, and worn by celebrities like Kate Winslet, Anne Hathaway, Cameron Diaz, and Beyonce Knowles. Katie has designed jewelry collaborations with outlets like Target. Her first novel, THE BOYFRIEND APP, debuts on April 30th 2013 with HarperCollins Balzer + Bray. 

Dream Debutante Dress - For my debutante dress, I picked a creation by Elisa Jimenez. Here's a shot of Elisa working on the dress on a model:

Elisa was one of my favorite designers even before Project Runway made her famous. She was so kind to me when I was first starting out as a jewelry designer in my twenties. She let me design jewelry for her fashion shows, and it was so cool to be a part of her wildly imaginative world.

Notes from a YA Debutante

The ten-steps of employment that led me to being an author.

1) Clown. (I’m not kidding. I was only eleven or twelve, but I went to clown camp and everything. I could earn 100 bucks per birthday party! I was already into starting my own business even as a pre-teen.)

2) Babysitter. Loved eating all the new snacks. And especially loved getting paid to eat all of those snacks and talk on the phone after the kids went to bed.

3) Lifeguard and Swim team Coach. This was my job from age 16 through college. I loved it.

4) Girl who drove to different Walmarts from Albany to Massachusetts to stock shelves with a new test-brand of French’s potato sticks. I had to load the things in my car, so my hair always smelled like potato chips. I’d just graduated college and I was trying to save up enough money to move to New York City. It would have been a terrible job, except my dad would come along for the car ride and we'd take turns driving. We'd talk, or sometimes just drive silently. He’d act like it was no big deal to come along for these 5 hours drives. Or he’d say he just wanted to see a certain part of Massachusetts that he hadn’t seen before. But I always knew he did it out of sheer kindness to keep me company.

5) Bartender and Waitress. Highlight: Once dropped a very expensive bottle of champage on my way to deliver it to Robert DeNiro’s table. Lowlight: a restaurant owner told me I was the worst waitress she’s ever seen. 

6) Salesgirl in a boutique. This led me to start making jewelry. The boutique owner was generous enough to let me sell it there. It started a whole career! Which leads us to…

7) Jewellery designer. So much more fun than waitressing! I could hardly believe my luck when it started happening :) All the odd jobs were so worth it to get to this point! 

Then I started doing style segments on TV, which leads to…

8) TV host. Mostly for style segments on networks like Oxygen and Discovery. From 2008-2010, I co-hosted a monthly television show for HSN.

9) In 2009, I had an idea to write a book about how to navigate a creative career path. In 2010, Perseus/Running Press published my first book, CREATIVE GIRL: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE FOR TURNING TALENT AND CREATIVITY INTO A REAL CAREER.

10) I took classes and worked on a bunch of fiction projects for several years. In 2012, Alessandra Balzer bought THE BOYFRIEND APP. It pubs this month on April 30th and I couldn't be more excited!

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Bookie's Note: Thank-you so much for agreeing to be an April debutante Katie! I'm a little awestruck that you've been on a TV host! THAT MAKES YOU FAMOUS! :D Cross country stock-shelver sounds so ... different! I have NEVER heard of anyone who has done anything like that for a job! I hope you were paid well! AND THAT THEY PAID FOR GAS!

Remember to come back tomorrow to see the second half of Katie's feature and for a giveaway! :)

Badass Bookie xx