Hi, I'm Ariel! I worked at Medium for a while, and now I've returned to my life as an independent publisher.

I got my start in the mid-’90s editing a rave magazine, graduated the Columbia Publishing Course at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism in 2001, and then spent most of the ’00s in marketing, working for corporations like Microsoft, Amazon, and The Seattle Times. I started blogging in 2000, and have worked full-time as a publisher since 2007. I'm also the author of several books, including From Shitshow To Afterglow, PROS BEFORE BROS, and three editions of Offbeat Bride. My writing likes to poke at the soft places of overlap between culture, identity, relationships, and personal development.

In 2009, I went full-time with my bootstrapped digital media company, Offbeat Empire LLC. In the years since, my publications have reached about 60 million people via web and social media properties like offbeatwed.com, formerly known as Offbeat Bride.

And then I worked for Medium for a couple years, supporting my fellow indie publishers in their work on the platform.

...So yeah, that's the career stuff. (If you want more, that's what Linkedin is for!)

However, like you, I contain multitudes...

I'm a 49-year-old middle-aged, middle-class white woman. I live in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood with my 14-year-old son. I'm a dancer, a meditator, and a weekly weightlifter. I'm bisexual and currently flying solo. I'm an Enneagram 3w4 -- basically, a hard-working high-functioning eccentric. I'm simultaneously my own trophy wife and femme daddy. I have a small dog and a large collection of houseplants. Really, I'm just one more finger of the same divine hand as you. (Hello, my fellow fingers! 👋)