One day in early May, Melburnian Jacob Turner put on a suit of armour and filmed a seven second TikTok video to an audio track. He asked what the viewer would do if he showed up to a date looking like that. The next day, the 25-year-old security officer had 1000 followers, and he has just celebrated reaching 100,000 followers (and counting) and 1.6 million likes across his account. “It’s really just gone up since then,” Jacob – who goes by @mr._brightside__ on Tik Tok – says

Poppy Reid. Picture by Stewart Munro What drove your interest in becoming a journalist? I think I have always had quite an inquisitive nature … and it made sense to go into journalism because I loved music so much and I knew that if you love music and you can tie that into writing, a music journalist is the way to go. What do you enjoy most about working as a journalist? For me, it’s amplifying voices that don’t often get to be heard or don’t often get the space to be hear

Ben Pennings stood alone. He was 12 when he crossed the classroom floor to “vote” for Bob Hawke, who’d promised to save the Franklin River if Labor won. Pennings’ teacher was staging a mock election, asking the students their stance. The proposed damming of the Franklin River was dominating the news in Queensland during 1982, and the protests were at boiling point. Pennings and his father, a Protestant minister who religiously tuned to ABC 7.30 , were constantly reminded of

When did you realise that sports journalism was for you? In Year 8 or 9, when I realised my footy talents wouldn’t quite cut it, I thought writing about it would be the next best thing. In Year 10 there was an eight-week program run by The Geelong Advertiser for local schools that involved going into the paper and doing workshops. From there I was sold on the whole thing and at the back end of that year I got to cover the local footy. How did you gain access to the industry

“I was just at the point where I was unhappy. I’d come home and just burst into tears in front of my wife saying this isn’t how it’s meant to be.” Brett Deledio was an AFL champion. As a Richmond Tiger, he won the AFL’s rising star award in his first year, then two Jack Dyer Medals as Richmond’s best and fairest and two All-Australian blazers. But years of missing out on finals and a disappointing season took a heavy toll on him. “Year after year of missing out on finals –

For a busy carpenter like Nick Centrone, sitting at home during the long, drawn out days of lockdown is nothing short of boring. He’s never watched so much TV in his life, and is itching to get out of the house and back to socialising and working. Luckily, Nick has his companion, Libby, by his side to keep his moods lifted every step of the way. On a crisp Melbourne morning, Nick and Libby begin their day with a takeaway coffee. “Nothing beats a morning coffee,” says Nick. “

Your career has really forged a multidisciplinary CV. Did this begin anywhere specific? It’s mostly improvised. I always wanted to be a cartoonist, or an actor, or some sort of show-off and I was at the point where I was gonna give up because being in your 40s and an aspiring cartoonist – you’ve either made it or you haven’t. What did you set out to achieve with First Dog on the Moon? The purpose of First Dog was always to do cartoons about how we need to save the world and

“The big moment … was when Colin O’Riordan left Tipperary to go play at the Sydney Swans when he was 18.” Aisling McCarthy, a native of County Tipperary and a star of Gaelic Football, says her interest in Aussie Rules began in that moment. “When I got to see some of the clubs and play a bit of the game, that’s when I thought, you know what, if the opportunity comes up to play, I really do want to.” Currently back home in Ireland following the abrupt end of the 2020 AFL Women

How did you become interested in journalism? I was interested in newspapers and writing for as long as I can explicitly remember. There was a day when the Southern Aurora train between Melbourne and Sydney crashed. I was only nine and I remember hearing about it and then reading about it on the front of The Age the next day, and being fascinated by how this calamitous event that had happened one particular day could be on the front of the paper the next day with pictures, i

“I was tagged as being gay before I knew I was … because of a completely innocent action in grade 7.” It was a chilly mid-1980s morning at Leichhardt Ward Boys State School in Rockhampton when Blair Martin noticed a friend of his had goosebumps. “I just thought that looked fabulous. I just ran my hand over his leg. That was it, and that carried with me through high school,” he says. It was something that was not acceptable in that environment. “My mother said at one point, ‘

Freelancer Jamie Seidel How did you get into Journalism? Completely by accident. By Year 12, I hadn’t done the required work experience, and they said: “Why don’t you just apply for The Adelaide Advertiser ? It’s the hardest one out there, and it ticks all the boxes.” It was 1987 and they had between 600 and 800 applicants for The Advertiser’s cadetships each year. The process was designed to assess how people operated under pressure. It was me, the editor, chief of staff

What was your initial job in journalism? I got lucky because I was doing a lot of free work for the Northern footy league in 2011. I’d drive out to Montmorency or Heidelberg or anywhere sort of in the Northern suburbs on a Saturday, in the middle of winter. Like looking back on it, it was brutal, unpaid, and I’d write a match report from the game, interview both coaches after the match, go home, write the report and send it in. Why do you like what you do? At the Fox Footy