“Started in the kitchen of a grotty university house, a team wasn’t in the plan. But seeing so many talented women, I thought ‘why not create a team of leaders for this collective who love what they do and are keen to change the way women, trans, and non-binary people involve themselves in the arts?'”

Imogen Brighty-Potts, Founder of The Hysteria Collective

Founder and Director

Imogen Brighty-Potts (she/they)

Imy is an MA Journalism student and Philosophy and Politics graduate. She is a freelance journalist and copywriter.

Passionate about all things creative arts and promoting women’s places in them. Enthusiastic about journalism, scriptwriting and comedy. She wants to make these spheres accessible for women, especially queer women. Showing women how they can work together to create stunning projects they can be proud of while also encouraging the conversation about intersectional feminism and sustainability. In her downtime, she loves wine, Gilmore Girls and the hit musical: Legally Blonde. Often found curled up in a café drinking too much coffee and asking why the graduate job market is such a mess.

Director

Georgia Hunt (she/her)

Georgia is a lover of media and visual art, particularly photography and film. She has been driven in the direction of creating the media that she loves to consume, and has started taking courses in screenwriting and film. Giving women a platform in the media and encouraging creative collaboration is something she feels is fundamental to media. She can’t wait to get involved with this project because of this. She believes that having a voice is fundamental to the human experience and she wants to work to promote this. The way to her heart is of course social justice, 80s movies, 20th century music and anything sweet.

Editor

Leah Quinn (she/her)

Leah Quinn is a London-based writer and publisher. With experience in communications and content writing across publishing, media and the arts, Leah founded her book blog, The Bibliophile Blog, during her undergraduate degree. She also worked as Communications Officer and Content Manager for the London branch of the Society of Young Publishers, has worked with various digital platforms including Within Her Words and Ta Voix Literary Anthology. She began at Hysteria as a contributing writer way back in 2019 and has worked her way up through the Editorial team.

Leah studied her BA in English Literature with Philosophy Studies at the University of Sussex and has recently completed the MA Publishing at City, University of London.

Deputy Editor

Georgie Holmes (she/her)

Georgie is a third year English student at the University of Southampton with a passion for all things writing, reading and music. Studying literature has led to her love of poetry, and she enjoys writing anything from album reviews to factual pieces concerning social media and politics. If she’s not at a gig, she’s spending her time completing her Goodreads yearly aim. Her main interests lie in music, books and politics.

Section Editors

Megan Gaen, Lifestyle and Opinion Editor (she/her)

Megan is a final year BA German and Spanish student at the University of Southampton. During her degree, Megan undertook a year abroad to Germany, where she started writing her own travel blog. Her writing interests stemmed from here with Megan writing opinion, lifestyle, and travel articles for various publications. During the 2020/21 academic year, Megan has been the Lifestyle Editor for Wessex Scene, organising, editing, and publishing content for the Lifestyle section, as well as writing articles for other sections and magazines. She plans to bring these writing and editorial skills to The Hysteria Collective’s Lifestyle and Opinion sections and to help others to express themselves through this platform, in the same The Hysteria Collective helped her find her voice in the first place. You can find her on Twitter @thegaenplan.

Natalie Jayne Clark, Creative Writing Editor (she/they)

Natalie is the Shadow Panel and Book Club Co-ordinator for The Society of Young Publishers Scotland and is a peer-reviewer for Spark, a journal for cross-disciplinary postgraduate research. They are a regular spoken word performer and host a monthly open mic event on their Instagram @natajayne. The Hysteria Collective has been such a “welcoming and warm community for them to share their writing in and be a part of”. Natalie runs a book blog with one of their best friends on Instagram @whatnatalieandmiraread and can also be found on Twitter @nataliejayclark.

Aimee Dyson, Culture and Entertainment Editor (she/her)

Aimee graduated in 2020 with a BA in Creative and Professional Writing from Canterbury Christ Church University. She writes mostly entertainment and poetry pieces, but also enjoys writing about sustainability and the planet. Alongside her writing, Aimee is Social Media Manager for The Insomnia Project podcast. In her free time, she enjoys reading both fiction and non-fiction books with a focus on social issues. Outside of the writing world, Aimee enjoys playing badminton and netball, attending music gigs and learning Italian. 

Our Sub-Editors

Isabelle Jani Friend (she/her)

Isabelle is a freelance journalist with articles in a number of nationals including The Guardian, The Independent, and VICE. Isabelle wants to help diversify the media and elevate underrepresented voices. As someone with an invisible illness she wants to continue to highlight disability discrimination and fight for an accessible and accommodating society for disabled people. She also campaigns around access to medication and the NHS. When she’s not working she enjoys boxing, seeing musicals, and reading!

Amy Britton (she/her)

Amy Britton is a BA History student at The University of York. She is a first-generation scholar wanting to prove that you do not need impressive connections to become successful. In her free time, she loves writing about feminism, today’s culture and her general life experiences. As a pop culture junkie, she can often be found on the sofa binge-watching the latest series and films that are all the rage. She is also a self-certified book nerd and has a particular soft spot for Japanese and Korean literature.

Amelia Yeomans (she/her)

Amelia is a current student on the MA Magazine Journalism course at City, University of London and recent BA English and Philosophy graduate from the University of Southampton. Throughout her undergraduate degree she was a regular contributor for Wessex Scene and Features Editor of The Soton Tab. Her areas of interest include fashion, music, literature, politics, and film. In her spare time, Amelia can be found swimming, browsing car boot sales, or binging Spanish TV dramas.

Olivia Blackham (she/her)

Liv is about to embark upon a Research Masters in English Literature at Glasgow University. She is specialising in obscure female authors of the modernist period, focusing upon feminism and mental health. As well, she manages a part time job and a strong affinity for coffee. She graduated with a BA in English Literature at Newcastle University in 2021. She loves to bake, make coffee, learn about the world, binge watch the shows, and podcasts! She knows everything about books without even reading them.

Hesandi Jayasekara (she/they)

Hesandi currently attends the University of York where she tries to cope with being an English major while trying to write and read for fun at the same time. Her work has been published in the Between the Lines: Peace and the Writing Experience Anthology, and less formally on her blog which she updates when the mood strikes her. She is also an Editor at Aster Lit, a youth magazine. When she’s not working on approaching deadlines, she enjoys listening to the same song on repeat, watching reruns of Community, and working on her book.

Our Illustrators

Sian Hopkins (she/her)

Sian is a final year English Literature student continuing on to a Masters in Magazine Journalism at Cardiff University. She has a passion for art and illustrating as she finds it a great way to deal with anxiety and self expression. When she’s not drawing, Sian can be found with her dance committee planning social events or writing articles for her university newspaper. She also might be recognised from her sexual health awareness charity walk, dressed as genitalia to raise awareness for male cancer and endometriosis. Sian lives for drinking, music and helping others with advice and she can’t wait to join the team at The Hysteria Collective. Find her work on Instagram @moonlanding.illustrations.

Teo Catanescu (they/them)

Teo is an English Literature student at the University of York who can usually be found brooding over a laptop or reading at any local underpass or riverside of your choosing. They have a soft spot for writing poetry and flash fiction mostly centred around mental health and LGBTQ+ themes, but also have a passion for art and illustration that they use both as a form of self-expression and thinly veiled escapism through comic strips, fanart and more personal pieces with a sprinkle of the occult. When they’re not doing coursework, they enjoy D&D, a truly terrifying amount of black tea, and pole dance classes. Their art can mainly be found on their Instagram which they swear they’re going to start using more frequently.

Lily McDermaid (they/them)

Lil works in the public sector and in their spare time, they do various types of art and crafts – including illustration. Lil graduated from a Law and Psychology degree in 2020. Lil started to engage in disability activism during this degree and has continued this beyond graduation. Lil is looking to use illustration to help encourage awareness and acceptance for LGBTQ+, disabled, and neurodivergent communities through this platform and through their art (@lil_is_illustrating on Instagram). 

Our Monthly Columnists

Alina Khan (she/her)

Alina is currently a student at Cardiff university. She’s also a cocktail bartender so most weekends you’ll find her behind the bar making, what feels like, hundreds of espresso martinis!

She is passionate about educating and raising awareness around issues regarding racism. Her primary focus is on issues regarding the British South Asian community, as these pertain to her own experiences as someone of Indian origin. In her spare time she is an avid consumer and critic of film, television and theatre.

Molly Raycraft (she/her)

Molly is lifestyle and travel journalist based in London. Outside of work she loves cooking (and eating), using the Borrow My Doggy App, and learning Korean (안녕하세요!) In her new column she’ll be discussing her experiences as someone raised in a working class setting interacting with areas of society which aren’t so working class.

Then there are our strong, independent, creative contributors. Why not come on board and join them in sharing your work on our platform?