TATBT is relaunching! Halp!
It's been brought to my attention...that I could be doing more.
Many of the best transitions in my life have come because someone else has pointed out something that was very obvious to them, and completely new information to me.
When TATBT was still just the Tumblr of a young Washington DC ingenue with an ill-fitting job in Ad Sales and an even more ill-fitting Forever 21 wardrobe, a friend told me that he really liked the writing on my blog, he just wished I would be more prolific. I agreed...
Then I went home, looked up the definition of 'prolific' — for the record I was confusing it with 'profound,' and I was still like, Yeah, I COULD be more profound in these blog posts about Dance Moms — and reaffirmed my agreement: I could be more prolific in writing these blog posts about Dance Moms. So I started writing more, not just about Dance Moms, and that meant having more work to show when I happened upon an Entertainment Weekly opportunity that ultimately kick-started a better-fitting career in Watching-2-Much-TeeVee.
More recently, after a few years of loving freelance entertainment writing, but feeling just-medium about having to hold my breath every time I bought a fancy salad, another friend shared with me that she liked her job, she simply wanted to be making more money, because she was capable of making more money. And I was like: Wait. You can just decide you want to make more money? And then do it? So lately, I've been doing that in my freelance life — seeking out the dividends I'm capable of receiving for good work. Fancy salad dividends (or, I mean, like…Zalad dividends).
But my best work, my favorite work, my figurative-Sweetgreen work, has always been what I do right here on this blog-cum-newsletter.
And last month, a new friend — the co-founder of Substack, in fact, who somehow started reading These Are the Best Things — let me know that he thought I could make TATBT *a thing*. That it is within the realm of possibility that I could combine all of these good points made to me by other people: I could write more, and reach readers who think that writing is worthwhile, and I could give them my very best work in return.
I started this newsletter on Substack with the intention of making just enough pocket change to warrant writing 5,000 words about The Bachelor for my friends every week. It was basically a GoFundMyLunacy, and for those of you who subscribed in the beginning, I could not be more appreciative. Because of you early investors — nay, inBESTors — TATBT is going all-in.
In an effort to reach as many readers as possible with all The Best Things, this newsletter will be relaunching as **FULLY FREE** for the time being. That means I'd love for you to pass TATBT along to your friends with abandon, and encourage anyone you think might be interested in reading it to sign up for updates. Send them the archives! Send them the greatest hits! Definitely forward new letters to your most fun-loving (and okay, trash-loving) friends in your life!
I love pop culture; I love it so much, and I'm lucky to get to consume it constantly. My TATBT relaunch plan is to share more recaps, recommendations, and rundowns of all the best (to quote a young me: best might have been an overstatement) pop culture out there — specifically, three times a week, straight to your inbox.
But I want to make sure I'm writing about what you want to read about, dear reader. So, if you coooooould...
TAKE THIS SHORT & SASSY SURVEY
…I would relish every multiple choice nugget of input you're willing to give me. This is just a quick bit of vulnerability from me (do not expect more; it will not come; I am dead inside like Chandler) to say: doing something large-scale and mildly entrepreneurial is a wild concept for me, and I'm nervous about it. For years, I've been writing for large outlets like EW and Vulture who come with a built-in audience and a certain amount of anonymity…
But I love writing for you and laughing with you, and I want to do more of THAT for more of YOU. That means — barf — self-promotion. So here I am: Just a recapper, standing in front of her readers, asking them to forward her newsletter with the virality an Upworthy video featuring a french bulldog yelling like a human... of a meme about white people being corny... of a stomach bug tearing its way through a children's handbell choir.
I so appreciate your early support, it will not go overlooked — we're talking PERK$$$ people. Respond here with any questions, and stay tuned for a hell of a lot more TATBT.