Last year I watched as dozens of writer friends launched Substacks with enthusiasm. Perplexed, I filed it under Shiny New Thing and decided it was not for me, but eventually I got curious and explored Substack as a reader, rather than as a writer.
Thanks for quoting me, Heidi! I’m noticing how much I appreciate having Substack in these wild days of family, school, and extracurricular commitments in December. It’s my oasis!
Loved this so much and exactly why I moved over here! I have so much to say and could never condense it to a paragraph limit. I don’t have the energy to make a dance video, and my home is maybe picture perfect one hour out of the week🤷🏻♀️But I love to write and so I realized, I must write! No more chasing algorithms.
You belong here! 👏👏👏Also congrats on having your home look nice even one hour of the week. I remember talking to someone before I became a mom and she said she couldn’t seem to get all the rooms in her house to be clean at the same time anymore. I filed that away thinking that sounds weird but important. She was right! 🤪🤪🤪
Yes! I’ve been publishing here since 2021 and especially this past year, I really feel part of a community rather than just a lone mama cruching out nerdy mom articles about circadian health. I’m loving the influx of creative mamas to connect with, share, read, and encourage each other.
Love this! I have just started writing, nobody is reading it yet but it’s such a therapeutic outlet, like a journal! I also love that there’s no pressure, feels much better than insta so far.
Fantastic post - can totally relate! Substack feels like an exciting place to play with co-creation and creative collabs as well. As a mom building 'Animal Battle Academy' with my 7-year-old (wild animal matchups and science stories made together), we’re hoping to find more spaces here focused on content for kids. It’s refreshing to build something off the noise of traditional social media and we’re excited to grow a community around curiosity & imagination.
Oooh I love this! I love the collaborative spirit you’re bringing to substack and I love that you’re writing with your child. We need WAY more kid-created content in the world. I hope you both have fun!
I love this! I am just beginning to write here and it feels like SO much better of a place to begin sharing my words again. Especially without feeling a need to perform in the way one does on instagram.
Loved this! I’m a writer mum but also a multifaceted creative mum. Might just forward this to every mama I know so that we can take over substack for good
I love this!! I’ve been reading Substacks for years but only just started writing on here. It’s filling a creative void in my life as a mom that no other platform can right now. (TikTok was doing that, but as you mentioned, it may be dying…). I love that there’s more space for nuanced conversations here instead of the short glimpses of life we see on other apps.
That’s so good to hear. I hope you’ll find this community as welcoming as I have. It feels like there’s a lot of creative mothers out there, making art in the cracks of their days, finding each other online, and cheering each other on.
Love this piece, Heidi! So accurate. I discovered Substack when I was just a few weeks post-partum, started as a reader but quickly felt I’d found a space for my writer self. I’m still only writing sporadically at the moment but the beautiful think about Substack is that that feels okay! No pressure. What a joy.
I love the depth of connection I find here on Substack. I have a new born baby and the physical demands are exhausting. It was hard when I first had kids at 30, and um a decade later, it’s worse. Substack lets me roam freely so I don’t lose my mind. 😂 thanks Heidi for naming why this place works well for moms trying to get paid for their creativity
🙋🏻♀️fellow Writer Mom here! And I mean it when I say Substack’s a magical place!!! Especially for me, a writer/artist/musician who knows 0 Creatives in real life! I finally feel like I’ve found a creative home amongst people who “get it” bc they love creativity as much as I do!
My kids are grown, and I have grandkids, but I don't live with them. The new empty-nest phase caught me off guard coming straight off the pandemic. There were more life changes, a cross-country move, a change in religion, and a few other things. By the time I got settled in my digs, I was exhausted.
I'm only now coming out of that fog. Recently, I made the decision to move all my things to Substack as a home base. For the last two years, I've been learning new skills and building in all kinds of directions while trying to manage content on all the various platforms.
To remain relevant, you have to keep up with the algorithms and pump out 3-5x the content. Yes, AI can help with that, but all it did for me was create 3-5x the amount of rough drafts for me to edit. I can't edit quality any faster than I already do.
It is unstainable as a one-person operation to keep doing all the extra work, put out even more content (all for free!) just to be seen, heard, or believed, on top of all the other duties you have in life and at home. For moms and grandmas with babies around? I can't imagine-- there's no way it's fully sustainable when you're the one doing it all, all the time.
Substack solves this.
I already feel my energy more preserved. Here, my nervous system (for now) is relaxing and feels safe, validating that my intuition was correct.
Substack has come a long way in the last two years and now fully (again, for now) meets my needs. I can publish what I want in the format I want almost on the fly. For busy people, that is fantastic.
I can't keep scrubbing my soul and repurposing my experiences into corporate-thought pieces, 15 different tweets, and four videos, each with their own shorts because the platforms demand it.
That's not how it works anymore because, quite simply, we said so. We don't have to do that anymore, and I'm grateful.
"I can't keep scrubbing my soul and repurposing my experiences into corporate-thought pieces, 15 different tweets, and four videos, each with their own shorts because the platforms demand it." Amen to this! I think you're right. So much about it is saving our energy (and sanity) when we're already overextended in so many areas of life.
Thanks for quoting me, Heidi! I’m noticing how much I appreciate having Substack in these wild days of family, school, and extracurricular commitments in December. It’s my oasis!
Yes! A thoughtful welcoming oasis!
Loved this Heidi- it’s so true!! I especially agree with us coming here because we want substance and depth and a space for more nuance 🥰
Haven’t found anything quite like it!
Loved this so much and exactly why I moved over here! I have so much to say and could never condense it to a paragraph limit. I don’t have the energy to make a dance video, and my home is maybe picture perfect one hour out of the week🤷🏻♀️But I love to write and so I realized, I must write! No more chasing algorithms.
You belong here! 👏👏👏Also congrats on having your home look nice even one hour of the week. I remember talking to someone before I became a mom and she said she couldn’t seem to get all the rooms in her house to be clean at the same time anymore. I filed that away thinking that sounds weird but important. She was right! 🤪🤪🤪
Wow that is so so true!!!!! I always say I can find peace if there’s a place to sit and a wall I can look at that appears tidy😂😂
Put those blinders on! 😂
Because we have a lot to say!! And we are here to change the world 💖
👏👏👏👏👏
Yes! I’ve been publishing here since 2021 and especially this past year, I really feel part of a community rather than just a lone mama cruching out nerdy mom articles about circadian health. I’m loving the influx of creative mamas to connect with, share, read, and encourage each other.
Thank you for articulating that important point. I feel less lonely here too! 💛
Love this! I have just started writing, nobody is reading it yet but it’s such a therapeutic outlet, like a journal! I also love that there’s no pressure, feels much better than insta so far.
Welcome!!💛
Fantastic post - can totally relate! Substack feels like an exciting place to play with co-creation and creative collabs as well. As a mom building 'Animal Battle Academy' with my 7-year-old (wild animal matchups and science stories made together), we’re hoping to find more spaces here focused on content for kids. It’s refreshing to build something off the noise of traditional social media and we’re excited to grow a community around curiosity & imagination.
Oooh I love this! I love the collaborative spirit you’re bringing to substack and I love that you’re writing with your child. We need WAY more kid-created content in the world. I hope you both have fun!
Thank you so much Heidi! Your encouragement means a lot!! 🙌
I love this! I am just beginning to write here and it feels like SO much better of a place to begin sharing my words again. Especially without feeling a need to perform in the way one does on instagram.
I’ve connected with so many more moms here, people I am genuinely glad to know. The conversation is so enriching! I’m glad you’re here 💛
Loved this! I’m a writer mum but also a multifaceted creative mum. Might just forward this to every mama I know so that we can take over substack for good
Yes! Let’s get loud on here!!!🙌
I love this! I’m also a mom who loves to write and I enjoy seeing the experiences of others who are going through similar things.
Welcome! It’s been a juicy conversation! 💛
I love this!! I’ve been reading Substacks for years but only just started writing on here. It’s filling a creative void in my life as a mom that no other platform can right now. (TikTok was doing that, but as you mentioned, it may be dying…). I love that there’s more space for nuanced conversations here instead of the short glimpses of life we see on other apps.
That’s so good to hear. I hope you’ll find this community as welcoming as I have. It feels like there’s a lot of creative mothers out there, making art in the cracks of their days, finding each other online, and cheering each other on.
Love this piece, Heidi! So accurate. I discovered Substack when I was just a few weeks post-partum, started as a reader but quickly felt I’d found a space for my writer self. I’m still only writing sporadically at the moment but the beautiful think about Substack is that that feels okay! No pressure. What a joy.
Absolutely no pressure! Substack (and any other more ambitious projects you might be dreaming up) will be here whenever you’re ready for more!
I love the depth of connection I find here on Substack. I have a new born baby and the physical demands are exhausting. It was hard when I first had kids at 30, and um a decade later, it’s worse. Substack lets me roam freely so I don’t lose my mind. 😂 thanks Heidi for naming why this place works well for moms trying to get paid for their creativity
🙋🏻♀️fellow Writer Mom here! And I mean it when I say Substack’s a magical place!!! Especially for me, a writer/artist/musician who knows 0 Creatives in real life! I finally feel like I’ve found a creative home amongst people who “get it” bc they love creativity as much as I do!
That’s so good to hear. We are definitely a creative bunch here!
I’ve truly loved Substack and how open it is to all writers without feeling the pleasure to please any algorithms. So glad to be here!
That’s so good to hear. That’s been my experience too!
My guess? To preserve their energy.
My kids are grown, and I have grandkids, but I don't live with them. The new empty-nest phase caught me off guard coming straight off the pandemic. There were more life changes, a cross-country move, a change in religion, and a few other things. By the time I got settled in my digs, I was exhausted.
I'm only now coming out of that fog. Recently, I made the decision to move all my things to Substack as a home base. For the last two years, I've been learning new skills and building in all kinds of directions while trying to manage content on all the various platforms.
To remain relevant, you have to keep up with the algorithms and pump out 3-5x the content. Yes, AI can help with that, but all it did for me was create 3-5x the amount of rough drafts for me to edit. I can't edit quality any faster than I already do.
It is unstainable as a one-person operation to keep doing all the extra work, put out even more content (all for free!) just to be seen, heard, or believed, on top of all the other duties you have in life and at home. For moms and grandmas with babies around? I can't imagine-- there's no way it's fully sustainable when you're the one doing it all, all the time.
Substack solves this.
I already feel my energy more preserved. Here, my nervous system (for now) is relaxing and feels safe, validating that my intuition was correct.
Substack has come a long way in the last two years and now fully (again, for now) meets my needs. I can publish what I want in the format I want almost on the fly. For busy people, that is fantastic.
I can't keep scrubbing my soul and repurposing my experiences into corporate-thought pieces, 15 different tweets, and four videos, each with their own shorts because the platforms demand it.
That's not how it works anymore because, quite simply, we said so. We don't have to do that anymore, and I'm grateful.
"I can't keep scrubbing my soul and repurposing my experiences into corporate-thought pieces, 15 different tweets, and four videos, each with their own shorts because the platforms demand it." Amen to this! I think you're right. So much about it is saving our energy (and sanity) when we're already overextended in so many areas of life.