Focus
The focus should always be on the reader—what will the reader think, feel, and learn from the piece? What wisdom, advice, or encouragement can you share with the reader?
Key Point
Underline ONE key sentence or phrase of your article (NOT MULTIPLE). This will help the editor and graphic designer know what you consider to be the main thrust of your article. Please note we will not accept submissions without this feature.
Voice and Tone
- empowering and encouraging
- vibrant and energetic
- friendly and conversational
- inspirational and aspirational
- informative and useful
- full of practical advice and positive solutions
- real and authentic
Making Content Easy to Read
Avoid heavy, overwhelming paragraphs. Use contractions (it’s, she’s, I’m) in your writing to make the writing conversational.
Titles
Please create a title that makes sense out of context. Keep in mind, however, that Iridescent reserves the right to rename all titles.
Hyperlinks
If you want a particular link attached to any product, website, article, company, etc, please provide the URL. Please note: when recommending specific products this is required.
Article Length
Your article should be 600-1200 words in length.
Author Bio
Please include a 3-4 sentence bio, with social media links and website, you’d like for us to promote. Please also include of photo of yourself to accompany the bio. BIOS MUST BE INCLUDED FOR RETURNING CONTRIBUTORS AS WELL.
Contribute to the Conversation!
Please include a question for our readers underneath your bio that can spark great conversation about your piece.
Your Checklist Before Submission:
- Underline main point
- Include bio (all writers)
- Include Contribute to the Conversation question
- Include headshot (new writers only)
Editing Process
Once your article is submitted, our editor will work her magic and then we will send back your piece for final review before publishing. It is important to us that you think the end product is true to your voice.
Exclusivity
Please note all submitted content must be original. We do not accept previously published work.
Sensitivity and Spirituality
Calling women “women” is preferred over “girls” or “ladies.”
Be mindful of privileged language that could turn readers off.
Every conversation is for all young women, regardless of their personal faith and spirituality. Please communicate from a positive perspective, but refrain from making the conversation categorically Christian or any other religion, with the exception of an article or video submitted for our “SPIRITUALITY” tab. Spirituality conversations are devoted to introducing young women to issues of spirituality including the good news of Jesus and helping young women explore faith or deepen their own spirituality.
Punctuation
Commas: Use the Oxford style comma in “and” and “or” lists. Example: The children ate the cherries, blueberries, and almonds.
Possessives: If a word ends in s, just add an apostrophe to form the possessive.
Abbreviations
Avoid abbreviating any words that the audience won’t understand immediately.
Ampersands
Avoid using ampersands (&) in general text, headings, or subheadings—use “and” instead.
An ampersand may be used in charts or tables where space is tight, or when it’s part of a company name or book title.
When an ampersand is used, do not insert a comma before it. This practice creates visual clutter.
FOR SPIRITUALITY CONVERSATIONS ONLY:
Bible and God References
Please capitalize “God’s Word.”
Example: “I read God’s Word.”
Incorrect: “I read God’s word.”
God pronouns (He, Him, His) should be capitalized.
Example: God showed grace to His people. The exception is if a Bible verse which uses lower-case God pronouns (such as NIV) is being directly quoted. In that case, the verse should be quoted exactly as the translation gives it.
When directly quoting the Bible, italicize and place in quotations. Follow it up with the book, chapter and verse(s) in parentheses, using a colon to delimit chapter from verse.
Example: “Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way
before” (Joshua 3:4).
Other ways to cite Bible verses:
- for a book chapter (Genesis 5)
- for a range of chapters (Genesis 5–8)
- for a single verse (Genesis 5:3)
- for a range of verses (Genesis 5:3–10)
- for multiple disjoint verses (Genesis 5:3,7)
When specifying a range of verses, the en-dash is used, and there are no spaces on either sideof it. (See more about Dashes and Hyphens below.)
In place of Roman numerals, please use Arabic numerals for books of the Bible.
Example: “2 Corinthians” or “3 John”.
Incorrect: “II Corinthians” or “III John”
When referencing any book of the Bible, use the full name of the book, not the abbreviation.
Example: “Philippians 2:5”
Incorrect: “Phil 2:5”
CAPITALIZATION
Don’t capitalize the word after a colon.
Example: There are three things I love: tacos, puppies, and sunsets.
In headings and subheadings, capitalize important words (everything but most articles, conjunctions, and prepositions). Always capitalize the first and last words, regardless of the length of the word or the part of speech. Don’t capitalize articles ( a, an, the ), prepositions of three or fewer letters (such as of, in, and for ), or most conjunctions of three or fewer letters (like as, and, or and but). Verbs (even short ones like is, be , and do ) should always be capitalized.
Example: Who Will She Be Today? (be is a verb, and therefore capitalized)
Example: 5 Ways to Make the Most of Every Day
Incorrect: 5 Ways To Make The Most Of Every Day
COMMAS
Use the Oxford style comma in “and” and “or” lists.
Example: The children ate the cherries, blueberries, and almonds.
Incorrect: The children ate the cherries, blueberries and almonds.
Use commas after both a city and state when both are given.
Example: The meetings were held in Irvine, California, before moving to Arizona.
CONTRACTIONS
Use contractions (it’s, she’s, I’m, you’re) in your writing to make the writing conversational, not stuffy or rigid.
DASHES AND HYPHENS
Em dashes (—) are the “wait for it” of punctuation, creating a pause that is conversational in tone, while still drawing the eye to the next sentence or phrase fluidly. Use em dashes without spaces for setting off text or emphasizing a point in a sentence.
Example: To become great—or to create something great—we must invest our time.
En dashes (–) are typically used to separate inclusive dates and numbers, no space needed.
Example: June–August, 1999–2005
Example: Matthew 7:3–12
Hyphens are typically used to form compound words.
Example: long-term commitment, part-time employee. They’re also used in phone numbers.
The following prefixes do not require hyphenation: anti, bi, bio, co, counter, extra, inter, meta, micro, mid, mini, multi, non, over, post, pre, pro, proto, pseudo, re, semi, socio, sub, super, supra, trans, ultra, un, under. The exceptions are when the second element is capitalized or is a figure. Other exceptions: when there is a homonym (recover a lost object, but re-cover a sofa); or for clarity when there’s a strange spelling connection (co-chair, not cochair) or repeated vowels (anti-intellectual).
Example: postmodern, pseudoscience, metadata
Example: mid-December, pre-1980s
All “self” compounds are hyphenated, except when the addition is a suffix.
Example: self-reliant, self-assured
Example: selfless, selfish
EWORDS
Close all such expressions and lowercase the word immediately following the “e” prefix.
Example : email, ecommerce.
Incorrect: e-mail, E-Commerce.
Exception: when an eword is in a headline or at the beginning of a sentence.
Example: Email is the best way to get in touch with her.
FORMATTING
The titles of books, ebooks, movies, documentaries, magazines, and newspapers should be in italics. A part or section of a larger work is put in quotation marks (this includes the title of an article in a magazine, a chapter of a book, etc.).
Example: The Vanity Fair article “The Future of Cybersecurity” made an excellent point.
Always use single spaces between sentences.
Periods, exclamation points, commas, semicolons, hyphens and other internal and terminal punctuation should be set in the type style (bold, italic, regular, color) of the preceding word.
Example: The author was quoted in the Los Angeles Times, on the front page.
Example: Email her congratulations immediately!
GENDERED LANGUAGE
Avoid unnecessarily gender-specific language whenever possible. Choose “humankind” over mankind and “police officer” over “policeman.”
“He or she” is preferred over he/she, s/he, or (s)he. “His or hers” is preferred over his/hers.
LISTS AND BULLET POINTS
Bullet points and/or lists are encouraged, as they increase reader engagement.
Entries should carry no punctuation at the end unless they form complete sentences.
Don’t use “and” after list items.
NUMBERS
Write out numbers up to and including ten.
Example: She picked seven apples.
Example: Over 800 women attended the conference.
Write out numbers at the start of a sentence.
Example: Twenty-six former professional gymnasts traveled to Greece.
Common exceptions to this rule include percents (see below) and hard data.
Another exception to this rule is a list of numbers that includes numbers under and above ten. In this case, just make the list consistent.
Example: The cooler contained 14 bananas, 6 yogurts, and 22 sodas.
Ordinal numbers below 11 should be written out.
Example: tenth, fifth, first, second.
Example: 55th, 26th, 300th
Use the numeric form for percents, but write them out at the start of a sentence.
Example: Nearly 30% of the respondents agreed with the proposal.
Example: Twenty percent of the students preferred sushi for lunch.
QUOTATION MARKS
Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks.
Example: “It rained,” the captain said, “the night we began our journey.”
Question marks and exclamation points go inside quotation marks only when they’re part of
what the speaker is saying.
Example: Billy asked, “Can you join us?”
Example: I’m still in shock that she said “I will”!
Colons, semicolons, and dashes always go outside quotation marks.
Example: Ways to definitely be pegged as the “new guy”: give high fives, call everyone by the wrong name, and eat crunchy snacks during meetings.