Nita Rao

Freelance Writer & Fact-Checker

United States

WRITING

My editorial beats are pop culture, books, food, and fashion. Previously: associate editor and writer for The Village Voice.

Bylines: Mental Floss, RollingStone.com, The Village Voice, NYMag.com, TimeOut New York

Content Writing: Audible, Gap Inc., RetailMeNot, Sommsation, Meta

RESEARCH & FACT-CHECKING

Smithsonian Magazine, RollingStone.com, ESSENCE, Us Weekly, The Village Voice, the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, and other sites and publications.
Previously: Deputy research editor for The Village Voice and Us Weekly

Email: [email protected]

*Nita is pronounced "Nee-thuh*

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Portfolio

OVERVIEW

The Village Voice
Haircut 101

In 2000's The Virgin Suicides, Kirsten Dunst is a milk bubble of a nymphet – luminous, lustful, and blessed with splendid hair.

Audible
Olive Kitteridge

WRITING. Imperfect and struggling, Elizabeth Strout's characters grind through the dulling routines of ordinary life in this exquisitely spare "novel in stories."

RollingStone.com
In The Belly Of The Beast

RESEARCH/ FACT-CHECKING/ ADDITIONAL REPORTING. "In the Belly of the Beast" was nominated for a Webby Award in the News category.

WRITING

Mental Floss
The Time Joan Rivers Took Judge Judy and Cindy Adams on An 18th-Century Girlfriend Getaway

WRITING. The late Joan Rivers was many things—a trailblazing comedian, a fastidious filer, an acerbic critic of Hollywood fashion—but not many knew her as a history buff (beyond, perhaps, her often joking that she was older than dirt). It turns out that for all of her expensive tastes, Colonial Williamsburg long remained one of Rivers's most beloved vacation spots.

Initiative for Black Owned Small Businesses
David Brown, President

WRITING. David Brown worked his way up from line supervisor at a bakery to management positions at Philadelphia-area Walmart, Print-O-Stat, and Family Dollar stores before pivoting to build a small private transportation business 15 years ago. He brings a deep understanding of the unique challenges and barriers many Black-owned small businesses face to his role as President of the Initiative for Black Owned Small Businesses (IFBOSB).

The Village Voice
A New Religion

Buy time, don't lose it. Duran Duran was on like Simon LeBon, mewling and ambrosial, with gnashing guitars and buttery highlights.

The Village Voice
Bully for Bollywood

Lo! Across rainless acres parched by drought swaggers Captain Russell, a Machiavellian British fop, to the ascot born, with his Freddie Mercury overbite and muttonchops.

NYMag.com
Barbuto

Italian for "bearded", Barbuto is the rustic, rambling restaurant that shares space with Industria Superstudio, in a converted warehouse and garage, with eight separate studios rented for high-fashion photo shoots (sister atelier: Milan).

Gap Inc. | aDressed
All That Glitters is Limited Edition (and Gold)

Visionaire fashion and art magazine and Gap have teamed up for the third time to design "The Gold Collection," a new line of 15 limited edition T-shirts. The result? Gossamer-punk doily art.

Gap Inc. | "Let's Do More" Digital Campaign
Lost Property of London Makes Burlap Coffee Sacks All the Rage

Brit designer Katy Bell hauls left-for-dead burlap coffee sacks off city sidewalks back to her studio where she transforms each bag– prickly fibers, block type and all– into the bespoke Maltby tote that launched her Lost Property of London high-end eco label in 2009.

Audible
Stealing Buddha's Dinner

Stealing Buddha's Dinner is a tenderhearted homage to the musty dried fish and sandalwood smells of Asian grocery stores and to moon boots spackled with snow.

Audible
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand author, Helen Simonson's wry, perceptive debut novel about love, the British class system, and family obligations, genially unfolds amid a quaint, leafy English village, as tweedy and provincial as any Miss Marple mystery, drafty vicarage and all.

FACT-CHECKING

The Village Voice
AIDS: The Agony of Africa

Awarded the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. LEAD RESEARCHER/FACT-CHECKING.

RollingStone.com
Operation Counter Jade Helm

RESEARCH/REPORTING/FACT-CHECKING. Members from the Patriot Movement track a U.S. Military exercise