It’s Autostraddle’s Second Birthday!

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As the legend goes, on March 9th, 2009, Autostraddle got born. It was a rag-tag affair — just a handful of girls (Riese, Alex, Robin, Carly, Stef, Crystal, Laneia, Natalie, Tess), a dream, a passion for masochism and a vague familiarity with the wordpress platform.

Autostraddle: March 2009

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Autostraddle: March 2010

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Autostraddle, March 2011:

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Now it is today and we are two full years old / young.  It seems like JUST YESTERDAY that we were celebrating our 1st birthday! We feel like we’ve come “a long way.” We’re excited about the future! We love your shirt! We love you! I mean no really we do.  And we’re having a party! Our friends at PYT Productions in LA are throwing us a birthday party TONIGHT so if you can make it, go have a piece of cake and a piece of ass in our honor.

So what happened this year? Well, we churned out 2-6 daily fixes a day, 3-7 features a week, and heaps of recaps, reviews, lists/top 10s, personal essays, open threads, videos and team picks. (These are so easy to find now with the new redesign! Just hover over “THE GOODS” on our header and use the drop-down to go straight to our now super-easy-to-navigate archives)

We interviewed Chely Wright, Laurel Holloman, Courtney Trouble, CREEP, Fortune Feimster, Florence + The Machine, various Real L Word cast members, Craig Ramsay, Margaret Cho, Kristin Chenoweth, Ashleigh Sumner, Jennifer Corday, Guinevere Turner, Kaki King, Mrs. Danvers, Kin4Life, Judy Gold, Liz Feldman, Bitch, Dani Campbell & Pam Grier & Rea Carey, Toni Collette, Marisa Meltzer, Mariah Hanson, Amos Mac, Dani Campbell, Adam Bouska, Anita Lo and Jennifer Beals.

We traveled to Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Rodeo Disco, The Los Angeles GLAAD Awards, The Evening With Women, BlogHer, FemmeCon, The New York City Glaad Awards, The Autostraddle Calendar Release Party, The L Word Convention, The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, Dinah Shore 2010, GLAAD’s 25th Anniversary Party, the DO SOMETHING Awards, Pax East, the Miami Winter Party Festival, South By Southwest, a half-naked ladies show in Las Vegas, San Francisco and across the entire country.

… and we told you how to to smell good, make food with pumpkins, talk to trans people without sounding like an ignorant jackass, be gay when all your friends are straight, come out to your Evangelical Christian Parents, enjoy Channukah as a lesbian with Uncharacteristically Bigoted Parents, make dips, bring your girlfriend home for the holidays, survive Thanksgiving as a Vegan Lesbian, get a good holiday gift for your girlfriend, talk to & meet other gay people, make Thanksgiving food, make your own skinny tie, make holiday drinks, handle airborne homophobia, make bread, buy sweatpants, come out at work, make honest art, fight with your girlfriend, be productive, dress properly for staying at home, practice polyamory, have safe sex, become a better feminist through literature, date girls, cut up your t-shirt, mend your broken heart, buy sexy holiday gifts like strap-ons, get a girl to sleep over, attend a lez-friendly college, pack a good lunch, understand Judith Butler, survive your soul-sucking office job, fly long-distance, make soup, get an alternative lifestyle haircut, handle your period, read comics, make your own suspenders, not give a fuck, be a dude with a girlfriend who is probably gay, dress for the winter, dress for the fall, dress for the summer, dress for the spring, buy a bathing suit, buy shoes, dress for a music festival, not be shy, find a therapist, road trip right, make comfort food, buy a vibrator, pick a good tea, bake things with lemons, buy a cell phone, get a NSFW Valentine’s Day gift, buy headphones, cope with unemployment and, of course, autostraddle.

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Over the last two years, Riese & Rachel have written a lot of articles:

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And more and more of you have come to the website and consequently read a lot of articles. Look at all these visitors:

I KNOW RIGHT. From 3,170 a day to 55,563 a day is pretty rad. Autostraddle is growing faster than Alice in Wonderland on drugs. We surpassed a million hits for the month of October — a target number we were aiming to hit by this summer, which I think makes us ahead of schedule on something for the first time ever. Also we’ve been attempting to get good stats without SEO trickery or splitting articles into ten pages which would double our numbers. I hate it when websites do that.

We want you to know that we couldn’t do it without you. It’s your hearts and minds and sparkly unicorn spirits that keep us going, and also your Paypal donations. Literally we could not. do it. without you. Donations keep us going in a more quantifiable, tangible way — in fact, your your donations are our lifeblood. Donations help us cover our operating costs and ensure Riese & Laneia can eat, bathe, and work 60 hours a week making sure every single post on this website says something new, says something interesting, and makes you laugh and/or cry and/or comment.

With that in mind, a really fabulous birthday present would be for you to subscribe as a monthly donator! It’s nice that it’s monthly because that way every time it’s shark week you can console your quivering, pain-wracked body with the knowledge that you are helping a bunch of gay internet weirdos out. Also, Rachel may send you an extra special thank you situation in the mail if you donate a lot and/or include your address! BIRTHDAY PRESENTS FOR EVERYONE.

Payment Options

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Or just donate. Anything! Twenty bucks, two hundred bucks, two thousand bucks! If you get a friend/family to donate for you and you need some kind of card in the mail, we can work that out. Email alex [at] autostraddle dot com, she is very reliable.

Click here and donate!


In the end, though, it’s not about the dollar bills. It’s about you, and us, and how you do you and it’s so fucking incredible and that’s what lets us do us, so that somehow we have had two continuous years of us doing us despite being the least financially viable idea on earth. We’re weirdos and we love you. Thanks for loving us back.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our A+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining A+ and supporting the people who make this indie queer media site possible?

Join A+!
Related:

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auto has written 701 articles for us.

122 Comments

  3. OMG OMG OMG I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH HAPPY BIRTHDAY OMG

    ps. hall of heroes?! awesomee.

    also about two months ago, via txt:

    * Mom: Did u give $$ to an ‘autostraddle’ i just got a weird letter from emily choo of canada
    * Me: NO WAY THATS AWESOME can you put it in my room?
    * Mom: Should i b worried or concerned?
    * Mom: What is it?
    * Me: Don’t worry, it’s for a good cause. I love them!
    * Mom: Is this a scam or cult?
    * Me: Scams/cults don’t send thank you letters
    * Mom: And nothing perverted?
    * Me: Nooo! This is exciting! I am happy!
    * Mom: Ok hun i blieve u
    * Mom: I’m happy that u’re happy :)

    HAPPPYYYY BIRTHDAAAAAYY

    Reply to This Comment

  12. I wish I could sing you Happy Birthday on here. AS has become such a significant part of my life. It’s bled off of the computer screen, and into my daily real life (and into my heart)! Thank you for all of your hard work through the hard times and your dedication to making more happy/sexy times for all of us queers.

    I hope that you get ALL THE CAKES for your birthday.

    Reply to This Comment

  13. I love you, Autostraddle. Let’s make a romantic montage and show it to all our friends!

    But seriously. This website is my favorite so I wanna thank all the writers and especially RIESE (omfg 968? Insaneeee).
    Thank you for being honest and funny and serious and crazy and nerdy and true and beautiful and most importantly REAL.

    <3 Okay I'm gonna stop so I don't get too mushy

    Reply to This Comment

  15. I’ve been reading AS regularly for over a year now and I still think you guys are fucking brilliant. Thanks for taking all this time for all those awesome articles.

    Hope you all get drunk tonight!

    Reply to This Comment

  16. two years living together is all it takes to be common-law married in canada. expect my top three china patterns in your inbox shortly, autostraddle.
    –
    happy birthday you magnificent bastards.

    Reply to This Comment

  17. Happy Birthday, Autostraddle!

    I came across AS about a year ago and can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that I’ve read ~98.4% of the articles you guys have published and loved all of them!

    Thanks for doing a stellar job and being awesome in general.

    Reply to This Comment

    • I remember last January, when I came out to my parents. I did it because you made me realize that it was okay, and when I told you, and you were all so proud it made my heart burst.

      I still have that daily fix bookmarked.

      Reply to This Comment

  27. I find it hard to express raw emotion while sober, so instead of just saying I love you Autostraddle, I’m going to drink half a bottle of lemon vodka and warble Wind Beneath My Wings in your honour, before bursting into tears.

    Reply to This Comment

  28. You all squeeze more awesomeness into every day than I will encounter in my entire high school career. Unless a certain girl changes her mind. BUT ASIDE FROM THAT HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUTOSTRADDLE I LOVE YOU ALL AND THANK YOU FOR BEING AMAZING AND HILARIOUS AND KEEPING ME UP TO DATE ON ALL THE IMPORTANT THINGS AND FUN(NY) THINGS TOO!

    Reply to This Comment

  29. Autostraddle…YOU ROCK! As a newbie lezzie – fresh out of the closet not even two years ago – you have taken me by the hand and helped me navigate the land of Lesbian. I’ve learned so much, found myself (at least a little), and had a lot of fun!
    I wouldn’t be half the lesbian, or woman I am without Autostraddle!! You help soooo many women out there. SOOO many! Young, old, lesbian, straight, closeted, loud and proud you help us all and it’s awe-inspiring.
    Happy Birthday to the best website ever!! I wish you many, many, MANY millenniums of future birthdays to come!

    Reply to This Comment

  41. Thanks so much for being around and informing me about the important lifey things I need to know, from nail and period hygiene to best sweatpants and where DADT is at. not to mention lots of totally sexy pictures of the ladies. I AM SPEAKING TRUTH RIGHT KNOW ABOUT MY LOVE FOR EVERYTHING ON THIS SITE.

    autostraddle has its own community thing going on with all the wonderful commenters and that’s pretty amazing too!

    Reply to This Comment

  43. AS, I’ve loved you from the start and then you matured and grew and now you’re like a beautiful butterfly spreading your homo-sexy wings out into the world and gayifying it for thousands a day. What would I be without you? Actually don’t answer that, I remember the Blackout of 2011.

    Reply to This Comment

  51. Ohhhh Autostraddle, as I sit here in a local laundromat drinking my canned beer I am toasting you. You do a good thing. And I think you’re great. Happy fucking Birthday.

    Reply to This Comment

  55. I was going to send you a picture of my boobies for your birthday, but then I realized I might go to jail because you’re only two.

    Anyway, thank you for all that you do! You’ve totally changed my life for the better.

    Reply to This Comment

  66. WHAT. You’re only two?? Because you seem like you (the team) have your shit together..in general..like, for the site y’know? Wait – are Autostraddle years all weird like dog years? ARE YOU REALLY 27???
    It doesn’t really matter though does it? Because whether you’re two or 27, you basically fucking rock. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY Autostraddle. If I had to dedicate a song to you for the anniversary of your existence, I would choose “Supersonic” by JJFAD. Because the J is for JUST…the other for JAMMIN’…the F is for FRESH A-N-D DEF!

    Reply to This Comment

  67. I only wish I would have know about Auto Straddle 2 years ago! Best. Website. Ever. You guys help me stay sane when everything else is crazy. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

    And happy birthday!

    Shots for everyone! Here’s to a great year!

    Reply to This Comment

  68. Happy Birthday, Autostraddle!
    Also, it makes me really happy that Autostraddle’s birthday and my anniversary with my ladyfriend are on the same day.

    And props to Reise for writing almost a thousand articles this year. You go, girl. Thank you so much.

    Reply to This Comment

  79. Happy Birthday, Autostraddle! Congrats to the team (especially Riese and Rachel) for churning out so many articles! I feel a little guilt every day for not writing more…

    But this site keeps me plenty of entertained in the middle of the night. Proud to be part of it. Keep doing what you do!

    Reply to This Comment

  83. As I opened the site a few minutes ago I was just wondering how long Autostraddle has been part of my life and this comes up. I can’t believe AS is only two years old — I’ve never known anything so young to be so AWESOME!

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUTOSTRADDLE!

    Reply to This Comment

  84. I feel like this is the perfect time to make my first ever comment. I’ve known you guys for about a year now and I just can’t describe how you’ve helped me become more comfortable with my sexuality. I can’t thank you enough. To finally be proud of that part of who I am. To be told by people who know it to be true that being gay is actually amazing and incredible and beautiful has changed my life. Seriously. Because of you AS, I now think I’m special rather than a freak.
    You have empowered me as a woman and as a human being and I will be forever grateful. A deep bow of respect to all of you. And a big happy birthday! And a warm warm hello to the rest of the community. So lovely to meet you at last :)))

    Reply to This Comment

  87. Dear Autostraddle,

    I love you and have read you daily for at least a year now, and I want very badly to donate money to you. Embarrassingly, I cannot figure out how to make PayPal not hate me and update my address appropriately. I am now going to spend the rest of my morning taming the savage beast that PayPal is to my computer. That’s how much I care.

    Kisses,
    Maryann

    Reply to This Comment

  96. Okay, I am a million years late to this but OMG YAY BIRTHDAY!!!! I can’t believe it’s only been two years! I think I’ve been reading for most of that time – I wish I could remember how I found AS. Probably through my frenzied googling for all things lesbian when I was coming out. But anyhow, huzzah! I celebrated by subscribing :)

    Reply to This Comment

  100. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY FRIENDS!

    thank you so much for your amazing commitment to churning out some fucking great shit! i am in a constant state of ‘shock & awe”.

    keep up the fucking fabulous work! now, go out and drink heavily.

    Reply to This Comment

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