Where Are They Now?
Lauren Libbert Class of ‘88

Lauren’s passion at Manchester High was English, but she chose to do law at Leeds University on the basis that it was more of a vocation and therefore a better bet. But after qualifying as a solicitor, she realised it wasn’t the profession for her and it was time to return to her true passion.

After a year’s travel round South East Asia and Australia she returned to London, enrolled on a features journalism course and signed up with a temp agency, only taking media-related work. When she landed a temp job at real life weekly magazine Take A Break, she made sure to wow the editor with her enthusiasm and cups of tea - and it worked! He offered her a six month contract as Editorial Assistant and within three years, she’d risen up the ranks to Assistant Editor.

Wanting to stretch her writing and editing skills even further she moved to New Woman magazine, the monthly women’s glossy, where the work was more varied and, again, moved up the ranks to Assistant Editor. With her unique mix of real life and celebrity experience, it wasn’t long before Closer magazine sought out her talents. As News Editor on the launch, Lauren managed a team of hungry reporters and was responsible for breaking celebrity exclusives such as Gwyneth Paltrow moving in with her then boyfriend Chris Martin.

Stints as Deputy Editor at More and Contributing Editor at Eve magazine followed until Lauren was offered her first editorship at Top Santé, the UK’s number one health and wellbeing magazine, where sales were in decline. Her brief was to reinvent the magazine and turn it into a profitable business - and after two years in the job, that’s exactly what she did!

In the middle of all this, Lauren married fellow journalist Colin Hubbuck and has just given birth to their first son, Eli.