WHAT IS MAMAMIA?
Mamamia began in 2007 after Mia’s career in women’s magazines and (very briefly) TV ended.
On Mamamia everything is up for discussion – from pop culture, politics, body image, food, motherhood, feminism to fashion and celebrity. We like to have a laugh AND a cry. We’re smart but not precious. Interested and interesting. We have a community of tens of thousands of people who are actively engaged and articulate. Just like a real life discussion with a group of women, you never know where the conversation will go. You also never know what’s going to be published on Mamamia on any given day. Serendipity is key.
Mia Freedman – Publisher
Mia is the editor and publisher of Mamamia . Having built her career around creating communities of women in magazines (as Editor of Cosmo and then Editor in Chief of Cosmo, Cleo & Dolly) and then a blink-and-you-missed-it stint in commercial TV, Mia wanted to work in a medium that was fast and authentic. So she moved to online and began Mamamia.
She continues to write a newspaper column that appears in Sunday Life magazine in the Sun-Herald and Sunday Age and has a sparring session with Karl Stefanovic on The Today Show every Monday morning at 7:50am. Mia has written three books, The New Black, Mamamia: A Memoir Of Mistakes, Magazines & Motherhood and Mia Culpa: Confessions From The Watercooler of Life.
Mia’s husband Jason is the CEO of Mamamia (the marriage came before the business) and they have three children, a dog and two ducks who visit during winter. You can follow her on Twitter here.
Lana Hirschowitz – Managing Editor
Lana grew up in South Africa where she learned to read, write and teach others to do the same. She gave up teaching when she arrived in Australia and tried her hand at almost everything else. She now lives happily in Sydney with her husband, son and dog. She has the dream job of Managing Editor at Mamamia and when she has a spare minute she tweets here and blogs here.
Rebecca Sparrow – Deputy Editor
Rebecca Sparrow has been a News Limited columnist since 2004. She is also the author of four books including The Girl Most Likely (which is in development as a feature film) and Find Your Tribe (and 9 other things I wish I’d known in high school). You can read more about Bec on her website which you can find here, or follow her on twitter here.
Kate Hunter – Contributing Editor
Kate Hunter is a mother of three kids and the writer of all sorts of things. In addition to her regular posts at Mamamia, she’s an advertising copywriter with 20 years experience and hundreds of ads under her belt. She’s also written two novels for young readers: Mosquito Advertising, The Parfizz Pitch and Mosquito Advertising, The Blade Brief. The books are about a bunch of kids who start their own advertising agency – imagine Enid Blyton meets The Gruen Transfer. You can visit Kate’s website here or follow her on twitter here.
Rick Morton – News Editor
Rick is a journalist and media professional with seven year’s experience in newspapers and politics. He began his career as a cadet journalist at the Gold Coast Bulletin at the age of 17 and also worked as a media advisor in the Queensland Government. He grew up in the remote Queensland Outback before gradually migrating to the city and is frequently lost. Particularly in Sydney. Rick has an insatiable appetite for anything news – serious or quirky – and this is potentially why none of his friends return phone calls. As part of his contract at Mamamia, Rick has agreed to write sparingly on the fantastic subjects of space, dinosaurs and meteor-riding space dinosaurs. In his spare time he writes creatively and hunts for loopholes in his contract so he can write about dinosaurs. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Nicky Champ – Staff Writer
Nicky has previously worked in the fashion and design fields as a textile and graphic designer, and after five long years, realised her true passion lay in journalism and writing. Fondly remembering the hours spent (and most of her childhood) in the local library, voraciously consuming any book by Roald Dahl, Nancy Drew or Beverly Clearly, she decided to head back to class to study journalism.
After a few short stints interning at various magazines, Nicky landed her dream job writing for Mamamia alongside her (shhh!) idol Mia Freedman. Born on the cusp of Gen X and Y, Nicky spends most of her time absorbed in pop culture and fills her brain with unnecessary bits of trivia she doubts she will ever need to call on. You can follow her on Twitter here. She’s currently on maternity leave, returning early 2012.
Lucy Ormonde – Staff Writer
Lucy is a writer and the new kid at Mamamia. She grew up in Melbourne and after finishing her journalism degree last year she moved to the country to work for a regional Victorian newspaper. She’s known for her ability to bake scones – although no one in the MM office has ever tried them – and is also good at shopping at Country Road and drinking copious amounts of tea. You can follow her on twitter here.
Natalia Jastrzab – Editorial assistant
Nat is Mamamia’s Editorial Assistant. She grew up dreaming of a career in pediatrics and somehow ended up studying a (long) combined degree in law and journalism. One day she would love to be a journalist/lawyer/author/some kind of combination of all of the above. She has previously worked in retail and as a nanny. She is very attached to her computer and can’t sit still for longer than a few minutes. You can find her on Twitter saying mostly uninteresting things here.
Matt Norton – Digital Marketing Manager
Matt Norton is Mamamia’s Digital Marketing Manager. Born in England, his background in digital spans agency, travel, recruitment and investment banking before he escaped the UK mid-2011 for a more relaxed life in Sydney (and a more mentally stimulating role with Mamamia!).
As a Brit, he has strong opinions on Yorkshire Pudding recipes and exactly how to make tea (it MUST be left to steep). Aside from that, his passion for all things fashion, fitness and strong sense of ‘what good copy should look like’ make him more than qualified as a Mamamia employee. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Waffaete Edelbi – Sales Manager
Waffaete brazenly admits when there was a loud volume of Opera singing echoing in the halls at highschool, everyone knew who it was – including the teachers. That’s because she aspired to be a singer, dancer and lyric writer. She spent most of her childhood reading love poems and lyrics by various artists and listening to music. She also has a great love for fashion after working 8 years in the industry.
She decided to put her writing efforts into journalism and started her professional career as a TV Presenter & freelance journalist. This didn’t last long as she made a turn into sales. In her spare time she still sings, writes music and occasionally teaches dance. She also eats lot of apples and her favourite book is the Dictionary!
Mikey Ford – IT guy
Mikey became enamored with computers at the age of 5, when they had green screens and could only beep at you. This turned in to making websites for major dot coms all over the world.
Recently returning from 5 years in London working in digital agencies he is enjoying the radness Sydney has to offer and to help Mamamia’s website continue to grow and be the best.
Greatest Achievements include:
- Finishing every Mario platformer on the SNES
- Goalkeeper of the year in all age divisions for the West Dubbo Panthers in 1989
- Can do 10 pushups
Once this Internet fad goes the way of the hula hoop, Mikey wants to live on a farm cultivating tasty cured meats and write letters to people.
Tiger Hu -Web Developer
Tiger is a talented web developer and digital media specialist (known for his modesty). Tiger has worked for over a decade in leading media groups and digital agencies.