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Mia Freedman

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Mia Freedman
Born (1971-10-01) 1 October 1971 (age 53)
Education
Occupations
  • Journalist
  • Editor
  • Television personality
  • Writer
  • Internet entrepreneur
Spouse
Jason Lavigne
​
(m. 1998)​
Children3
Parents
  • Laurence Freedman AM (father)
  • Kathy Freedman (mother)

Mia Freedman, also known as Mia Lavigne,[2] (born 1 October 1971[3]) is the co-founder of women’s digital media company Mamamia. She was the youngest editor of the Australian edition of Cosmopolitan in 1996, aged 24.

Career

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Freedman began her career at Cleo, doing work experience at the age of 19. Her first paid job in media was as Cleo's beauty editor and she stayed at Cleo for five years working her way up to the position of features editor. She left Cleo in 1995 and spent several months as a freelance features writer for magazines including Marie Claire, New Weekly and Who Weekly. In 1996, aged 24 years, she became editor of Australian Cosmopolitan magazine, the youngest editor of Cosmopolitan's 58 international editions.[4]

Freedman is also the founder, publisher and editorial director of Australian women’s website Mamamia.[5] In 2012, Freedman also launched an Australian edition of parenting website iVillage.[6] This was rebranded as The Motherish in June 2015.[7] All content for The Motherish was folded into Mamamia by November 2015.[8]

Freedman has appeared regularly as a commentator on Today[9] on the Nine Network and Ten's The Project.[10] In 2009 Freedman was appointed Chair of the Australian Government's National Body Image Advisory Group by Minister for Sport and Youth, Kate Ellis.[11]

Freedman has written four books, including Work Strife Balance, where Luca, her 19-year-old son, contributed a chapter describing his mother as having "no filter".[12][13]

Freedman executive produced, with others, the comedic drama TV series Strife, which was inspired by Freedman’s memoir Work, Strife, Balance. The series Strife was written and adapted from Freedman's memoir by Australian screenwriter Sarah Scheller.[14] The comedic drama tells the story of a modern, imperfect woman and publisher named Evelyn Jones, played by acclaimed Australian actress Asher Keddie, and her journey from lounge room blogger to becoming a force in women’s media.[15] Strife is a Binge original series, released in December 2023.

Personal life

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Freedman is the only daughter of Laurence Freedman AM, a funds manager and chairman of The Freedman Foundation, and his wife, Kathy, a psychologist and art gallery owner. Freedman was raised Jewish and grew up in Sydney. She attended Ascham School.[16]

In 1998, Freedman married Jason Lavigne, with whom she has three children. In 1999, Freedman had a miscarriage and spent two years in therapy, separated from Lavigne.[9] In 2020 it was reported that Freedman and Lavigne purchased an A$12.75 million house in Point Piper.[17]

In 2021, Freedman was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Freedman disclosed this one year later, in September 2022, in a 2-part essay published on the website Mamamia[18][19] and in an episode of the No Filter podcast.[20] Previously, in 2015 Freedman disclosed in an interview that she suffers from an anxiety disorder.[9]

In 2023, Freedman's son Luca Lavigne married Mamamia executive editor Jessie Stephens.[21][22] The couple's first child, Freedman's grand-daughter, Luna, was born later that year.[23]

Published works

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  • The new black. Pymble, NSW: HarperCollins Publishers. 2005. ISBN 0732281881.
  • Mama Mia: a memoir of mistakes, magazines and motherhood. Pymble, NSW: HarperCollins Publishers. 2009. ISBN 9780732281892.
  • Mia culpa. Camberwell, Victoria: Penguin Group Australia. 2011. ISBN 9780670075515.
  • Work strife balance. Sydney, NSW: Pan Macmillan Australia. 2017. ISBN 9781925479935.

References

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  1. ^ Keenan, Catherine (23 August 2009). "Being Mia". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  2. ^ Macken, Lucy (10 July 2015). "Mamamia's Mia Freedman to buy Bellevue Hill house for about $12 million". Domain. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  3. ^ [1] Archived 4 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Mia Freedman" (streaming audio). Conversations with Richard Fidler (Interview). Interviewed by Richard Fidler. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 19 February 2010.
  5. ^ "The Mamamia Team". Mamamia. Archived from the original on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  6. ^ "Alana House to edit iVillage weeks after getting sack for protesting Woman's Day story". mUmBRELLA. 31 January 2013.
  7. ^ "Mamamia rebrands iVillage, takes full ownership of the site". Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  8. ^ "'Mummy blogs are almost over': Mamamia scraps network approach and launches Instagram-style app and consultancy business". Mumbrella. 24 November 2015. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  9. ^ a b c Cadzow, Jane (24 June 2015). "There's something about Mia Freedman". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  10. ^ Jabour, Birdie (17 October 2014). "Mia Freedman apologises after making gay-paedophile analogy". Guardian Australia. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  11. ^ "New code to promote positive body image". Courier-Mail. Brisbane. Australian Associated Press. 27 October 2009. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  12. ^ Hooten, Amanda (26 April 2017). "Mia Freedman: 'I have inadvertently shared too much'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  13. ^ "Why Mia Freedman doesn't strive for balance". The Daily Telegraph. Australia. 31 May 2017. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  14. ^ "Asher Keddie begins production on Strife | TV Tonight". TV Tonight | Australia's Leading TV Blog. 26 March 2023. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  15. ^ "Strife (2023) - The Screen Guide - Screen Australia". Screen Australia. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  16. ^ Landsman, Lexi (5 November 2009). "Mia Freedman's revealing new book". Australian Jewish News. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  17. ^ Macken, Lucy (13 October 2020). "Mamamia's Mia Freedman buys $12.75 million Point Piper house". Domain. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  18. ^ Freedman, Mia (15 September 2022). "'There's a loneliness that comes from knowing you're too much.' What happened when I was diagnosed with ADHD at 49". Mamamia. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  19. ^ Freedman, Mia (15 September 2022). "The lateness. The interrupting. The talking too much. How an ADHD diagnosis at 49 made shocking sense". Mamamia. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  20. ^ mamamia-team (19 September 2022). "No Filter: What happened when I was diagnosed with ADHD at 49". Mamamia. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  21. ^ Jessie Stephens (17 November 2022). "My boss is about to become my mother-in-law. So I wrote a list of 7 rules for her to follow". Mamamia. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  22. ^ Jessie Stephens (14 June 2023). "'I got married at 6 months pregnant. Here's what I wish someone told me.'". Mamamia. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  23. ^ Jessie Stephens (17 August 2023). "JESSIE STEPHENS: Why it's so hard to tell the truth, the whole truth, about the first six weeks". Mamamia. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
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