The five things every new parent should know and other hilarious columns
I’ve written some columns recently that are dear to my heart – after all, who doesn’t enjoy trying to mention vaginas as much as possible in one article?
The first one – Five Thing Every Parent With a New Baby Should Know – goes into unnecessarily graphic detail about the birthing process before sharing my five essential parenting tools for anyone with a newborn. This includes Dunstan’s Baby Language, which is so amazing that I’m still perplexed as to why it’s not more widely known. It’s also got Dr Harvey Karp’s Happiest Baby on the Block technique.
Incidentally, for anyone with a toddler, Dr Karp’s toddler technique is equally awesome – although my friend reports that her toddler has now learned the magic formula and is starting to game the system. Another reminder that we’re basically dealing with tiny sociopaths here.
I also did one about My Favourite Time Saving Tips for New Mothers, which will really blow your mind with quite how far I’ve fallen since bringing humans into this world. Just reading it makes me want to take a shower. Luckily I had one last night.
Parentdish archive classics
Back in the dawn of man 2.0 when I was helping AOL to set up its blogging division, I spent some time as launch editor of Parentdish UK . As luck would have it, I was actually pregnant at the time, so *almost* knew what I was talking about. One thing I did know about was being pregnant. Here are a couple of pieces I wrote back then
10 Weird Pregnancy Symptoms They Don’t Warn You About
Even More Weird Pregnancy Symptoms
I had a LOT of these symptoms – some of which I’d actually forgotten about and am re-living all over again as I read this articles. Brr.
Yes, another Katie Lee blog
Because I thought to myself “you just don’t have enough poorly tended personal blogs kicking around the internet”.
But this one has a simple premise: a place to collect all the witty, insightful, clever, brilliant and sometimes terrifying words I write for one of my websites, or a client’s website, or a newspaper or magazine.
Just anything at all that I may have written at some point in my life.
I’m slowly adding everything. It may take some time: I’ve written a LOT of internet.
Enjoying the Slow Life with Jorg & Olif
I’ve been having a lovely time editing a Slow Life Magazine for the wonderful Jorg & Olif, a Dutch Bicycle company.
This is a perfect fit for me, since it gives me the chance to write about things like:
- How to buy a wood
- An AMAZING yurt-filled campsite in Norway, where you can have a bath outside.
- Zenware and the art of clutter-free computing — how to get rid of all the distractions and actually get work done.
- Lovely bicycle panniers from New LOOXS, a Dutch bicycle accessories company.
- How to give to charity for free
- Riverford vs Abel & Cole. The best organic delivery box scheme
- Could you live in a tiny house?
- Five of the best alternative social networks
- How to form good habits
All of these articles are dream pieces, combining online geekery, camping, Dutch stuff (when not buying Dutch tents, I’m buying Dutch child seats for bicycles), a long-standing obsession with the Small House Movement, lifehacking and general eco-worrying.
If you want to read more of my pieces for Jorg & Olif (and don’t worry, I don’t write the whole site — otherwise it would just be a laundry list of my current obsessions) you can check out the Katie Lee author page.
It’s a great example of brands owning their own media, with a remit to cover anything related to the Slow Life Movement — even if that means writing about and linking to other bicycle brands.
Jorg & Olif is a great company, with true vision and a fantastic ethic. I’m proud to be working with them.
Slow Life Movement Magazine on Jorg & Olif.
Guest editing Dollymix and other Shiny columns
I always link to my freelance stuff on here, but never the columns I write for Shiny Media blogs. It’s time to redress that balance!
I’m currently guest-editing Dollymix, our online women’s magazine, while the editor, Cate Sevilla is away on holiday. I’m really enjoying myself. You can read my byline columns here.
I’m writing a column for Bridalwave about trying to plan an eco-friendly wedding. You can read the first three here: Venue, Rings, The Flowers
I’ve also written a couple of columns for Shiny Shiny: My Favourite Wastes of Time | Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – you name it, I’ve got a toolbar for it.
and Crafty Crafty: Top 5 ways to deal with a Craft Slump | Why I’m never crocheting anyone any presents ever again.
Oh, and I did a piece for TV Scoop about how much I love The Palace.
Look Magazine – Life Consultancy
I’ve been writing Look Magazine’s gadget column for the past year now. I’m really impressed that a women’s magazine has not only included a regular, weekly gadget and tech column, but that they have allowed me to write some really quite geeky things without complaining.
Thanks Look Magazine people!
Current Freelance Stuff
Since running Shiny Media now takes up most of my time, I don’t do quite as much freelance writing. However, regular stuff I’m still doing includes:
Observer Woman – gadgets column
Voyager – BMI’s in-flight magazine – gadgets column
Custom PC Big in Japan column
And lots of stuff for Woman & Home magazine.
I’m also working on a special new project for a big publishing house. More details to come!
Katie’s Yoga Flames – For the Indy on Sunday Review
I made a video for my Independent on Sunday Review photography column. This month it was about shooting video on your digital camera and here is my attempt:
Regular Column in Observer Woman
Just a quick note to say that I’m now doing a regular gadget section in Observer Woman magazine, the latest monthly mag from the Observer.
Independent on Sunday Review – Blogging
I got told off the other day for not updating this site enough, so here’s a link to a piece I wrote for my IOS Review column about photoblogging and moblogging. Thanks to Matt the moblogger for scanning it and sticking it up. And you can see my photoblog here And my moblog here
All about me
So who am I anyway?
Specialities:
Blogging and social media
Product development, content creation and management
Creative commercial campaigns
Web 2.0 futurology and consultancy
Women’s media
Publishing
Technology
Co-Founder Shiny Media
I co-founded Shiny Media, the UK’s biggest blog publishing company in 2004 with 3.1million unique users a month (you can read the full blurb about Shiny Media over on our company blog). In 2007 we took investment from Bright Station Ventures.
Editorial Director, Shiny Media
As editorial director, I created and launched over 35 blogs for the network with titles across the Lifestyle, Fashion, Technology, Games and Sports sectors. I managed a team of 11 in-house editors and more than 50 freelance writers and editors. Some of our flagship blogs include Tech Digest, Catwalk Queen,, TV Scoop and Shoewawa.
I was also founding editor of Shiny Shiny back in 2004 (the world’s first gadgets blog aimed at women), which now receives over 300,000 uniques a month.
Commercial campaigns
I worked on many commercial campaigns for blue chip advertisers, creating bespoke, web-friendly partnerships with clients such as Vodafone (Vodafone Live Guy, Vodafone Live Shopping), LG (The LG Media Talent Award, City Clickers) and Cisco (Digital Cribs). Both the LG and Cisco campaigns were extended into Europe using our relationships with European blog networks.
Journalist
I started life as a technology writer, producing a monthly column for the The Independent on Sunday Review, The Observer and Custom PC. I have also written for Woman & Home, Mobile Choice, Stuff, T3, Marie Claire, PC Pro, Blueprint, the Guardian, FHM, Dazed & Confused, and most of the daily newspapers.
I’ve made numerous TV and Radio appearances, including The Gadget Show (discussing gadgets for women), Something for the Weekend, Radio 5 Live, Radio One, Radio Four and 6Music.
I still accept freelance work that interests me and currently write a weekly column for Look Magazine.
You can find out more about my freelance work by clicking on this Freelance link.
