Effortistas

ami_2BagaveA New Yorker transplanted into the Sonoran Desert, Ami has a background in design, volunteers as a teaching artist and somehow has a day job in accounting.
She tends to support underdogs and Juventus (not mutually exclusive at all times), is happiest when traveling the world or making a mess in her art studio. Find her footie-centric twitter @_ami_d and tweets on everything else @_ami_d2

catherineaddingtonCatherine Addington is a graduate teaching assistant in Spanish at the University of Virginia. You can find her on Twitter @caddington11

oliviaOlivia Aguiniga is a relocated Chicagoan living in NYC. Prefers Tajin in her beer and limón on her chips. You can follow her on Twitter @whitechi.

DSC_6445Shireen Ahmed is a sports activist and a freelance writer who focuses on Muslim women, and the intersections of racism and misogyny in sports. When she isn't watching soccer, she drinks coffee as tool of resistance. www.shireenahmed.com

janine anthonyJanine Anthony is a petite Nigerian girl with grande dreams. As a Marine Biologist (by education) and Sports Broadcast Journalist (by the curse of her fairy godmother), she can totally catch a grenade for marine life and women’s football.
Her work can be seen, touched and felt through the airwaves of Inspiration 92.3 FM, on screen and the magic wand of the keyboard. Her venture into women’s football (after taking a sabbatical from men’s football for one year) has seen her feature in The Guardian while she’s worked with the Women’s Game Australia and Equalizer Soccer USA, as well as the Nigeria Football Federation. She also contributes for the BBC and runs Africa’s foremost multilingual women’s football network, LadiesMarch.
Interestingly, she still harbors dreams of winning an Oscar and Grammy for errr, Sports Journalism, she thinks.
@ChiquaDiva

Ana Ayala has been a football fan all her life, she is a former U-17 and U-20 National football player for Ecuador. She supports LDU-Quito and is passionate about women's football and women in football. She has turned her football passion off the pitch and recently obtained her MSc in Sports Management and the Business of Football.
Ana has lived in three different countries and currently resides in her home town of Quito-Ecuador, where she is currently working on developing and boosting women's football.

Yvette BeattieYvette Beattie is a graphic designer and illustrator from London. She grew up near Wembley but has been a West Ham United supporter since Trevor Brooking trod on her sister's foot. She is hoping that England won't embarrass her at Euro 2016 but isn't banking on it. @YvetteBeattie

Chloe_BeresfordChloe Beresford writes for Viola Nation, Gentleman Ultra and Football Italia. She has been featured in The Guardian and on Copa90. She's a fan of Fiorentina and CS Lebowski. @ChloeJBeresford

IMG_3001Ritika Bhasker grew up loving football and talking about it with anyone who would listen. When they're not yelling at a TV screen, they're usually talking and writing about elections. Ritika's proudest moment will always be the time the Guardian hailed them for remembering who Vladimír Šmicer is. You can find them on twitter @mostlyinane

IMG_20160806_145340C.M. Brandon lives in the Bay Area, works in private aviation, stage manages for a local dance company, and maintains an abiding, obsessive fondness for football. She writes for the thrill of it and can occasionally be found shouting nonsense into the void at @lukacharms

katelynKatelyn Burns is an essayist and transgender woman who lives in New England. She's a fierce defendress of American soccer and a loyal supporter of the New England Revolution. She also misses the good old days of watching Clint Dempsey score all the goals for Fulham on Fox Soccer Channel.
@closettransgirl

behance2Hello, I'm Hannah Carroll, a 20-year-old Graphic Designer/Illustrator from
Manchester, UK. I have a strong passion for design and I'm always
willing to explore new techniques and paths to help me grow as an
artist. Another of my passions is sport (especially football), I'm a big supporter of Manchester United. Follow me @HannahCDesigns

Lucia ChinaleongLucia Chinaleong is a writer and illustrator currently based in Spain. Lucia follows La Liga and Sout-American soccer, and is particularly involved with Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana. She is interested in the role of gender in society. You can see her artwork on luciachinaleong.tumblr.com

anna clayAnna Clay is a graphic designer from Philadelphia. When she's not yelling about soccer, she's yelling about books and music. She doesn't care that you don't like the word "soccer."
@anna_christine

Liz Cotignola1Not a journalist by trade, the trilingual Elizabeth Cotignola is an attorney in Montréal, Québec. Born and raised the child of Italian expatriates in ‘la belle province,’ she began her career in Chicago before returning home to Montréal, where she now advises one of the world’s leading aerospace innovators on compliance with export controls and economic sanctions. When she’s not lawyering, she enjoys yelling about A.C. Milan, the Montreal Impact, and her beloved Azzurri to anyone who will listen. Occasionally; she writes something other than tweets; she has previously contributed to A Football Report, Kickette, Futbolita, Soccer Gods, The Soccer Wire, SB Nation, and XI Quarterly. No stranger to donning stilettos in a world historically dominated by suits, she opted to join Unusual Efforts in order to put her skills as an advocate to innovative use. You can find her on twitter @LaDiavolina

MaitriMaitri Dore is an architect-cum-illustrator based in Mumbai. You can find her on Twitter @doremai

emilydraperEmily Draper: By day I'm a long suffering airport worker, by night a performance analyst predominantly in football. Englishwoman currently residing in sunny Scotland, possibly still suffering from concussion sustained in a university football match. Can be found on Twitter @emsdraper

carrie dunnCarrie Dunn is a freelance journalist. She has covered the last two Women’s World Cups for the Times and for Eurosport.com, writes regularly for Yahoo! Sport, and is a regular radio pundit for matches. Her new book 'The Roar of the Lionesses', about women's football in England today, is out with Pitch Publishing now. You can find her on twitter @carriesparkle

Briana FinneganBriana Finegan is a collage artist and illustrator based in Chicago. Her work can be found at brianafinegan.com and she is the proud aunt of some (very) future USWNT players. Follow her on twitter @bananafin

20160817_133737Danielle Gaither is a graduate student, writer, and photographer, among other things. Depending on which league is in season, she can be found watching Manchester City at the pub with her local supporters group, harassing opposing goalkeepers from the beer garden at FC Dallas matches, or watching other competitions on her tablet. In between those times you can find her on Twitter at @daniellegaither.

Maura_GladysMaura Gladys is a producer for KICK and lives in New York City. Her golden retriever Rupert is probably cooler than any of your friends. You can find her on twitter @mgladys.

avatarJames Bridget Gordon is a writer and artist living in Chicago. They write about art, sports, queer politics, and pop culture. They're having a torrid love affair with AFC Wimbledon but is staying married to Liverpool for the stability and health insurance. They're easily distracted by pizza or pictures of dogs. You can find them on Twitter at @thaumatropia or on the web at thaumatropia.net.

malinMalin Hagg is a Swedish native, based in Stockholm, with a passion for football and writing. She's a lifelong AIK supporter but time in London also made her a passionate Arsenal supporter. Malin's the vice-chairman of Arsenal Sweden (the official Arsenal supporter's group in Sweden) and runs Klackspark, a Swedish podcast which focuses on supporter culture and the Swedish league. @OneMalinH

nicole-haaseNicole Haase is a freelance writer in Milwaukee, WI. She started playing soccer at age four and has been falling in love with the game ever since. She's also a big advocate for women's hockey, remembering the AAGPBL and supporing women in sports, wherever they are. You can follow her on twitter @nicolehaase

VanHong2Van Hong is an illustrator, designer and printmaker based in New York, who creates art with a focus on soccer. Her work includes portrait series of the U.S. Women’s National Team, New York Red Bulls and Tottenham Hotspur. Additionally, she has drawn live action sketches during several games in Canada during the 2015 Women’s World Cup. Most recently, she has created ball maps of English Premier League games, which are diagrams tracking the movement of the ball over the duration of match. She administers soccer artist collective Wundergol and is a regular contributor to online publication Sula Collective. @SoccerInSepia

Processed with VSCO with c1 presetKelly Jimenez is a young, passionate graphic designer located just outside of New York City. Formally trained at Pratt Institute, she has developed her artistic abilities and has found a way to incorporate her talent along with her love of soccer. She can be found either watching a soccer game cheering for Chelsea (the best team in the world) or running on the field in a super unprofessional soccer league. When she is not playing, she is enjoying live music, drinking craft beer, and tweeting, which is how she stumbled across Unusual Efforts.

Hanna May JonesHanna May Jones (aka @hannamayj) is a full time Preston North End fan and part time artist. Likes to draw footballers scoring goals and can be found mostly eating Pom Bears and watching Star Wars at weekends. Wishes she'd never given up her dream of entertaining crowds by tearing down the wing but makes up for it with sarcastic remarks about the professional game on Twitter and the odd appreciative drawing.

RRachna Kapurachna Kapur is an almost lawyer and pop culture enthusiast with a love for anything related to French football. You can follow her at @rachnakk

I'm a library science graduate student and I've been involved in some combination of playing, watching, and reading or writing about soccer since 1995. My hometown team is the New York Red Bulls and the possibility that they could face Pachuca in the 2016-17 CONCACAF Champions League is giving me many conflicting emotions. 

gabyGaby Kirschner was once told her Barnard College women’s college education was making her too mouthy so she’s tried to live up to that challenge by writing, tweeting, and generally talking as much as she can, especially about Adam Lallana (whom she liked before it was cool) and the intersection of gender issues and soccer. She works at KICK and loves run-on sentences. You can feed her ego on Twitter @gabykirschner

Alejandra Salazar Konta is a huge fan of Liga MX Femenil and looks forward to further sharing opinions on the league and on life.

IMG_0141Meg Linehan has been in the game since the 2001 WUSA inaugural season, when someone actually let her work in the press box. She has a healthy appreciation of smart defending, team captains, and Laura Harvey's genius. She's Senior Editor at Excelle Sports, and a NWSL Media Association founding member.
@itsmeglinehan

jessica lopezJessica Lopez is a soccer writer and diehard player, coach and fan currently working for Remezcla and U.S. Soccer.
Curious about the intersections of sport, history and culture, her passion for using the beautiful game to raise hope and build relationships with people from all over the world has taken her from Ohio to Belgium, Madrid, Nicaragua and beyond. Jess is on Twitter: @jloarsenal

Priscilla López is a Mexican-American lover of all things fútbol with a day job in New York. She is a staunch Chivista, though as a toddler she enjoyed torturing her father by rooting for Club América. Her favorite game-time meal is Cheez-Its with mourvèdre. And she doesn’t think you should stick to sports. You can follow her on Twitter @HLPriscilla

jessieJessie Losch is an actor and teacher living in New York. The only math she ever does is figuring out the odds of Spurs winning the title, and Uruguay winning the tournament. Any tournament. She'll take it all.
@JessieLosch

vi6gxhpx_400x400Marissa Lordanic is a journalism student and writer from Melbourne. Australian football is her problematic fave. She loves all things football and if she isn’t watching games, attending games or reading about the game, she’s on twitter (probably talking about the game) @marissalordanic.

Elizabeth Lubowitz Elizabeth is a former managing editor and writer at the Liverpool Offside. An arts and culture sector worker in Toronto by day, she's been known to integrate her football fandom into decidedly nerdy knitting projects. She has an unyielding love for octogenarian female fans, outfielders playing goalkeeper, and German Fußballgott Bastian Schweinsteiger. You can find her on Twitter @knitmeg.

kaleena lyKaleena Ly
Taking complex information and presenting it as an appealing visual requires the blending of two sets of skills: design and analysis. In just 2 short years, Kaleena has seen her work on topics such as goal analysis and football team rivalry reach hundreds of thousands of new-age data consumers. She's a Toronto-based Communications Designer and support The Arsenal, through and through
@dorkkly

PicsArt_06-12-07.21.50[1]I'm Elizabeth Michael. My biggest achievement on a football pitch is being on for 90 minutes and not once having my legs come close to touching the ball.
I absolutely love sports and have a strange relationship with radio, I would critique it in my sleep.
If your kid ever wants to play sports, seek my opinion. I have years of research in that field.
I love the beauty of the wild, the allure of water and the old classics.
I should have been born in the 1800s. I'm on twitter @kwinlizzy

katherinemitchellKatherine Mitchell is a political organizer by trade with a soccer and baseball obsession. She regularly makes the four hour trek to sing in the Brougham End at Sounders matches and also follows the Reign and Ítróttarfelag Fuglafjarðar in the Faroese Premier League. @katemctiriss

elena mitraniElena Chiara Mitrani is a bookworm and football fanatic. As such, she collects typewriters and football shirts. A lifelong supporter of Juventus FC, Elena believes football culture is a sort of contemporary mythology. She collaborates with a number of blogs and writes about books, football, and humans.

@lastanzab

abby moodAbbie Mood lives just outside Denver, Colorado, and can usually be found running around with her dogs or planning her next adventure. Within the last couple years, Abbie has gotten back into soccer as a goalkeeper for a co-ed rec. league, and has also become passionate about getting more women's voices into the world of fútbol. Her writing covers a variety of topics from human/environmental issues to education to running/soccer/other healthy stuff. @abbiemood

IMG_3298Chibuogwu Nnadiegbulam is a SPORTYchic with ARTitude, Chibuogwu Nnadiegbulam is a complex soul,
who’s got her eyes on the goal. Since her love for football in
particular and sports in general was confirmed, she’s always kept the
ball rolling on air and online, not forgetting there is always a place
in her heart for graphic designs. @Chibuogwu_N

conferencetrophyLiz Owen is a 23-year-old freelance writer from the West Midlands, UK, who has worked in various football media roles, both voluntary and paid, since 2011. She's a lifelong Aston Villa supporter with a rapidly fading love for Premier League football, a growing interest in women's football, and is a huge advocate of non-league football. Follow her @E_Owen92

Version 2Mikala Paula is a student at the University of Chicago with more experience in community organizing and conventional politics than she cares to admit. She's prone to semi-regular rage spirals about female footballers and sport culture, but also enjoys a good Chelsea match and exercising to the Bundesliga. She really tries her best to be unbiased when she live-tweets games for Unusual Efforts. She deletes tweets as @NotJeffPlush

Alexandra PhelanLexi Phelan is a student from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She spends her free time writing, playing soccer, and praying that her favorite teams won't lose this week. She also tweets @lexiphelan

Sanaa QureshiSanaa Qureshi works on a London-wide youth programme as a day job but spends the rest of her time hopelessly devoted to Everton, players with the gentle touch she could never master and watching whatever football she can stream. She tweets @sanaa_mq about almost everything in the world.

priya ramesh Priya Ramesh is an 18-year-old football nut, writer and
temporarily-retired player who is currently based in Singapore. Her work
on Dutch football prominently features at Benefoot.net and she has also
contributed to The Guardian, FourFourTwo and Mundial Magazine. Having
grown up half an hour away from the Amsterdam ArenA, she has a natural
fondness for a little-known, remote Dutch football club called Ajax. In
her spare time, she happens to be a student and loves guitar solos and
bad jokes. She's on twitter as @Priya8Ramesh

beaBea Redondo Tejedor is a journalist and a writer from Madrid, Spain. She now lives and works in London, where she's constantly teased by the guys at her local pub when she joins in to watch her beloved Atlético de Madrid. It's not always nice, but it's definitely always worth it. You can find her on Twitter: @iniyi

train-jpg Jetta Rae is the editor of Fry Havoc, an intersectional food blog. When asked what teams she supports, she would only reply "Bárbara Barbosa's eyebrows". Maybe she'll reveal more on Twitter where she's @jetta_rae

Angela RoemeltAngela Roemelt lives and writes from Mainz, Germany. She has a university degree in catholic theology, although football was her first religion. She is the author of "111 Gründe, die Selecao Brasileira zu lieben" http://amzn.to/1Wghmbe and shares her philosophical ruminations on football at her blog "The Long Passball" http://aroemelt.blogspot.de.
@Angelaroemelt

Lesley_Ross_ColLesley Ross is a graphic designer and artist who just loves her football. A Manchester City supporter, her first game in 1980 was a 1-1 draw against the mighty Arsenal – things are looking slightly rosier now. Her hubby, two grown boys and now a grandchild keep her on her toes. She creates graphics for corporate events and conferences, a job that has allowed her to see most of the world. Forever an optimist, Lesley firmly believes all people should just be happy and respect each other. You can find her tweets @111Lesley111


kirstenschlewitz-small When not praising tiny men, Kirsten Schlewitz is editing the brilliant works of those who contribute to Unusual Efforts. She takes breaks to have breakdowns over her beloved Napoli, and her heart will forever belong to Marek Hamsik.

@kdschlewitz

Abigail Shaw has done a great many peculiar things in life thus far, and hopes to do many more. She supports four football teams as best she can, tweets voraciously at @thisaeshaw, works with vast quantities of vintage books, and is perpetually on the cusp of bringing many a writing project to fruition.

kusPiya Shrestha was born in the Himalayas but raised down under, (ladyweirdo) is a designer/maker who harbours delusions of being a playmaker. Sadly, her talents on the football pitch are limited to kicking the ball only vaguely in the direction of her choosing and tackling with a courtesy better suited for high tea with the in laws. Devoted to a team who play in a time zone unkind to her circadian rhythm, she's one of few who actually prefer the early kickoff. Follow her @accidentel

Lauren Smith is a writing professor in central Michigan. Her essays have appeared in New Madrid, Umbrella Factory, Prick of the Spindle, The Writer's Chronicle, and The Clackamas Literary Review. She contributed to the Six-Word Memoirs anthology, The Best Advice in Six Words ("Don't poof your hair. Just don't."). She supports the Chicago Red Stars, Liverpool, and the Flint City Bucks.   

Tweets as Professor Third Coast @_mirabile_

IMG_0536.JPGBrie Strom is a printmaker living in Walla Walla while they finish up college. They make regular long treks to Seattle to cheer on the Sounders and Reign… and to drink too much coffee at the Starbucks Reserves Roastery. Brie is relatively new to soccer, only discovering its beauty during the Women’s World Cup last year, but they have become an avid fan who talks about tactics and players for hours on end and plays hours of Football Manager when they’re not busy in the printmaking studio or out gardening in the yard. Brie is on twitter @brie_strom

fb_profile_picNicolle Zamora (aka @Treble_Nikki on Twitter) was a founding member/co-host of The Treble, a footy radio show & podcast from 2004-2008 written, hosted, and produced by three football-crazed women that didn’t pay the bills but had a loyal & devoted following from around the world in which she was (in)famous for her Beckham gossip segments (technically she broke the Becks to Real Madrid move AND the Becks to LA Galaxy move but no one took her seriously & she is still bitter about that), mascot reporting, and bringing the Fernando Torres Euro 2004 hair debate to the public. She now pays her bills by working in the music industry in NYC while spending most of her free time yelling about Roma, both online and off.

Agne ZiukaiteAgne Ziukaite is football lover, Barca supporter and illustrator from Vilnius, Lithuania.

She tweets as @Agne_Ziukaite

stephanie yangSteph Yang is a Boston transplant who fell in love with soccer in 1996, the first year women's soccer was an Olympic sport. She has written about the intersection of sports and pop culture with sexism and racism and to this day relives the nightmare of losing a penalty shootout for her high school soccer team sophomore year. She is @thrace on twitter.

 Vin Tanner is a nonbinary writer and graphic designer with a love for all things sports and strategy. They spend a good amount of their time watching and analyzing soccer, baseball, eSports, and more...and love rooting for their Seattle teams