Rising Stars: Meet Cathrine Khom

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cathrine Khom.

Hi Cathrine, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve always been surrounded by magazines since I was little. My mom subscribed my sister to Highlights Magazine and my favorite section was arts and crafts. During recess, I would go to my school’s library to read Seventeen, GirlsLife, and American Girl Magazine. As I entered middle school throughout high school, I was fully immersed in Nylon, Teen Vogue, and Kinfolk. However, I never saw anyone who looked like me and at the time, I thought I needed a journalism degree, move to NYC, and work as a magazine editor. In high school, I contributed to a few music publications and wore many hats as an interviewer, writer, and photographer. I did coverage for events, and festivals and I loved the behind-the-scenes when it came to working for a publication. I did that for a few years and met a lot of friends along the way. We were trying to cover the same shows and most of my friends started their own publications I always thought it would be nice to have a dedicated music blog for the LA/OC area, especially in Long Beach.

On April 12, 2012, Local Wolves was born as an online music blog on Tumblr. I was my own publicist, designer, writer, and coordinator and it definitely brought me to reach out to incredible people who have been a part of LW’s journey since day one, thanks to the early days of Twitter and Instagram. During my first year of college, I decided to push aside my creative endeavors to become a nurse practitioner. After my first semester, I missed having a creative outlet to just create as I did with Local Wolves, where we shared local eats, and fashion inspo and discover new music. Fast forward now, it’s been 10 years with 59+ issues and we’ve featured so many incredible creatives, content creators, and artists. Our team is from all over the world and I’m very grateful for each person we have collaborated with. I simply wanted to create a magazine that I would enjoy reading since I have so many interests that I love and we’ve evolved so much over the years through each issue!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I’ve gone through more challenges as each year goes by, to be honest. Some of the struggles are trying to find the balance to work on something you’re so passionate about but we all have bills to pay and adulting responsibilities. In the early years of starting Local Wolves, it was difficult to prioritize my time by nonstop working on the magazine and slowing down to an ongoing list of to-do’s to spend quality time with my friends and family.

I felt like the pandemic was the time when I had to take a step back and reevaluate what was I doing with my life, Local Wolves, and the people that matter to me. I felt like it was a detox of constantly working to just breathe, enjoy life and be present. I rediscovered my love for fashion, filmed YouTube videos and short-form content, long walks to catch the sunset, and rekindled my love for cooking at home! This entire journey has been a work in progress and I’ve learned that it’s okay to ask for help and accept that you can’t control things that are out of your control.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m the founder and editor-in-chief of Local Wolves, an independent publication driven by the passion for storytelling for creative minds from diverse fields of work. Our goal is to capture and share stories about people doing what they love to do. I work full-time as a Configuration Specialist in the healthcare industry for the past few years. During the early years of Local Wolves, I wore many hats from handling press inquiries, and outreach, coordinating shoots, designing layout spreads, and website maintenance. It helped me to better understand to be the best leader for my team. I started as a photographer and writer and gradually began to enjoy the behind-the-scenes, admin stuff, and creative side of running a publication.

This led me to do fun interviews with other publications, featured on podcasts, and did speaking engagements at colleges and high schools. One of my most proudest moments was speaking at my university (CSU Long Beach where I majored in Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Administration). It felt so surreal to share my experiences with other students and another time at Cal Poly where there were students that even stayed after to share how much Local Wolves has helped them with their creativity and to go after their passions in life. Those moments are what keep me going to continue to create all the magic at Local Wolves!

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
My advice for aspiring editors who want to create their own magazine or work in the creative industry, just simply to go for it because you got to start somewhere! Google is your best friend alongside all the free resources and tutorials that you can find online such as YouTube has helped me so much. I started out using free editing applications that mimicked Photoshop since I didn’t know InDesign existed at the time (laughs).

I remember designing page by page and trying to compile files together into a PDF to see how it turned out. It was a mess but it was a learning curve for me to continue to push myself to learn how to do it myself. It’s important to invest in programs and items that will help you out in the long run so definitely do your research and just know, you can always make it work!

Contact Info:

• Website: cathrinekhom.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathrinekhom/
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/cathrinekhom/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cathrinekhom/

Image Credits
Sophia Khom, Wallows Issue by Cathrine Khom, Orion Carloto, Hayley Kiyoko by Rachel Shoppy, and Jenn Im by Annie Fugere