Glad you asked. Simply put….
It’s what everyone’s talking about today.
I began Mamamia.com.au after 15 years working in women’s magazines and briefly, TV. I felt those mediums were doing a lousy job of keeping up with what women want from modern media: authenticity and dialogue (as opposed to fakery and monologue which is how old media still dishes up).
I wanted a direct line to communicate with women in real time and to give them a chance to express their opinions as well as share my own.
On Mamamia we discuss everything from pop culture, politics, body image, food, motherhood, feminism, fashion and celebrity. Sometimes all in the same day.
We like to have a laugh AND a cry. We’re smart but not precious. Interested and interesting. And by ‘we’ I’m not confusing myself with the Queen. I’m referring to the tens of thousands of people in the Mamamia community who are more actively engaged and articulate than you could imagine.
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.
WHO’S WHO IN THE ZOO
Mia Freedman
Mia is Mamamia. Literally. She is the narrator and publisher of everything you see on Mamamia.com.au. In her off-line life, she’s a mother of three kids, a dog and two ducks and she’s also a writer, author, blogger, social commentator and journalist.
In a former life, she was a magazine editor. You can read about that here.
She writes a weekly column for Sunday Life magazine which is inserted into the Sun-Herald and Sunday Age. You can read those columns here. And she’s a prolific Twitterer (you can follow her here).
Mia is also a passionate advocate for Body Image and never tires of banging on about the need for media to be more diverse and realistic in their portrayal of women. She chairs the National Body Image Advisory Group which advises the federal government on this subject. You can read about that here .
She has written two books. One is a collection of her columns called The New Black which was published in 2005, the other is called Mamamia: A Memoir Of Mistakes, Magazines & Motherhood. You can order it online here or find it in a book store. What’s it about, you ask? She did a radio interview with Richard Fidler for The Conversations which you can listen to here which covers it in depth.
Lana Hirschowitz – Site Manager
Lana was destined to a life of editing and organisation when her parents named her Anal. It was just a fortuitous twist of luck that the person drawing up the birth certificate was dyslexic so she has always been known as Lana.Lana has a background in education, both having been schooled and then schooling people herself. She has also worked in administration and public relations and now has the dream job of being the Mamamia site manager and moderator.
Lana wants to be a writer when she “grows up” and also work on the fact that she cries very easily. She is married and is the mother to a very beautiful son and a very spoiled dog
In her spare time Lana writes for her own blog which lives here.
Nicky Champ Johnston - Site Coordinator
Nicky has previously worked in both fashion and design fields as a textile and graphic designer, but she realised her true passion lay in journalism and writing, after remembering she spent most of her childhood in the local library, writing her own stories and voraciously consuming books by Roald Dahl, Nancy Drew and the entire series of the Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High.
After short stints at Mania and Luxury Travel Magazine she is now a full-time site coordinator for Mamamia.
Born on the cusp of Gen X and Y, Nicky is obsessed with pop culture, fashion, health, music and occasionally attempts to play the guitar. She is also a freelance graphic designer with clients in fashion, beauty and creative industries.
Nicky is married and had a bit of trouble letting go of her maiden name, so made Champ her middle name instead!
MAMAMIA CONTRIBUTORS:
Julie Cowdroy
Julie is passionate about bringing women into the political discourse through education and raising awareness of social, global and political issues. She achieves this as a singer/songwriter (she has recorded 2 albums the second of which will be released in October 2010) and as a freelance journalist. Julie is devoted to education and is currently studying Politics and International Relations with a major in Security and Terrorism.
Julie provides Mamamia with a huge expanse of easy to read information through her brilliantly written 2minute cheat sheets and her information pieces some of which can be found here, here and here. We have tried unsuccessfully to clone her but have met with no success and so we are trying to shrink her in order to carry her around with us at all times. She really is the perfect person to have on hand during any conversation.
Julie is also an ambassador for Opportunity International Australia and is being trained as a presenter for the Global Poverty Project.
An avid fan of fashion, Julie is passionate about ensuring the production and manufacture of clothing upholds human and animal rights as well as caring for the environment. In 2008 she opened up an ethical high fashion boutique. Although the boutique is now closed, she still consults to some parts of the fashion industry on the importance of ethical fashion.
And somehow she miraculously finds the time to be a wife and a mother to two gorgeous children. She also tweets here
Kerri Sackville
Kerri Sackville began her career as an actress, but quit after she couldn’t keep away from the catering table.
She later worked in a variety of careers including social worker and recruitment consultant before becoming a freelance writer. Kerri is also the world’s funniest tweeter – you can follow her tweets here and she continues to make people laugh through her blog which you can find here
Kerri has a husband, two big kids, and a toddler who owns them all. She loves Nutella, Simon Baker’s hair and drinking coffee in Westfield, and has no idea what she’s doing most of the time.
Kerri is also a contributor to Mamamia and some of her brilliant posts can be found here, here and here. There are heaps more too. Pull up a chair and some nutella and search the site for her name because even her comments are a must read.
