Joanna Coles was born in West Yorkshire in 1962. Her mother was a medical social worker and her father was a teacher. Much of her family still resides in Yorkshire.

In 1972 at the age of 10, Coles had her first article published in the children’s section of the Yorkshire Post.

Joanna Coles began her career in 1984 on The Spectator. In 1987, she started work as a reporter for The Daily Telegraph, before moving to the staff at The Guardian in 1989. In 1993, so co-created, wrote and presented BBC Radio 4’s “Mediumwave,” a live weekly radio show about the media; and wrote and presented Late Media, the TV version on BBC2.

In June 1997, Coles moved to the United States to be The Guardian’s New York bureau chief.

In 2006, Coles made the move to Hearst to become editor-in-chief of Marie Claire magazine. Under her leadership, the magazine produced its most successful issue in September 2012, while also launching two extensions (Marie [email protected], and the Women on Top Awards). She was named Adweek’s 2011 Editor of the Year for her work. During this time, Coles began her foray into television with a show called Running in Heels about Marie Claire interns, as well as appearing on Lifetime’s Emmy-winning show Project Runway.

Coles was appointed as editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine in 2012. Though she only had oversight of the print platform, the digital team made Cosmo a leader in the media landscape by partnering with Snapchat to produce daily Cosmo content on the discover platform. She later joined the board of Snap Inc., parent company of Snapchat. She also brought the brand to television, executive producing the E! reality series So Cosmo. In 2013 she ran a 20-page excerpt of Lean In. Coles turned the magazine away from its “pleasing your man” approach towards women’s empowerment.

In 2016, it was announced that Joanna Coles would become Hearst’s first chief content officer. She described her responsibility as CCO as “thinking the way we produce content.” In 2018, after 12 years at Hearst, she exited the company after being passed over for the title of president of the magazine division.

The series was announced in December 2016, with Coles as an executive producer as well as appearing on camera. So Cosmo followed the personal and professional lives of several staff members of Cosmopolitan.

Continuing the trend of Cosmo-focused shows, in 2017, The Bold Type premiered on Freeform, of which she is an executive producer.

In April 2019, Joanna Coles signed a two-year first-look deal with ABC Studios. In the announcement, it was said that “under the pact, the former CCO will be developing and executive producing projects for multiple platforms with focus on streaming and cable.”