I'm a communications strategist with a decade of experience in client-facing sales, operations, and content ideation. I currently consult on business development strategy for a commercial remodeling and kitchen equipment firm.

In 2021, I decided to turn my hobby into a career and start selling my prose and musings, officially becoming what I’d always known myself to be: a writer. Since then, my work has appeared in Business Insider, Metro, WIRED, The New York Times, HuffPost, Vice, Fast Company, PopSugar, Men’s Journal, Observer, Chicago Tribune, Reader’s Digest UK, Penguin Random House UK, Google Arts & Culture, and more than 100 newspapers and magazines worldwide.

WARNING: You're now scrolling past some really fun writing.

The New York Times

Tiny Love Stories: ‘Your World or Mine'

The clock strikes 6 a.m., and I’ve watched Paul sleep for nearly an hour. It’s the only time he seems helpless, incapable of hurting me. Before I parachuted into his Los Angeles world from Minneapolis for the weekend, he insisted on keeping things casual to make long-distance work. But that condition didn’t stop me from imagining our future together, once we could commit to FaceTiming more than three times a day. I start kissing his body, but he complains it’s too early. He turns over, and I cud...

I was a luxury proposal planner. I felt more like the secret service than cupid

‘You don’t think a scavenger hunt is romantic?’ asked my client Michael*. He’d just suggested sending his girlfriend on a wild goose chase across Manhattan, retrieving clues from his exes in the order he’d dated them – I was horrified.

But as a proposal planner, my role was to focus on logistics rather than acting as a gatekeeper of perceived ‘romance’.

Luckily, most men (and a few women) who came to my company for help weren’t married to their own ideas and I was usually able to provide them

The Sex Appeal of Dating a Plant Dad

Last summer, when my brother dropped off two giant plants for me to babysit while he moved to the middle of the jungle in Colombia for two months, I warned him it wouldn't be my fault if they died. I didn't care for children or animals: the closest I'd ever come to having a pet as an adult was my collection of leather bags. But as the days passed, I was caught off guard by the feelings I developed for those plants.
My god, how wrong I'd been to dismiss plants as an unnecessary responsibility tha...

Eaten Magazine (print)

The Evolution and Democratization of Food Criticism

No matter where you look online, opinions about food, the places serving it, and eating it are unavoidable. Yet, the line between expertise and criticism has become increasingly blurred, if not erased.

The Churches of Artificial Intelligence

Although artificial intelligence may seem on its way to omnipotence today, it was in 2015 that former Google executive Anthony Levandowski became the first to promote AI as God and file the paperwork to register the church. He founded Way of the Future as a nonprofit religious corporation in California, with the mission to “develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on artificial intelligence, and through understanding and worship of the Godhead, contribute to the betterment of socie...

Tamron Hall (ABC Network)

Jamie Valentino joins a panel on the"Tamron Hall" show to candidly discuss dating struggles

The author reflects on his controversial HuffPost article about rekindling with exes.

Love at first lust: A young writer explores a lasting love denied… or is that deferred?

Jared’s profile read 34 years old, six foot one, and muscular. As he opened the door, I saw an honest person. I didn’t fall in love with him immediately, but every visual detail indicated that I could. He looked beautiful in the most masculine ways: broad shoulders, full hair, a confident presence, immaculate posture and a seductive half-smile. At 19, I didn’t understand love—I usually hid from it—but I could still pick it out of a lineup. “He’s the one,” I thought immediately.

I'm a quadruplet - my brothers and I couldn't be more different

‘Bro, you’re just using being a quadruplet to get your five minutes of fame,’ Pablo complained.
‘And three days of luxury in a chateau!’ I added quickly.
It was May 2024 and I’d been trying to convince my three brothers that appearing on the Vanderpump Rules spin-off, Vanderpump Villa, was indeed a good thing.
I argued we’d be ‘guests of honour’, mere spectators to any drama in the show – unlike the hotel staff who were on the payroll for the plot – and that it was an obvious opportunity.
‘I sug...

I never expected my one-night stand to pursue me after our casual fling

On our first date, John* hit every possible green flag like my attraction was a video game he’d already mastered.
For starters, he picked me up before dinner, was easy to talk to or sit in silence with, and focused on every word that came out of my mouth in a way that made me want to kiss him.
The thing is, I’d already done the latter with him – and then some. Five months earlier, to be exact.
Our paths had first crossed as two anonymous torsos among many on Grindr in December 2024.
On a fatef...

From Día de los Santos to Día de Muertos, Remembering the Dead is an Act of Love

Death has consumed my thoughts for the past few years, so much so that it’s made me abandon my once-atheist identity and find a belief in God, in heaven. Somewhere, anywhere, really—where my Abuela’s soul could rest safely, surrounded by goodness, until mine joins her. She’s not dead yet, though. She was diagnosed with stage four cancer in 2021, went into remission, and has now decided to let God’s will be done the second time around. She didn’t seek a biopsy for a new tumor because it wouldn’t...

Midwest Design (inaugural print issue)

What Does a $100,000 Kitchen Look Like?

No two humble (or not-so-humble) abodes are created equal. For homeowners tackling the most luxurious remodeling project of all—the kitchen—luxury encapsulates a daily feeling shaped by your tastes, wants, and needs, along with that certain je ne sais quoi that distinguishes a space executed with the finest materials and impeccable craftsmanship. Of course, this brings us to money—the only vehicle that can deliver the ubiquitous promise of your dream kitchen. We asked local experts where a $100,000 budget stands in today’s market and what clients can expect for a kitchen remodel that’s one zero shy of a million.

Business Insider

I met a fellow writer on a trip, and we decided to take a bath together.

The energy exuding from our bodies wasn't sexual but embodied the innocence of children running naked in a field holding hands. I connected with Kayla on a deeper level because we shared such an intimate setting together.

Business Insider

My childhood friend invited me to their destination wedding. I turned it down because I wasn't given a plus-one.

When I was invited to a friend's three-day wedding celebration in Colombia, I was ready to book my flights. We'd met in high school more than a decade ago, and though we weren't as close as we once were because of time and distance, I felt like I wouldn't miss it for the world. As I looked into the logistics, I was more hesitant, but still on board. It would cost me more than $2,000 for flights from the Midwest to Colombia and back, plus hotel accommodations. I changed my mind, however, once...

Vice (translated into 5 languages)

What It’s Like To Be a Quadruplet

Our lives began in the Colombian capital of Bogotá simultaneously, my heart beating to the same rhythm as three others. The media celebrated the birth of my brothers and me in 1994 as if it were a miracle. It's weird to receive praise for just being born, but newspapers and magazines printed the news as such: "The first quadruplets safely delivered in 30 years."

Nearing 30 And Single, I Decided To Date 4 Men From My Past. Here's How It Went.

I’ve lived in New York for nearly 10 years, meaning many random men have my phone number. But I prided myself on having met a lot of eligible bachelors; I started to wonder if I had met them at the wrong time, after four years of being off-market.

Business Insider

I flew next to a family, and they taught me to appreciate what parents do for their kids.

A downside to traveling alone is being squeezed between random people during transit, but I was thankful that had never happened with kids. I'm not the first childless person to believe there should be a separation between happy individuals and burdened families.

Then one day I sat next to a sick person. She wouldn't stop wheezing and coughing, and I cursed the day she was born because she hadn't canceled her flight. It was post-COVID, so airlines were no longer required to feign concern for th...

Business Insider

My ex-lover turned to me for dating advice with his new boyfriend.

Most gay men would agree that the bedroom is not just where the magic happens; it's where lifelong friendships are made. While it may not be as common for straight people, it's normal for gay men to become friends after sleeping together; two bodies rubbing against each other is often a prelude to future interactions — whether that's dating, keeping it platonic, or something in between.

Finding power in (small) numbers at St. Croix Pride

While snorkeling on Buck Island in St. Croix, I followed a school of blue fish, propelling my body toward their sphere, but I couldn’t infiltrate it.

Having never snorkeled before, I faced the wrath of the red-faced, blonde female captain of Caribbean Sea Adventures, who scolded me for not disclosing my inexperience before it was time to don the gear and plunge into the turquoise sea. I bit my sassy tongue, determined not to spoil my first encounter with a woman at the helm of a boat.

I was pl

Reader's Digest UK (print)

Disease in Multiple Twins: Do Twins Have the Same Health Problems?

As children, my quadruplet brothers and I had a knack for getting collectively sick whenever one person would fall ill. Germs travelled at the speed of light because, whenever the words left someone’s mouth, the rest would immediately identify with the same symptoms. Who knew exhaustion or headaches were so contagious?

In Praise of AI-Generated Pickup Lines

We're at the height of a global technological revolution, and yet this is the modern state of dating: You swipe left, swipe left again, and again, and again—in fact, you mind-numbingly swipe left so many times that when the app finally lands on a person you deem worthy of swiping right, you accidentally swipe left on them, too. You continue swiping.

My thumbs are bloody with disappointment that dating apps, once the face of innovation, have become relics of the status quo. But I've seen the lig

My Partner and I Were In A Throuple With Alcohol

I cut my first date with Brandon short, rushing off to an editor’s birthday dinner and a New York Fashion Week after-party. So imagine my shock when I woke up in his bed, with no memory of how I’d gotten there. Feeling disoriented, I hastily made my exit.

Houston Chronicle

Can a U.S. metropolitan city adopt the siesta? Experts, expats and Houstonians weigh in

When I moved to Europe, I learned the Swiss charge for wine by the deciliter, making indulging in American-sized portions financially impractical. Becoming a beer drinker felt like the biggest challenge I’d face — that is, until I arrived in Spain and learned that doing errands in the afternoon is against the law (well, not quite, but it feels that way).

Grieving Without God: How Atheists Deal with Death

As part of an unabashedly Catholic family, I was shaped and moulded for a life of guilt from a young age. My Colombian grandmother, who was taught by nuns, lived by reminding us to give thanks to Jesus and avoid all sin. Just to play it safe, she often Our Fathered herself to sleep. It seemed everything ordinary deserved gratitude, and whatever I desired required penance.

The Met Gala celebrated flowers. It forgot about the environment

Considering that tickets cost more than a down payment on a house, it was understandable why people were disgruntled last year when climate protesters temporarily delayed the entrance of several celebrities. And yet, this year’s dress code—The Garden of Time, to accompany the museum’s exhibition “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion”—seemed like an opportunity for sustainable fashion to permeate the red carpet. There was the usual sprinkle of celebrities who slipped on vintage gowns or vocaliz

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