• Naz Afsahi

  Naz Afsahi is currently residing in Toronto, Ontario, and hunting for her dream job. Her columns will alternate between issues relating to trans rights and commentary on race and representation. As a young feminist of colour, Naz is addicted to television, beautifying her tiny bedroom and surfing Tumblr (where she has finally started a page of her own). She holds a Master’s in Media Studies from the University of Western Ontario, and a Bachelor of Arts (Film Studies/Religious Studies) from Queen’s University.

• Jessica Balmer

  Jessica Balmer has been writing and editing for fun since forever and for money any day now. Her writing has appeared in Bitch magazine, Trot Magazine, HEART Business Journal for Women, The London Free Press and The F-Word, among others. She is a prolific, though narrowly published, poet and blogger with a penchant for tattoos, avocados and culture jamming. Jessica has an MA in Women’s Studies and Feminist Research and a BA in Women’s Studies and Media, Information, and Technoculture from the University of Western Ontario.

• Raisa Bhuiyan

  

  Raisa is slowly but surely getting the hang of writing user profiles. She currently lives in Toronto and is about to finish up a Joint BA in Political Science and Women’s Studies at York University. She discovered her fondness for writing in high school when her writer’s craft teacher challenged her to write a monologue between the ghostly personas of Sojourner Truth and a grumpy Winston Churchill discussing the politics of war using only adverbs. Since then, she’s written for the blogs and online magazines of not-for-profit organizations like TakingItGlobal: Panorama and Second Base Youth Shelter, written for campus publications like Excalibur, Macmedia, and YU Free Press, helped to organize the launch of her campus’ first feminist arts and culture magazine (Incendies) and created the first edition of an international diplomacy-focused publication called The UnMod.

• Julia Caron

  Hi! I’m julia caron, but I’m known ‘round the net under the monicker garçonnière. I’m a 24 year old queer person living in Québec City. In my years, I’ve worked as a newspaper editor, factory worker, used bookstore clerk, and film society director, to name a few. More recently, I’ve been blogging about fashion from a critical feminist perspective at my blog, a l’allure garçonnière, since 2009. I’m really excited to join the ranks of Shameless, as I’ve been a reader for years and am excited to shake things up. Here at Shameless, I’ll be taking care of Film Fridays. Seeing as one of my favourite hobbies is snuggling up on the couch with my best friends, a big bowl of popcorn and watching our favourite movies, I think the shoe will fit quite nicely.

• Nicole Cohen

  

  Nicole is the co-founder and former co-editor of Shameless and a PhD candidate in the graduate program in communication and culture at York University. She has written for a variety of independent and alternative Canadian media, and her academic work has been published in Democratic Communique, Stream, and Feminist Media Studies.

• Julia de Laurentiis Johnson

  Julia De Laurentiis Johnson is an enthusiast, particularly of magazines and events that bring magazine lovers together. She has contributed to Azure, This Magazine, The Walrus, Torontoist and Delicious and has assisted in managing the National Magazine Awards. She began contributing to Shameless in 2005 and has an MA in International Journalism from City University, London UK.

• Shoshana Erlich

  I have a pathological fear of biographies, especially the kind that have to be typed into boxes. There is no real box that holds me or all the things that I am. Stepping into one always leaves a multitude of other identities behind. I am a disabled, D(d)eaf?, queer, feminist, genderqueer who doesn’t do “shut up and look pretty” very well. I’m loud and out there and I’m not afraid to call things like I see them.

• Sarah Feldbloom

  

  Sarah Feldbloom is a journalist, community media facilitator, and maker of poems, songs, stories, food, art and fun! She has hosted and produced women’s radio shows for stations CHRY and CHMR, and collaborated on gallery, magazine and radio projects with community arts and media organizations including the Association for Media Literacy, Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre, and For the Love of Learning. Recently she returned from Malawi, where she was working with local radio and newspaper journalists to develop gender reporting initiatives. She is a contributor to publications Carousel, Herizons, OpenFile.ca, and the Toronto Star’s “Africa Without Maps” blog. Currently she’s at work on a pop-poetry “book on tape” called The Tearable Adventures of a Kodiak Broad, and figuring out a really good recipe for wheat-free, dairy-free date squares.

• Wesley Fok

  

  As the webmaster for Shameless, Wesley painstakingly created this website for your consumption by carefully gluing together the individual pixels on your screen using a very small glue stick. The pixels were sourced from a unionized fabrication plant in Louisiana and are made of equal parts light and magic. Wesley has written for The Globe and Mail and The Block.

• Ronak Ghorbani

  Since her first year at Ryerson’s School of Journalism, Ronak has worked with alternative campus press. Whether it was reporting for the Ryerson Free Press (a politically progressive campus paper) or starting the online radio show Rebel Grrrl’s Music, Ronak found solace in alt-media as it was a space for free expression. She has written for publications such as NOW Magazine, Exclaim! and rabble.ca and is a former co-Editor-in-Chief of feminist magazine McClung’s. Ronak is currently pursuing her master’s in the joint Ryerson and York Universities program Communication and Culture.

• Shaunta Grimes

  

  Shaunta Grimes has always been a writer. She tried hard to be a teacher and then a social worker, but the words would not leave her alone. She’s a fourth year student working on a BFA in writing from Goddard College. A former athlete, Shaunta’s passion is writing about athleticism and body image. You can find her thoughts on those subjects at Live Once, Juicy. She’s also a published fiction writer. Between all the words, she’s busy raising two feminist daughters and a feminist son.

• Julia Horel

  

  Julia Horel is the web director, blog and community manager at Shameless. She works in publishing and loves books, social media, spin classes, yoga, food and sleep. Her pet issues are reproductive justice and body image/size acceptance. She ditched her last diet in October 2007 and has been learning to love her body ever since. She is a member of the Toronto Action Committee of Canadians for Choice.

• Michelle Kay

  Michelle Kay is a writer and web editor in Toronto. She is also a crafter, DIY enthusiast, wanderer and mad knitter, but lately she’s traded in her knitting needles for bike tools. She has written for Broken Pencil, Ricepaper, The Coast and Shameless. Follow her on Twitter @yo_mk or http://michelle-kay.tumblr.com/.

• Erin Konsmo

  

  Erin Konsmo is a Cree, Norwegian indigenous feminist from Innisfail, Alberta. She is currently an intern for the Native Youth Sexual Health Network and the Alberta representative on the National Aboriginal Youth Council on HIV/AIDS. She is an indigenous artist, focusing on Cree art forms that incorporate traditional knowledge while telling stories of struggle, resistance, self-determination, identity and sexual and reproductive justice. She has a specific interest in the sociology of compassion and the role of social entrepreneurship in society today. She is currently taking her Master’s of Environmental Studies at York University.

• Laura Krahn

• Beth Lyons

  Beth is a young, queer, east coast feminist rabble-rouser whose primary blogging activities take place at www.abostonmarriage.com. She initially came on board to blog about the abolition of the New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women, an independent government agency she worked for up until its elimination. Her work life now consists of freelancing feminism-ing and working at rad an indoor skatepark in N.B. You can get ahold of her on twitter @bettylyons.

• Melinda Mattos

  

  Melinda is the co-founder and former co-editor of Shameless. When Melinda was a teenager, the media tried to convince her that her breasts were too small, her brain was too big and her life would be incomplete if she didn’t have a boyfriend. When she got a bit older, she fought back by starting her own teen mag. Melinda has a Bachelor of Journalism from Ryerson University and has worked at The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, TVOntario, Magazines Canada and Eye Weekly. She writes The Last Word, a column about language, for Shameless.

• Kate-Christine Miller

  Kate-Christine Miller is an artist, writer, activist, and administrator. Kate comes to the Shameless team with a background in coordination and youth programming for several arts and community organizations based in Toronto including Parkdale Project Read and Planet in Focus. She now works for the Association for Women’s Rights in Development. Kate is interested in how we can use alternative structures and play to work together better in collectives, boards, staff teams or other groups. She holds an Honours B.A. in Studio Art from the University of Guelph, a diploma in Assaulted Women’s and Children’s Counselor Advocate from George Brown College, and a certificate in group facilitation.

• Jenna Owsianik

  

  Jenna is a journalist based in Vancouver. Her reporting has appeared on Al Jazeera English, CTV British Columbia online and CKNW Radio. Get to know her better by following her on twitter.

• Meg Pirie

  

  Meg Pirie is a freelance writer in London, Ontario. Her work has been published in a number of local publications, along with forthcoming articles in two academic texts that deal with feminist filmmaking. Over time, Meg’s varied and bizarre employment experiences led to a keen interest in the many issues concerning labour and is the primary focus of her Shameless column. You can expect to also find commentary on adolescence, feminist health issues, and young adult literature. Meg holds a Master’s in Media Studies from the University of Western Ontario. In her free time, she plays with her dog Layla and reads about public transit.

• Anoushka Ratnarajah

  Anoushka is a perpetual student, artist and activist, an anti-racist feminist and a queer woman of colour.Though she is currently living in New York City completing her Masters, she is still a Vancouverite, born and raised on the Coast Salish Territories of Western Canada. A long time reader of Shameless, she is excited to join the team! Look for her insights on race, feminism and their intersections with the world.

• METRAC ReAct

  

  Respect in Action (ReAct) is a peer-to-peer youth violence prevention program that addresses violence against women and youth and supports youth and those who work with youth to challenge this violence in their own lives. ReAct is a program of METRAC, a community-based charity that prevents violence against women and youth (www.metrac.org).

• Sheila Sampath

  Sheila Sampath has worked as a counselor, organizer, educator and advocate in the anti-violence movement and has chaired the Board of Directors at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multi-cultural Women Against Rape. Currently, she combines her background in grassroots, anti-oppression activism with her passion for creative idea-making, as a Principal and Creative Director at The Public, a Toronto-based studio specializing in creative communications for unions, not-for-profits, public health and social justice organizations. Sheila has a diploma in graphic design and an Honours B.Sc. in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Toronto.

• Michelle Schwartz

  

  Michelle is a librarian, freelancer, and kvetch extraordinaire from Brooklyn, New York. She was recently transplanted to Toronto, a city that has won her heart with the triple threat of queer marriage, excellent running paths, and a vast selection of toppings available at every hotdog cart. Michelle is a photographer, writer, and Internet addict. In her free time, she watches copious amounts of television and reads books and magazines that offend her, just so that she can complain.

• Team Shameless

  Your Shameless team!

• Cate Simpson

  

  Cate grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she studied Philosophy before moving to Toronto to make her fortune in freelance journalism. She spent most of her adolescence on the internet, and very little has changed except that now sometimes being on the internet qualifies as “working.” She has written for Xtra, Eye Weekly, The List and Torontoist, and she writes a column on queer issues for This Magazine’s blog.

• deb singh

  

  deb singh is an activist warrior, settler on Turtle Island. As a queer woman of colour, she finds joy in turning her pissed-off-ness into support and love for herself and others. As an activist and counselor, deb loves co-creating work that empowers many communities. As an emerging writer, deb is grateful to be read!

• Shaunga Tagore

  

  Shaunga Tagore works as an editor on Shameless Magazine and is the Coordinator of Asian Arts Freedom School. Check out the song “Bitch” by Meredith Brooks for an accurate personality profile.

• Call Me They

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