It Happened To Me: I Lived In A Commune-Style Share House – xoJane, 2013

This article on my former flat (or share house, as they’re known outside of Australia and New Zealand) was a lot of fun to write. Another personal story for xoJane, it describes my time living in New Zealand’s biggest share house. I really enjoy writing stories with personal angles, such as this. I find it equally as challenging and interesting to produce them as it is to read them. I hope to do more writing for xoJane in the future.

So, for an entertaining account of my three-and-a-half years of communual living on a grand scale, my brush with scabies and many, many hippies, click the images below. They’ll take you to the website where you can read the article and leave a comment (there’s over 200!).

Black & white fashion trend article – Missy Confidential, 2013

Here’s a fun article I wrote on the black and white fashion trend that I observed in the Spring/Summer 2013 ready-to-wear collections in New York Fashion Week.

I really enjoy watching trends evolve with the times, and for this article I showed how easy it is to take this high impact look from the runway to the streets with designs from Australia and around the world. Click the screenshots below to read the article on their website.

Platform Espresso profile – Broadsheet, 2013

I’m excited to be writing for Broadsheet, a quarterly newspaper and website dedicated to the best new things happening in Melbourne and Sydney.

My first piece published on their website is a profile of a cosy new cafe in Melbourne’s Glen Iris, called Platform Espresso. Check it out, try the smashed avocado! And click on the screenshots below to read the piece on their website.

South Central Los Angeles travel story – NZ Herald, 2013

I met some of the most interesting people of our whole three-month trip across the United States of America last year during our first few days in the country, in South Central Los Angeles. Catching four buses for two and a half hours from Inglewood to Santa Monica Beach may have seemed like a dodgy idea initially, but the people we encountered along the way made for a wonderful – if a bit wild – ride, and changed my impressions of the city.

I’m excited to have been able to share my story with the New Zealand Herald! Click on the screenshots below to read the article on their website.

It Happened To Me: I Can’t Drive – xoJane, 2013

Jane Pratt’s website xoJane has been a daily read for me for the past six months, its riveting combination of intimate blog-style writing and real, relatable stories on everything from BDSM to beauty products has inspired a cult-like following, including myself and many, many others. So naturally I was excited when I became aware of the opportunity to make use of my obsession and push myself with my writing.

I submitted this story to their “It Happened To Me” section, which comprises raw, real-life stories from people all over the world. It was the most challenging story I’ve ever written, and very personal. But I found it so rewarding to share it with a publication I am so excited by and respect so much, and I think ultimately it will help me grow as a writer. I have submitted another story to xoJane which has yet to be published, and hope to do more for them in the the future.

Click on the screenshots below to read the article on their website.

Baltimore travel story- New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, 2012

Last year I travelled across the United States of America for three months from LA to NYC, visiting 16 cities and other small places along the way. My boyfriend and I travelled by train, bus and occasionally plane, encountering (among other things) a naked hippy cult with a shaman in Oakland, an elderly African man who hadn’t a clue where New Zealand was (and didn’t realise the South Pole existed) in South Central LA, radical punks and moneyed matriarchs in New York City and a lot of mind-blowing vegetarian and vegan food. It was so much fun and I can’t wait to share more of my adventures! But for now here’s a travel story I wrote on Baltimore for New Zealand Woman’s Weekly. It was published in their December 24 issue!

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Backpacks Are Back! - Missy Confidential, 2012

Since August I have been writing trend-related fashion articles for Missy Confidential, an Australian fashion website. I am also currently developing a series of articles on fashion and styling solutions for them, which will start to run in late January. But for now, here’s my first article, titled ‘Backpacks Are Back!’ Click on the screenshot below to read the article on their website.

Facebook couples’ pages – Essential Groom, 2012

I have been writing regularly for Australian website Essential Groom since October. Along with informative articles for men getting married, I write news-based pieces. Here’s one I wrote about the new Facebook couples’ pages. Click on the screenshot below to read the article on their website.

Dallas Clayton – No magazine, 2010

I interviewed children’s book author and illustrator Dallas Clayton about his inspirational debut, An Awesome Book, for No magazine, a quarterly arts magazine based in Auckland, New Zealand.

Rocket-powered unicorns, watermelon boats and cars that run on jellybeans are just some imaginings that Los Angelino Dallas Clayton shares in An Awesome Book. Schooled in Shel Silverstein, Dr. Seuss and John Steinbeck, Clayton put pen to paper two years ago to write and draw An Awesome Book in the hopes of helping his now six-year-old son Audio follow his own dreams. Now he’s inspiring countless others around the world to do the same.

“I wanted to write a book for my son while he was still young enough to appreciate it, so I decided to write a kids book a day. An Awesome Book was my first one. It took me about 30 minutes to write and about nine months to complete. Longest ‘day’ ever.”

It sold out in a week, and has now sold close to 40,000 copies, but roughly the same amount has been given away for free on his promotional reading tours.

“When I first decided to go on tour I looked at all the ways authors read at schools and bookstores, and all of the models involved making kids buy the books. I knew that I didn’t ever want to be somewhere – a school or shop or kids’ hospital – and have to see kids that got to buy the book and kids that didn’t. That’s the last thing I want, some kid in the back of the room who can’t afford the book.

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CMJ New Music Report, 2010

I was commissioned by New Zealand on Air to write the New Zealand Music Report for CMJ’s New York-based magazine, CMJ New Music Report.