Meet the Netmums content team

Anne-Marie O’Leary, Editorial Director

With 20 years’ experience as a health and parenting journalist, and 10 years’ as a mum of two, Annie is a passionate advocate for UK parents.

Prior to her role at Netmums, Annie held roles at the FT, Mother & Baby and Pregnancy & Birth magazines, Boots Health & Beauty and Atlantis Healthcare Group.

Her writing has been published in The Guardian, The Telegraph, Huffington Post UK, Health & Fitness, Healthy, aol, Yell, VisitBritain and You & Your Wedding.

As well as leading the Netmums Content Team and strategy, Annie is a frequently featured parenting commentator on BBC TV and radio, ITV, Sky and Channel 5 news, and a regular guest speaker, panellist and host at events for organisations including Apple, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and the BBC’s Maternal Mental Health #mumtakeover.

She’s briefed Number 10 on the best ways to connect with families via digital media, advised the government on policies ranging from tax-free childcare to childhood obesity, campaigned on behalf of charities including The Children’s Sleep Charity and Group B Strep Support, and in 2016 was named One of London’s Most Influential People by The Evening Standard.

Annie is also co-host of Netmums' parenting podcast Sweat, Snot and Tears.

Juliet Blank, Associate Editor

Juliet has worked for a long list of the UK’s best-known women’s fashion and lifestyle titles – from the glossy pages of best-selling magazine, ELLE, to helping launch celebrity weekly, Closer, in 2001.

She’s also held senior editorial roles at Now and Boots Health & Beauty magazines, as well as having freelanced for a wide variety of national sites and publications including Top Santé, Healthy and The Sun’s Fabulous magazine.

With a passion for health journalism and well-written, well-sourced content, Juliet oversees all content creation on Netmums alongside her job-share, Wendy Golledge. Together, their formidable mix of health and parenting publishing experience, little black books full of health and parenting expert contacts – plus hands-on parenting experience, too! – makes them the best double act in the parenting publishing business.

Juliet is a frequent contributor to national radio on various parenting topics, from baby sleep to GCSEs.

Wendy Golledge, Associate Editor

Health and parenting content are Wendy’s specialism with previous roles including Features Editor at Mother & Baby, Top Santé and Zest. Online, she worked as a launch editor on Disney Family and continues to combine her editing role at Netmums with that as a freelance PR professional in the health, fitness and leisure industry. Sharing the Associate Editor role at Netmums with Juliet Blank, their combined knowledge and experience means they’re both frequently in demand from the national press for comment on daily parenting stories.

Wendy is also co-host of Netmums' parenting podcast Sweat, Snot and Tears, in which she and Annie O'Leary chat to the stars about everything from dealing with the class smart-arse during homeschooling, to pooing in labour.

She has two kids ages six and 10, a husband that behaves like a kid, and a dog that's worse than all of them combined!

Sarah Lafarge, Netmums Reviews Editor

A shopping and fashion journalist with more than 20 years' experience, Sarah's previous roles include Shopping Editor at Mother & Baby and Pregnancy & Birth, and Fashion Editor at Best.

Starting out as a fashion editor and stylist, she moved into the parenting press after the birth of her second child, when she realised that writing about pushchairs was WAY more interesting than yet another new pair of shoes.

Sarah is also a judge for the annual family-focussed Product of the Year Awards, the UK’s largest consumer survey of product innovation.

Simantha Mahmud, Lead Video Editor

Simantha joined Netmums from her own successful lifestyle site, LondonCityGirl. Since joining the team, her viral video strategy has taken the Netmums Facebook and Insta following to over 1.4million, and the combined Netmums video output under Sim’s direction now generates more than 10 million video views per month.

Lucy Dixon, Head of Forum and Social

Lucy has written for loads of newspapers, magazines and websites, including The Independent, The Telegraph, BabyCentre and Metro.

She started out working at picture agency Camera Press (and still loves a photo-led story) before moving into B2B publishing and running magazines and events for Hamerville Media Group. She has more than 15 years’ experience working as a writer, editor and social media manager

Joining Netmums in July 2020 as Social Media Editor, Lucy now oversees Netmums' social channels and the Netmums Forum.

Polly Logan-Banks, SEO Editor

Polly has more than seven years’ experience writing and editing pregnancy and parenting content, including health content that meets the rigorousNHS Information Standard guidelines. Her mission is to give all parents the information they need to have a happy and healthy family life. She honed her expertise during her previous role as Content Editor at BabyCentre UK.

Prior to joining the pregnancy and parenting sector, she wrote for a range of commercial brands, including Cadbury, Veet and Clearasil.

Charlotte Thomas, SEO writer

With more than 15 years' experience as a health and lifestyle journalist, Charlotte started her career at the BBC working on children’s magazines including Top of the Pops, Girl Talk and Disney Girl.

She has written for leading titles including the Sunday Mirror, Women’s Health, Shortlist and Junior. She also works with major brands, creating content and editorial strategy for Mamas & Papas, H. Samuel, The FA, The Body Coach and more.

Alongside running an award-winning fitness blog, she has led blogging workshops for teenage girls in conjunction with the Youth Sports Trust and Virgin Sport.

Zoe Craig, Associate Editor Local

Zoe started her career in parenting journalism, working at Mother & Baby magazine.

She moved into writing about arts and culture for VisitLondon.com and Londonist.com, including covering the London 2021 Olympic Games. She has contributed to a number of national websites and publications including Stylist, Telegraph.co.uk, Escape magazine, Ocado magazine, Top Sante and TNT magazine.

Katy Salter

Katy is an experienced and professional food and travel journalist, copywriter, content producer and web/print editor. She writes about food for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times, and most of the UK’s major food magazines. She also works with leading food and travel brands on branded content. Her first cookbook, Dairy-Free Delicious, was published by Quadrille in the UK and Countryman Press in the U.S.

Louisa Sherlock

A former Grazia magazine Features Director, now freelance journalist, Louisa specialises in women’s issues, fertility, parenting, health, social trends and world news.

Louisa has over 20 years' experience working in print and online. She's written for publications and websites including the BBC, The Telegraph and Cosmopolitan and also creates content for brands including John Lewis.