When did Substack Become the "Cool Girl" app ?
Substack has suddenly gotten mainstream but not with the demo it was ever intended for " It Girls" " Cool Girls" and " The chic who think"
Substack isn’t new. But she did used to be niche. Scaled back. simple. A place for writers who didn’t want to commit to the flashy website up keep of blogging or the gatekeeping of traditional web-publishing.
Back when I launched mine only a year ago, in February 2023, it was hard to explain what a substack even was to many folks. But now, as Gen Z and even some members of Gen Alpha seek to refine their relationship with social media and find an app for when they take a shit Substack has emerged slowly filling in the gaps for those breaking up with toxicity Instagram and over the chaos of tiktok. Especially with the given bonus that you aren’t battling an algorithm. Posts go right into inboxes while new features “ notes” allow the faux personal touches and paradoxical relationship to flourish.
Suddenly, Substack has been overrun by the world’s most quintessential “It Girls.”
Influencers, poets, and authors that share something so indescribably chic have found their new home here. They aren't girls who are Cool in the way that you can copy and paste.
It is now home to the girls who, in their own niche way, have captured that effortless oddity mixed with ethereal auras that Kate Moss's early work captured. Except this time we are learning how much feminist theory, acute knowledge of history and savy political opinions are turning in the minds of the bold and the beautiful.
Their posts are all wrapped in pretty grapichs and quippy one-liners skills once acquired to disarm men are now being utilized to enhance their storytelling craft and grow their reader base.
There is something raw and yet thrifted in the presentation. An I woke up glam on accident way not so much in the I consume a diet of heroin and coke, though. Let's be honest: Some popular substacks here make me wonder if they have found a way to maintain that lifestyle and write consistently. That girl could never be me but I’m deeply invested in her weekly newsletter. Which further validates Substack’s growing choke hold on those inside and outside this realm of popularity. Because the cool girls have found their slice of this pie and it’s everything I’ve been waiting for. I just didn’t know how badly I wanted it. Wanted them.
For generations, women have inherited a love of columns, essays, and blogs from these culture savvy effortless hyper perceived personas. Some of the biggest shows in pop culture, like Sex and The City, Gossip Girl and Bridgerton, utilize this trend to capture the audiences attention though their palatable writer’s device. So it feels as if this chic take over was only a mater of time.
Or perhaps origin lays more in the reassurance of Sylvia Plath and the desperate need to feel as if we are a member of counter-culture when really we are brainwashed even if we pick different uniforms and heroes to idolize.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t always think it’s a bad thing, but is writing about your pop star obsession sex appeal on substack or your love of low-rise jeans and then a week later your new fade diet anything other but the same message we have been feeding women for generations just wrapped in new graphics with fresh “slay” in the bylines?
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm adoring the publications I've been seeing. There are some truly fantastic women writing on here that transform, educate and inspire me even long after I’ve finished reading their latest news letter. It feels that no matter the content shared as if I'm yet again on the ground floor of trends and discovering things before they take off, but not in a hipster way. The I have my finger on the pulse because I'm so attuned to the world kind of way. A feeling almost every writer chases, whether they want to admit it or not.
And look I don't think my substack is groundbreaking or necessarily very "cool girl" in its packaging. Thus far in my journey, my substack has served in the little over a year I have been writing to chronicle my creative journey. An artist's evolution, a place to build excitement about my upcoming book(s). Which at the time was very much the standard substack. Nothing out of the ordinary.
However, yes, part of my ego is humming from the very fact that I could say I’ve been here and doing this longer than the popular girls of life’s fictional school. And selfishly, I hope their promotion and push for the platform will benefit me and my writing. I’m willing to admit that I want attention for my writing, too. But deep down, I am mainly excited to see the evolution of my generation this new expansion is promising. They call this the age of information, but it’s taken so long for the masses to open the gates of social media, fashion, and platform building to the up-and-coming women who are complex multilayered and cultivating their own voice. Brains, beauty and a shared connection. No more watering ourselves down or being shoved into hot or nerdy sterotypes even millennial women were forced to cling to.
Unlike reading Vogue, Substack is a primarily free platform that, by nature of being self-curated, allows writers to bypass a lot of gatekeeping. Suddenly, women who fall outside the beauty standard can be the 411 on fashion digests. Girls who run unhinged flashy meme pages are recommend classic books and contemplate morality, and poets/ actresses like myself can bear our trauma in the name of activism.
All of this makes the substack app far more satisfying to consume when I look busy on my phone than doom-scrolling on IG.
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