![]() ![]() This “only made things worse” because the revised interest rate suddenly spiked and proved to be even higher than before. Panicking about what to do about her finances, she allowed herself to be persuaded to consolidate her debt. ![]() But fate intervened and she was fired because of a miscommunication with a boss (not Bushnell) in May 2008. That’s when she unsuccessfully approached Chase for a loan, keen to both quit her job and pay off her creditors. It wasn’t satisfying her creatively and was getting in the way of her writing dreams. “The more money you have, the more money you spend,” she says.Īs time passed, she began to find the work at Sirius draining and demanding. “She influenced me a lot,” says West-Rosenthal, who aspired to Bushnell’s lifestyle of weekends in the Hamptons and taking town cars to appointments.īut Bushnell’s business acumen didn’t rub off on West-Rosenthal, who sank further into debt despite the salary bump. I maxed out my credit cards.’īy February 2007, she had started at a $90K-per-year job at Sirius Radio producing a range of talk shows, including one hosted by her idol, Candace Bushnell, the real-life Carrie Bradshaw of “Sex and the City” fame. ‘I was into networking and living the New York dream. “I wanted to write the Great American novel and thought I could only do it in a $500-a-night room.” “I’d tell myself I needed to get away from my apartment for the night, even though I lived alone,” she says. “I maxed out my credit cards.”Ī further extravagance: occasional staycations at luxury hotels such as the Soho Grand, where she would perch in the lobby sipping wine while typing on her laptop. “I was into networking and living the New York dream,” says West-Rosenthal, who names shoes and bags as her top vices. Chow’s, and paid out of pocket to fly to ritzy locations such as Park City, Utah, for the Sundance Film Festival. She thought nothing of forking over $70 on a single takeout meal from Mr. Travel and food also drained her resources. “I wasn’t even making six figures, so it was a little stupid,” says West-Rosenthal, who later wrote three books. She splashed out cash on Marc Jacobs clothes and Tory Burch shoes, and refused to downgrade from her one-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side - even though she couldn’t afford the $2,000 monthly rent. “Anne couldn’t have been nicer but, as always, I was the mandatory fat friend on the side.”įeelings of inferiority drove her to spend thousands of dollars on specialist diets, especially low-carb menus, private nutritionists and a fancy gym membership at Equinox. Meanwhile I was wearing a frumpy black dress. “She was wearing jeans and a poncho and looked amazing. “She picked me up at my hotel in a car and we went to lunch and she ate nothing,” says West-Rosenthal. She remembers spending two days in Hollywood with Hathaway, who was filming “The Princess Diaries 2,” in 2003. “I didn’t fit the look of the crowd running with these celebrities,” she says. However, as a size 16 to 18 and, at one point, weighing 220 pounds, the 5-foot-tall young woman felt intimidated. She mixed with the likes of Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears and Anne Hathaway. ![]() She landed an internship at Rolling Stone magazine before being taken on as personal assistant to Atoosa Rubenstein, founding editor of CosmoGirl, in 1999.Īfter that, her life was a whirl of fashion shoots, parties and celebrity interviews as she climbed the ladder in journalism. West-Rosenthal moved to New York from her native Miami just before her 22nd birthday. ‘I didn’t fit the look of the crowd running with these celebrities.’ “The problem is, I never quite fit in with the scene,” she says, citing her weight issues and lack of family wealth. Now an older, wiser mom, West-Rosenthal has launched a blog chronicling her exploits, called Not So It Girl. In it, the 41-year-old writer describes her thwarted attempts to become a New York socialite. She declared herself bankrupt at the age of just 31, after owing $30,000. In the end, her efforts to keep up with the Joneses backfired. That standard was living alone in an apartment on the Upper East Side, ordering takeout from fancy restaurants and splurging on glitzy trips. ![]() “But I was so desperate to maintain a certain standard.” “I look back now and think, ‘What on Earth was I thinking?’ ” West-Rosenthal tells The Post about the early 2008 bank visit. She was sent packing - but not before receiving an earful from the bank employee who laughingly told her that wouldn’t work. “I want to quit my job and pay off my credit card debt,” she earnestly told the manager. Dropping by Chase on her lunch break in Manhattan, Lauren West-Rosenthal argued her case for a loan. ![]()
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