In seventh grade, I made my first blog. Back then I didn’t have any self-consciousness or realize social norms were a thing, so I ended up being extremely shameless. I asked all of my middle school friends to follow my blog. I also messaged a bunch of strangers named Valerie on the book reviewing site Goodreads and asked them to follow my blog.
My messages were something like this: “Hey Valerie! I’m Valerie. We have the same name haha. I made a book reviewing blog here. I would love it if you followed me there, thanks!”
And it worked. By ninth grade, I had 400+ followers on my blog. I got a bunch of ARCs (advanced reader copies) from publishers, and I got to regularly talk to authors about their writing. Pretty good for a middle schooler who wrote really cringey reviews with sentences like “I was so surprised and so flabbergasted that I literally had to put the book down in order to start gasping and totally let it sink in. That is a sign of a great book!”
Looking back, I’m really fucking impressed by my middle school hustle. I wanted to express my opinions on books, and I wanted people to read them. So I made that dream happen. I didn’t ask who would follow a middle schooler or why my opinions were worth reading. I just wrote reviews, talked to people, and kept going. Middle school me was onto something. I’m trying to lean more into that vibe with my Substack today, and I think you should too.
You have what it takes to make a blog
You don’t have to be anybody to make a blog. You can be a dumbass middle school kid with thoughts on who the most crushworthy male characters are (Jace Lightwood from The Mortal Instruments back in the day) and then slap together a Wordpress. You can be a literal no one, type up some thoughts on living in a city or the best type of meat, and share it with people. You just gotta be a little shameless and willing to voice the shit you believe.
Starting a blog is fucking easy, so long as you don’t get in your own way. Substack allows you to change the name of your blog, so you can slap on a temporary name. You can always delete posts later, so it’s okay to publish some jank posts, knowing that you can always walk it back. You’ll start off with 0 followers, so it literally only goes up from there when you start. And yeah, at some point it’s nice to have lots of people read your work, but in the beginning it’s about learning that shamelessness and self-disclosure can be really fucking fun.
The bar for starting a blog is so low. You can write whenever and however you want. You literally don’t even have to be clothed to make a Substack. You can be high and naked and alone in your room and typing out to your heart’s content. No one has to know that. You can be writing out some shitty sentences during a fucking boring work meeting and then make your edits when you’re off the clock. You can carry around a notebook and write down inspiration when have interesting conversations. You can actually do whatever you want!
Yes it’s scary. Let’s talk about that.
Maybe no one will read your blog. That is a genuine possibility, and it’s very scary. I wouldn’t keep writing if no one engaged with my ideas. But the cool thing is that you can ask friends to subscribe to your blog, so you’re guaranteed 1-2 subscribers in the beginning. (I also posted about my blog on my personal Facebook at some point when I got less scared, but I kept it pretty small in the beginning.)
It can be really fucking scary to admit to the world that you want to express yourself and that you want people to engage with what you write and cherish your work. It can be hard to write for a number of reasons. It’s hard when you don’t take yourself seriously, and it’s hard when you take yourself seriously. I am still scared that I won’t hit my subscriber count goals or that people won’t like my writing or that I won’t publish a book one day or that I won’t be a “serious writer”.
Realistically, I think fear is a part of the equation. I’m not going to get anywhere by obliterating my fear or wishing that I could be my shameless middle school self again. I simply think that when I surround myself with people who write and create and do things in spite of their fears and the possibility of failure, that I will eventually be able to do the same myself.
If you make a blog or return to blogging because this post inspired you, I would love to know! I will share it on Twitter!
"Realistically, I think fear is a part of the equation... I simply think that when I surround myself with people who write and create and do things in spite of their fears and the possibility of failure, that I will eventually be able to do the same myself."
Fear is always a part of my equation whenever I think of my Substack... this post has kicked my ass to start drafting my next blog post now :)) absolutely loved this piece Valerie!
love this