Irene Caselli

I am an experienced, multimedia reporter and writer now focusing on sexuality, women’s rights and early childhood. In the first 1,000 days of human life – from conception to two years of age – our brains are built. Everything that happens in these first days, from policy to play, is crucial to shaping the partners, colleagues, parents, bosses and leaders we become.

Earlier in my career I spent a decade as a foreign correspondent in Latin America. I worked for the BBC in Venezuela when Hugo Chávez died, and my work has appeared in numerous publications, including the Washington Post, The Guardian and El País.

In 2019 I was hired as the “First 1,000 Days” correspondent for The Correspondent, a transnational, member-funded platform. I was one of just five staff writers chosen among 2,000 applicants. When The Correspondent shut down in December 2020, I launched her own newsletter, The First 1,000 Days.

I published a chapter in Unbias the News, a book that focuses on how to have more diversity in newsrooms. I also co-produced a half-hour documentary on women’s football and gender inequality, and one of my team’s short films on the same subject received a prize for collaborative journalism.

I have been awarded fellowships by the IWMF, the European Journalism Centre, and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. I moderate panels at festivals, regularly teach journalism and mentor up-and-coming journalists. I speak six languages, and am now learning Greek. In my free time, I write stories for children that I like to test out with my son Lorenzo.