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.
nice words from the community
Hang out with us on Instagram
“My piece of advice for makers and designers? Run your own race… make sure your key decisions stay anchored in your brand’s core beliefs.”
- Bec Bligh
Quick show of hands: who’s opened a water bottle expecting a refreshing sip… and instead been greeted by the unmistakable whiff of uh-oh?
Because for something that follows us everywhere (desk, car, hikes, yoga…), the humble drink bottle is strangely prone to becoming a science experiment. Hard-to-clean corners and gaskets. Mystery smells. Bec Bligh and her husband Tim know it well. A six-month sailing trip along the Queensland coast left them with a lifetime of memories and one stubborn annoyance: mouldy water bottles they couldn’t properly clean.
So they did something about it.
Enter @EverVessel. Thoughtfully designed borosilicate glass and stainless steel bottles that keep things beautifully simple: durable materials, wide openings, easy-to-clean parts and none of the techy gimmicks that tend to age badly. Turns out simplicity, done well, is pretty powerful stuff. (Their many design awards agree!)
And lately they’ve added a little extra delight: the Artist Series, where creatives like Paola Castro, Ben Miners and Martin Thompson transform these everyday companions into tiny travelling artworks. There are more colabs in the works, too: hydration, but make it joyful! 🎨💧
We chatted with Bec about the sailing trip that started it all, the philosophy behind Ever Vessel, and why the most sustainable product is often just the one you keep using.
Tap the link in our bio to read the full conversation. 🚰
#EverVessel #ReusableWaterBottle
Pull up a chair… there’s room at this table!
For the first time, Feast for Freedom is bringing people together for a spectacular long-table dinner as part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.
A Longer Table is exactly what it sounds like: one beautiful shared table inside the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (@Asrc1), piled with generous dishes inspired by this year’s hero cooks, Noha and Nige.
From 6 to 9pm on Wednesday, 25 March, this is what you can expect:
🍽 A three-course shared feast
🍷 Matched drinks
🎶 Live entertainment
✨ A room full of good humans
Your ticket doesn’t just buy you a delicious dinner. It supports the ASRC’s vital work and helps create a fairer future for people seeking asylum.
Seats are limited, and long tables have a way of filling up quickly – head to @MelbFoodAndWine’s website to book now: feastforfreedom.org.au/mfwf
#FeastForFreedom #MelbourneFoodAndWineFestival #LongTableDinner #FoodForChange
Sew versatile! 🪡
Another great make from Lisa from @SunnySewsEveryday:
My #PeppermintWaratahWrapDress is finished and I’m so proud of it. It has been designed not to flap open and flash your pants in the wind, so I feel confident it will be a great wheelchair or standing dress in English weather.
#PeppermintPatterns #WrapDress #WrapDressPattern
Frame your face with the Peppermint Bucket Hat!
Stay safe and stylish in the sun with your very own self-sewn and self-drafted wide-brimmed bucket hat. This beginner-friendly sew is perfect for a sunny day. Get out your pencils – this pattern is created using equations and maths!
This DIY project was featured in Issue 53 and now you can access it for the lovely low price of only $5.
Sun-safe chic is always in style. ☀️
Find it via the link in our bio!
Photos: @KelleySheenan
#PeppermintPatterns #PeppermintBucketHat #BucketHat #BucketHatPattern #DIY
✨ INSTANT CLASSIC ✨
The Peppermint Myrtle Shift Dress is a beginner-friendly make with a few special details based on the ever-stylish shift shape – the perfect dress you need in your wardrobe right now!
Myrtle cuts above the knee with options to customise the length. Don’t think she’s reserved for hot weather either: try a heavier-weight fabric to turn your Myrtle into a pinafore-style garment for layering.
For our fabrics we chose two from our lovely sewing partner @Karmme_Apparel – the bold Rottnest Stripes in a lightweight, soft-drape cotton, and the quality linen in the handpainted Mexico Collection.
Get making the Myrtle – the only question is, can you stop at just one?
Link in bio 🪡
Fabric: @Karmme_Apparel
Sewist: @Laura_The_Maker
Photos: @KelleySheenan
Models: @SerahSews and @Pins_And_Tonic
Location: @ShareTheDignityAustralia
#PeppermintMyrtleShiftDress #PeppermintPatterns
It’s time to Feast!
Some recipes travel a long way before they land on your table to delight your taste buds. This year’s Feast for Freedom invites us to gather our friends, cook something delectable and raise funds for the incredible work of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (@Asrc1) while we’re at it.
The 2026 Feast features recipes shared by two remarkable cooks: Noha, who brought the flavours of Palestine with her when she arrived in Australia, and Nige, a Sri-Lankan Tamil cook whose journey with food began in the most unexpected of places.
You can host your own Feast up until 30 April – simply register online and get planning! Host a dinner, organise a workplace lunch, or gather your community… However you do it, the idea is simple: cook, connect and celebrate the cultures and stories that shape Australia.
Want to find out more? Head to the link in bio to meet Noha and Nige, learn more about their stories, and discover a delicious recipe to try.
#FeastForFreedom #PeppermintMagazine #FoodForGood #ASRC
