and she's wildly convinced you're uncommonly beautiful.
Karen's bestselling book, The Beauty of Different, is a chronicle of imagery and portraiture, combined with written essays and observations on the concept that what makes us different makes us beautiful -- and may even be the source of our superpowers. It is available from Bright Sky Press, Barnes & Noble and Amazon, and other booksellers around the world. The book inspired BlogHer's Own Your Beauty initiative, where Karen was the lead blogger, and which also appeared as part of USA Today's OwnIt campaign. She is a sought-after keynote speaker, including having covered topics as varied as parenthood, social media and women in leadership. She has appeared on both local and national television shows and other news media, including PBS, The Huffington Post, being quoted on CNN.com and an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Karen is also the author of Chookooloonks, an award-winning photoblog. Her fine art photography pieces and projects have been included in exhibits around the country. She is a contributor to the book Expressive Photography: A Shutter Sisters' Guide to Shooting from the Heart, a guide for beginning and intermediate photographers for adding heart and soul to their imagery. Karen's writing, images and other projects have been featured on CNN.com, USA Today, Good Housekeeping and Wondertime magazines, among others.
Karen is originally from Trinidad & Tobago, but currently lives in Houston, Texas with Marcus (her English husband), Alex (her American daughter), and Rufus the Wonderdog. She's is a former engineer and a current (though non-practicing) attorney, holding a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Texas A&M University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Houston.
about chookooloonks
Chookooloonks was first published in 2004 on a Typepad platform, and began as a parenting and adoption blog; though has since evolved from parenting to a photoblog (hosted by Squarespace). Through the pairing of striking imagery and essays, Chookooloonks helps thousands of people around the world every day see that their ordinary lives are, in fact, extraordinary. Karen is wildly convinced that every person on the planet is uncommonly beautiful, and her mission is to convince others of this fact, too.
Chookooloonks has garnered many awards, including being a finalist in The 2011 Bloggies, and winning Best Eye Candy Blog 2010 of the 2010 BlogLuxe awards, and the judges' pick for best photoblog by the 2010 Black Weblog Awards. In addition, Karen was recently named one of the Top 50 Twitter Moms of 2011 by Babble.com, for her Twitter handle, @chookooloonks.
Karen is available for collaborating on marketing campaigns whose missions closely tie into the message and aesthetic of Chookooloonks, and for which Karen is allowed creative control. If you are interested in developing a visually beautiful and inspiring campaign with Karen, and feel that your products and/or services are closely aligned with the mission of Chookooloonks and The Beauty of Different, please visit the media page for more information.
for more information
To read more about The Beauty of Different, click here.
For news, appearances and upcoming events, click here.
To view the Chookooloonks media kit, click here.
To find me elsewhere on this World Wide Web, click here.
And finally, to answer the burning question, "what on God's green Earth is a chookooloonks?" click here.
to contact me directly
Email: karen@chookooloonks.com
Follow me on twitter @Chookooloonks.
And if you prefer to communicate the old-fashioned way, you can send snail-mail to:
Karen Walrond
Chookooloonks Media LLC
650 W. Bough, Suite 150-108
Houston, TX 77024
United States of America
terms of service
Chookooloonks is owned, operated and edited by me, Karen Walrond. By accessing, using and/or submitting material (including comments) to Chookooloonks, you agree to abide by these terms of service, including any modifications that may occur to the terms in the future. All modifications will be posted here on this page.
All content published on Chookooloonks becomes the property of Chookooloonks Media LLC.
I've written about how I would like my creative work treated here; however, in an abundance of clarity, Chookooloonks content is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial NonDerivatives License. This means you may reproduce Chookooloonks content, provided, however, that the reproduction is for personal use, remains unaltered and is non-commercial in nature, and the reproduction acknowledges Chookooloonks as the original source of the material, either by including a link back to the original Chookooloonks post, or by including the following notice:
Content originally appeared on Chookooloonks (http://www.chookooloonks.com), and is made available through a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial No Derivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
For more information about the Creative Commons license, read the Creative Commons Frequently Asked Questions. If you're in doubt about fair use, please contact me directly at karen@chookooloonks.com.
All content published on Chookooloonks is subject to editing or deletion. Opinions expressed on Chookooloonks (particularly in the comments section) are not necessarily mine. Furthermore, nothing on this site should be construed as my giving legal advice. If you have a question that has legal implications, I strongly suggest you contact a lawyer, local to your situation, directly.
I reserve the right to restrict site access for any reason. Generally, I'll restrict access if I think someone is using the site to leave comment or trackback spam, or to be unkind to me or any other person; so please, play nice.
privacy policy
I will not sell, distribute or reveal your email addresses or other personal information without your consent, except as required by law.
In general, when publishing something you submit to me or to Chookooloonks, I'll identify you by your first name only and, if available, a link to your blog or website, unless you specifically request otherwise.
disclosures & ftc guidelines
In the interest of full disclosure, please note that links related to music, camera equipment, journaling supplies, books, workshops or other items that you see on this site may take you to their purchase pages, where I am a member of the Amazon or other similar affiliate programs. You are obviously under no obligation to buy a thing. Also, I am not otherwise paid to link to these items, nor do I directly link to any products that I don't actually use myself in my real life.
On the rare occasion I accept payment to review a product, rest assured that the fact that I accepted such payment will be noted in its associated post, and for better or worse, the review will reflect my honest opinion.