one year in
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Can you even believe that it’s been a full year that I’ve been gracing your inboxes with this chaotic collection of essays, cover letters, musing, missives, and reviews? I cannot! But that’s mostly because I have no concept of time, and September 2025 feels both like yesterday and a hundred and twelve years ago.
This substack started with my seminal work, writers can be hot, a title and sentiment that I stand by! And month after month, you’ve been here to read my goofiest musings and most-sincere essays, and I love you all for that. This post, with an essay in the voice of my fake agent, Jerry, was a fan favorite. I brought things full circle with this fellowship application personal statement meant to answer, “At this point in time, how do you describe yourself as a writer?,” aptly titled hot *and* funny. And this epic tale of dental work and resilience was one of the more cathartic pieces to write.
I’m in the midst of pre-production on one project and a rewrite on another, so I can’t spend too much time here today, but just know that I so appreciate you cuties spending this first substackian year with me—every time I check the open rates and see how many of your eyeballs are on each of these posts, it warms my heart :)
AND! Because I’ve heard that you love reviews and recommendations (especially the ones in this old post), before I sign off, I’ll give the people what they want—RECS! In no particular order!
This absolutely bananas hair dye commercial from 1997
What an incredible time capsule! Perhaps no 30 second clip better incapsulates the society that millennial women were raised in than this commercial, which we would have seen every morning while we ate our cereal in front of the TV, waiting for Al Roker to tell us if we needed to wear a jacket to school or not. There are so many incredible moments—the holding two babies and and a phone at the same time?! The FAX! The bicycle ab workout on a balcony outside an empty room?? It’s absurdist, it’s art, and I love it.
Bridgedale wool blend boot socks
These are the best winter socks available. Yes, I have SmartWool and L.L.Bean and Heattech and literally anything else you might be thinking of. These are better! They’re plush and soft and WARM and insanely durable. I bought a pair of them 10 years ago from some random website that I promptly forgot the name of. When they started to get holes like 2 years ago, I went on a wild goose chase to figure out the name of the brand (the stitching on my old pair was so worn I couldn’t read the name) and once I did, I couldn’t find any U.S. retailers selling them :/ Then, last month, I ran into them again in my internet travels, and now all is right in the sock universe again.
These cute holiday gifts I designed!
Longtime subscribers may remember me hocking my wares on here last year, and I’m back at it again! I’ve got a whole range of cards, stickers, and knick knacks with this cuuuuute wreath that I drew last year:
And with these colored pencil string lights, which I’m particularly proud of:
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (streaming on Prime Video)
For the last few weeks, I’ve been watching and dissecting this show with one of my brilliant friends from film school, and it has truly grabbed us by the soul!! It’s the story of a woman doctor in 1867 (can you believe?!) who moves from Boston to the tiny, wild west town of Colorado Springs, answering a newspaper ad for a town doctor. Spoiler: no one wants women to be doctors at this time! Girliepop goes clear across the country for the one gig she could get, only to find out they misread her telegram and thought a dude named Michael A. Quinn was coming to be their doctor, not Michaela. Rough! But Dr. Quinn is a bitch who doesn’t quit—she’s stubborn and confident and has great hair, an unstoppable combination.
Colorado Springs is a town on the verge of transformation—the local Native American tribes are being penned in by the army, inch by inch, the railroad is expanding ever closer, and while we hear the refrain “progress is inevitable,” the show asks time and again, is that necessarily good? And, for whom? Just because something’s inevitable, does that mean you shouldn’t try to change it? And it depicts all sides of living in America at that time. It has everything: horses, dysentery, massacres, baseball, gun fights, horniness, illiteracy, cattle drives, swindlers, and a traveling circus.
But ultimately, what makes the show so compelling isn’t just the period or the place, it’s the people. The characters are so clear and complex!! Who they are deep in their souls drives all the conflict within the show, making the emotional stakes so high. And the tension?!! Out of this world. It’s a masterclass in pushing your characters to the absolute brink. They were really saying, “burn it all down,” on the reg in that writers room, and in the smartest way possible.
The show explores themes of preservation—of traditions, nature, peace, power dynamics, and ideals. What ideas and spaces must be saved for the good of humanity, and what must these characters let fall away in order to create the world they want their children to inherit?
A warning—the pilot is double the length of a regular episode, and there’s a lot going on because it has to set up the premise for the rest of the series to anchor Dr. Quinn in Colorado, so approach the first episode like watching a movie that’s then going to spin off to a series, and you’ll be golden.
And, I would be remiss not to mention that the cast of this show has some truly magnificent hair, and the value of that cannot be underestimated.
That’s all I’ve got for now, but keep your eyes peeled for a year-end roundup in a few weeks!
And if you’re having fun and feeling feisty, consider upgrading to a paid subscription. It’s what all the hot people are doing. And it’s not like not doing that makes you not hot, but it is like, doing it makes you more hot, ya know? So, think about it :)
Ttyl! xoxo