She's Back! (It's Me, I'm Back)
Celebrating one hundred issues and a return to newsletter writing.
I've started this issue at least a hundred1 times in my head over the last six months.
Fitting, because this is also the 100th issue of this newsletter since I launched it back in May 2021. Bear with me as I take a brief trip down memory lane:
I began writing this weekly newsletter because I wanted a writing habit that allowed me to write outside of work. I write a lot —
But I wasn't writing for myself. I had a stockpile of ideas on my Notion dashboard but no time, patience, or energy to write anything besides what I was paid for at work. At that time, Substack was taking off, and I'd always loved my blog writing days. So, I decided to go back to it and told myself: 100 issues, then I can quit.
I wanted to get better at expressing myself and my opinions. I also wanted to have bylines that could show potential readers and clients that, hey, I'm actually good at writing. I had an out at number 100, but I had to begin immediately. Armed with my Instagram name (that I've since changed) and a random colour palette I created on Canva, I began writing.
100 was an arbitrary number; it just sounded well-rounded to me. Apparently, you only need to publish 21 episodes of a podcast to be in the top 1% of podcasts in the world (unsure if this stat still stands, unsurer still about why I extrapolated that to newsletters).
Anyway, tl; dr: this is Issue #100, and while I took a very, very long break, I'm not quitting. Here's why I went awol:
Between planning a wedding in three months, working full-time (happily as a freelancer), learning how to swim (I can swim now!), attending concerts, travelling to new countries, and spending a lot of time with my friends and loved ones, every time I tried to write this newsletter on a Tuesday, I was too busy and occasionally sick or tired.
Now that I've gotten my bearings back after a hectic but exciting time in my life, you can expect a new issue of Not Controversial discussing something that shouldn't be controversial in your inbox next week. I'm attempting to stick to regular programming (aka, once a week on Tuesdays,) but sometimes life has her own plans that override mine.
From the archive 💌
In the meantime, please enjoy a selection of some of my favourite issues from the last one hundred:
(Also, hello to all the new folks here who've found me via my friends' newsletters 👋🏼, please consider this a buffer issue and stick around to judge my work until next week at least!)
Teenage girls make superstars. We better start respecting them. — Don't underestimate teenage girls; they can topple empires if they want.
Can we separate art from artist? — Timely, considering I have to purge some faves from my bookshelf after reading about Neil Gaiman. 😒
Surviving a milestone-obsessed culture — I said I take it easy now. I lied. I think I need to keep going back to this post to remind myself about what's really important.
New number, who dis? — On friendship breakups or slow distancing and why it's so painful. Also, we'd be nowhere without good friends.
Can we lighten women's mental loads? — More folks are talking about this now, which is great. What would be even better is if people (men) listened!
How it's more expensive to be poor than rich — We've built a world rigged for the rich.
Is it gossiping or just talking? — The history and benefits (yep!) of gossiping.
This also doubles up as my 'cool things to check out' list for today's issue. Cop out? Yes.
I know this list would've probably been good to have during my unintended hiatus, but ehh, we move.
Whether you began reading with Issue 1, issue 45, or issue 100, thanks for being there. I mostly write for myself, but I'm incredibly glad to have you in my corner.
Marriage tips? Newsletter advice? Topics you'd love to see me cover? The three links below are your space to share what you thought about this issue—or anything else on your mind (about the newsletter, I'm not an agony aunt—yet). They're anonymous, so feel free to write whatever you'd like!
What did you think of this issue?
Your anonymous feedback helps me improve. Thanks!
Thank you, and see you next Tuesday!
If you’d like to flirt with alcohol poisoning, take a shot every time I write 100 or hundred. (This is a joke, don’t actually attempt it.)
Oh my gosh I didn’t know you were posting again (and why I didn’t receive these??)
Congratulations on getting married!!
Congrats! Can you talk about learning to swim as an adult? I doggy paddle, I float, but I do not swim.