[2] Messenger grew up on a large farm outside Coolah, central western New South Wales, Australia.
She founded The Messenger Group in 2001 in Sydney, brokering sponsorship deals and doing public relations and marketing.
[1] Collective was launched in 2013 with $1.5 million of her own money, as an "entrepreneurial and lifestyle" print magazine, alongside a website and events company.
[1][2] In October 2017, the Group announced that this flagship publication would shift from monthly to bi-monthly after "several redundancies as the business streamlines itself around the three key pillars of print, digital and events.
[12] Several months later, the print edition was reinstated, although with one-off issues and freelance contracts for a smaller number of journalists.