Shout OUT: Anastacia Uriegas

Name: Anastacia Uriegas
Status: Austin, TX, Homegrown (originally from San Antonio)
ID: Bi
Guilty Pleasure: Singing Madonna tunes into a hairbrush and impersonating Joan Rivers.

Anastacia Uriegas says she was tired of feeling like she was in a Texas version of “Melrose Place,” so she packed up and followed a boy to Austin like any lovestruck writer. Naturally, that didn’t work out, she says; Austin, however, did. She's been here five years. Although she is mostly known for tongue-in-cheek commentary on the city in a variety of media, Uriegas started out maintaining a marketing firm with her mother. Today she juggles providing PR and design services for a few devoted clients while writing a gentleman’s guide to Austin dining and boozery for Thrillist.

“I’m often doing research, so I do a lot of eating and drinking,” she says, adding that what she loves most about writing is “the fact that I can work from home and set my own schedule, and I can spend time with my dogs and cook for myself. No more office-lady peer pressure to sit at a desk all day eating Chinese food and getting fat.” Unfortunately, the down side to having the freedom to work from home, she confesses, is that she distracts easily.

Commenting on everything from the (literally) off-the-wall testimonies found in restroom graffiti to profiling Austin's most "badass" pedicab drivers, Uriegas’ wit is only surpassed by her willingness to cut down a "Dirty Sixth" patron or two in the process. Uriegas says the best part of living in Austin “is the fact that everyone here is so young, and that they come from all over the country. There’s a variety of intelligent people here, and we’re all like Peter Pan, none of us wants to grow up.” – a statement that is evident in her writing. Uriegas' online reviews might have you professing, “Second bar to the right and straight on 'til morning!”

With five happily out and partnered relatives, not including her gay sister, Uriegas comes from one big happy queer family. She, herself, IDs as bi. Do not confuse her with the stereotype of the Nineties party hopper, changing orientation after a few too many cocktails at the club. You know the ones. “My true link to the LGBTQIA community," she says "is via many, many friendships and all the lovely, lovely ladies and lady-bois I’ve kissed,” – that, and the occasional lezzy dating on OkCupid. Currently, however, she shares, “I’m in a long-term relationship with a sexy genius of a man.”

Inside Scoop: Uriegas says her life goal is to complete The Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile hike across Spain. She has already made a first attempt: “Last time, I walked for two days before my knee just snapped, so I spent a lot of time in airports crying.” However, for now, Uriegas is content to continue writing and would like to eventually open a small boutique marketing firm in the Never-Never-Land that is Austin.

For more on Uriegas, follow her on twitter @AnaUrie.

---

Watch out for more Shout OUTs coming to a Gay Place near you!