YourTango is an online magazine that offers love and relationship advice to women. They seek personal essays, service pieces, and reported articles from freelancers. Their pieces are generally 500 to 1,200 words long. According to an old payment report, they paid $0.03 per word. For details, refer to this page.

Into The Spine publishes stories about video games and what they leave behind. They want contributors to talk about the stuff they love and tell stories about games, from indies to AAAs. According to their pitch guide, they pay a flat rate of $30 for shorter pieces between 150 to 300 words and $60 for personal essays, stories, and opinion articles ranging between 500 to 700 words. They are not always open to submissions. To learn more, refer to their submission guidelines.

Culture Eater is an online, Australian indie zine that welcomes feature submissions across these categories: the arts (e.g. music, theatre, and photography), gaming (e.g. video games and tabletop), film and TV, literature, fashion, podcasts, and personal essays. According to their pitch guide, they pay $25 to $100 per feature submission. To learn more, refer to this page.

POCIT highlights the stories of POC within the sphere of tech and startups. They primarily look for career-focused content but also accept personal essays, opinion pieces, mega-exclusive interviews, and hard-hitting investigative pieces. They are not always open to submissions. According to their pitch guide, rates begin at $100 for personal essays.

Can I Play That? is a community where disabled gamers share their stories of game accessibility. They are looking for personal essays, industry accessibility analysis, commentary/features, and more. They publish 2 paid pieces a month. According to an old tweet, they pay $100/piece. For more information, refer to their submission guidelines. 

AARP The Magazine accepts submission from freelance writers on a variety of topics, including personal essays. They want “thoughtful, timely, new takes on matters of importance to people over 50.” According to a payment report, they have paid $1.50 per word. To learn more, refer to their submission guidelines.

Cure Today explores the latest in cancer research and treatment. They accept personal essays no longer than 700 words and well-researched evidence-based articles. Writers must have medical writing and interviewing experience. Check out their guidelines here.

The Financial Diet is a cross-platform media company and a digital destination where young women can talk about money. They are always seeking new freelance writers for their website. According to an old tweet from their creative director, they pay $250 for personal essays of 800 to 1,000 words. For details, refer to their write for us page.

Faith Today is a bimonthly Canadian general interest magazine connecting Evangelical Christians. Its content includes feature articles, short essays, news, and profiles of Canadian individuals and ministries. Editors buy both first North American serial print rights and perpetual web rights. According to their guidelines, payment for original personal essays and guest columns is $0.3/word (Canadian dollars). Most other interview-based/researched original writing pay $0.4/word. Reprints pay $0.15/word, books & culture reviews $125 each, and online-only writing pays $50 flat rate.

ILY is an online magazine about love. They cover “all variations of love, from kinship to romance, ILY features essays, interviews, vignettes, photography, poetry, interviews, and other forms of art.” They are always seeking love/dating pitches. According to an old tweet, they pay up to $200 for reported stories/trend pieces (think less tik-tok trends, more larger studies) on self-love, dating, romance, friendship, parenthood and familial love. They don't accept personal essays. To contact them, refer to the email at the bottom of their about page.

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 guidelines, they pay authors $50 per essay. To learn about 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. Their previously indicated pay to begin at $50 per piece. Current information on submissions is unclear. To contact them, refer to this page.