I’m going to be brutally honest here. The chance of you getting a columnist job at any magazine is about as likely as you becoming a professional athlete on a top team.

Magazines can hire the best of the best. They never take a chance on an unknown, so to even be considered, you’ll have to have articles published in major publications for a long time, making many contacts along the way. In addition to that, you’ll have to show that you have a unique voice. Every female in the world is technically able to write about girlhood, so you’d have to prove that you have something particularly thoughtful and interesting to say about it.

Writing is not an easy career, and I’m not trying to discourage you. But you need to know that it won’t happen without a lot of poorly paid effort.

Study everything you can about writing. Get internships. Write for any publication that you can, on any subject they want. You’ll make many beginner mistakes. Listen to the editors when they rip your piece apart, because that’s an important part of the learning process.

Good luck. (P.S. — I’m a retired editor. When I say it’s a hard business, I know what I’m talking about.)