May 8, 2013
Bio The path that led her to this point
I am a born and bred Melbournite who has been treating shopping as an Olympic sports since birth.
It wasn’t until I saw the movie ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ though that I decided I wanted to turn my life long hobby into a career in women’s magazines (free clothes, very little actual work being done, and motorcycle rides with Matthew McConaughey - who didn’t want that job?!).
Sadly my careers counsellor at high school seemed to think that getting into magazines was “very hard”, and they suggested I try for something a bit more achievable.
I studied Business and Marketing at Swinburne University instead (and I am glad I did actually, because the one journalism subject I tried at Uni was probably my worst subject… and it was boring!).
Straight after finishing my last exam I jumped on a plane and headed to the UK where I landed a role in a marketing company, and that was that.
Or so I thought.
After about 12 months I was bored - I hated dealing with clients, and I was dying to do something more creative.
I came up with an idea for a features article one day, and it really stuck with me, so I thought ‘What the hell’ and I decided to pitch it to some magazines.
I emailed every publication I could think of, both in Australian and the UK. Everything from the local council newsletter, to Vogue.
I got over 40 knock backs. And then finally it was picked up by Cosmopolitan UK.
Writing that article (and then seeing my name in print), was the most fun I had had in a long time, and I just knew that that was what I was supposed to be doing (not proof reading Mobile phone ads!!).
I decided to leave the UK and come home to Australia to try and make it in magazines (via a 3 month internship at a television station in Florence, I needed some CV fodder after all… I also needed a tan!)
To get my foot in the door I decided to set up a monthly online fashion magazine with a friend. It was very rough (we did all the web design in Microsoft Publisher!), this was before “blogging” and it really helped me make an impression - eventually landing me a role as Sub-Editor at New Woman magazine.
For almost four years I worked in/for various women’s glossies in Sydney (including Shop Til You Drop, New Woman (RIP), Grazia.com.au (also RIP) and FHM (… maybe I am a jinx?)), and then in 2007 I decided to take a punt on this whole new-fangled online shopping thing.
I set up DDGdaily.com (an online magazine dedicated to all the gorgeous things you can do and buy online) – and haven’t looked back since.
I was even crowned as one of Anthill's 30 under 30 entrepreneurs for my efforts in 2010.
