One of my new year’s resolutions for 2019 was to read one new book a month. When I was younger, I would churn through books at an almost alarming pace- 3-5 chapter books a week. But through high school and college, reading for pleasure got pushed to the side in favor of “more important” things, like homework and extracurriculars.

Recently, my literary obsession has been self-help books. I have what seems like a million saved on my wish list on Amazon, and am always thinking about which one I’ll buy next (despite having many, many unread ones sitting on my bedside table.) I love a good fiction book, but I’m at a point in my life where I’m getting serious about advancing myself professionally and personally. Because of that, self-help books are becoming my go-to.

But enough about me. On to the review!

Leave Your Mark: Aliza Licht

To be honest, I bought this book based solely off the cover. Beyond the tagline on the front, I didn’t really have an idea of what this book was about. I figured it would generally give me advice on growing professionally and building a social media presence- all things important in the PR field, but not specifically targeted towards me.

How wrong I would be. It’s like Aliza wrote this book specifically targeted towards me. With every page I turned, I was shocked at how relevant this book was to me and where I’m at in my career. I actually almost started crying because of how perfect it was: it’s targeted towards people starting out in the fashion public relations world, and details everything from getting your first internship to building your personal brand.

Aliza Licht started out as a pre-med major in college and eventually realized that medicine was not the path for her. At a crossroads, she dove into the world of fashion journalism and worked at Harper’s Bazaar and Marie Claire before ultimately switching careers to public relations. As a senior vice president of global communications for Donna Karan and DKNY, she was a pioneer in the social media industry when she created the twitter account “DKNY PR GIRL.” DKNY PR GIRL shared a behind-the-scenes look at the DKNY brand and built a loyal following by interacting with her followers, which she lovingly called “friends.” She uses what she’s learned through her multiple careers to mentor young professionals and share her secrets to success.

Aliza’s story (and advice) resonated with me because it was so similar to my own. I started as a broadcast journalism major, before switching to online journalism and finally realizing my true fit was in PR. Sometimes, I feel as though I switched majors too late in my college career and am struggling to catch up with my peers. But this book reassured me that you can succeed in a PR career no matter when (or how “late”) you begin.

For me, my favorite part of the book was the Gossip Girl references. Gossip Girl was a huge inspiration for Aliza when she started the DKNY PR GIRL Twitter account and she often channeled Gossip Girl’s catty writing style in her tweets. Getting to see my favorite show of all-time referenced in a book I was already obsessed with was an unexpected (but very happy) surprise.

Another part of the book I enjoyed was the section on personal style. Aliza gives this advice in Chapter 16:

“Record best outfits. Believe it or not, a good style moment can be forgotten in a nanosecond. If you find a great look that made you feel wonderful that day, write it down, or better yet photograph it. Trust me, your brain won’t remember it otherwise.”

When I read that, all the photos I’ve ever taken of my OOTDs were suddenly so validated. By making sure to record my outfits and keep them handy, I’m making sure to keep snapshots of outfit combinations that made me feel good. It’s not weird, in fact, it’s encouraged.

I would recommend this book to all young professionals trying to build their brand, but especially people in PR. Honestly, I feel like I learned more in this book than I did in my entire semester of Intro to Public Relations. It’s a game changer, and is helping to set me on the path to growing my personal brand and securing an amazing internship!

You can purchase Leave Your Mark here.

To connect with Aliza Licht, you can visit her website, Twitter, or Instagram.

-K