Gabriela Alicia Leal

I've lived most of my life in Monterrey, Mexico, where I grew up, went to college, and fell in love with writing and editing. I'm a taco enthusiast and a proud auntie who loves a competitive volleyball game. I am also a firm believer that an album should be listened to in its entirety, and if you like, I'd love to recommend you my favorites! 

In my free time, you’ll find me reading music reviews, and coming up with new creations in the kitchen as I experiment with Mexican cooking and baking.

I've successfully driven key initiatives and achieved impactful results over the last few years.

Some of my accomplishments as Managing Bilingual Editor and Writer for the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) include:

• Spearheading HSLDA’s first bilingual journalism initiative by writing stories in English and Spanish, expanding our reach to global Spanish-speaking audiences. 
• Launching the organization's inaugural monthly Spanish newsletter, which garnered a 52% open rate in its first year. 
• Coordinating +200 Spanish translations for websites, print materials, emails, videos, blog posts, social media, and more.
• Leading and mentoring a dedicated team of three bilingual editors.
• Streamlining the English-Spanish translation workflow by reducing turnaround time by 66%  and implementing software project management.

As the LATAM Copywriting Consultant for the Hallow app, I have achieved the following: 

• Produced and localized +250 email campaigns and push notifications, impacting millions of Spanish-speaking users across the US, Latin America, and Spain.
• Increased subscription trials by 75.42%. in a year, by culturally adapting copy, informed by A/B testing and data-driven insights. 

With a strong track record in ensuring content aligns with brand tone and guidelines, developing Spanish style guides, and turning insights into impactful copy, I’m confident in my ability to meet your company’s needs.

As a writer for HSLDA, I've written digital stories that are accessible, linguistically accurate, and aligned with brand guidelines. Throughout the past two years and a half, I have honed my ability to create attention-grabbing headlines, edit strategically, and deliver messaging that corresponds with HSLDA's core values. 

These are some of my favorite pieces. (To access each article's Spanish version, click 'Español' in the top-right corner.)

I increased HSLDA's Spanish newsletter subscriptions by 79% in 2024 by collaborating with the Spanish and email team at HSLDA, leveraging A/B testing insights, and curating content tailored to the needs of our Spanish-speaking audience.

Launching and managing this newsletter has equipped me with critical thinking, creativity, and audience awareness—essential components for producing effective content for a specific audience.

Hallow is a prayer app that encourages users worldwide to find peace through prayer. It's the #1 Catholic app in the United States. As a copywriting consultant for Hallow's Latin American market, I create warm, accessible, exciting, and inviting copy for their push notifications and email campaigns, encouraging users to engage with the app's prayer content.

Below, I've included examples of my original copy in Spanish with their English translations and the strategies I use based on our brand tone and data insights.

English translation: 

The Pope counts on your prayer

Let’s pray for the monthly intention of the Pope: that each of us might listen with our hearts to the cry of the earth. 🌳🍃

Copy strategy: 

- Instead of using “Pray for the Pope’s monthly intention now!”, I use “the Pope counts on your prayer” to avoid a transactional tone.
- I add what the Pope’s monthly intention is, so users feel moved to pray for that specific intention.
- I add emojis that are related to the prayer intention, to make the text colorful and appealing.
- I link to the specific prayer session in the app so users can access it as soon as they click on the push notification, per Hallow’s guidelines. 

English translation: 

Sleep in the presence of God 😴

Let God guide you to a deep sleep through the Scriptures. Listen to our Lectio for Sleep collection now at Hallow.

Copy strategy: 

- I indirectly address the pain point of not being able to fall asleep by inviting users to “sleep in the presence of God” in the title. (A lot of users struggle to fall asleep and they download the app for its sleep content.)
- I provide a solution to the pain point by inviting users to let themselves be guided by God to a good night's sleep through the Scriptures.
- I add the specific name of the collection and link to it, so users access it.
- We schedule the push to be sent around 8 pm, so users are reminded of this collection before they go to bed and pray it. This results in a higher conversion rate. 

English translation:

Day 1 with Mother Teresa 💙

Join Fr. Ignacio Amorós on this beautiful journey. “Mother Teresa's life is one of those captivating lives that marks a before and after in history."

Copy strategy: 

- Per Hallow’s messaging guidelines, I write a simple and short subject line to remind users that today starts the prayer challenge about the life of Mother Teresa. (We’ve already sent a previous email with more context inviting them to join the waitlist for this challenge).
- I use a blue heart emoji, because the color blue is associated with Mother Teresa’s image, and Hallow’s design for the challenge. 
- I mention the popular influencer who’s guiding users in this challenge: Fr. Ignacio Amorós.
- I add a captivating quote from Fr. Ignacio Amorós about Mother Teresa so users are inspired to join the challenge and learn more about her life.

I've edited and proofread +130 stories and articles in English and +200 content pieces in Spanish (the latter includes stories, blog posts, legal articles, video scripts, webinar copy, and more). I focus on enhancing quality, consistency, grammar, and punctuation while ensuring the appropriate tone and voice according to brand guidelines. 

Below is a selection of the editing and proofreading work in English I've done in collaboration with senior editors at HSLDA: