Alum Named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 List for Media

Media, Culture, and Communication alum Chloe Xiang (BS '22) was just named to the media category of the 2025 Forbes' 30 under 30 list. The recent graduate is the current social media manager at the The New Yorker. We caught up with Chloe after news of her Forbes recognition was announced.

Catch us up on what you've been doing since graduating a few short years ago.

After I graduated in December 2022, I expanded my role at Motherboard, VICE’s Tech section, where I worked as a reporter, while also helping manage their social accounts. My beat focused on artificial intelligence, specifically the rise of generative AI programs like ChatGPT and DALL.E. I covered stories ranging from the 2023 WGA Writer’s Strike to the process of having an A.I. clone made of myself.

In July 2023, I began a new role as Social Media Manager at The New Yorker. I was excited to explore how to meaningfully engage audiences on social media with deeply-reported journalism. In my role, I help manage all of our social accounts, from Facebook to Bluesky, and adapt The New Yorker’s articles into formats like Instagram carousels and behind-the-scenes videos. I also lead our #BookTok and fiction and poetry content on our platforms, creating videos with award-winning writers such as Jennifer Egan, and interviewing authors such as Salman Rushdie on the red carpet at the National Book Awards.

Alongside this, I run Keke Magazine, a publication I founded in 2017 that champions diverse and honest reflections of women and gender-expansive people. The magazine recently reported on everything from Why we needed a BRAT summer to how a group of Vietnamese American high schoolers is advocating for housing justice in Dorchester, MA. With a focus on fresh and younger perspectives, Keke highlights voices that are often underrepresented in mainstream media.

How did MCC and NYU Steinhardt contribute to your career in media?

NYU and MCC greatly shaped my trajectory in media. In Professor Song Chong’s class, Photography and the Visual Archive, I learned about how ideologies and histories are embedded in the taking and viewing of photos. In Professor Elizabeth Heard’s Media Activism and Social Movements class, I studied the evolution of the public sphere and how counterpublics, from independent printing presses to self-funded zines, can challenge existing hegemonic structures. In Professor Nicole Fleetwood’s senior seminar, Sexuality Studies & U.S. Media, which was my final MCC class at NYU, I examined how media has historically shaped and defined sexuality. I wrote my final thesis on the fetishization of Asian women in mass media and how poetry serves as a disruptive medium for Asian American women to reimagine and redefine their explorations of desire.

Through my intimate study of various media, I not only traced the transformation of how we communicate but developed a critical understanding of how to view the information shared with us and how we can challenge it. These insights empowered the mission I came to college with: to make news and cultural coverage more equitable, nuanced, and representative of diverse voices. Learning how media can be used powerfully—as a form of protest, reclamation, and empowerment—reinforced my belief that we need to, now more than ever, promote and sustain our ability to report on the world around us.

Words of wisdom for students who see your accomplishments and wonder what propels you forward?

Always embrace failure. In the last several years, there have been moments where I felt that I failed: I didn’t get into the college I had applied to Early Decision and I was waitlisted for a Fulbright during my senior year of college. At the time, I felt utterly defeated and hopeless about my future, but moving on and reframing my failures as opportunities is what led me to be where I am today.

Because of those outcomes, I was able to attend NYU and work at The New Yorker. Letting go of where I thought I was “supposed” to be allowed me to reset my expectations and see failure as a chance to carve out my own path. 

Looking back on my youth—commuting to NYC for fashion events, running my own fashion blog, and later, founding a magazine—I see that what has always fueled me is deeper and more enduring than the cursory goals I did not achieve. My passion for making media more inclusive and for photography, writing, and literature are more fundamental.

Please always dream big and trust yourself! As they say, when one door closes, another opens.