Join me for a new era of words 💌

Notes on why I'm launching a newsletter.

Oh hi, I’m launching a newsletter. And congratulations, you’ve found it!

Why now?

I feel so lucky with the depth and the kindness of the connections I have on Instagram, collected through some pretty far-reaching parts of my life over the years. Media Work. Friendship. Travel. Type 1 Diabetes. Festival toilet queues. It feels like a place for realness, and for cheering each other on, and I love that the words I’ve written have created space for that.

Words, when used well, can connect people to not only new ways of seeing - the world, others, themselves - but to new ways of feeling, too.

But Instagram is a visual platform, and I’ve known for a while that it isn’t the right home for my words. There’s a disconnect between taking the time to craft these thoughts and process these feelings about what it means to be alive, and throwing them out into the void and hoping for the best.

I want to show up thoughtfully, with words that connect with you consciously. I want to show up intentionally, with a vulnerability that I can be sure is safe. More than anything I want to show up consistently. Instagram always slides down the priority list beneath my real jobs but I want this to be real, too. So here we are.

Why this?

I’ve learnt to love embracing the unknown, walking towards curiosity, sitting in the uncomfortable in-between and discovering what’s possible when we tune into ourselves and carve our own path, and MY GOD it feels powerful.

But it took me a bloody long time to get here, to feel ok about cheering myself on. I want to pass this on, because instead of being encouraged to evolve, we’re mostly taught to not only fear change, but to fear ourselves. I have, I did.

*rolls up sleeves, puts hands on hips, turns up chorus*

But not anymore.

So I’m evolving over to this newsletter, where I can explore these ideas that might just help us all cheer ourselves on a bit more. I believe in the value of words, and I believe in showing up for myself, for you, and finally giving my writing a proper chance, which is ridiculous because I’ve paid to write words for my entire professional life.

So if you’ve ever felt struck, seen, connected, warmed, moved or perhaps confronted by the hundreds of thousands of words I’ve written in the internet since 2006 (!) in an attempt to distill the wild, beautiful, messy ride that is this life, anywhere from diabetes stuff to reading news bulletins to Radio 1 & 1Xtra to CBBC to The Voice to The Apprentice to packing up my life and finding my way across the world solo… I’d love you to come and explore with me.

Why you?

Believe me, this feels uncomfortable for sure, with a generous dose of cringe. But it also feels bloody wonderful (that’s another thing - these conflicting feelings can and do exist at once). And while we’re wired for comfort, I’ve collected enough notes in the noticing as I’ve leapt fully into the throes of discomfort and pain and grief and experience and adventure, to know that there are some Very Amazing Things beyond what’s comfortable. And that the more you dare to embrace that, the more beautiful and quite frankly magical it can be, because it really is all waiting to be found - among the simplest of things that are often very much within our reach.

But it all starts with you. There’s magic inside you, baby!

You may already know that, but I definitely didn’t. So I’m digging for the magic. This isn’t a quest for answers, but a space to get curious about the questions. It’s not about solving, but it is about feeling. And I want to send what I’m learning and unlearning straight to your inbox, if you’ll let me.

Notes On A Moment is a love letter to all the moments we forget to notice, and all the things we fail to embrace - most of all ourselves.

So please do subscribe, for less than the price of a single glass of wine in even the worst of London bars, and please share this newsletter with anyone you think might enjoy it. I’m not totally sure what it will look like yet, but in the spirit of embracing the unknown I’m sure that we can figure it out together, cheering each other on, through a different kind of adventure.

And if you have ever felt something from anything I’ve written, it would be entirely amazing if you could let me know what that was, and what it made you feel and why it meant something, so that I can get busy getting curious about the things that mean something to you.

Read a bit more about what Notes On A Moment is all about here.