[Closed] Carefree Mag Is Accepting Submissions 📝
The time has come
Hey y’all,
It’s tiiiiiiiiiiiime (Mariah Carey voice)!
We’re officially open for submissions and actively taking your story pitches! If you’ve pitched at some point in the past few months and didn’t hear back, please feel free to pitch again—ya girl has been booked & busy! Thank you for your patience as I navigated a whole book launch and the next phase of this precious space we’ve cultivated.
Carefree is known for publishing personal essays from Black women on life, love, and adventure, and that won’t ever change, but I’m excited to share that this year we are open to more diverse storytelling formats including interviews highlighting Black women doing/starting/creating cool things, cultural criticism on topics Black women care about, and, on a limited basis, poetry & short fiction submissions.
More info on what we’re looking for from your story pitches below…
Carefree POV
We’re looking for stories with strong voice, clear perspective, and thoughtful, intentional storytelling. We’re especially interested in writing that blends personal insight with cultural criticism and stories that reflect how Black women across the globe are navigating their worlds.
Take a look at our archives and top posts to understand the kind of work we publish. We value slow, immersive narratives and publish one piece weekly on life, love, and adventure. Typical word count is 1,000–1,800 words.
We only accept pitches from Black womxn.
Stories We’re Looking For
Experiences that shaped you in ways you didn’t expect, like:
Giving up career
Being childfree
Exploring a different faith
Entering a male-dominated field
Being ambitious and then prioritizing rest
The contrarian reframe: what Black women are tired of being told
If there’s a piece of advice, a stereotype, or a script that Black women are sold on and you’ve decided you’re done with it, pitch us. Some ideas: respectability politics, the wellness industry’s relationship with Black women, expectations around faith, body discourse (in any direction)
Sex, dating, and the specifics of it
Pleasure: what felt good and why
Shame: where yours came from, how it shows up now
Specific nights, specific people, real consequences
Dating and all its nuances
Bi, queer, ace, kinky, in-transition stories
Sex in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s
The exit from purity culture
The personal-cultural essay—anchored to a Black woman who’s in the conversation
If a Black woman in pop culture has done something—a tour, a verse, a controversy, a return, or a refusal and it cracked something open in you, pitch us. We want the piece that starts with her and ends with you.
We’re open to ideas, but right now we’re paying attention to SZA, Megan, Cardi, Solange, Issa, Ayo, Tyla, Coco, Halle, Tems, doechii, Beyoncé. And whoever else is poppin’.
Original poetry (to be featured in a monthly poetry collection from Black women)
What We Don’t Accept
Fully written drafts of stories (unless short fiction or poetry)
Stories already published in other publications (it can be on the same topic, but if more than 100 words of the story are identical, we will have to pass)
Stories that center white people
Stories written or edited with AI
How to pitch
Keep it under 300 words. Lead with the scene or the line that made you want to write the essay.
What happened
Why you’re the only person who can write this piece
A rough word count (most of ours run 1,000–1,800 words)
A few links to other work, if you have them
Check out my “Share Your Work” masterclass on exactly how to pitch editors (not just Carefree!)
Send pitches here. This form will close June 20th.
Ready to pitch? Step right up, we’re waiting for you.
Take care,
Anayo Awuzie
EIC of Carefree Media
Can we submit multiple pitches?
Just submitted! I'm excited <3