Photo by Brandon AlmsKatie Pollock Estes, Editorial Director
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Katie Pollock Estes | Editorial Director | 417 Magazine
Katie Pollock Estes is the Editorial Director at 417 Magazine.
Jan 2023
Katie Pollock Estes
Editorial Director
Katie Pollock Estes is the Editorial Director at 417 Magazine. Katie has been working at 417 since December 2005. Her role includes writing, editing and planning stories while leading the team that produces 417’s editorial content.
What is your favorite place in 417-land?
The North Fork of the White River. Give me a kayak and a spring-fed stream, and I'm a happy woman.
Are you from 417-land? If not, where did you grow up and what keeps you here?
I grew up in St. Louis and went to college in Columbia, Missouri and New York City. As for what keeps me here: I met my husband, made friends who I love, had two cool kids and get to do a job I adore every day.
What was your first job?
I had a very lucrative babysitting business starting at age 12. I still don't understand why families that had like five small kids would trust 12-year-old me with their care... but they did!
What’s your favorite place you’ve traveled to?
I visited my sister when she was living in Seoul, South Korea, and I loved it there. The street food was 10/10, and I loved exploring the centuries-old palaces.
Favorite brush with fame or celebrity encounter?
I worked at a coffee shop in Brooklyn that was really close to where Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams lived. She was pregnant at the time, and he came in to the shop almost every day. I made so many soy lattes for that man. He was super-nice and super-adorable. One day, I stopped into a smoothie shop just up the road on my way home from work, and he was walking out as I was walking in. And—best thing ever—he recognized me as his coffee slinger and said hello. I died right then, but then I came back to life so I could tell this story to anyone who would listen for the rest of my life.
What did (or do) you want to be when you grew up?
I had plans to be a teacher, a vet, a broadcast journalist a la Connie Chung, a pediatric oncologist, an architect, anything at all related to physics, a psychologist, an English professor, a fine art photographer, a photojournalist, and a magazine designer (and five of those were actually my college majors for a semester or two) until I landed on magazine editing. I think I picked right in the end.
What’s your favorite season and why?
Late fall into early winter. Crisp air, orange leaves, cozy sweaters, and both of the best holidays: Halloween and Christmas.