Media kit for Brianna Nicole Austin — biographies at three lengths, a downloadable portrait, publication credits, and a direct line for press inquiries. Everything on this page is cleared for editorial use.
At a glance
- Name: Brianna Nicole Austin
- Role: Author, reporter, and columnist
- Beat: Transgender life, law, media, and culture
- Based: New York
- Currently: Co-founder and editor in chief, TG Life
- Writing since: the early 2000s
- Press contact: me@briannaaustin.com
Biographies
Three lengths, cleared for publication. Please use them as written rather than paraphrasing; if you need a different length, get in touch and one will be written for you.
Short — 62 words
Brianna Nicole Austin is a transgender author, reporter, and columnist who has covered transgender life since the early 2000s. She wrote the New York City column “A Bite of the Big Apple” for GIRL TALK, a monthly column for TG News, and contributed to The New York Blade and Lady Like Magazine. In 2004, she co-founded TG Life, where she is editor-in-chief.
Medium — 160 words
Brianna Nicole Austin is a transgender author, reporter, and columnist who has been documenting transgender life since the early 2000s.
She spent her first career as an entrepreneur, building companies in the transportation and entertainment industries. In 2000, after thirty-five years of dressing in private, she began writing essays about the journey she was on — and found an international readership. Within a year she was the New York columnist for GIRL TALK, where “A Bite of the Big Apple” carried her from trans club shows to Broadway, and a contributing columnist for TG News. She also contributed to The New York Blade and Lady Like Magazine.
She founded The Transgender Girls’ Club in 2001, co-hosted one of New York’s busiest monthly parties at East of Eighth, and in 2004 co-founded TG Life, the online magazine where she is editor in chief.
She writes to inform rather than argue — reporting the transgender experience plainly, and trusting readers to think for themselves.
Full — 431 words
Brianna Nicole Austin is a transgender author, reporter, and columnist who has spent more than two decades reporting on transgender life — and living it in public.
She was born a man in the baby-boomer years and, by most outward measures, played the part convincingly: an athlete, then a career entrepreneur who launched and ran a string of companies in the transportation and entertainment industries. The secret underneath it was older than any of that. Her first memory of feeling different came the afternoon her older sister dressed her up — a feeling she had no words for, only that it brought a startling sense of well-being. When her sister ran to fetch their mother, Brianna panicked and blocked the door. She went into the closet that day and stayed there, dressing in private, for another thirty-five years.
By 2000 she wanted to understand the compulsion, find its source, and — as she thought then — cure herself of it. What followed was a self-exploration she has described as pursued with almost reckless abandon. The further she came out, first inside the transgender community and later into the mainstream, the more comfortable she became. Not a girl, she says, just someone living a girl’s life, daily.
The writing began as a way of working it out, and quickly found an international following. Within a year she was the New York columnist for GIRL TALK, where her column “A Bite of the Big Apple” blended interviews, reviews, and commentary, carrying her from trans club shows and community events to mainstream Broadway. She became a contributing columnist for TG News, wrote cover articles for Transgender Community News, wrote features for LadyLike, and saw her essays republished across community resources including TG Guide.
Hearing Pauline Park speak at one of the first events she covered turned her toward advocacy. She began with an article for The New York Blade and kept going wherever she could educate. In 2001 she founded The Transgender Girls’ Club and co-hosted a monthly party at New York’s East of Eighth restaurant. In 2004 she co-founded TG Life, the online magazine by, for, and about the male-to-female transgender community, where she is editor in chief.
Her approach is reporting first: claims checked before publication, people given the chance to respond before they are characterized, opinion labeled and kept separate from reporting, and corrections made openly. She is careful with sources in a community where exposure can carry real risk.
“Is the reflection in the mirror me,” she has written, “or merely the taxi that carries ‘me’ around?”
Portrait
Download the full-resolution portrait · Download a square headshot (825 × 1024, WebP). If you need a different crop, orientation, or file format, ask and it will be sent.
As seen in
Selected credits, mostly print and web:
- GIRL TALK — New York columnist, “A Bite of the Big Apple”; cover articles
- TG News — contributing columnist
- Transgender Community News — cover articles
- LadyLike — feature articles
- The New York Blade — “Divorce and the Right”
- TG Life — co-founder and editor in chief
- TG Guide and other community resources — reprints
More of the work
For background beyond this page: the full About page covers her story, writing philosophy, and journalism ethics. News & Commentary carries current reporting, Books collects the novels and memoir, and Transgender History & Education is the reference pillar.
What editors say
A breath of fresh air: sharp and witty with a common-sense approach to everyday life.
Gina Lance, Editor-in-Chief, GIRL TALK Magazine
Brianna Austin’s unusually clear insight into the people and issues that define our readers makes her consistently one of the must-reads.
Cindy Martin, Managing Editor, TG News
Brianna Austin always delivers, in entertaining and informative prose.
Angela Gardner, Editor, Renaissance Community News
What readers say
A selection of emails received from readers over the years, in response to magazine columns and site features. More of the published work appears in Magazine Covers & Features.
You rock! Your courage is amazing and inspiring to me.
Willman
Great article this week! I have always found humor to be a fantastic defense, to maintain one’s dignity, yet avoid violence.
Ronnie Rho
Your writing is just great, heartfelt, always interesting, and to the point.
Samantha
Once again your thoughts are my thoughts. You are so good at this writing thing it’s scary.
Dar
First, let me congratulate you on your fantastic website. It’s slick, professional, informative and entertaining. As a professional magazine writer I was deeply impressed on many levels.
Analyse
Thanks for all the information during the past year. Love your website. It is the best.
Lori
You are a breath of fresh air and have some great, intelligent, honest insights.
Heidi Ann
Just wanted to say I’m a HUGE fan of you, and your website. I for one greatly appreciate the information and entertainment aspects of the site.
Darv
I found your commentary on the incident at East of Eight to be lucid, candid and refreshingly sensible. It’s been a long time since I read something in print that made sense and showed the better side of humanity.
Rita
I’m a 45 year old from New Zealand. Just found your web site for the first time — one of the most uplifting, most wonderful pieces of writing I have come across on the subject.
Genie
I read several of your articles today. Your insight is amazing!
Jan
Excellent thought provoking site. Really enjoyed your ‘food for thought’ bits.
Rachel
Dear Brianna, I discovered your web-site and after reading some of your insights it seems you are reading my mind. Your site is helpful in getting a point of view.
Reader email
I love receiving your newsletter, and I’m able to live vicariously through your communications.
Marilyn
I absolutely adored that article. You are a genius. You seem to know exactly what I was thinking.
Rhonda
Thank you for your inspirational column, as it helps me to know that others think as deeply as I do and aren’t afraid to admit it.
Travis
I came across your commentary in Girl Talk Magazine. That is a really wonderful, thoughtful article. I think it can really help a lot of questioning folks gain perspective on their situations.
Lynn
I loved your essay “The Great American Nightclub.” Your essay was very rich in detail and quite visual.
Fran Sisco
I’m really impressed with your column. I enjoy the articles, they’re always interesting and fresh!
Christine Taylor
Congrats! You’re a real “doll” of a person — both inside and out. Thanks for sharing it with me and others.
Renee
Press inquiries
Interview requests, review copies, speaking, and permissions. Please include your deadline.
Prefer email? Write directly to me@briannaaustin.com.