Mia Freedman

Columnist, author, blogger and media personality

Popular columnist, author, blogger and media personality, Mia Freedman has been called the voice of her generation.

As the former Editor of Cosmopolitan, Cleo and Dolly and chair of the National Body Image Advisory group, she continues to be a high profile advocate for a more realistic portrayal of women in the media.

Mia's engaging personality, and impressive knowledge in print and social media, and insight into issues surrounding women in the media and in the workforce, have placed her in high demand as a speaker.

She talks with passion and conviction about harnessing the power of social media and using social media to boost your business. Mia's own story of dazzling career highs and devastating personal lows is also highly inspirational and thought provoking.

About Mia Freedman:

Mia Freedman began her career doing work experience at Cleo magazine aged 19. Five years later, she became the youngest editor in Cosmopolitan's global empire of 55 titles.

In the seven years she edited Cosmo, Mia took the magazine to the number one position in circulation, readership and ad revenue in the young women's market.

Mia Freedman was named Editor of the Year by her peers in the Magazine Publishers Association in 2000. Mia's proudest initiative was her Body Love policy whereby Cosmo banned diets and started including women up to size 16 in every issue.

Mia Freedman also launched the successful spin-off titles Cosmo Brides, Cosmo Pregnancy and Cosmo Hair & Beauty.

Having begun her career as a magazine work experience girl aged 19, Mia Freedman now embraces old and new media with her acclaimed Sunday newspaper column, regular TV appearances, award-winning website mamamia.com.au and the highest number of Twitter followers of any journalist in Australia.

Her second book, Mama Mia A Memoir Of Mistakes, Motherhood & Magazines was released in 2009 and details her rise to the top of the media tree and the surprising things she learned personally and professionally when she decided to walk away from her high-flying corporate life to pursue a different kind of happiness.

Mia Freedman talks about:

Harnessing the Power of Social Media: When Mia Freedman used her website and Twitter to break news about the slogan t-shirts being sold at Cotton On Kids, her post went viral immediately. Within six hours, the company backed down and issued a statement withdrawing them from sale. An intriguing case study into how social media can make or break a brand.

Using Social Media To Boost Your Business: If Mia Freedman had $1 for every time someone asked her "what's the point of Twitter?" she'd be Bill Gates. As the journalist with the highest number of Twitter followers in Australia and a website with more readers than most magazines, find out how social media can be harnessed for fun and profit.

Motivation/Inspiration Mia Freedman was always in a hurry to kick her big life goals. So when she became editor of Cosmopolitan at 24 and had a baby a few months later, she thought she was right on track.
But when things unexpectedly fell apart, she was forced to face a few uncomfortable truths about who she was and what she wanted to do with her life.

Over the next decade, she would experience some dazzling career highs and some devastating personal lows. She would lose all her confidence and then - eventually - find it again in an unexpected place. She would make mistakes at work and at home and she would learn some surprising lessons about what made her happy.