Homeless blogger writes for Elle

Homeless blogger writes for Elle

Leanne Italie, Associated Press

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Six months ago, Brianna Karp found herself living in an old truck and camper she inherited after the suicide of a father she barely knew.

On Monday, her life became a 21st century fairy tale when she turned her blog about homelessness into a plum internship for the fashion bible Elle magazine.

E. Jean Carroll, a popular advice columnist for Elle, reached out with a $150-a-month job after Bri touched her in a letter, signing off Homeless, But Not Hopeless.

Karp left her emotionally unstable mother at 18, later landing a job as an executive assistant at Kelley Blue Book's headquarters in Irvine. When she was laid off in July 2008, she lived on temp work and unemployment benefits until she couldn't afford to keep her $1,500-a-month, 600-square-foot cottage in Costa Mesa.

"I had a few hundred dollars left," Karp said. "I had been working a very decent job earning about $50,000 a year. But I couldn't keep relying on finding a new job."

On Feb. 26, she took advantage of a Walmart policy allowing owners of recreational vehicles to use some of their store parking lots for overnight stays, heading for one in Brea with her mastiff, Fezzik. And she blogged from Starbucks while she continued to search for work, buying $5 cards each month that entitled her to sip coffee and soak up unlimited Wi-Fi.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/03/BAUC19GDDT.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0Q3kX1NQn




Brianna Karp and boyfriend Matthew Barnes still live in her camper.
Photo: Francis Specker / AP