who the hell is rachel gambling?

hi there. i’m rachel (she/they), a writer and poet from southend-on-sea, uk. you can find my poetry in the literary magazines where the land forgets itself, t’art, queerlings, and kamena, and i’ve performed at open mics like the poetry social club, proud poetry,the listening room, and loose lips. my debut poetry pamphlet, cape point, was published as part of the 2025 estuary anthology. i’ve written content for justwatch, cliterally the best, brook, and the socialist. in 2022 i graduated with a postgraduate diploma in history from birkbeck, university of london, and in 2020 i completed my bachelor’s in english literature and creative writing at the university of warwick. i’m bisexual, the daughter of a vicar, a third-generation south african immigrant, and a born-and-bred essex girl. i work full-time as a sex educator for a uk-based charity.

who writes for girlblog!?

Film & TV Editor | avery jay

Avery Jay (she/they) copes with the horrors of the world through her love for horror in the media.

They're a journalist hunting down the best queer horror, a scholar tracking the history of Black horror, and a community organiser bringing diverse genre fans together in NYC and beyond. There's no such thing as a "bad movie" where Avery's concerned.

Her work has been published across entertainment publications: in print and online. They're the Horror Oracle: divining horror's mystique.

music editor | bailey ewers-smith

Bailey Ewers-Smith (he/they) is a podcaster and women/LGBTQ+-focused independent gig promoter.

Since 2022, they have hosted Joining Me Today, an audiovisual podcast. They have interviewed a wide variety of guests from the music industry, including Frank Turner, HotWax, TJ Smith, and IWABO's Mike Martin.

He founded his own gig promotion brand, JMT Live, dedicated to celebrating female and LGBTQ+ artists. Their first show was November 2025, headlined by Marshall Records signees Autumn Fires.

Lifestyle Editor | Tenai Steele

Tenai (pronounced te-nay) Palomino (she/her) is a West Midlands-born, London-based writer, editor, and self-proclaimed pop culture fiend.  

With international journalism experience and a background in fashion and culture writing, she has written extensively on emerging creatives and ideas that fuel our ever-changing cultural landscape.  

Having interviewed a wide range of artists, Tenai is drawn to deepening her understanding of the world through the creatives contributing to it. She continues to explore how entertainment and the media influence the way we connect and engage, while balancing her love for the latest horror releases and throwback reality TV. 

There’s currently an opening for the voluntary Literature Editor position at girlblog!, so if you’re interested in applying please read the guidelines here and submit your expression via email.

We have multiple contributors writing content for girlblog! on a flexible basis, too. If you’re interested in writing on a one-off or ad-hoc basis, drop a message to enquiries@girlblog.co.uk and I’ll get you in touch with the approriate Editor.

Why did you start girlblog!?

I've loved alternative culture since I was a kid. I'd watch Kerrang! music videos with my older brother, make playlists of the songs I found on Guitar Hero, and watch my favourite action films over and over. I always wondered why there weren't that many girls in rock music and action films, and why the ones I did see were hypersexualised.

Over time -- and with the encouragement of my brother -- I found more female rock artists, found more complex female characters in film and TV, and found my personality and style through these people and characters. girlblog! is my space to share and celebrate my favourite alternative things with others.

girlblog! is also a platform to call out discrimination and oppression and provide an alternative worldview to our capitalist-consumerist culture, taking a feminist-socialist perspective on cultural commentary.