Straddleverse

How Do You Scale a Personality Cult?

We do lose something when dedicated queer spaces like Into, Girlfriends and SheWired shutter or AfterEllen goes full TERF, but we also lose something when The Awl, The Hairpin and The Toast do. These were places where writers were free to experiment, to be weird, to make writer-first content that isn’t easily monetizable.

Carmen against a yellow background with pink stars, and her signature also visible
Straddleverse

If Your Dream Only Includes You, It’s Too Small

Heather Hogan noticed that I had taken up permanent residence in the comments of “Boobs on Your Tube” every Friday, basically writing recaps of my own (I felt lost, Autostraddle was my port in the storm). Heather asked if I had ever considered writing about television as a career. She said, “We can pay you. Not as much as we’d like to, but we’ll find the money. Is that something you’d be into?”

I wrote back, “That is something that I would VERY MUCH be into! In fact, I hope it’s not too unprofessional to say that I would love it with all of my heart.”

this feature image features Autostraddle writer abeni
Straddleverse

Four Years Later

I was hustling to make life work as a freelance writer and graphic designer and workshop presenter (and, like, food delivery person and countless other gigs) in an increasingly treacherous digital media landscape.