Five Minutes With Aly Walansky.
Aly Walansky – freelance writer
If you’re able, join us this week in donating to Aly’s favorite charity - Best Friends Animal Society!
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1. Tell us about your current occupation and how you landed such a fabulous job:
I'm a freelance food/drink/travel writer, and honestly - I sort of just fell into it! I started freelancing nearly 20 years ago - back when digital media was barely a whisper, and at the time, mainly focused on beauty/style. Beauty became spa, spa became travel, travel became food...and here we are! Currently I write about cooking, dining, drinking, and travel (when we do that again, which seems to be about to happen!) for about a dozen digital outlets, ranging from Today.com and Forbes.com to Food Network, All Recipes, and many more.
2. What's your best advice for PR professionals?
Build relationships. Writers realize when relationships are transactional, and we stop hearing from you entirely dependent on who we are currently writing for. Everyone's career ebbs and flows. We all have moments we're writing for so-so outlets and then better ones. Treat people like people no matter how currently "useful" they may be for you.
3. What's a fun fact about you?
I cook for my social media audience nearly daily on my Instagram, but I don't actually have a proper kitchen! I live in a TINY NYC studio apartment and the kitchen is basically just a tiny corner of my apartment. I totally improvise - it's why I have such a passion about small space living and budget meal prep.
4. Tell us about your favorite nonprofit and why.
Best Friends Animal Society. My dogs ARE my best friends and treating animals well is everything to me. This charity offers shelter to homeless pets throughout the nation, and that's been more a problem than ever during the pandemic.
5. What's your favorite meal, movie, or vacation spot?
I may write about fancy food as my JOB, but I honestly love nothing more than a good skillet mac and cheese or a quality burger. My favorite vacation spot though is Tuscany. I haven't been there in years, but the food, the people, the wine. buonissimo!!!