Mia Freedman

Mia Freedman is the co-founder and creative director of Mamamia, a Women’s Media Company with an audience of millions. The former Editor in Chief of Australian Cosmopolitan, she has also been Editor in Chief of Cosmo, Cleo and Dolly.

Mia regularly appears on television as a panelist and commentator. She has been recognised as one of Australia’s Most Influential Women by the Australian Financial Review.

Mia’s insights into the world of media, her in-depth knowledge of social media and her role as an advocate for women make her an exceptional keynote speaker for government, business, community groups and schools.

The Mamamia Media company began as a personal blog in Mia Freedman’s lounge room in 2007 after she left a successful 15 year career in traditional media, most notably as the youngest ever Editor in Chief of Australian Cosmopolitan, a job she landed at just 24 after starting at Cleo magazine as an intern at age 19. By 2004 Mia had become editor in chief of Cosmo, Cleo and Dolly and was well known for her body image advocacy.

She was the first and only magazine editor to include women of all shapes, sizes and nationalities in every issue. In 2008 she was appointed chair of the National Body Image Advisory Group by the Federal Government.

Having built her career around creating communities of women in magazines then worked briefly in television as an executive and to launch a daily women’s panel show at Channel 9, Mia sniffed the wind of traditional media and knew its future was online. She ejected herself from executive life in 2007 and launched a women’s website, Mamamia.com.au from her lounge room while wearing her pyjamas. From politics and feminism to pelvic floors and pop culture, Mamamia is ‘what everyone’s talking about today’.

Two years later, Mia’s husband came on board and together they grew her personal blog into an independent women’s media company. Each week, Mamamia publishes around 300 written articles, 15 podcasts and 40 videos and has a social media following of 3.5 million.

Mia appears on TV regularly as a panelist and commentator, hosts podcasts and video series for the Mamamia Women’s Network and has written four books, including Work, Strife, Balance, released in 2017.

She has been an outspoken advocate for female entrepreneurs, women in business and has been an advocate for causes as diverse as body image and domestic violence. She has been named one of Australia’s Most Influential Women by the Australian Financial Review. She has three children.