Top fashion editor Amy DuBois Barnett's most special occasion

Amy DuBois Barnett has it all. She's deputy editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar. Formerly managing editor of the now-defunct Teen People and editor-in-chief of the former Honey, Amy is an award-winning journalist, TV commentator for CNN and NPR, proud wife, and adoring mother.

Barnett is also a published author. Her new book, Get Yours! The Girlfriends' Guide To Having Everything You Ever Dreamed Of and More (Doubleday/Broadway Books) was published in September 2007.

"When I was the editor of Honey, I wrote a column every month about my life," Barnett explains. "It was really personal. I talked about the obstacles I faced and embarrassing stories, and stuff about my family. I told readers, 'This is what I learned, this is what I think now about what happened to me, and here's what you can get from it,'" she says.

Barnett says she was surprised by the reaction to the page. "I got hundreds of e-mails and phones calls every week from women who told me that my words had touched them or changed their lives. They said they didn't know that other people felt the same way.

"I realized how few accessible role models there are for women—how few people are willing to be honest about their faults and about the dramas they face. It started to become important to me to not just be a role model for my professional achievements but also, to help women understand that everybody in the public eye has the same insecurities. It's all about your mindset and figuring out how to prepare yourself to succeed and figure out how to become comfortable enough with who you are to keep moving through life.

"I wrote this book as a love letter to all the young women who read Honey and who wrote to me to tell me how much my words had meant. It was gratifying for me as an editor, journalist, and woman. But it also gave me a mission and purpose in the universe."

Party to remember

On September 26, 2007, the day after her book was released, Barnett had the joy of attending her book release party—clearly her most memorable special occasion.

"The book launch party was an amazing event," she recalls. The party was hosted by Gayle King, editor-at-large for O magazine; Kevin Liles, executive vice president of Warner Music Group; and Angela Burt-Murray, editor-in-chief of Essence magazine.

The celebration in her honor was held in the penthouse loft of the SoHo Grand Hotel in Manhattan. "The setting was a gorgeous two-bedroom loft on the top floor of the hotel. It had a huge deck overlooking Manhattan. The night was clear. The moon was round and orange. It was the perfect cool night. Everybody gathered outside. It was like a big reunion of several hundred people in media who I knew, all catching up on the deck of this gorgeous penthouse loft overlooking Manhattan on a clear night in September," she says.

The guests, including Kitt Grant of CNN, BET's Stephen Hill and R&B singer Jaheim sipped champagne and ate tasty hors d'oeuvres prepared by the SoHo Grand chefs.

"The hors d'oeuvres were served on oblong bamboo trays," Barnett continues, "and included prosciutto and figs, lamb dumplings, and other exotic, but simple, nibbles that were easy to eat with one hand while balancing a flute of champagne in the other." There was an open bar with champagne plus special mixed drinks, she adds.

Continue to page 2 of 2