Farrah Storr

Farrah Storr is the Head of Writer Partnerships at Substack UK.

Formerly, she was the award-winning editor-in-chief of Elle UK, Women's Health and Cosmopolitan and the author of The Discomfort Zone, a book that looks at how challenge and change can unlock creativity and human potential.

Farrah was an editor-in chief for over ten years. She was the founding editor of Women’s Health, the most successful magazine launch of the millennium and Cosmopolitan magazine, where she was tasked with reimagining it for a new female audience increasing circulation by an unprecedented 59%.

Farrah specialises in leading teams through periods of creative change and in 2017 was cited as one of only 36 BAME leaders in The Guardian & Operation Black Votes UK’s 1000 Most Powerful list. In 2019 she was also cited as one of the capital’s most powerful change makers in media in The Evening Standard’s Progress 1000.

Farrah is an expert speaker on women’s issues, leadership as well as diversity and creativity in the workplace. She has delivered two Ted talks, the first of which explored authentic leadership, the second about The Power of Discomfort which ties in with her first book The Discomfort Zone published by Piatkus.

Farrah is also a true advocate for diversity in the creative industries and, as such, was awarded HSBC’ Influencer of The Year 2018 award for her work. In the same year she was also named as one of only five BAME women in the UK’s 1000 Most Powerful Leaders List by The Guardian and Operation Black Vote. She is also on the board of the government advisory Social Mobility Commission as well as the Oxford Brooke’s Journalism Advisory Board.

In 2018, she published her first book, the acclaimed business book -The Discomfort Zone in which she explains how change, challenge and constraint can lead to creativity and success. She is an accomplished keynote speaker on these subjects and has spoken at conferences around the world.

As a keynote speaker Farrah has spoken everywhere from Google head office and The Cambridge Union to global marketing conferences around the world to educate and motivate on subjects ranging from how constraint can lead to creative breakthroughs as well as how to find your brand voice in a world of white noise. She is also an expert moderator, having moderated panels in front of stages as large as 20,000.