snapchat is the last authentic section of the internet, six-hundred film pictures, and herbal cigarettes
if i were a substack reads weekly email (but instead with my all-time favorite articles on the platform)
This week’s digest is guest edited by April Ashley, who writes Disappointing, a personal diary/girlblog on Substack. If you’re into April’s curated edition today, be sure to subscribe to her Substack for poetic depictions of modern life through the lens of a girl in her twenties.
My mother has been a reader her whole life and raised me believing I’d follow in her footsteps. She’d post on her Facebook any time I cried at a book, about how proud of me she was for it. However, I moreso grew up in the digital age where tumblr blogs and clickbait magazine articles were in. As a tween, I ate up those social media pages that were full of words instead of pictures, which is what led me to Substack. I tend to read and digest more than I personally write on the platform, gaining most of my inspiration from the weekly Substack Reads emails. I tend to gravitate towards the writers who glorify the mundane in a gnarly way, invoking a moral duty inside of me to do the same. Here are some exemplary articles that satisfy that.
LIFESTYLE
small things big things flushing pills and god
“This post inspired me to write my most recent post on May fifteenth. I forget how I came across this article, but the content and concept consumed me. Mia’s life advice/beliefs as she turns twenty-three are brought up here and the realities of adulthood in the silliest of ways brings me back to read it again and again.”
— Mia in Life's a Bender
if you think about it, high school snapchat was perhaps the last place of true internet authenticity. i used to post like 8 videos and a selfie every time anything happened. those randoms i have added on snapchat who still post on their stories appear stuck in a bygone era (and in their hometowns) but maybe actually, they are just being real while the rest of us are thinking about the logistics of our instagram stories
Continue Reading
INTERVIEW
SCARY COOL GOODBYE 27
“This Substack interview has a soft spot in my heart for showcasing a legend people in my circle tend to forget about, Lisa Crystal Carver. Her book Drugs are Nice serves as a manifesto to how I should live my life creatively. Her impact on the zine and underground movements respectively in the nineties inspires me greatly.”
— Meaghan Garvey in SCARY COOL SAD GOODBYE
We're all just communicating to each other. Reading is communicating as much as writing is, and to think the writing isn't good enough to go on with is just your ego telling you your imagination matters so much more than the reader's. In fact, the writer's imagination is the least important aspect.
Continue Reading
CULTURE
The End of December
“Squire’s end-of-year reflection speaks of the various different life paths one can take. This post also inspired one of my own, january. Squire’s move to Berlin, quitting her job to pursue writing, and travelling throughout the year just to feel kind of the same is the sort of writing that speaks to my soul.”
— Charlie Squire in evil female
There is nothing better for one’s mental and physical health than a brisk walk up a steep hill. Thoughtful gift-giving is one of the highest forms of love. Art is meant to be felt and thought about, but not solved. Always take the window seat.
Continue Reading
ART
Most Unemployed Employed Person (And Other Personal Struggles)
“Juno is an artist I greatly revere, viewing their work from a rose-colored lens as often as I can. They are a creative I am more than honored to call a friend of mine and I remember being in awe of this post when it first came into my inbox in February.”
— Juno Stoutt in Reading the Seeds a Story
Don’t try clothes on at the thrift unless you absolutely need to, you might get crabs. Wash out every hand and foot wound as quickly as you can, you don’t want a deadly infection. Go upstairs and make sure you locked the door before you go to bed, and make sure to leave a light on so it looks like someone is awake. Turn on the porch lights at night so everyone knows we’re home, but don’t leave them on during the day, so it doesn’t look like we’re away. It’s better to be safe than sorry, after all.
Continue Reading
LIFESTYLE
wet hot canadian summer
“As for many, Rayne Fisher-Quann was my introduction to Substack after a Tiktok I saw of hers that discussed how social media feels like the grocery aisle, which is an analogy I still use today. It would feel wrong of me to not mention the blog that started all of this for me.”
— Rayne Fisher-Quann in Internet Princess
it started raining the other day while i was out in a park so i sat under one of the playground structures and smoked a cigarette while listening to the new lana album. i kept one earbud out so i could hear the rain hitting the wood above my head. it really felt like god had created the world just for me, and that i was doing, in that moment, the only thing i could have ever been expected to do with it.
Continue Reading
**inspired by the Substack emails I receive weekly about new articles out, written by some celebrity guest. this week, i am my own guest. for you. or for me, i guess.