About Us

ABOUT PEPPERMINT

Peppermint is an Australian print magazine and digital platform focused on style, sustainability, sewing and substance.

Calling all future-forward fashion minds, curious creatives and sustainability stans: Peppermint is for you! We champion many things – environmental sustainability, ethical fashion, diversity, inclusion, climate action, slow living, sewing and DIY, social justice, First Nations voices and so much more. Founded by Kelley Sheenan in 2008, Meanjin/Brisbane-based Peppermint has proven the power of positive media, authenticity and hope. We’re a small team passionate about all things craft, creativity and community, and we care deeply about not just elevating others making change, but making a difference ourselves. And we couldn’t do this without you. As a community, in our own individual ways, we can stitch together a better future.

MEET OUR MAGAZINE

Our biannual print and digital magazine is filled with hopeful content, thoughtful stories and clever DIYs, designed to empower you to live a more meaningful, mindful and me-made life.

In this fast-paced world, Peppermint features slow, timeless content that endures – so you can take inspiration from each issue for many years to come. Among our pages you’ll find stories of hope, connection, creative folk, thoughtful fashion, diversity, businesses building better futures and people doing good in the world. And of course – sewing and DIY! Each issue comes with a free digital sewing pattern to help you stitch some sustainability (and individuality) into your style.

Australian Made • Size Inclusive • Resale or Buyback Scheme • Organic • Fair Trade • Rentals • LGBTIQA+ Owned • Socially Responsible • Packaging Initiatives • Climate Neutral • Preloved or Vintage • First Nations • Women-Led or Owned • Gender Neutral • Handmade • Vegan • Recycled Materials • Upcycled Materials • Sustainable Materials • 

Handmade • Vegan • Recycled Materials • Upcycled Materials • Sustainable Materials •  Australian Made • Size Inclusive • Resale or Buyback Scheme • Organic • Fair Trade • Rentals •  LGBTIQA+ Owned • Socially Responsible • Packaging Initiatives • Climate Neutral • Preloved or Vintage • First Nations • Women-Led or Owned • Gender Neutral • 

LGBTIQA+ Owned • Socially Responsible • Packaging Initiatives • Climate Neutral • Preloved or Vintage • First Nations • Women-Led or Owned • Gender Neutral • Handmade • Vegan • Recycled Materials • Upcycled Materials • Sustainable Materials • Australian Made • Size Inclusive • Resale or Buyback Scheme • Organic• Fair Trade • Rentals •  

SEWING AND DIY

Sewing is a big part of Peppermint’s DNA – our stories and content have had tales of stitching woven through them since the beginning, helping to inspire your makes in a mindful way.

Peppermint is fast becoming a global go-to source for all things sewing, having built our incredible maker community over years of offering much-loved patterns and creative content. We’ve poured our hearts and resources into these patterns, and we’re proud of the work we’ve done – alongside many talented indie patternmakers – to bring these patterns to life. We have an extensive back catalogue of fabulous patterns, from beginner to advanced, to help you build your me-made wardrobe. We champion sewing and making content across all our platforms, bringing to life the colourful, creative, clever stories of the makers in our midst. Our digital magazine Sew&Tell is designed to further satisfy your itch to stitch – bringing together sewing stories and DIYs from the pages of Peppermint alongside a treasure trove of new content, crafty ideas and projects.

RECOGNITION AND AWARDS

Sure, awards aren’t everything, but as a small business it means a lot to be recognised for our work within a huge media industry.

We’ve won several awards since launching in 2008. Our founder Kelley received Best Designer (Consumer Magazines) and Graphic Designer of the Year and Best Sustainability Program for Publishing at the 2009 Bell Publishers Australia Excellence Awards. Peppermint went on to receive many more over the years: Consumer Magazine of the Year (under 20,000 circ) at the 2015 Publish Awards, and in 2021, we won the Mumbrella Award for Sustainable Practices. In 2018 Kelley was selected by the Queensland University of Technology’s creative tech hub Creative Enterprise Australia (CEA) to attend Richard Branson’s Virgin StartUp program in London. The 2022 Mumbrella Publish Awards gave us a Highly Commended for Cover of the Year and Lauren, our Editor at the time, was shortlisted for Young Writer of the Year. In 2023 we were thrilled to take out the Mumbrella Publish Award for Event of The Year for PepTalks, while Peppermint was shortlisted for Magazine of the Year. We also received an Australian Good Design Award for Communication Design in Print. In 2024 we received a Meta Digital Innovation Fund as part of the Meta Australian News Fund administered by The Walkley Foundation. The result is this beautiful website you’re looking at now, thanks to Crumpet Club!

REPRESENTATION AND INCLUSION

We’re proud to remain at the forefront of diverse media through our innovative use of world-changing and inclusive stories, images and design.

Our mission is to provide information and inspiration through content that empowers, entertains and educates – with the aim of making the world, our environment and our communities more inclusive, hope-filled, fair and sustainable. Featuring – and celebrating – a diverse range of people encompassing the spectrum of gender, culture, abilities, queer folk and bodies has always been a central part of Peppermint’s ethos. Our issue 52 cover received a Highly Commended for Cover of the Year at the 2022 Mumbrella Publish Awards. We wanted to create something we felt was both rare and sorely needed: a shoot with a plus-size model that saw her as more than her body, centering and celebrating her form but also normalising it as exactly what it was – the body of a professional model doing great work. Our model reiterated our beliefs: “Representation saves lives. If fat people can see themselves just existing happily in the media, we can start just existing happily in our lives.” Issue 53 featured the work (and face!) of Ngarluma, Kariyarra, Nyulnyul and Yawuru photographer and illustrator Bobbi Lockyer – “Seeing my face on a magazine cover was a proud moment of representation I never had growing up”.

IMPACT AND CHARITY

Our care for people and planet goes beyond the printed page, grounded in sustainability and social enterprise. We’re committed to treading lightly, and proud to support charities and initiatives creating meaningful change.

Peppermint is printed at an ISO 14001 printer in Sydney using PEFC-certified paper from well-managed forests that comply with environmentally sustainable practices. Our subscriptions are sent plastic-free in paper envelopes, an Australian-first initiative that took a lot of work to get right! All orders are sent in compostable mailers or paper envelopes. In 2021 we undertook an extensive audit through the Carbon Reduction Institute to measure our carbon footprint to have complete certainty of the emissions we are offsetting. We’re now offsetting beyond our emissions through Carbon Neutral on a wind power project in Western India that provides economic and social benefits for the community. We were one of the founding members of Groundswell, a giving circle that funds climate action. We’ve donated over $30,000 to social and environmental charities, we sponsor a granny in Cambodia from the Cambodian Children’s Fund and we were one of the founding members of Indigenous Fashion Projects – a grassroots community of changemakers created by the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair to build sustainable fashion futures that centre and empower the agency of First Nations voices.

FIRST NATIONS VOICES

Peppermint actively amplifies First Nations voices, showcasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island artists, makers and stories, promoting allyship, cultural significance, social justice, identity – and great design.

We’ve consulted many times with Troy Casey and Amanda Hayman at Blaklash and Aboriginal Art Co to better understand how we can serve and represent First Nations communities, and to help shape our editorial approach to diversity and Indigenous content. Troy and Amanda have said: “Peppermint always works hard to include Indigenous businesses, artists, writers and contributors where possible and practical. Our ongoing collaboration helps to educate the wider public and offer unique perspectives directly from First Nations people. We honestly believe that Peppermint does a great job with their genuine and authentic approach to diversity and inclusion – their readership is in good hands.” We’re very proud of the feature we did on The Voice referendum with guest editor Teela Reid, a proud Wiradjuri and Wailwan woman, lawyer, storyteller and the co-founder of Blackfulla Bookclub, illustrated by Ngarabal and Torres Strait Islander artist Lauren Rogers. For many years we’ve supported many initiatives such as the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair and Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, and we will always strive to help bring Indigenous voices, talents and stories (nationally and internationally) to the fore.

In this AI world we find ourselves in, it’s so lovely to see a magazine that champions artists. I come from a family of artists and thus have grown up with a respect for artistic skill. It’s vital that emerging artists are recognised and given opportunities to pursue their career. I often give a Peppermint magazine to someone who I know is going to support an artist. Buying something directly from the artist is the best way to nurture their career path. Without Peppermint, many of us would not know about these independent artists.

I just wanted to say thank you for creating such a positive, uplifting magazine. You’ve opened my eyes to so many people and companies trying to do better for the environment and people’s wellbeing. Your magazine put a smile on my face the first time I read it. I subscribed straight away, not just because I enjoyed it, but because I believe that any publication that provides tools for positive change in the world and aims to be inclusive, rather than exclusive, deserves support. Every issue is like a little gift of sunshine. We need more of this in the world.

As a 53-year-old with a trans daughter, the inclusivity often brings me to tears. In this fracturing world it makes my heart sing to see you and others of like minds bringing more than just a glimmer of hope – you turn on the floodlights. I have also loved the sewing patterns since early on and I hope you can continue to show off some of the great designers out there. As a long-time sewist, quilter, knitter, cook and gardener, even when it was daggy to do so, I have sung the praises of making things. Long live the makers. Keep up the amazing work.

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