Zoë Foster Blake

Zoë Foster Blake
Zoë Foster Blake in 2020
Born
Zoë Foster

(1980-07-28) 28 July 1980 (age 44)
Bowral, New South Wales, Australia
Occupations
  • Author
  • columnist
  • editor
  • entrepreneur
Spouse
​
(m. 2012)​
Children2
FatherDavid Foster
Websitezotheysay.com

Zoë Foster Blake (born 28 July 1980) is an Australian author, skin care founder and entrepreneur.

Early life

Zoë Foster Blake was born Zoë Foster on in Bowral, New South Wales, and was raised in Bundanoon, New South Wales.[1] Her father is the novelist David Foster and her mother Gerda Busch is a counsellor. She is the youngest in a blended family of eight children.[2] She studied media and communications at the University of New South Wales.[3]

Career

Writing

Foster Blake has published work in magazines since 2002. She was deputy editor of Mania Magazine, Smash Hits Magazine, and beauty director at Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, and the beauty website primped.com.au, which was acquired by News Corp in 2015. In addition, she has written the relationship advice column for Cosmopolitan since 2009, and wrote columns for Sunday Style magazine from 2013 until 2015. She started a beauty blog called fruitybeauty in 2006, and in 2015 it merged with her new site, zotheysay.com.

Foster Blake has written 17 books[4] and one audiobook. She is primarily published by Penguin Books Australia.[5] Five non-fiction: Amazing Face, a beauty tips and tricks guide; Textbook Romance, a relationship advice book for young women co-authored with her husband Hamish Blake; and Break-Up Boss, which offers practical advice for the brokenhearted, Amazinger Face and Love!. She has also published five novels: Air Kisses, Playing The Field, The Younger Man, The Wrong Girl and Things Will Calm Down Soon.[6] In 2020, she released Clean Slate, a novella audiobook narrated by Stephen Curry and published by Audible.[7]

In 2017, she published her first children's picture book, No One Likes a Fart. It won the 2018 Australian Book Industry (ABIA) Awards Children's Picture Book of the Year.[8] In 2020, Foster Blake published her second children's book, Back to Sleep, which was followed by Fart and Burp are Superstinkers in 2021, Scaredy Bath and Battle Mum in 2022, Fart's Favourite Smells in 2023, and The Best Present Ever in 2024.[9]

In November 2015, Network Ten announced it would screen a television show called The Wrong Girl in 2016, which was based on her novel of the same name.[10][11] It ran for two seasons.

Business

In April 2014, Foster Blake launched a skincare brand, Go-To.[12][13] In 2016, she launched a men's skincare line, Bro-To, and in 2019 she launched a children's bath and body range, Gro-To. In August 2021, BWX Group purchased a 50.1 per cent stake in Go-To for $89 million.[14] BWX went into voluntary administration in April 2023 and, in December 2023, Foster Blake and Go-To co-founder Paul Bates bought back BWX's stake in Go-To.[15][16]

Other work

She launched a break-up app called Break-Up Boss in April 2017, which donates 10% of every sale to Safe Steps. She published the Break-Up Boss book in April 2018.

She is an ambassador for Tourism Australia, and Look Good Feel Better.[17][18]

Personal life

In December 2012, Foster Blake married Australian TV and radio personality Hamish Blake in a private ceremony at Wolgan Valley, New South Wales, Australia.[19] They have one son, Sonny Donald Blake, born 10 May 2014, and one daughter, Rudy Hazel Blake, born 17 July 2017.[20][21]

Bibliography

Non-fiction

  • 2009: Textbook Romance. (co-authored with Hamish Blake). Penguin Books Australia. ISBN 978-0143009474.
  • 2011: Amazing Face: clever beauty tricks, should-own products + spectacularly useful how-to-do-its. Penguin Books Australia. ISBN 978-0670075256.
  • 2018: Break-Up Boss. Penguin Books Australia. ISBN 9780143785620.
  • 2016: Amazinger Face. Penguin Books Australia. ISBN 9780670078233.
  • 2019: Love! An Enthusiastic and Modern Perspective on Matters of the Heart. Penguin Books Australia. ISBN 9780143788775.

Novels

Audiobooks

  • 2020: Clean Slate. Audible.

Children's books

References

  1. ^ "Under the Covers with Zoe Foster". ABC News (Australia). 5 February 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  2. ^ O'Brien, Kerrie (21 October 2020). "Infidelity is never just what you think: Zoe Foster Blake". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  3. ^ Hardy, Karen (23 March 2014). "Zoe Foster: big change - no change: Becoming a mum won't keep Zoe the writer out of the single girl arena". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  4. ^ Le Marquand, Sarrah (23 September 2024). "'Of course there have been failures': Zoë Foster Blake on business, beauty and her latest book". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  5. ^ "Zoe Foster on Penguin Books Australia". Penguin Books Australia. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  6. ^ Miller, Megean (3 March 2012). "Why Zoe Foster's the 'It girl'". Herald Sun. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  7. ^ O'Brien, Kerrie (21 October 2020). "Infidelity is never just what you think: Zoe Foster Blake". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  8. ^ "2018 ABIA Winners". Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  9. ^ Kembrey, Melanie (29 October 2021). "She's a millionaire, so why is Zoe Foster Blake still writing picture books?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  10. ^ Kalina, Paul (19 November 2015). "Survivor, Offspring, dating and reality franchises: TEN sets a course for 2016". The Age. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  11. ^ Staff Writer, Ten Insider (19 November 2015). "The Wrong Girl: New Aussie Drama on TEN". Ten Play - Ten Insider. Ten Network Holdings Limited. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  12. ^ "Home". gotoskincare.com.
  13. ^ Brain, Anna (22 March 2014). "Zoë Foster-Blake makes her mark far beyond her funnyman husband Hamish's shadow". Herald Sun. Archived from the original on 22 March 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  14. ^ LaFrenz, Carrie (26 August 2021). "BWX buys majority stake in Zoë Foster Blake's skincare brand for $89m". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  15. ^ Kruger, Colin (3 April 2023). "Zoe Foster Blake's Go-To for sale as BWX collapses". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  16. ^ Yun, Jessica (15 December 2023). "Zoe Foster Blake buys back ownership of Go-To Skincare for $21.8 million". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  17. ^ Dennis, Anthony (12 October 2020). "Hamish Blake and Zoe Foster-Blake tourism campaign: Tourism Australia launches domestic travel campaign despite border closures". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  18. ^ "List of Patron & Ambassadors". Look Good Feel Better. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  19. ^ Heath, Nicola (17 December 2012). "Hamish Blake and Zoe Foster: wedding details". Yahoo! 7 Australia. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  20. ^ Lee-Longhetti, Chloe (11 May 2014). "Zoe Foster Blake and husband Hamish welcome baby boy Sonny in time for Mother's Day". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  21. ^ "Zoe Foster Blake and Hamish Blake having second baby, share news 'Beyonce style'". News.com.au. 3 February 2017.