Independent media leader Lucy Blakiston is the Go Media Young New Zealander of the Year.
The annual Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards recognise those who use their passion to make change for the country. The winners were announced on March 19.
Blakiston is CEO and founder of Shit You Should Care About, a media company she started with friends in 2018.
News without the blues
Known as SYSCA, the platform helps young people engage with the news – without, as Blakiston says, getting the blues.
Judges describe her work as redefining global news for a new generation. Her platform includes an Instagram account with 3.4 million followers, a newsletter that goes out to over 578,000 subscribers, The Shit Show podcast and a book, Make it Make Sense.
Across all of her content, Blakiston recognises people are multifaceted – they care about global issues but also pop culture. The Spinoff described SYSCA as a “sometimes Harry Styles stan account”.
Blakiston tells StopPress that this win means everything to her: “For all the weird girls, the fangirls, the loud girls and all the young people who care about things too much – it’s for us.”
Three best friends – Lucy Blakiston, Ruby Edwards and Olivia Mercer – started SYSCA after growing up together in Blenheim.
In the early days, the 20-somethings ran it from Blakiston’s mum’s kitchen table. They were pioneers of delivering news via Instagram and podcasts – now considered mainstream. In 2022, the trio toured Aotearoa, meeting in real life the audience they’d created online.
