*the career story*

Melissa Henderson is an international lifestyle writer and businesswoman who resides in New York City.  She graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in Political Science and has since developed her career working with publishing houses, fashion and beauty brands, and writing about her experiences.  Since 2011, Melissa has worked on various content strategy campaigns for clients like eBay, LS&Co, WebMD, WURD radio and LOL Kids Armonk. At Publicis Advertising Agency, she wrote, executed and launched a $3 million marketing automation campaign for a womens-focused lifestyle drug on the Nexxus platform.  She also used to tweet and write CRM strategy documents for Red Lobster. 

In 2014, the Philadelphia- native contributed her thoughts on style to the New York Times Best Selling book, Women in Clothes, published by Penguin. In 2015, the beautiful soul penned an article in her Huffington Post column based on her marxist love theory that was made into a short film by fellow classmate Sanford Jenkins. Later that year, she decided to self-publish a zine entitled, Violet Summer Zine, about style and maintaining relationships that was released on Amazon.com.   In 2016, Issue 2 of Violet Summer Zine went global. It featured original interviews from singer Kelsea Ballerini, singer Kandace Springs, and singer Kilo Kish, as well as debuted  Sanity Addiction, Part 1 which was promoted on XO Jane.  The provocative storyline of Sanity Addiction Part 1  was featured in the Daily Mail UK for spreading the importance  of fighting against Revenge Porn and internet slut-shaming. 

In 2017, Melissa was invited to Paris, France by the French Government and Atout France Tourism Agency to write about the city in relation to Harlem on her Huffington Post blog. From this life changing trip, Melissa released a series of articles entitled From Harlem to Paris.  She was invited back to France that spring for several weeks, where she was able to write remotely for Jet Magazine, Ebony Magazine and numerous other publications. Later on that year, the writer released her third issue of Violet Summer Zine, collaborating with entreprenerial women from Los Angeles to New Zealand, selling/printing over 60 copies, and garnering over 10,000 views in three months on Joomag.com.  The zine and the author were both recognized in The New York Post for inspiring people to do projects outside of work. By the end of 2017, Melissa join A Complete Skincare  to focus on female empowerment by collaborating with women lead NGOs from all over the world, as well as learn more about Latin America from international business leader. Not to mention, the intellectual curious writer has join two female-centric business collectives - Black Women's Guide and Hustle Chic to expand her network and continue to bring influential people to her content calendar. 

While she's not conducting international business, Melissa continues to write her Heels in the Fast Lane column on Galore Magazine, write in Spanish for Konbini Mexico and serve select clients in the content marketing space. Can't wait to see what's up next in 2018, stay tuned! It's about to get really interesting. #AsToldByMelissa #TheStoryYouDidn'tReadThisWeek