Rooted in Rights Blog is a “platform dedicated to amplifying the authentic perspectives of disabled writers.” They're seeking reported and investigative articles, op-eds, creative nonfiction, personal essays, interviews, and short fiction on disability, with an emphasis on disability rights and justice, written by people who identify as disabled. Their standard word count is 500 words. According to their guidelines, they pay on a sliding scale, with the minimum payment being $400. To learn more, refer to this page.

Solver Stories is a feature in New York Times’ column, Gameplay. It includes personal essays regarding the effect of puzzles on people’s lives. They prefer essays of 800 to 1,000 words. According to their guidelines, they pay $1.50 per word. To find out more, refer to their submission guidelines.

Hippocampus Magazine is “an online publication set out to entertain, educate and engage writers and readers of creative nonfiction.” They want true stories; intensely personal experiences that reflect universal truths about what it means to be human. They are looking for personal essays & memoir excerpts, max 4,000 words, and flash creative nonfiction, max 800 words. According to their guidelines, they pay an honorarium of $40 to contributors. They charge a submission fee; you must contact them to learn about how to get a fee exemption. Details here.

Carefree Magazine is “a Black women's magazine dedicated to the wanderers, late bloomers, and dreamers.” They're always seeking “pitches that speak firsthand to the Black woman’s experience.” They accept pitches for personal essays, fiction, culture pieces, and for their Hair Diaries, Twelve Out of Ten, and Adventures Unknown columns. According to a tweet, they pay $100 per piece. To learn more, refer to their submissions page.

SICK is a magazine by chronically ill and disabled people. They publish personal essays, creative and experimental nonfiction, reported features, op-eds, interviews, book & film reviews, poetry, and visual art. They prefer full draft submissions but consider pitches from writers who share relevant examples of their work. According to their guidelines, they pay 12 cents per word, and $90 for poetry and artwork. For details, refer to this page.

OkayAfrica is a media company that connects a global audience to Africa. They cover culture, music, dance, style, visual art, politics, and health. They have previously indicated the general formats they would like for stories to be interviews, service journalism, opinion pieces/personal essays, short features, longer features, and video/photo/socials. According to an old tweet from their director of editorial operations, in the past, they have paid $150 to $200 for straightforward pieces. As per a payment report from 2023, they paid $0.25 per word for a 1000-word news story. Their pitch guide has been removed, but you can contact them here.

Open Secrets is an online magazine that publishes memorable and revealing personal essays on the topics we are taught to keep “secret.” They are open to essays on all personal experiences. According to their most recent guidelines, they pay authors $50 per essay. To see their most recent call for writers, refer to this page.

Crooked Marquee is a movie website. They entertain, inform, and empower their readers by providing them with amusing insights and unique perspectives regarding the industry. They seek opinions and analysis of movie trends, specific current films, or current news in the film world. They also welcome actor or director retrospectives, re-examinations of older films, personal essays, and creative or satirical pieces. They previously indicated pay to begin at $50 per piece. Current information on submissions is unclear. To contact them, refer to this page.

Asparagus Magazine is a publication that is “dedicated to telling the large and small stories of how we can live sustainably, from an environmental, social, and cultural perspective.” Their “audience is primarily on the West Coast, and located in both Canada and the US.” They are seeking traditionally reported feature journalism, creative non-fiction, and personal essays/opinion pieces on environmental and social justice topics. They are interested in pieces between 800–1,500-word range and some features with exceptions that run into 2,000-3,000-words. According to their guidelines, they pay an average of C$0.25/word. They get funding from the Canadian government that requires them to prioritize Canadian creators. To learn more, refer to their submission guidelines.

Extra Points is “a newsletter about business, policy, and off-the-field stories in college sports.” They’re looking for freelance pitches. They’re interested in “reported stories, personal essays, and interviews in the ‘off-the-field stories in college sports’ umbrella.” According to a tweet by their founder, they pay a base rate of $350. They also give bonuses for driving new subscriptions. Send your pitches to matt@extrapointsmb.com. To contact them, refer to their ‘about’ page.

Bustle seeks to publish joyful, inclusive, and relatable stories for real women. They generally seek pitches for timely first-person pieces and personal essays, experiments and trials, and interviews and profiles. According to a payment report, they paid $0.25 for a 800-word opinion, editorial, column or essay. To learn more, refer to their submissions guidelines.

HerStories Project is a website for Gen X women. They publish personal essays "about what it’s like to be a Gen-X woman at midlife”. They are seeking personal essay submissions for their ‘Midstory Magazine’ on topics ‘life, love, loss, and friendship at midlife.’ They take completed drafts, not pitches. The preferred word count is 750-2000 words and, according to their guidelines, pay is $75 for accepted essays. To learn more, refer to their submission guidelines.

Dilettante Army is an online journal dedicated to art writing, visual culture, and feminism. It is published quarterly, and each issue has a theme. Preferred topics center around issues of social justice, politics, and art. While they do publish pieces that are situated in lived experience, they do not publish personal essays. Word length for others vary but for essays the average length is 4000 words. According to their guidelines, they pay a flat fee of $500 per article. To learn more, refer to this page.

Polyester is an intersectional feminist fashion and culture zine. The Dollhouse, their digital membership platform, releases weekly creative content including personal essays, creative writing, researched features, art, and photography. According to an old tweet by their editor, they pay £50 for 1,000 words. To contribute, refer to this page.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization that reports on education in poor communities across America. They elevate the “voices of educators, students, parents, advocates, and others on the front lines of trying to improve public education.” They are looking for personal essays (around 800 words) centered around a personal experience or observation. They publish these essays in a series called First Person. According to their guidelines, First Person pays $125 per published piece. For more information, refer to their First Person guidelines. To pitch a national story, contact them here.

The Appeal is a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to exposing how the U.S. criminal legal system fails to keep people safe and perpetuates harm. They prioritize pitches about politics (elections, legislation, policies, and reform efforts), alternatives (critical analysis of solutions to elements of the current criminal legal system), stories reporting on, and from, the South, Midwest, or rural areas, and op-eds and personal essays written by people impacted by the criminal-legal system. According to their pitch guide, they pay $1/ commissioned word for reported and first-person pieces up to 2,000 words. Payment for longer pieces is negotiable. To learn more, refer to this page.

VinePair is a digital media company that publishes accessible, entertaining, and inspiring content about drinks culture and important trends and topics in wine, beer, and spirits. This includes personal essays, reviews, and news. Rates vary according to assignment. According to a payment report, they paid $0.27 per word for a 1500-word feature. To learn more, refer to their pitching guidelines.

Winnipeg Police Cause Harm (WPCH) is a community-centered police abolitionist group that shares "articles and personal essays that tell unique stories from across Canada related to defunding and abolishing carceral systems of policing, prisons, and migrant detention.” Their have previously indicated to accept pitches for blog posts on an ongoing basis and to be committed to publishing writers of color. Pay for BIPOC writers was listed as $100 for posts over 1,000 words and $50 for posts under 1,000 words. They no longer have a pitch guide. To contact them, refer to this page.