Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive – Howard Thurman
Raised in Los Angeles by way of Tehran, I’m a journalist who never turns down the chance to follow a good story.
I have spent time at the L.A. County Coroner’s office and cemeteries across the city trying to figure out why an increasing number of bodies remain unclaimed, reported on intercultural relations and violence between Armenian and Hispanic communities, covered numerous protests, including those staged in solidarity with the recent revolution in Egypt as well as protests against the 2009 Armenia-Turkey protocols during a visit from Armenian president Serge Sargsyan to L.A., and had afternoon tea with infamous 80s ‘Con-Artist’ Mark Kostabi. I spent the last six months traveling through Armenia, Georgia and London, where I filed stories about the efforts of animal activists to curb dog shootings, the effects of second-hand smoking in one of the largest tobacco consuming countries in the world and issues concerning the Kurdish community.
I’ve also written numerous features that span the gamut from covert gay skating in conservative communities to seniors who are reprising the dance movement.
My reporting appears in Los Angeles Times Community News, LA Weekly, EurasiaNet, The Atlantic, New America Media, Bitch, Paste magazine, Ararat Magazine and Spot.us, a non-profit project for the “Center for Media Change,” funded by the Knight Foundation.
Previously, I worked as an editor for three years, collaborating with publications such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today and Hearst and the freelancer writers who wrote for them. During my tenure, I oversaw the assignment of feature pieces that I edited, fact-checked and packaged for online and print.
In 2009, I founded Ianyan Magazine, an online publication about the South Caucasus and occasionally the greater Middle East, where I’ve reported on a number of topics, including a highly publicized child abuse case in Armenia, domestic violence, human rights issues, Wikileaks and the Caucasus and Armenian, Azeri and Turkish relations. I’ve had the opportunity to interview Jack Kevorkian, former First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs to Armenia, Jirair Libaridian, Executive Vice President of the Humane Society of the United States Michael Markarian and Russian-Armenian singer Eva Rivas.
A labor of love on a non-existent budget, Ianyan Magazine now has contributors from Fresno to Boston and the Caucasus, and a dedicated global reader base. It has received recognition from the likes of Amnesty International, Huffington Post, Global Voices, Jezebel, FishbowlLA among others. Ianyan Magazine has cemented a place within the Armenian media landscape, belonging to only a handful of independent publications within a larger group not tied to any political, religious or philanthropic organizations.
I also author “Intersections,” a blog for L.A. Times Community News that examines news with a multicultural angle in L.A. County communities of Glendale and Burbank and am a Global Voices contributor.
I’m an avid blogger, photographer and social media enthusiast and am versed in SEO, social media platforms, WordPress, Adobe Photoshop, Indesign and basic web design and HTML. I carry the AP Stylebook with me at all times, and am fluent in Armenian.
I received a B.A. in journalism from California State University, Northridge and have been toying with the grandiose idea of applying to several graduate programs for a few years due to an unrelenting nostalgia for higher education.
I am interested in human rights, culture, race and demographics, the environment, the Middle East and how ordinary people are affected by the world, its leaders and their policies.
I love typewriters, the smell of old books, photo booths and great conversations over tea.
email: lianaaghajanian [at] yahoo.com