This week marks one year of Our Tiny Rebellions. Wow. Should I have ordered a balloon arch? Ah well. Instead, to commemorate this milestone, I’d like to reflect on how it started, what is working, what I’m learning, and where it’s going.
Many of you know that I am a lawyer by trade. However, I consider myself a writer by heart, emotionally tethered to the process in a way that consumes me more when I’m not doing it than when I am. For many years, I put most of my spare time into a book: a very-millennial essay collection about that period in our lives when we stopped receiving trophies just for showing up. Spending many late nights wading through my past added up, though, and the pages were coming at a cost. Writing was supposed to bring me joy. Instead, I felt I was pouring my heart into the abyss, hoping someday someone would read it. (I still hope you’ll have the chance to read it.)
So I took a breather and reevaluated why I do this. My underlying purpose has always been to connect. In Spring 2021, one year into the pandemic, women were starving for a certain kind of connection and desperate to be seen. Not exclusively for our fashion, beauty routines, careers, or *gasp* our children (we are dynamic enough to want all of that and more). But when the aggregate outlook was filled with despair, we coped by reducing our lives to weeks, days, moments at a time. And when I examined those moments, I found that tiny tweaks in my choices and the way I thought about things were allowing me to get by. We’re okay, today. Subtle wins realize big gains in our lives, if we just look for them.
Since starting Our Tiny Rebellions, I’ve connected with strangers and reconnected with old friends. We’ve laughed and cried over jobs and motherhood. I’ve been challenged and validated over COVID. But always, writing is my mirror and my compass. This newsletter is my tiny rebellion, and if it’s played any role in you making you feel seen, I am so thankful for that.
But it’s humbling. Good lord, it is humbling. I set out with the intention of publishing weekly, but life had other plans. Kids, work, sickness, you know, life. I try to give myself grace so this doesn’t turn into another thing that keeps me up at night. And for the most part, it hasn’t, save for the aching fact that I know I can do more. Growth is much harder than I expected, and though it absolutely helps, word of mouth is only one piece of the puzzle. When you barely have time to write, it’s even harder to find time to network, market, and pitch. These are not complaints but lessons. I’m learning through you every day, too.
My goal for this upcoming year is just more. More dynamic offerings (recipes, projects, surveys, interviews), more engagement across social platforms, and more links to likeminded content. More taking chances. More joy to extract.
I am so thankful you choose to join me here. Please consider sharing Our Tiny Rebellions with a friend who will enjoy it. Let’s keep going, shall we?
This is a living, breathing space! Please let me know what you’d like more (or less) of: averagejoelle3@gmail.com :)
The little things
I’ve been making some small home improvements, which you’ll see more of soon. Now that Ruby is three, it kind of feels like my kids are moving out of the “ultimate destruction” phase of young childhood, and we are allowed to replace some of our burner decor, like the nasty throw pillows Baby Hazel used to spit up on. These two new velvet throw pillows from Anthropologie elevate our blue room, but will they withstand the test of time? Unclear!
Also
This TikTok about the origins of the everything bagel had me rolling and runs in theme with Food52’s recent article about extreme food brand collabs vying for our attention.
Congrats. Looking forward to another year - at least.