You read our details. (Skipped our intro? Mistake #1.)
FUSSY plays precise, not nice. We break rules. Follow these.
We champion writers with killer editorial instincts and ruthless originality. Ordinary never leaves the inbox.
We flaunt intelligence and cultivate experimentation with zero shame. FUSSY taps experts to define daddy issues and defends a $200 serum in the same breath. Admitting in public that you want a rich boyfriend when emotional availability is your actual holy grail — that’s gutsy. Gutsy is the standard.
A superb read is meaty and provocative. An undeniable writer is fearless. We want essays and features that seduce at first glance, then strike a nerve: when Pilates turned political, how Mean Girls confirmed you were a lesbian, what it means when you stop feeling like yourself. Creative brilliance is our baseline. We publish work the status quo hesitates to green light.
Our writers deliver worlds that never flinch. FUSSY thinks for itself. Slander ruins; inaccuracy kills stories. Be bold and bulletproof. We’re fine if they call us bitches. We’d vomit if they called us bullshitters.
We worship personality, wit, and candor rooted in uncompromising ethics. Outsmart us, and earn the right to fuss.
We Publish
Personal essays, reported features, cultural and entertainment criticism, and fashion and beauty writing. Across all work, the writer’s lived experience is present and relevant — direct or observed.
Before pitching, read us. The writing we’re into is specific, FUSSY.
Pitches are reviewed and accepted on a rolling basis. Send your genius to pitches@fussymedia.com with your headline, two or more clips of your work, and a brief summary of your story and why it belongs on FUSSY. Standard pieces run 800 to 1200 words. We typically respond within two to four weeks. Rates are discussed upon acceptance.
ENTERTAINMENT
Everything in music, TV, and film worth analyzing. Criticism stripped of gossip blog vernacular. Write about an album that’s most powerful in fall. How a film’s account of motherhood forgot you. Define what separates indifference from adoration from disdain. Dissect what you didn’t ask to have an opinion on but do anyway.
CULTURE
Writing that unravels what we do in between waking and sleeping. Culture is how we date, eat, scroll, and believe. The world around us is spinning off its axis, and we’re unable to escape. We want to know what that feels like from the inside, not just inside it, but inside you.
STYLE
Stories about things you own, covet, or daydream about on your body. Trend pieces about how we choose to look and what we refuse to perform. Explorations of consumerism and desire that cut deeper than price tags or silhouettes. Every purchase betrays layers. Is taste instinct or inheritance? How do we feel beautiful now and what are we willing to do to achieve it?
LIFE
Evocative pieces on existing. We’re all entangled with money, relationships, sex, failure, family, power, and identity. There’s nothing more relatable than an experience we thought was singular being reflected back at us. You’re a complex, autonomous individual. What’s it like to be you?
Humanity is less neatly packaged than we’re comfortable acknowledging. Some experiences and perspectives are risqué, taboo, maybe even a little morally defiant; that doesn’t mean the story should be erased. Tell it. If it shaped you, we’re interested.
FUSSY is against violence, harm, hate, bigotry, and dehumanization. We platform the human interior with protective constraints. Shame has no home here. Crisis is not content. We’re not interested in self-pity, self-sabotage, or self-destruction.