CollegeCandy.com gives women their own space

A new Web site, CollegeCandy.com, aims to be a college woman's best friend, release valve and mini-Wikipedia - with articles written by college-aged women about football, exploring sex, debunking college myths and everything in between.

"We felt there was no place that was specifically made for college women," said Lauren Herskovic, the site's managing editor.

The site, based in New York City, attracts more than one million unique viewers per month through Facebook, Twitter and links on other sites that boast the motto, "CollegeCandy.com is the glass slipper of the blogosphere - a veritable portal into all things college, be you a sorority sister or women's studies student."

Student writers are hired from all walks of life, Herskovic said. Currently, there are 90 high school graduates and college-aged women running the religious, racial and sexual orientation gamut responsible for the content on the site. On the site they each have the space to reveal their voices, communicate their ideas and share their awkward, embarrassing and scary stories.

Brittany Combs, a 2009 University of Richmond graduate and intern at CollegeCandy, writes two or more articles that go live every time she goes into the office.

"The first time I even heard about CollegeCandy was a friend posting an article about an awkward 'Morning After' story on my other friend's Facebook wall," Combs said. "It's one of those sites that you will check in the morning when you wake up and at night before you go to bed, just to see what's out there."

Combs was drawn to the Web site by its mixture of wit and honesty.

"CollegeCandy is definitely a one-stop source for everything you could ever want to know about college life and what is going on in the world around us," she said. "It's guaranteed to make you laugh out loud."

Despite her dedication to the site, which she said was the ultimate place for college women, it seems as if CollegeCandy is an untapped resource on the University of Richmond campus. Only one or two students mentioned the site offhand.

Most Web sites, including CollegeCandy, stay open with revenue from ad sales. Juicycampus.com, a Web site of similar aim, closed in February because it had been unable to make enough from its ads. In order to combat that possibility and gain more publicity, CollegeCandy started a contest on college campuses - the female student with the most creative way for bringing attention to the site and advertisers will win an HP laptop.

The computer contest is primarily a way to inspire young women. Get all the boys on campus to wear hot pink shirts with CollegeCandy.com on them or create a living sculpture of the Web site's name, Herskovic said. Do anything off the wall and original to advertise the site, and then submit a photo of the deed to gimmethatlaptop@collegecandy.com online before 5 p.m. on Oct. 6. Readers will vote and the most creative stunt will win the laptop.

"Don't go crazy, though," Herskovic said. "I don't want you carving CollegeCandy into some 200-year-old building."

Tattoos, anything in bloods, and felonies are also no-no's for the competition.

Contact staff writer Jordan Trippeer at jordan.trippeer@richmond.edu