Cristina Bedei, stronger together, even in freelance world
17 July 2021
words by @ale_theia
Before Cristiana I met her Sunday newsletter about her, “Jobs for those who write“: she had been recommended to me by a friend, who in turn had discovered her from the forwarding of another friend, and so on. I then discovered that the degree of separation between her and me was just one – as often happens in the world of Italian communication – but this round of word of mouth made me understand immediately, together with the contents, that it was something really useful, that could make a little difference.
It is not obvious in the Italian journalistic panorama, in particular in that of freelancers, to find colleagues willing to share job opportunities. Cristiana does it every Sunday, putting together reports and patient research on the various platforms and portals where finding relevant offers is a challenge, even using filters. “Jobs for those who write”, addressed as the title says not only to journalists but to all professionals in the communication sector, was born in October 2019 precisely to facilitate research, proposing carefully selected ads – and without knowing that in 2020 it would become even more precious. 
“Between freelancers it is sharing and union that make strength: it is not a war and there is no need to keep hidden the opportunities we encounter,” says Cristiana, who was inspired by a format that already abroad existed but had not yet been inaugurated in Italy. Today “Jobs for the writer” has over 3500 members and almost never misses the delivery.
Freelance since the beginning of her career, around 2012, Cristiana has found an ideal dimension thanks to her organizational skills, which allows her to collaborate with Italian and international newspapers dealing with the topics that are most important to her, such as culture, human rights and diversity, female and feminist themes. Precisely this sensitivity has meant that from her meeting with her fellow journalist and photographer Stefania Prandi a collaboration was born aimed at promoting female solidarity between colleagues and aspiring women.
From the cycle of workshops “Being a freelance. But how? “, In which I myself participated, a community was born that proposes itself as a safe and inclusive place to exchange ideas, ask for help and advice, share recommendations and above all network, one of those things that seem obvious in the era of the internet, but which before the means presuppose a spirit of collaboration and mutual help that is not always easy to find. A concrete network based on respect, mutual support, the enhancement of female talent.
As shown by the growing adhesion to the initiative, Cristiana and Stefania are not an exception, but they had the intuition and the desire to transform a necessity into something practical, outside a rhetoric often contested by many women: “Training and sensitization [to feminism] are fundamental, but then to make a difference you have to act or try, ”explains Cristiana.
(picture in cover by Unsplash)
