I’m Alicia Navarro, pronounced “A-lee-the-a”, and known as Leithy. This oddity of pronunciation is due to the Castillian lisp of my Spanish mother. My Cuban father says my name without the lisp (“A-li-sia”) and in the English-speaking world I’ve grown up I’m called “A-lee-sha” by default. However, out of a penchant for the aural quality of words and a desire to be a little different, I always ask people to call me the way my mother calls me. So “A-lee-the-a” or Leithy, if you’d be so kind.

While I come from Spanish and Cuban roots, I was born and bred in Sydney, Australia, where my parents immigrated a few years before I was born. Despite it being probably the best place to grow up in the world, I moved to London in my mid-20s, and haven’t stopped moving since. I’ve travelled around the world many times, I’ve lived in San Francisco for many years, and I spend much of my time in New York. Where is home? Right now, in a sweet little canal-side apartment in Haggerston, London, where the sound of ducks quacking wakes me up in the morning.

My passions are varied and odd: reading maps (preferably while countryside rambling), drag queens, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, oysters (and food generally), dancing, Bill Bryson (and books generally), and tech entrepreneurship. And I’m known for being quite passionate about all these things and more. Must be that Latin blood.