The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

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Victoria Snee is NorthPark style

Victoria Snee is NorthPark style

Victoria Snee received her first makeup palette when she was in the third grade. The purple Maybelline eye shadow was just for Halloween, her mother warned, but that didn’t stop Snee from forming a lifelong passion for beauty and style.

After working as an entertainment reporter in TV and radio for more than a decade, Snee left her job at MIX 102.9 for a position she practically created for herself. She started by making lists of the things she loves and the things she’s good at. Fashion and beauty came out on top, and so the three-time AP-award-winning journalist and author of the book, The Beauty Buzz: No More Beauty B.S.! became the face of NorthPark.

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Victoria Snee is the director of fashion and beauty at NorthPark Center. Photo credit: The Beauty Buzz: No More Beauty B.S.!

As she walks through the mall, stopping to check in with different store managers, and wearing gold jewelry, shimmering taupe eye shadow and high-heeled booties just purchased from NorthPark’s new Frye store, Snee instantly projects an air of glamour. But as her friend and former MIX 102.9 co-host Josh Hart said, she has more depth than that.

Originally from Delaware, Snee moved to Texas at age 10 when her father transferred to the DuPont oil refinery. She found that small-town Beaumont was an entirely different world from the familiar East Coast, one that she says brought her and her sister Jennifer closer together as they navigated the waters.

A 1996 SMU graduate with a degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in political science, Snee was all set to attend the University of Texas before she visited the SMU campus. So set in fact that she’d already placed a UT sticker on her car. But when she visited SMU on a whim, she instantly fell in love.

“I walked on the campus and I looked around and I said ‘I’m going to SMU,’” Snee said.

A writer for The Daily Campus and a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, Snee spent several summers interning in Washington D.C. with thoughts of potentially becoming a political reporter. Her first job out of college, however, led her to produce for the syndicated network USA Radio. Six months later, she took a job at Fox 4 where she met husband Jeff Crilley, whom she jokingly says tried to pick her up by asking her to go out on stories with him.

It was Crilley who gave Snee the idea of applying to work at The CW (at the time, the WB) by slipping her resume into pizza boxes that she had delivered to their newsroom. After a hungry team of producers, anchors and crewmembers viewed her laminated resume, she landed the job.

One of Snee’s interns during her time at The CW was current CBS New York reporter Andrea Grymes.

“She was one of the best mentors that I’ve ever had,” Grymes said of Snee, citing the large amount of responsibility given to her during her internship from 2004 to 2005.

Snee even let her take over an interview with one of Grymes’ favorite celebrities: Leonardo DiCaprio.

“Somebody else would be like ‘Why would I give an intern the opportunity to interview one of the biggest movie stars?” Grymes said.

She claims that it’s Snee’s confidence that allows her to share such opportunities and be more than just a boss.

“I was one of her friends,” Grymes said.

In 2011, Snee left TV and radio to pursue a career with NorthPark, citing how the radio industry had changed since she first joined.

“The opportunities just weren’t the same,” she said.

But NorthPark was brimming with untapped potential.

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Snee filming an early morning beauty segment for The CW’s “Eye Opener.” Photo credit: India Pougher

“I always had thought that NorthPark didn’t have, at the time, a designated spokesperson to represent them on the air,” Snee said. “And so I thought, I wonder if they would consider me for that job.”

She grew up with a natural passion for style, and she loves using it to help people.

“Certain things stress people out. That does not stress me out,” Snee said. “It’s fun. You know, cooking, that stresses me out, fashion does not.”

Her position as the director of fashion and beauty includes working with retailers to learn the latest trends, filming almost a segment a week for different Dallas news stations, and working on her latest concept, the NorthPark Now trend guide, which launched Oct. 1. The printed guide allows shoppers to stay up-to-date on current styles, new stores and Snee’s favorite, the latest beauty looks.

“I have a lip-gloss collection like you would not believe,” Snee claims. Hart can attest to this fact, citing the lip-gloss pouch Snee is known for always keeping in her bag.

While shooting a fall beauty segment for The CW’s Eye Opener, Snee wore what she called her “power red lip,” and at the NorthPark Now launch party Oct. 3, Snee admitted she had eight to nine glosses packed with her that day, in preparation for any occasion.

“She’ll always laugh and say ‘you never know,’” Hart said.

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Snee presenting “NorthPark Now” at Tory Burch in NorthPark Center. Photo credit: India Pougher

Although she now wakes up at 5 a.m., at MIX 102.9, Snee and Hart began work at 4:30 a.m. each day. At such an early hour, Snee was what Hart calls the sporty version of Victoria, dressed in Lululemon sweats.

But there’s another sporty version of Snee, who says she’s a “gigantic” Cowboys fan. “I love the sportsmanship but I also just love the drama that surrounds that team,” Snee said.

In 2009, D Magazine named Snee one of the 10 most beautiful women in Dallas, an honor for which she said she was beyond flattered. It’s clear that beyond the glitz and glamour of her job, Snee is humble and down-to-earth.

“It’s kind of like as the onion peels back you see like different layers of someone,” Hart said.

Away from the fast-paced world of fashion and NorthPark, Snee loves to relax at home and spend time with her husband. “We’re TV junkies,” Snee said. “My husband and I love nothing more than to just get dinner and veg out on the couch.”

The two have been married for 14 years, and Snee is the stepmother to Crilley’s 22-year-old son and 25-year-old daughter. Grymes admires Snee’s devotion to both her family and her career.

“As a young woman coming up in the business or trying to break into the business, [you’re] wondering how are you going to balance everything, because it seems always like your career can completely consume you, Grymes said. “It was also nice not only to see how she was successful professionally, but personally how she was also successful,”

When it comes to professional success, Snee’s advice for young people is to ask, “What do I really like? And what am I potentially good at? What are my skills? If you can find something that marries the two, you’ll have a very successful career in my opinion.”

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