Rachel Charlton-Dailey
Freelance Journalist. Disabled Britain Editor and Columnist -The Daily Mirror / Founder The Unwritten
Media and Publishing
Rachel Charlton-Dailey is an award-winning journalist, editor and disability activist.
They regularly write for sites outlets such as Glamour, Verywell Health, Stylist and The Independent as well as appearing on many others such as The Guardian, Digital Spy, Big Issue, Healthline and HuffPost.
In the summer of 2022, she guest edited The Daily Mirror’s award-nominated groundbreaking series Disabled Britain, which highlighted the reality of disabled life, written entirely by disabled people. She now writes a weekly disability rights column with The Mirror where she holds to account the government and media in their treatment of disabled people.
In this vein, they are currently also campaigning to make the media less ableist and ensure that all organisations portray disabled people accurately. She is also passionate about the way stories are told and who tells them, believing that it’s essential to get more disabled journalists into the industry.
After using their platform to raise awareness of issues that affect disabled people, Rachel wanted to help others find their voice. Seeing how difficult it was to get disabled stories published in mainstream media inspired Rachel founded The Unwritten, where they are also editor-in-chief.
The Unwritten is a publication for disabled people to share their authentic experiences without the trauma or inspirational lens. In 2021 she won the Women in Journalism Georgina Henry award at The British Journalism Awards for creating The Unwritten.
They are currently writing a children’s book for Harper Collins about growing up with dyspraxia, which will be released in January 2024.
Rachel lives on the North-East English coast with their sausage dog, Rusty.
“Disabled people deserve to have their stories told accurately without having their conditions brought into doubt or used as political footballs. Nobody can tell disabled stories better than those with lived experience so it’s vital we get more disabled writers into journalism.”
Disability Power 100 2023 profile information has been self-submitted by the profile subject. Shaw Trust understands and respects that disability and impairment descriptors and language use varies from person to person. Shaw Trust assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or discrepancies in the content of this, or any other, profile page.
Image credits: Ian Vogler \ Daily Mirror
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