Alex Verman

The Green Ontario Fund is an agency of the Ontario government that invests revenues collected from the provincial carbon tax into energy-saving initiatives for residents and businesses to boost their overall efficiency and reduce energy costs. I wrote the bulk of the copy for this entire website.

Unfortunately, the incoming Ontario government cut this project within its first year in office, as part of a commitment to maintaining the fossil fuel industry despite concerns over climate change.

While working at Venus Concept, I wrote several original consumer-facing blog posts as well as providing strategic, editorial, and proofreading insight and support on all consumer-facing site properties.

What does youthful skin look like? Youthful-looking skin encompasses a wide range of factors, but there are three particularly big elements in the overall perception of skin age: tone, texture, and tightness.
The appearance of aging skin is connected to lower levels of collagen and elastin. These proteins are the essential “building blocks” of youthful-looking skin, the chemical components that give skin its firmness and elasticity and allow it to “bounce back” and hold its shape.

I watched a lot of wildlife documentaries when I was younger, and I think there’s a case to be made for drawing a line between my childhood fascination at male birds’ brightly coloured mating displays and my current pattern of screaming in joy while watching drag shows.
I love getting dressed up, and I know many women who do as well. It’s undeniable that display and decoration has impact, and that impact both includes and extends far beyond the basics of attracting a mate.

In this op-ed, Alex Verman explains how RuPaul's comments seeming to exclude women from drag show a misunderstanding of gender and strip away drag history.

This past year, we witnessed weeks of hand-wringing over student concerns with the actions of University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson, followed by an outcry over the Lindsay Shepherd incident at Wilfrid Laurier University. Yet amidst this widespread conversation about free speech and academic freedom, there has been a glaring blind spot: the repression of pro-Palestinian activism.

Too often, trans people get invoked in the abstract, rather than having their real stories heard.
I can guarantee that in December 2017, news-savvy cisgender Canadians heard about a 23-year-old woman named Lindsay Shepherd. But they may not have heard about a 27-year-old woman named Alloura Wells.

Americans spent $13.5 billion on cosmetic procedures in 2015, and 42% of those procedures were nonsurgical. That segment has grown by 44% over the past five years. Consumers are busy, information-savvy, and influenced by social media—all of which contribute to this shift...

Some members of the Jewish community in Toronto are pushing back against conservatism through panels, presentations, protests, and parties. For many in the community, it’s a welcome change. Since the demise of the Canadian Jewish Congress made way for organizations like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs or the Canadian Jewish Political Action Committee, Jewish grassroots groups have ...

I wrote the video script and supporting copy for the Rentlogic chrome extension. Check it out!

Take Rentlogic ratings you can trust — wherever you go.
Be prepared for your next move. Rentlogic is ready when you are — install the Rentlogic Extension today.

I joined Jesse Brown for the November 22, 2017, episode of SHORT CUTS, a media criticism podcast produced by Canadaland. Click through to this blog post for links to read their episode summary, and stream and download the full podcast.

Sam Smith may or may not have come out as nonbinary.

If you were to Google him this past week, this news was the top result, the product of an interview between Smith and Louis Wise of the Sunday Times:

Does he feel like a “cis” man? “No,” he scoffs. “I mean, I’ve got these tattoos on my fingers” — he flashes two delicately etched Venus symbols, one on each hand. “I don’t know what the title would be, but I feel just as much woman as I am man.” ....

For several months in 2017, I worked with the Independent Electricity System Operator, in partnership with the government of Ontario, to develop a wide range of web content for their energy efficiency initiatives. I wrote blog posts, ad copy, social content, landing pages, meta descriptions — you name it. A lot of the material has gone through edits and changes in direction in the time since, but much of my original work is still present in some form. You can view the Save on Energy project website to get a sense of my content writing and editing range.

For many white, straight, or cisgender people, it's easy to forget what the uniformed police officers who dance on parade floats do on the other 364 days of the year.
For the rest of us, it's impossible. Many queer and trans people in major cities actively avoid Pride. A lot of us have vivid memories of inappropriate conduct — to put it nicely — on the part of police.