The very best of 2022
Did your favourite edition make it to the wrap-up?
Welcome to the annual wrap-up of Not Controversial! 🥳
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Before I take a couple of weeks to rest, regroup, and rework my vision for this newsletter, it’s time to celebrate everything we’ve explored in 2022. If you’re new here, I pick 10 issues to highlight at the end of the year — 5 reader choices and 5 author faves. I’ll share some of the behind-the-scenes about my thoughts and feelings while I was penning these. They make for some great holiday reading and also give us all a chance to look back upon some of the hits!
Quick stats for the number-lovers:
We rebranded to Not Controversial. If you weren’t here before April 2022, this newsletter was originally called Perceptive Madness.
I sent out 40 issues in 2022 (For comparison, I sent out 28 in 2021 when I started it in May).
We grew from 211 subscribers (Jan 01) to 933 readers (Dec 22).
265 readers found me from 24 Substack publications recommending Not Controversial to their subscribers.
I joined Substack Grow &
’s Bookstackers group to meet some incredible newsletter writers and creators.
Alrighty, now let’s get into the specifics. I’m genuinely surprised by the breadth of topics I’ve explored this year — I’d legit forgotten some of them.
2022 Reader Favourites
1. The difficulty in making adult friends & the loneliness that comes with it
Awards 🏆: Most comments & generated the highest number of subscriptions.
This is my most popular issue ever. And you know what, it's also one of my favourites. I wrote this in August, about three weeks after I'd left my support system to move to Amsterdam. I was sad, lonely, and peoplesick (like homesick, but for my loved ones instead). It was very cathartic to write this and find out that so many of us share this feeling.
2. Can we stop chasing productivity?
This one stemmed from my continuous desire to 'be more productive' and failing at all the new habits, strategies, hacks, and whatever I picked up and quickly discarded. To quote myself:
"...no matter how many productivity-hack TikToks or articles you check out, chasing total productivity is extremely detrimental to our mental, physical, and emotional health. Also, it's not possible."
Of course, it's easier said than done. Over the last couple of months, I rediscovered my bullet journal and how well I can function with just the basics. We'll see how long this novelty effect lasts.
3. Audiobooks and their importance in reading
After the rebrand, I've had fewer editions about books and reading, but this one struck a chord with many of you (highest open rate).
4. Why we need to celebrate single people more
I’ve been reading
's for over 2 years now. I continue to be impressed by the breadth of topics and issues that need to be addressed by society when it comes to single people. It’s high time we start celebrating and giving equal importance to life events that don’t revolve around marriage, children, and other coupley things.5. Being sustainable isn’t an all-or-nothing endeavour
This was my second issue exploring environmentalism and sustainability. The first one also did surprisingly well — I explored individual responsibility & how we can do our bit while continuing to hold the big corporations responsible for fucking up our world accountable.
If you’ve found value in any edition of this newsletter and want to give me a tiny Christmas/New Year gift, feel free to buy me a coffee!
Nia’s 2022 Favourites
1. Romantic love isn’t the most important kind of love there is
Wrote this one just after Valentine’s Day — after finding out about cuffing season in the West. As we grow older, we tend to seek out ‘a partner’ — often, at the expense of ignoring our friends and existing support systems. Our society has an unhealthy obsession and expectation with romantic love, and I found it really interesting to delve into the importance and need for platonic love and appreciation in our lives today.
2. When did rest become something we had to earn?
Technically, this one should feature in reader faves, but I’m biased towards this one. Resting has become such a luxury — and just resting, not even rejuvenation. I recently saw a thread that explained the difference between rest & rejuvenation in the form of a dying mobile phone.
Rest = when you stop using it to conserve battery/power.
Rejuvenation = when you charge it again
We need both.
3. Why we need to talk about money with our friends
Unless you’re new here (in which case, hi!), you’ll know that I’m very interested in transparency around money and financial conversations. Sure, some of it is being nosy, but most of my desire to talk about this comes from wanting to ensure we’ve all got enough information to negotiate our salaries, ask for fair pay, and generally be able to exist in this increasingly expensive world.
4. The need for shallow, frivolous, time-pass art & media
I legit don’t have the brainwidth to process really interesting, well-made, thoughtful media a lot of the time. After a full day or week of work, I want something light and fun. Something I don’t need to employ my brain cells to watch. Sometimes I want to read a light, fun book that doesn’t “teach” me anything or doesn’t “improve” my life in any way.
5. Mental loads and their disproportionate burden on women
One more issue that technically belongs in reader faves, but it’s a topic close to my heart, and I was really excited to write about it. If you didn’t know, mental loads are things that women take on more often than not (consciously and unconsciously) about the house, relationship, etc. From remembering doctor’s appointments to knowing when it’s time to refill the dishwasher tablets in the pantry — these little things turn into a huge mental load for most women.
It’s also something I talked about when I was featured in Dense Discovery — and it was something new that I introduced Kai (the person behind DD) to as well!
And that's it! I hope you've enjoyed reading some of these issues in your inbox and found some you may have missed — enough to keep you going until I'm back in your inboxes with another non-controversial edition on Jan 10, 2023!
Your thoughts about this newsletter!
Ideas, feedback, things to improve — whatever you want to send my way!
Gonna end this email here since it’s a long one, but here’s something that made me feel better this week. 🎁 Fun links will be back in Jan 2023!
Thanks for being a HUGE part of my 2022, and I’m excited to see what 2023 brings for you, me, and this newsletter! 🌟