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Featured Writers

Emily Smith

I write, create content and edit for a variety of brands, publications and individuals in the nutrition, fitness and wellness space, including MamaMia, Good Food Australia, Emilia Thompson PhD, The …

Stefanie Reilly

Public relations practitionerFreelance writer and copywriterCasual public relations academic tutor

Gina Rushton

Emily McGrorey

Of all the websites, on all the internet, you clicked into mine. How about that? Emily McGrorey (that's me!) is a freelance writer. Her work has been featured in The …

Alyssa Forato

SEO Copywriter and Editorial Journalist

Shannen Findlay

A Queensland-based journalist and writer with more than five years of writing, podcasting, social media production and native content experience in the media industry. I graduated from Macleay College in …

Latest Articles

The 7 cultural experiences you wouldn’t expect to find in the USA.

The nifty thing about a country as vast and diverse as the USA is that no two visits will ever look the same.Sure, there are some absolute must-sees and bucket-list experiences that most tourists will have heard of — I’m talking about The Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls and of course, …

By Hannah Vanderheide
29th July 2024 • Mamamia

A journalist attended 'Ballerina Farm'. What she discovered was less than idyllic.

Share Leave a comment Mumfluencer Hannah Neeleman is having her moment. The content creator has over 13.2 million followers across TikTok and Instagram, and welcomed her eighth child in February, in a home birth surrounded by her husband and children.Hannah and her family call Ballerina Farm home. They are ranchers. …

By Shannen Findlay
26th July 2024 • Mamamia

No, you're not imagining it. Australian homes are exceptionally cold right now.

The cold weather seems to roll around quicker every single year. Our coats get pulled out of their vacuum storage bags, the emergency umbrella gets stowed into our handbag and, more importantly, the extra doona (or the electric blanket) comes out of its spot, squirreled away at the back of …

By Shannen Findlay
23rd June 2024 • Mamamia

'I've moved 23 times in 25 years and learned one thing.'

I'm the child of serial renters.My family would plop down in one suburb, in one city, in one state and make a life there until a year or two had gone by and then, for some reason or another, we'd pack up everything that mattered and move somewhere else. All …

By Shannen Findlay
10th June 2024 • Mamamia

'He bought my toenail clippings for $3700': Inside the world of a financial dominatrix.

The first time Minki Minna heard about financial domination was on a podcast years ago. The 23-year-old knew instantly it was something she was interested in and when she started OnlyFans two years ago, her foray into the kink happened rather naturally. "People would find me," she tells Mamamia. "Financial …

By Shannen Findlay
1st June 2024 • Mamamia

'The 3-step method that transformed my frizzy hair.'

I've been a frizzy-haired girl since the beginning of time. I may live in one of the most beautiful places on earth here in Sydney, but that means I'm at the mercy of what I consider to be merciless weather. Read: Humid, dry and (for the most part) indecisively hot …

By Shannen Findlay
31st May 2024 • Mamamia

'If you do this with your bins, it tells me one very specific thing about you.'

We smelt it before we saw it. The soft, mushy outline of disposable nappy after disposable nappy, haphazardly dumped in our red rubbish bin — so many that the lid could not close properly. My housemate gagged at the smell of old pee and baby poop that travelled up to …

By Shannen Findlay
28th May 2024 • Mamamia

'The men I'm dating aren't on social media. I think I know why.'

For the last two months, I have dated someone who isn't on social media. No Facebook. No active Instagram account. No Snapchat or even a LinkedIn. We met by accident and then a few days later, we met up on purpose. But in the time it took for him to …

By Shannen Findlay
25th May 2024 • Mamamia

We've found the best shoes for women with wide feet.

Any person with bigger feet knows just what a nightmare it can be to shop for shoes. We all want to feel confident with what we wear — and that includes what we put on our feet — but unfortunately, finding sandals, sneakers, flats or heels that look cute and …

By Shannen Findlay
25th May 2024 • Mamamia

The 'snow globe' theory explains why all your conversations feel off at the moment.

Do your conversations feel off? Stifled? A little... lacklustre? Or do you feel like no one is really listening to you?Turns out there's an explanation for why so many people have lost the art of conversation and it comes down to the snow globe theory. The world of social media …

By Shannen Findlay
24th May 2024 • Mamamia

The 'snow globe' theory explains why all your conversations feel off at the moment.

Do your conversations feel off? Stifled? A little... lacklustre? Or do you feel like no one is really listening to you?Turns out there's an explanation for why so many people have lost the art of conversation and it comes down to the snow globe theory. The world of social media …

By Shannen Findlay
24th May 2024 • Mamamia

If there's one conversation to start with your kids, make it this.

Some of the most magical moments in parenting or mentoring kids are the conversations we have with them. The stories your two-year-old tells in babbling run-on sentences. Hearing the third grader in your class explain the nature of gravity with such enthusiasm and delight. Talking with the teens you coach …

By Hannah Vanderheide
23rd May 2024 • Mamamia

Why we should be focusing on glimmers in the 'hard years' of parenting.

It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times and just when your head can’t take one more hours-long whine-athon, your little people go exploding your heart with paralysing joy. Last Wednesday, I got a call from a frazzled friend (also a working mum of an almost three-year-old) to …

By Hannah Vanderheide
13th May 2024 • Mamamia

Why we should be focusing on glimmers in the 'hard years' of parenting.

Early parenthood, amirite?It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times and just when your head can’t take one more hours-long whine-athon, your little people go exploding your heart with paralysing joy.Last Wednesday, I got a call from a frazzled friend (also a working mum of an almost three-year-old) …

By Hannah Vanderheide
13th May 2024 • Mamamia

Daisy Shelton was murdered 61 years ago. A death bed confession led to finding her killers.

Daisy Shelton's murder puzzled police for more than 60 years.The case surrounding the disappearance and killing of the 43-year-old mother began in June 1964, when a man fishing at a gravel pit in Western Ohio caught a human arm.The next day, divers found the other arm, and a full-blown recovery …

By Shannen Findlay
5th May 2024 • Mamamia

'This is the list I followed that helped me decide whether to quit my job.'

It can sometimes feel impossible to know decide whether to stay in a job or leave.For Alisha Burns, the decision was made for her when she had a baby by herself, with the help of a donor sperm."I had changed so much in the year I took off after having …

By Shannen Findlay
5th May 2024 • Mamamia

Connie Converse wrote a letter to a friend saying she wanted a 'fresh start'. Then she vanished.

In the summer of 1974, Connie Converse was getting ready to turn 50.She packed up her Volkswagen Beetle, sent off letters to family and friends, and drove away from the Michigan town of Ann Arbor — the place where she had lived and spent more than a decade remaking herself …

By Shannen Findlay
21st April 2024 • Mamamia

The 7 best foundations for the full-coverage girlies.

I've never personally been able to nail the 'clean girl', 'natural', 'your skin but better' makeup.Rather, I've always preferred a 'cake-face', 'excessive', 'heavy' look. Call me what you like, but you have to agree my skin looks pretty flawless. In saying that, I've had to go through a lot of …

By Shannen Findlay
7th April 2024 • Mamamia

'I stopped getting my nails done years ago because of this viral hack.'

I've never been one to have nice natural nails. Ever since I was a child, I would bite and pick at my nails until there was nothing left for my little teeth or fingers to grip onto (my mum even has a photo of me from when I was a …

By Alyssa Forato
23rd March 2024 • Mamamia

We need to talk about the cost of divorce in 2024.

Talking about divorce when you’re in a happy marriage can feel a bit like planning for your death on your sweet 16th — it just feels… wrong. But, much like making a will (while we’re here, take this as your cue to get on that), becoming divorce-literate is one of …

By Hannah Vanderheide
29th February 2024 • Mamamia

Always feel like crying on your birthday? There's a reason why.

I recently turned 42. It’s a bit of a blah number, sure. But for the most part, I'm not particularly bothered by getting older. Having unexpectedly lost a friend when we were both 39, every subsequent year feels like something to be especially grateful for, which I am. Be that …

By Emily McGrorey
29th December 2023 • Mamamia

'Our three-year-old son has a brain tumour. There's still so many moments of joy.'

After Henry, who was just two at the time, fell over and hit his head while chasing a bird, he was taken to hospital for tests as a precaution. But the results revealed something much worse than Alex and Mark could've ever imagined – there was tumour the size of …

By Hannah Vanderheide
1st November 2023 • Mamamia

‘My daughter was fat shamed by a stranger. She's 2.’

*Kayla was sitting with her little girl, freshly two years old, sharing a pastry on the bench at the playground. It was a sunny Wednesday and the two were having a lovely snack break when an older woman strolled past and remarked, “She’d better slow down on those with a …

By Hannah Vanderheide
14th September 2023 • Mamamia

'I was forced to completely rethink how I exercise in my 40s. I wish I'd done it sooner.'

I firmly believed I had to end up red-faced and dripping in sweat every time I exercised or it didn’t count. This new program has turned all that on its head. I don’t feel like I’m going to my edge every time I train, but I’m getting great results and …

By Emily McGrorey
1st September 2023 • Mamamia

Move over love languages, what you really need to understand is relationship 'fight styles'.

When you think of healthy relationships, chances are the first thing that comes to mind isn’t conflict. However, according to podcaster, author, life coach and former monk, Jay Shetty, being aware of how you and your partner ‘fight’ is a key component to any successful partnership. Shetty believes that just …

By Emily McGrorey
27th August 2023 • Mamamia

'I just got rid of the last of our baby gear and it made me ridiculously happy. Here’s why.'

It’s been one of those jobs I’ve been avoiding for months, unable to cross it off my to-do list no matter how many weeks in a row it appeared. In hindsight, I guess I’d been avoiding it because a) it’s time-consuming and b) it requires a reasonable amount of energy. …

By Emily McGrorey
20th August 2023 • Mamamia

‘I’m a dietitian with endometriosis. Here’s what I’d love you to know.’

By Alex Davies
19th August 2023 • Mamamia

'Can exercise snacking really change your life? I tried it for a week.'

By Alex Davies
13th August 2023 • Mamamia

Millennials are hitting middle age. Here's what they want Gen Z to know.

In a society that lauds youth and beauty above much else, especially where women are concerned, ageing is something that makes many of us uncomfortable. We’re told the pretty are privileged and women of a certain age become invisible. So, understandably, we worry. About our place in this culture when …

By Emily McGrorey
11th August 2023 • Mamamia

I spent 22 years not knowing how to style my hair. Then I tried the 'bowl method'.

This process is popular among people whose curls usually look like stringy spaghetti, or refuse to form without a little extra help. A lot of people who grew up thinking they have wavy hair (like me) are using the 'bowl method' to find out that their hair has actually been …

By Alyssa Forato
19th July 2023 • Mamamia