Substack has been circling around the new media-sphere for a few years now, but I only really started becoming an avid subscriber around this time last year. And now I can’t imagine my mornings without it.
Substack is a very simple concept, which is why it works so well. Basically, it’s a one-stop shop for everyone who has ever wanted to start a newsletter or a blog. It hosts thousands of different writers, artists, and podcasters, and you can choose what you want and have it delivered to your inbox. There are Patreon-adjacent subscription features, which allow you to financially support creators you enjoy directly. Often there is extra content hidden behind paywalls which the creators deem as superior, or that they have spent a lot of time and energy working on and feel like it deserves to be paid for. Which I think is great. We shouldn’t expect everyone to expend their own energy and resources to give us free content – know when to break out your wallet.
So. Basically. You get emailed these newsletters as they come out. You can choose to read them in your inbox, or you can go to their app or website and read them on the author’s profile (which is essentially a blog). It’s amazing. You can choose to comment and engage with others reading/watching/listening to the same thing as you, or you can just… not. It rocks.
I’m not going to let you leave without some recommendations; I love forcing what I like onto the general populous. Some of my favourite Substack subscriptions are:
- Rayne Fisher-Quan’s internet princess— Resident queen of girlie twitter Rayne Fisher-Quan writes essays. She really has her finger on the pulse of why it feels so terrible sometimes. Her essays are pretty causally written and can be very emotional and/or very funny.
- P.E. Moscowitz’s Mental Hellth— P.E. Moscowitz does a brilliant job at examining mental health through an educated lens and making it accessible and interesting. They have very insightful essays on mental health care (medication, therapy, addressing causes) and conversations with other mental health professionals. Most of their content is paywalled, but even if you don’t plan on becoming a paid subscriber, I would check out their free content if you are interested in mental health at all.
- Blackbird Spyplane—1/2 clothes, 1/2 interviews. I don’t pay for this one, as the paywalled content tends to be menswear clothing recommendations, something I don’t find as useful as you might. Their interviews are sick; one week the spy plane could fly into your inbox and drop off a lengthy conversation with some New York City microcelebrity you’ve never heard of, and the next week you get two paragraphs of back and forth with Jerry Seinfeld.
- Perfectly Imperfect— Just really cool people telling you what they’re into. I’ve gotten some really excellent recommendations from this substack, and the vibes are just unparalleled.
- The Unpublishable— Written by reporter Jessica DeFino, this is a newsletter about beauty. More specifically, it is a newsletter about how the beauty industry manipulates us into hating ourselves, and how we can finally free ourselves from the shackles of the beauty standard.
Substack is a creator-first platform with something for literally everyone. It seems a little intimidating at first, but really it is more personal and calmer than any other social media-adjacent platform that aims to put out content that is worth reading.
Image Credit: ‘Substack Reader’ by Focal Foto is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0