1.     My first magazine cover tanked on the newsstand. It remains the worst selling Toronto Life issue of all times. It also sparked a city wide conversation, then a national one. It won Cover of the Year at the National Magazine Awards, which likely helped the publisher’s decision to keep me on.

            ––How The Gun Has Changed Toronto by John Lorinc, Toronto Life

2.     My first magazine cover for The Sunday Times Magazine was picked up by Rihanna (“When your face is pic-stitched to Princess Diana's on the cover of The Sunday Times.... I mean... #extraordinaRIHbehavior”). It went viral, made the news, and made the top of the Drudge report, sparking a global conversation. 

            ––Why Rihanna is the New Diana by Camille Paglia, The Sunday Times Magazine     

3.     The first magazine story I wrote about hiring a private detective to find what had gone missing went viral, won a writing award and landed a book deal. What is most remarkable, to me: hundreds of readers wrote to me – and still do – to talk about the article and share their experience of reading it.
                ––Lost & Found     edited by Emily Landeau, Toronto Life    

4.      I got my start at The Drake Hotel in Toronto straight out of art school. I was given a test to do something with the picture frames proposed as serving trays for the hotel’s cafe. I sewed text into lettuce and other leafy and/or edible items as art for the tray’s illuminated surface that directly addressed–and enticed–the hotel’s guests. This became the basis for the voice of Drake,  (a story which Wallpaper* later picked up). Needless to say I got the job.
            ––Eat Me, Bite Me, Take Me Trays     for The Drake Hotel    

5.    I’ve run art institutions around the world, literally, with The Movement Movement. From the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto to the Melbourne Museum in Australia, we invited the public to join the movement by running institutions together, 5 kilometres at a time – making headlines around the globe.

             ––The Movement Movement Runs the ROM               with Mercury Films for the Royal Ontario Museum      

6.     Once I invited an entire city to a civic slumber party located in an abandoned subway station. More than 5,000 guests turned up, pyjamas, sleeping bags, toothbrushes and all. Below the city, we built subterranean forts in subway cars to both welcome and ward off the inevitability of sleep, and we collectively dreamed, together.    

           ––A City Sleepover / A Sleepover City for Nuit Blanche with the City of Toronto  

7.   The flightiest and most fanciful thing I (almost) did for a magazine was to be the first human in the air on the Aerocene Explorer. Instead of getting carried up and away by an aerosolar sculpture, I navigated take off  – and breaking the story – from the ground up, literally chasing the flight team as they ran back and forth to inflate the fossil free ride. Tomas Saraceno’s Guest Editor issue of Wallpaper* about how the air belongs to everyone reimagines our relationship to the sky. 

             ––Aerocene and Flight Companion, Guest Editor Tomas Saraceno for Wallpaper*

8.    I commissioned the Belgian designer and sculptor Xavier Lust to make a piece of furniture with the manufacturer of the Queen’s toothbrush. Their love child: a chaise longue covered in natural boar hair bristles which debuted at Salone del Mobile in Milan. Due to the production time of hand stitching bristles, only one edition exists. The story of how it was uniquely made is commemorated in the Handmade: Wellness and Wonder issue of Wallpaper*.   

             ––La Belle et La Bete Chaise Longue,   Xavier Lust x Kent Brushes since 1777  for Salone del Mobile

9.        I curated the cover of each issue of Wallpaper* magazine like it was an exhibition space. I invited Lorna Simpson to consider, and effectively take over, the cover of the fashion issue. The artist’s double take was a double cover: two collages made from magazine pages cut out of old issues of Ebony. The result was an original artwork transforming the magazine into collectable art. The first, for me, wasn’t just making a cover with one of my foremost influences, but that the cover gave a wink to the Why Rihanna is the new Diana cover. [See above]

           ––Older Queen & Adrift Limited Edition Covers, Lorna Simpson for Wallpaper*      

10.        The last first is my first magazine: I was appointed the youngest female Art Director of Toronto Life having never worked a day at a magazine. The Canadian magazine blog post announcing the appointment sparked the most comments, ever, such as my “one and only qualification of roller skating backwards through museums.” The first cover I made for Toronto Life magazine tanked on the newsstand but sparked a national conversation...  
             ––I love lists! Thanks for reading this ode to firsts.