“Just Go On” Inspires Unpaid Intern to Quit — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt episode “Kimmy Gives Up!” pairs Lillian’s advice about walking away with the 1-minute-53-second song “Just Go On”; the author says the sequence prompted her to quit the next day.
- The intern spent 18 months in unpaid London fashion roles while living in £12-a-night hostels, relying on free breakfasts and bread-and-peanut-butter dinners.
- The magazine internship paid the 23-year-old nothing for 9 a.m.–5 p.m. work, often in the fashion closet, while her paid side jobs ran from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.
- A fashion PR firm disclosed that the intern was living in hostels, after which her boss publicly gave her £100 while presenting experience and exposure as her compensation.
- A possible full-time job was dangled with every unpaid internship, yet after more than a year the author saw only interns who seemed to have existing connections progress.
- The magazine boss was unbothered when the author disclosed that she had run out of money, lived in hostels and could not work for free, and made clear that the intern was replaceable.
- The author later built a film-and-TV career mainly in comedy and continued listening to “Just Go On” when weighing whether to stay or leave.
Why it matters: For aspiring fashion workers, the account shows the material cost of unpaid access: a 23-year-old worked without pay from 9 to 5, lived in £12-a-night hostels and sometimes ate only bread and peanut butter. Her exit ended the immediate drain on her time and money, while a £100 boss’s gesture offered little against those conditions.
Ask SkimNews
