Hello! Thank you so much for visiting. If you don’t already know me I’m a freelance journalist, accidental cover girl and formerly fake ginger who loves writing everything from profile interviews and reviews to nitty gritty investigative features and personal essays.
Want to check out some examples of my work? Well you’re in the right place. Please find some of my most beloved bylines below.
Curtains for originality? Theatre creatives on the West End romcom musical boom
As a musical based on the 2004 Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore love story prepares for its West End debut, Isabel Dempsey surveys the current deluge of romcom remakes hitting the stage and asks industry folk whether the boom is helping or harming (The Independent, 2025)
BookTok, romantasy and follower counts: are future bestselling authors all going to be TikTok stars?
With TikTok’s ever-growing dominance, the line between influencer and creator is becoming increasingly blurred (The Bookseller, 2025)
Elizabeth Day teaches us how to break up
The ‘How to Fail’ podcast host has recently launched a new project: ‘How to Date’. But how do her heartbreaks’ past inform the lessons she teaches? (The Split, 2025)
BookTok, romantasy and follower counts: are future bestselling authors all going to be TikTok stars?
With TikTok’s ever-growing dominance, the line between influencer and creator is becoming increasingly blurred (The Bookseller, 2025)
‘Get the Zuck off our books’: Authors call for inquiry into Meta over ‘pirated books being used to train AI’
The Society of Authors (SoA) gathered outside Meta’s London HQ on Thursday (3rd April) to protest Meta’s alleged use of pirated books to train AI models (The Bookseller, 2025)
Scammer Caroline Calloway forged her Cambridge application to fulfil her ‘purpose’ in this world
Returning to visit the University she scammed her way into, the influencer and writer is eager to meet the Caroline Calloways of the future (Varsity, 2023)
‘Keep off the grass’ is not a sexist remark
— Varsity, 2023 —
In conversation with Dorothy Byrne
Isabel Dempsey talks art, feminism and chocolate biscuits with the Medwards president
Cambridge colleges have a clique problem
— Varsity, 2023 —
Think Inside The Box
— House and Home Magazine (Ireland) —
INTO THE WILDS
— House & Home Magazine (Ireland) —
New Vice-Chancellor: We can’t take more marking boycotts
— Varsity, 2023 —
Unbuilt pool could cost the University £600,000
— Varsity, 2024 —
Isabel Dempsey 