Humans of POP: Emilia Ferrante, Communications and PR Intern, France
From New Jersey to Tokyo to Paris, Emilia’s journey has always been shaped by curiosity, creativity, and a love of storytelling. Today, she brings that global perspective to her role as Communications and PR Intern at POP, helping accelerate our broader strategic vision.
Outside the office, that same passion for connection and culture led her to co-found Sapphink Paris, a queer English-language book club that has grown into a vibrant literary community, and to pursue her own writing. At the heart of it all is a passion for storytelling – helping creative work find its audience while strengthening the people behind it.
In this edition of Humans of POP, she shares how living abroad reshaped her perspective, how community can be built through stories, and why creativity – in all its forms – is always worth nurturing. Read on to hear it all in her own words!
A bit about your story: where were you born, where did you live most of your life, and what/where did you study?
I’m originally from the US, born and raised in New Jersey. I lived in Tokyo, Japan for a few years with my family as a kid, where I learned to ride a bike, appreciate a high-speed train, and use chopsticks efficiently. I went to college at the University of Michigan, a nine-hour drive from my hometown of Cranbury, and studied English literature and Anthropology. After graduation, I moved to Paris, France to pursue a degree in communications and media at Sciences Po.
What is your role at POP?
I’m a communications and PR intern at POP, and my role has expanded over the course of the 14 months I’ve worked here. As a communications professional, I wear many hats – posting on social media, writing copy for our blog, liaising with studio producers throughout the world, sending newsletters, and coordinating event content, among other things.
I also contribute to the overall strategic vision of POP – raising awareness among key stakeholders, strengthening our positioning and perception in the industry, and supporting culture-building initiatives internally.
What inspired you to move abroad to continue your studies and career? What was the most surprising part of living in a new country?
I always wanted to study abroad in college, but the COVID pandemic shut that down. I realized I could still do it, and get international experience to boot. I studied French in high school and college, and who doesn’t want to live in Paris? My mom also lived abroad when she was my age, in Germany on a Fulbright; my parents made the courageous decision to move to Japan when my younger brother was just six weeks old; my grandma was always travelling the world. Call it a spirit of adventure, or just a desire to follow in their footsteps, or maybe I just really like being able to buy a pain au chocolat for less than 2 euros.
The most surprising part about living in a new country is probably the way it makes you reconsider the idea of “home.” When I first moved, I would have these moments where I felt so incredibly out of place and far away from everything that was familiar. Now, my definition of “home” hasn’t changed so much as it has expanded – and that feeling of being far away feels distant.
Tell us more about the book club you co-founded in Paris. What motivated you to create it, and what does it mean to you?
Sapphink Paris is the book club my friend Lillian and I created when we first moved to Paris in 2023. We both worked at The Michigan Daily, our university’s newspaper, on the Books beat, so we already shared an intense love of books, reading, and all things literary. We were also both in the Residential College, the unofficial LGBTQ+ college within our university. When Lillian and I searched for a queer, English-language book club to join in Paris and couldn’t find one, we had the crazy idea to start it ourselves.
Our first meeting was literally just us and a friend in a bar, discussing Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. On a whim, we posted a TikTok – and it went mildly viral. At our next meeting, we had so many people sign up that we maxed out the space we had reserved at a local queer organization. As they say, the rest is history – we’ve been meeting on the last Sunday of every month ever since. For our two-year book club anniversary in October of 2025, we read Stone Butch Blues again – this time with a full house.
Sapphink really started as a way for Lillian and I to find a queer, book-loving community and find other like-minded people. But it’s become so much more – and every meeting, I’m struck all over again by how lucky I feel to have helped create a community that is so supportive, kind, funny, insightful, and uplifting.
What is your favorite book you’ve read and discussed with Sapphink, and why?
I’ve already talked about Stone Butch Blues, so I should probably shout out another book! Lillian and I try to keep our book choices varied – different genres, queer identities, author experiences and backgrounds, original languages. It’s led me to read books I might not otherwise, and to read them with care.
But maybe I’m just stalling, because it’s so hard to choose a favorite! I’ll go with Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth – it’s a debut novel set in Ireland full of sapphic summer yearning, and it was a huge hit at book club. We’re actually reading the author’s second book this month, Heap Earth Upon It!
What are the most important aspects of a multicultural community, both with POP’s borderless studio model and in your book club, and how do you cultivate one successfully? How do your skills running the book club translate to your work at POP?
It sounds a bit trite to say you need to create a “safe space,” but in this case, it really is true. We discuss a lot of tough subjects in book club, from homophobia and closeting to repression and violence. To have real discussions about these topics, people need to feel comfortable. We all come from different backgrounds and cultures, from all over the world; we all have different experiences with the things we discuss, but we’re united by our love of books and queer community.
I think the same thing applies to POP and its borderless studio model: passion for what you do. Creatives from all over will nerd out over 3D animation or music supervision, and I love that. Creating a multicultural environment means you are brought together by the things that unite you, but also that your differences strengthen the final project. When you work in a borderless way, everyone can bring their expertise, which makes the work better.
How has social media changed in the past few years, and how does that affect the ways we build communities?
Social media is constantly changing, and it can be difficult to keep up! Luckily, as a Gen Z, I’m a digital native, and keeping up with trends is somewhat second nature. Still, trying to understand the algorithm can be a somewhat fruitless endeavor – sometimes, it still feels like you’re just shouting into a void!
Ultimately, though, these algorithms have allowed the platforms to do a lot of the work of community-building by putting relevant content in front of us – we just have to engage. I think back to the first TikTok Sapphink Paris ever posted, and the way its niche virality – getting pushed to the people who lived nearby, who loved books, who were queer – felt like a sort of magic trick. You can try to puzzle it out (and I do), but you can also just post good content. The community is there on the platform – good content will find its people.
You’re also a writer in your own right, having published poetry and book reviews. How do you maintain creativity in your own life, and how do you bring that creative spirit to your work at POP?
It’s not always easy. Sometimes, I get home and I just want to veg out and watch YouTube videos and turn my brain off. I think it helps that I try to surround myself with creative people who are always pushing themselves. My partner is an artist, and they inspire me to keep up my creative practice. I have other friends who paint watercolor, DJ, crochet, do theatre, collage, and even make mini dioramas with tiny plastic ducks. Whatever it is, having people in my life who inspire me really helps me to be consistently creative.
I feel the same at POP. At the office in Pantin, there’s always someone doing something cool, whether it’s finding a new track for music supervision or building a digital twin in Blender. People really care about their work – and my job, in communications, is to help get their work out to the audience online.
How does writing for corporate communications differ from your creative writing? What lessons are transferable between the two?
Sometimes, it feels like they couldn’t be more different! Corporate communications has a very clear end goal – getting the audience to click links, follow pages, engage with our work. Creative writing is way more open-ended – there isn’t usually a quantifiable finish line. Still, they both want to engage people and pull them in.
With corporate communications, your words can get lost in a sea of content. Unlike with a book review or poem in a literary journal, a lot of the time, people aren’t actively seeking out your copy – so you really have to grab them and make it exciting and engaging. You have to make it stand out in their daily scroll. In both cases, personal and professional, I’m trying to write something people will want to read – so at the end of the day, it isn’t as different as it feels.
What changes have you seen so far with AI and the book industry, and how do you expect to see it change in the future?
AI has disrupted every industry with huge force, demanding that everyone adapt or fall behind. Book publishing is no different. I think the industry is still in a moment of trying to get its footing. There have been missteps, from replacing human translators to editors at small presses being overrun by hastily-generated stories. In a creative industry that relies on the skills and ideas of artists, the book industry needs to approach AI carefully and with human creatives in mind.
The model POP uses to integrate AI in our processes is one I think is relevant to the book industry as well – human-first, respecting creativity and craft while embracing innovation. POP doesn’t replace our human translators in Prague, for example – we augment their skill and cultural knowledge with AI to streamline processes and speed up workflows.
In the book industry, AI can be helpful for operational processes, for algorithmically helping debut authors find their audiences online, for cutting out bureaucratic, repetitive work. But the key of what makes books special is the authors and artists behind them – and the industry needs to balance the race for integrating innovation with that very human core.
Quick ones:
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Horror – I’m a sucker for a good scare.
Who is your “instant-buy” author?
Charlotte McConaughey – I think she’s truly a genius, and her book Wild Dark Shore was my favorite read of 2025.
Best advice you’ve received?
“Drink the wine.” In other words, don’t leave a bottle of nice champagne in your cupboard for years, never drinking it because you’re waiting for the “right time.” Just drink it when you want to! Make any and every random day special!
Humans of POP is our storytelling series, created to shine a light on the people making it all happen behind the scenes. Our people are at the heart of everything we do – and this series is all about hearing from them directly. Across continents and cultures, these stories remind us how much we can learn from those around us.
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