Leila El Shennawy
I’m a journalist based in Ottawa and a freelance web editor at Maclean’s. I’m also a staff writer at the Pigeon, a long-form outlet for Canadian youth.
I’m also a former mentee at the Globe and Mail’s Ottawa bureau and contributor to They Were Loved, an obituary project published by Maclean’s magazine documenting the lives lost to COVID-19 across Canada.
At the Pigeon, I dive deep into stories from all over the country. I’ve written about go-karting while wearing a hijab in Quebec, the struggles parents of kids with developmental disabilities faced with back-to-school during the pandemic, and why young journalists struggle with imposter syndrome.
My work has also appeared in Canadian Geographic, where I covered stories about science and the natural world. A story about conservation scientists and software developers teaming up to create an AI that recognizes the faces of brown bears is one of my favourites I’ve worked on for Can Geo.
I owe my start to Carleton University’s student newspaper, the Charlatan. I was the Charlatan’s op-ed editor then copy editor, writing about university and student issues along the way. I graduated with a bachelor of journalism from Carleton in 2021.