it's me, hi

how i got here and why this substack exists

hello!! welcome to this is what i want to say. the fact that you are on this page reading my words is very nice and cool to me. i feel like one of those early-00s rom-com journalists with a delightfully clunky computer and a mysteriously generous deadline, flinging my thoughts out into the world safe in the knowledge that tom hanks/matthew mcconaughey will soon appear on my doorstep.

i started this substack because the things i like to think and yap and write about never quite fit into any required box. books, films, music, internet culture, societal trends—why people are still so interested in tom cruise, why i think vinegar will be the next big food trend, tote bag rankings, the phenomenon of sentimentality in songwriting, etc. i tend to hover somewhere between media, academia, and internet brainrot, but as someone who likes to overanalyse anything and everything, it can be hard to find a place to put these thoughts.

me in a metaphorical box

i’m doing a phd at the moment, which is all very well and good (actually sometimes it’s not), but it means i don’t get to be fun and fresh very often. everything has to be heavily researched, heavily referenced, formally phrased, and it doesn’t leave a lot of room for spontaneity or creativity.

no promises, joe

the same goes for my time in media. i’ve worked as both a journalist and a copywriter, but neither has allowed me to write in the way i really want to. i once had an editor reject a piece about ai-generated christmas carols (which i personally thought was very funny) because she didn’t ‘get’ it. the things i write in academia are often marked down in red pen (or their contemporary and no-less-pleasant cousin, ‘track changes’) for being ‘too colloquial’. and if i write about things on social media, no one likes it unless it’s a seven-second video with a little chunk of smooth-brain text layered over the top of it, which makes me a bit sad sometimes :(

a metaphor

essentially, what i’m saying is that being a working writer is an odd experience—which is fine!! really!!—but i want a place to write about the things that fill my head on a daily basis. the sort of things i yap about incessantly with my friends. the weird arguments i formulate in my head as i make my coffee in the morning, or the strange online rabbit holes my boyfriend and i end up in at 3am. the fun stuff, with a nice slosh of analytical thought added in for good measure. the things i want to say, in the way i want to say them. which is where this substack comes in!!

i hope, if you are anything like me, this substack feels like a place where all the disparate pie chart slices of your mind can meet in the middle. i’ve forgotten the name of those other graphs—you know, the ones where the circles overlap?—venn diagrams? i hope it feels like the best venn diagram you’ve ever laid eyes on. i’m very excited to start writing, and i hope you’re equally excited to start reading.

thanks again for reading this far, and if you’d like to sign up, i’ll add another button below. i’ll be posting every week, so expect regular content.

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