Deez Interviews: Hannah Rimm, on the work of assembling those Money Diaries + making them more inclusive
This week’s q&a is with Hannah Rimm, associate editor of Refinery29’s Money Diaries — AKA, the ur-millennial money series that has dominated the convo around women + personal finance, launched countless copycat columns, and been called “the most lurid corner of the internet” (the LAYERS to unpack about people being judgey about women being judgey re: each other’s spending habits…….that’s a battle for another day).
Earlier this summer, in the wake of the George Floyd protests and general societal reckoning with racial justice, R29 put Money Diaries on pause to “make room for urgent conversations about race, and our responsibility in addressing the anti-Black systems in our own workplaces” (see: this story). The series started publishing again by the end of July — albeit with some key changes — so Hannah and I talked about that and the decision-making behind the relaunch. Enjoy!
First, what's your personal day-to-day like?
I usually spend about 50% of my time reading, selecting, editing, and building diaries, and then another 25% of my time doing all of the back-end work that comes with paying diarists, managing the community, and ideating/writing additional Money Diaries content, including our new monthly series, Money Diary Extras.
The rest of my time, I spend writing for our lifestyle vertical where I cover alcohol trends, credit cards, video games, and other lifestyle-related news. I also occasionally write longer personal features, like this one about queerness and body hair.
Since launching in 2016, Money Diaries has really become this internet franchise — I’ve talked to a lot of people on the edit and business end of other outlets who’ve been envious of its popularity (and of course, attractiveness to financial advertisers). But what’s something you wish people knew about what goes into the work of maintaining the column?
I think a lot of readers don’t realize the amount of editing that goes into them. Even if a diary is written perfectly, it still takes me at least two hours to format correctly and make it fit R29 style before I send it to my editor for a top edit. Some diaries can take a full day to edit, depending on length and clarity. Because it’s reader-submitted content, a lot of people think it’s a five-second turnaround, but Money Diaries is my full-time job.
What can you tell me about the decision to put Money Diaries on hold, in response to the nation-wide protests in June?
To be honest, I felt pretty paralyzed when it came to producing content as the protests were happening. As a white woman, I wanted to make room on our site for other important voices and I felt that meant I couldn’t continue with Money Diaries as they were. Money Diaries brings in a high amount of traffic every month, and I wanted those readers to focus on Black Lives Matter.
It also gave me some time to step back and really think about how I wanted the series to evolve. I got to take a really good, beloved series and make it better, and I knew the only way to do that well was to take a pause.
The column’s relaunch at the end of July came with major changes, namely that 1), contributors will now be paid $150, and 2), the series won’t be branded as overtly "millennial." What was the thinking behind those changes?
I’ve wanted to pay diarists since I took over the series in April 2019. Offering diarists a fair rate not only acknowledges that what they submit to us takes work, but it has also created a lot more diversity in our submissions — specifically diversity of location, salary, career, and financial background. We also added questions at the beginning of each Money Diary that gives readers an expanded look into the Diarist’s financial history.
In terms of removing millennial language, it just felt like a tired trope. We have four years of millennial diaries, and of course they’ll continue to be included because it’s such a large part of our readership, but I wanted to be able to showcase how money affects people of all ages. I also removed gendered language since we now accept diaries from all genders except cis men.
Finally, I'm curious about what you envision for the future of Money Diaries — especially around the community it's built up — both for the short-term COVID reality and the long-term.
I adore the Money Diaries community because they’re so dedicated and they keep me on my toes. Sure, it can get mean in the comments (and luckily I have a very thick skin), but mostly commenters are just really passionate about financial learning and helping each other.
Now that we’ve made a big change and our readers have remained loyal, I think it means we can continue to evolve with the times. I’m really excited that our audience is willing to change with us and I appreciate them for sticking with us as we grow.
When it comes to the long-term future, we have quite a few spinoffs (Travel Diaries (which are currently paused because of COVID), Feel Good Diaries, College Diaries, etc) and I think you'll definitely see more of those variations.
In terms of our current COVID reality, it’s been really interesting to see how different people react to a pandemic and the comment section has had a ton to say about social distancing. I’m hoping we can get a few more international diaries to see how the pandemic has financially affected people around the world.
Don’t forget to follow @hannahrimm on Twitter, and have a good weekend!