R29 Australia’s Top Stories Of 2022 Didn’t Shy Away From the Big Issues

As 2022 winds down, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the year that was. It’s list-making season, after all, so what better way to close out the year than by looking back at the highlights and lowlights of the year that was.

This year saw a change in government and we were there for the lead-up to help you cast your vote. We celebrated local fashion, challenged the lack of representation on Australian television, snooped inside some of our favourite people's homes, and got #FiredUp about the pervasive issue of gendered violence in our country. Read on to discover some of R29 Australia’s biggest stories of the year. 

Style is intrinsically personal, and we made it our mission to put individuality and self-expression at the forefront of Australian fashion in 2022. We put boots on the ground at Australian Fashion Week to find out exactly what we can expect to see in our wardrobes this year. We had important conversations about size diversity and adaptive fashion, celebrated the magic of the First Nations fashion community and investigated whether Fashion Week was actually more inclusive in 2022. It was also during Fashion Week that we launched our street style series, Street View, which has since seen us visit 16 suburbs around Australia — from Western Sydney to Darwin, Fitzroy and Fremantle — to unearth the best style in your hometown and find out what Aussies really love when it comes to personal style. 

Though reality TV is often considered to be frivolous, there’s no doubt that it holds a mirror up to our society and sparks conversations like nothing else. In 2022, shows like The Block, Love Island and Married at First Sight acted as vehicles for deeper analysis of the representation (or the lack thereof) on Australian television and much-needed conversations about mental health and relationships.

This year, R29 Australia questioned who really benefits from appearing on Beauty and the Geek, watched Poh Ling Yeow and Maria Thattil unpack Australia’s whitewashed beauty standards on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, interrogated The Bachelor's 'stale, male and pale' recipe, got real about the mental health of contestants on MasterChef Australia and exposed the glaring diversity issue in the Australian Idol Australia reboot. We also dug out the best reality TV shows to watch for pure escapism (because that’s important, too) and celebrated Heartbreak High getting autism representation right.

In 2022, we launched a much-beloved R29 series, Sweet Digs, which saw us travelling from Sydney to Tasmania and into the country to North Warrandyte, to snoop inside the houses of eight of some of our favourite Australian women (and find out exactly how much they pay for their homes). We wandered through the pastel dreamscape of ‘Casa de Flex’, took notes in Keely Bradley's laidback retro-vintage home, heard the stories behind every piece in Depop seller Lillian Scott’s apartment, and picked up a few tips from Basra Ajeh about how to make maximalism work in an inner-city studio apartment. You can catch every episode of season one here, and we can’t wait to bring you season two in 2023!

This year was a big one for Australian politics and in the lead-up to the Federal Election on May 21st, we had one goal in mind: helping Australian women and underrepresented people (a third of whom believe politics to be a ‘white boys club’) make the best possible decision when casting their vote. Crystal Andrews helped us debunk election myths, Hannah Maher spoke out about trans representation in Parliament, Carly Findlay held former Prime Minister Scott Morrison accountable for his ableist comments, Justine Landis-Hanley helped us understand why women’s financial inequality was a key election issue, and Rashna Farrukh championed the female independent candidates who had historic wins on election day. But we didn’t stop after Anthony Albanese was sworn in, covering what the Indigenous Voice to Parliament would look like.

Few series are more synonymous with R29 than Money Diaries and in 2022, we were thrilled to travel around in more than 90 of your back pockets for a week. We lived with you in university dorms and were right there next to you while you debated whether to catch the train or an Uber home after a night out. We followed along on a week’s worth of shifts as a police dispatcher, went to Sexpo for a weekend with a sex worker, sat with you during a midnight breastfeed, came to (many) netball games and countless trips to MECCA, were the first to hear about your wedding dress appointment, and peeped exactly how much money you spent along the way. We also learnt plenty of money-saving tips along the way — we can’t wait to bring you more Money Diaries in 2023, so submit yours here.   

When we launched Refinery29 Australia in 2021, spotlighting the serious and pervasive issue of gendered violence in this country was a huge priority and that remained true through 2022. At least half of all women in Australia have experienced sexual harassment, abuse or violence. That’s 1 in 2 that has been sexually harassed, 1 in 3 that has been physically abused and 1 in 5 that has been sexually abused. Let that sink in. With #FiredUp, our team of editors and contributors continued our goal to dismantle this harmful system. They explored the role intersectionality plays in street harassment, challenged why we don’t have consent classifications in film and TV (and made a case for why we should), explained NSW’s new ‘no body, no parole’ laws, explored legislation around 'stealthing' across Australia and were disappointed but not surprised that Australia’s workplace sexual harassment figures haven’t changed in four years.

If we had to choose one area of beauty that blew up in 2022, it was hair. We started the year finally being allowed outside our homes, which saw us mastering our curl patterns and experimenting with haircuts that range from the viral U-shaped cut that makes hair look thicker, to every kind of bob (boyfriend, Italian, French, fringed — we really tried them all). We talked through the hair porosity test that promises to change the way we treat natural hair and put our own hair on the line by roadtesting TikTok’s upside-down shampoo trick in the pursuit of better hair. We embraced the return of the loop bun (and then ‘The Sachel’ cut), helped you refresh your ‘do for spring, and tried every single product in the BREAD Beauty Supply range to help you choose the curl products that’ll work best for you — then interviewed the brand’s Perth-born founder, Maeva Heim, to find out how she created a brand that’s just so good.

We loved sharing your stories, your street style, and tackling the big issues that faced Aussies this year. Thank you for spending 2022 with us — we can't wait to bring you even more in 2023.