The Globe and Mail won two Online Journalism Awards for articles profiling Maven Maurer, a transgender football player, and Anna Mehler Paperny's personal story about her experimental brain surgery to treat depression. Jana G. Pruden's article "Her turn to play" won in the Topical Reporting category and Paperny's essay "Holes in my head, wires in my brain" took home the prize for Personal Narrative. The Globe and Mail was also nominated in four other categories, including Breaking News for their coverage of a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. Two journalists from the paper, Jennifer Yang and Melissa Tait, were named finalists for Excellence in Science Reporting and Feature reporting.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-05,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
The Globe and Mail won two Online Journalism Awards: one for a feature about Maven Maurer, a professional football player who came out as transgender, and the other for a personal essay by Anna Mehler Paperny about her experience with deep brain stimulation to treat her chronic depression. The awards were given in the categories of Topical Reporting: Gender and Identity, Large Newsroom, and Personal Narrative. Maven Maurer, a former Grey Cup winner and MMA fighter, was profiled in Jana G. Pruden's piece titled "Her turn to play", which gave readers an intimate look at her journey. Meanwhile, Paperny's essay used illustration, animation, and video to bring readers inside her experience with deep brain stimulation. The awards are a recognition of the newspaper's innovative storytelling and commitment to tackling complex issues.
Written for “Canadian Journalism Awards” on 2026-09-07,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political
question, so it has no leaning score. That is an
answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly
or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it
anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political
position.
No political leaning scored for article 4501 · logged 2026-09-05
The Globe and Mail has won two Online Journalism Awards, one for a feature about the first professional football player to come out as transgender, and the other for a personal story about an experimental brain surgery.
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Globe → win → surgery
Jana G. Pruden’s piece, titled Her turn to play, won in the category of Topical Reporting: Gender and Identity, Large Newsroom.
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piece → title → Reporting
The piece profiled Maven Maurer, who as Mike Maurer was a Grey Cup winner and MMA fighter.
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who → profile → Maurer
The story gave readers an intimate view into Maven’s journey – her fears, her vulnerabilities and, ultimately, her courage.
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story → give → journey
Anna Mehler Paperny’s essay, titled Holes in my head, wires in my brain, won in the Personal Narrative category.
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essay → title → category
The piece used illustration, animation and video to bring readers inside Ms. Paperny’s experience with deep brain stimulation to treat her chronic depression.
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piece → use → depression
Digital storytelling editor Laura Blenkinsop and a team including Timothy Moore, Mark Medley, John Sopinski and Bryan Gee contributed to the piece.
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Blenkinsop → include → piece
The Globe and Mail was also named a finalist in three other categories.
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Globe → name → categories
The Globe’s coverage of the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., in February was nominated for Breaking News, Large Newsroom.
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coverage → nominate → News
The Globe mobilized a large team of reporters to Tumbler Ridge and in bureaus across the country after an 18-year-old shot and killed eight people, including five children at the town’s school, before killing herself.
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old → mobilize → herself
Jennifer Yang, Melissa Tait and Timothy Moore were named finalists in two categories – Excellence in Science Reporting, Large Newsroom, and Feature, Large Newsroom – for The two halves of Maryam.
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Yang → name → Maryam
The piece told the story of Maryam Fatima, a baby who developed catastrophic seizures and whose doctors proposed a treatment that would destroy half her brain to save her life.
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that → tell → life
The piece offered both an intimate portrait of a family’s agonizing decision and also a deeply reported look at the science behind the procedure.
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piece → offer → procedure
The awards are run by the Online News Association and recognize excellence in digital journalism around the world.
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awards → run → journalism
The winners will be honoured at a ceremony in New York on Oct. 1.
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winners → honour → Oct.
