A New Reality: You Go to Elle, Girl

Johanna Cox, at right (Michael Temchine for The Washington Post)

"Mature" and "nice" don't get much reality TV airtime -- but D.C.'s Johanna Cox defied the odds to beat ten others on CW's "Stylista" Wednesday, landing a junior-editor job at Elle magazine, a free N.Y.C. apartment for a year and a clothing allowance. Cox, 28, a Chinese linguist for a defense contractor, started her fashion blog, A Serious Job Is No Excuse, in 2006. That led to an audition for the show, in which would-be assistants battled to please Elle's news director, Anne Slowey. Cox took a month-long leave for the taping last spring -- then had to keep the secret of her victory for seven months.

"I haven't had more than two drinks in a sitting because I was petrified I would be lulled into a false sense of security," she told us. "I'm a bad liar, so I tried to avoid the questions. I feel a hundred pounds lighter today." Cox starts the new gig in January.