Joanne Mallon

Freelance journalist Joanne Mallon


Click here to view Joanne Mallon's full freelance profile on Journalism.co.uk.

Why did you choose to become a freelancer?
I have been freelancing for most of my career, ever since I left journalism college. I worked in TV production for lots of chat shows including This Morning and GMTV for about 10 years then gradually moved over to print/online. I also trained as a life and career coach and now also work as a coach for people in media.

If you trained, where? If not, how did you become a freelancer?
I did a Combined Arts  degree at the University of Liverpool, then did a post grad course in Broadcast Journalism at Cardiff Journalism School at the University of Wales. After that I did several short work experience placements and then just hopped around from job to job and became a freelancer by default.

Do you specialise in any particular field and what areas do you write about?
Mainly parenting
my book Toddlers: An Instruction Manual has just been published. I also enjoy writing about family travel, and anything to do with play and toys. I am currently writing my second book which is a self help book about fear of driving. I enjoy blogging and have my own blog at Joannethecoach.com and recently started a blog co-written with my 12 year old daughter at Eljae.com – as far as we can tell it's the UK's only mother and daughter blog.

Which publications have you been published in?

My writing has appeared in The Times, Daily Express,The Guardian, easyJet Traveller, Ready for Ten, ParentDishUK, Gurgle Magazine, My Family Club, HavealovelyTime.com and Tesco magazine website. As a life coach I do lots of expert interviews and have been quoted in pretty much every publication you could think of.

Which articles, in which publication, are you the most proud of?
I did a feature for the Daily Express about how I overcame driving phobia. It had been quite a hard feature to place as editors didn't seem particularly interested in the subject, so I was glad I persevered and found a home for it. Once it was published the response was huge, and people still approach me about it today. I discovered that fear of driving is a very very widespread phobia, and this is what has led me to write a book about it.

I also really enjoyed going to the Playmobil factory in Malta last year, which I wrote about for easyJet Traveller. I found it fascinating to see how the toys start life as tiny pellets of plastic and become little figures. The corridors of the place were littered with huge bags of tiny pink heads, waiting to get made into toys.  I love stuff like that, seeing how every day objects get made.

What are the best and worst aspects of freelancing?
I like the flexibility and the ability to work from home. I have no office politics to deal with and no two days are the same, so I could be writing anything from a short blog post to a chunk of a book, or doing a radio interview. And I'm proud of the fact that I've built my career around my family. I'm not particularly technologically minded, but with the growth in online writing you can't really afford to be like that, so I've made a point of always expanding my skills in social media, SEO, vlogging etc.

The worst part is that even the most apparently secure jobs can disappear in a heartbeat, and rates are not increasing even though the cost of living is. So the search for the next job never stops. It can also be a bit isolating sometimes, which is why I set up an online group for women in media
Media Women UK.

Do you have any interesting anecdotes in relation to your experience as a freelancer?

The day after I got back from Malta, I had to go and do a video interview with Jedward for Ready for Ten. I felt like I had aged ten years during the interview, and am blaming several wrinkles on John and Edward personally.

Another memorable job last year involved sleeping on the floor of the bug house in London Zoo for The Times. We were wedged between two snakes, a nest of rats and countless bugs, and the only word of comfort the keepers could give was "Don't worry about the cockroaches, they're not interested in you". I genuinely thought it was an interesting thing to do, but a lot of people said "Oh my god, you're not doing that!?" and as the night unfolded I could sort of see what they meant.

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