This story is the latest in a series exploring how brands craft standout social media strategies. If you’d like to chat about how your brand is approaching social, Katie Hicks wants to hear about it. Reach out to her at [email protected].
A mouse in the office. A fish fillet in the microwave. An employee locked in a closet. All of these relatable office situations have made for the basis of InStyle magazine’s social-first mockumentary series The Intern.
In the year since it debuted, all eight seasons and 40-plus episodes of The Intern have generated more than 36 million views. The Boss, its newest series that premiered in February, so far has 2.3 million views.
InStyle’s editor in chief, Sally Holmes, told us that both series are meant to be “entertaining first,” rather than traffic-drivers. Yet they stand out as a new way of bringing InStyle to a new generation. The magazine now counts more than 15 million followers across social channels.
“It has been fun to watch the comments from people who discovered InStyle through [The Intern],” Holmes said. “When I was a teenager, I waited for InStyle magazine to come in the mail…and now for the new generation of teenagers, what that looks like is, ‘I can’t wait for my new show to drop on social.’”
As print media continue to face numerous business challenges, InStyle has turned The Intern into a monetizable vessel, with brands like Fossil and e.l.f. Cosmetics appearing in certain episodes. Additional sponsors, Holmes said, are already on board for new series ideas. Last month, InStyle’s parent company, People Inc., reported a 14% rise in digital revenue growth year over year and a 9% YoY increase in ad revenue, even as print revenues have continued to decline.
“What has made this successful is that we are doing something that is true to us and our brand and people like it,” Holmes said. “Then we figured out how to monetize that.”
We spoke with Holmes about what goes into the making of its series behind the scenes.
Cast of characters
Holmes said the InStyle team was inspired to create The Intern after seeing other brands create original series for social and after collaborating with jewelry brand Alexis Bittar on its series, The Bittarverse, in 2024. For one season, Holmes and her deputy editor came up with the idea to play on relatable office tropes while telling the story of two interns, played by creator duo Grant and Ash, who scheme to attend the Met Gala.
InStyle cast creator Micky Gordon as its newest intern in Season 3, followed by other creators like Kennedy Eurich, Connor Wood, and Boman Martinez-Reid. The most recent episodes in Season 8 feature creator friend duo Halley Kate and Jaz Smith, who Holmes hopes will attract a fashion-oriented, younger audience.
“People have different kinds of humor, and so they react differently to the different creators,” Holmes said. “It’s been very fun to work with different talent and have their audiences discover InStyle through them.”
As The Intern grew in popularity, Holmes said her team had the idea to make a new series that allowed for bigger-name guests who couldn’t be believably cast as interns. In the first season of The Boss, actor and creator Julia Fox takes on the fake role of “temporary permanent ambassador of slayage,” and fashion designer Brandon Blackwood steps in to lead an office renovation.
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“There are so many crazy things that bosses have done to all of us,” Holmes said. “It felt like an opportunity to play that other side of it as well, where the power dynamic shifts a little bit and there’s a whole other end of jokes that you have the opportunity to play off of.”
InStyle’s series are unscripted and rely on the humor and acting chops of real InStyle employees and guests—with a bit of producer guidance, of course. (Any employees who fear not being funny have assurance from Holmes that there is “magic in the edit,” she said.)
As a recurring character herself, Holmes said she’ll sometimes ask for direction, but more often than not, she tries to react naturally to the “absurdity” of each situation.
“When people are like, ‘What’s the secret sauce?’ It sounds so cheesy, but…from the person who is literally sitting here filming it…to the creators that we bring in, everyone is willing to take risks and cheer each other on and have fun with it,” Holmes said. “I think the second it becomes not fun is when it starts to show on camera.”
Clocking in
Given the nonchronological nature of algorithms, each episode of The Intern was designed to be viewed as standalone pieces of content that still have obvious throughlines, Holmes said.
“I think of it like an episode of Friends or any of those sitcoms where…you could see Episode 5 or Episode 95 and still be entertained and not have needed to see the episode before,” she said.
That format allows InStyle to promote its work, including its Imagemaker Awards, as they’re happening. An episode of The Intern where Gordon gets locked in a closet at the Imagemakers is intended for audiences who may not have known about the awards ceremony and could then stumble upon clips from the real red carpet. Holmes’s team is currently thinking up new ways to feature InStyle’s work in its series, including the magazine’s upcoming F1 party in Miami.
When it comes to promoting brands in the episodes themselves, Holmes said InStyle is upfront about its partnerships, with the belief that if sponsored content feels true to the series, it will likely be accepted by audiences.
“It’s just about being authentic and not trying to get away with anything,” she said. “Make it part of the series and acknowledge it because it’s normal now.”
A new series, called Zhuzh It, will premiere in April and feature the magazine’s fashion director Kevin Huynh judging people’s outfits in a man-on-the-street style. Because of the success of its other series, Holmes said the team was able to secure a sponsor for Zhuzh It before its premiere. Beyond that, InStyle is currently working on launching two other new series, she told us.
As for whether The Intern has been a recruitment tactic for the magazine itself?
“I hope people are not watching The Intern and thinking, ‘I want to work there,’” she said. “[Unless it’s because] they think it’s fun—not because our interns bully us every day.”
Correction 04/01/2026: This article has been updated to reflect brand appearances within episodes and to clarify details of certain seasons of the series.
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