Remember blogs? Those weird things where people (like me) published their random thoughts and pictures? They’re donezo. Pfft. Kaput. They’ve either turned into booming businesses like The Business of Fashion, or shut down, like Man Repeller. In their place, a new (old) type of lo-fi solo publishing has popped up: the newsletter. As a digital format, it pre-dated the blog — it may seem hard to believe now, but Gwyneth Paltrow’s £181 million business, Goop, started as a newsletter in 2008 — but it’s having a big resurgence. Why read a newsletter rather than a website? For starters, it requires even less work on your part, arriving neatly in your inbox. Most pleasingly — and not to be underestimated, given the never-ending nature of the internet — it features an end point.
In the past year the newsletter has moved from fringe to mainstream, with writer Anne Helen Petersen, known for her viral article for BuzzFeed News on millennial burnout, becoming one of the first journalists to strike an (allegedly hefty) deal with the leading newsletter platform Substack. Over the course of researching this piece, I subscribed to no fewer than 45 newsletters that run the gamut from food to tech to celebrity to secondhand shopping. Granted I will have to find an eighth day in every week to read them all, but for those sick of Insta doom-scrolling, there is an enormous pleasure to be found in these small, curated digital bulletins. Some are free, some are behind a paywall. Here are the best of the ones I now love.
Interiors
● Tat London (tat-london.co.uk) is a fortnightly newsletter from “online jumble shop” owner Charlie Porter that is teeming with imagination and inspiration. There are interviews with interior designers, chats with vintage dealers and some deliciously eclectic secondhand homeware.
● The Dispatch (matildagoad.com) is similarly eclectic — a monthly update from the roaming mind of designer Matilda Goad, the woman responsible for the revival of scallop-trimmed home accessories. It has curated discounts, tricks of the trade and where to find the best affordable frilly bed linen (H&M, by the way).
● Another monthly, The Pinterior (thepinterior.com) is a beautifully designed mailer from journalist Phoebe McDowell. The archive includes accessories to cheer up your WFH situation and tablescaping for two.
● Pieces (pieces-london.co.uk), from “chronic collector” Olivia Wakefield, has at-home interviews with creative people and burgeoning artists that she rates. More-ish monthly content for the snoops.
Advertisement
Shopping
● Buy, Bitch! (buybitch.substack.com) is a humorous and strangely addictive shopping newsletter from Vice journalist Veronica de Souza. It features covetable items and indie retailers to bookmark — a recent one titled Things I Bought for Myself When I Was Supposed to Be Shopping for Others is particularly enjoyable.
● If beauty is more your bag, The Unpublishable (jessica-defino.com) is a tantalising series of beauty stories that writer Jessica DeFino says “can’t, won’t or don’t get covered” in beauty media. “Do I have a bad attitude?” she writes. “Or does the beauty industry have a bad foundation?” Subscribe for waspish, witty, BS-free content.
Food
● Created in the first lockdown and already hugely popular, Vittles (vittles.substack.com) is “for people who normally hate food writing”, edited by writer Jonathan Nunn. Its aim is to diversify both food writing and the industry itself. From Brian Ng on chopsticks to Lewis Bassett on why he hates fine dining, Nunn commissions new writers and pays them decently (for that reason, part of it is behind a paywall).
● Cult chef Alison Roman’s A Newsletter (alisoneroman.com) is also partly behind a paywall. You don’t have to like cooking to enjoy it — the writing around the recipes (such as her childhood memories of dill) is evocative and joyful. Paid subscription grants access to more recipes and Q&As with Roman.
● For veggies, Anna Jones, the vegetarian chef whose new book One: Pot, Pan, Planet has just been published, sends out the weekly newsletter We Are Food (annajones.co.uk). In it, she shares her favourite recipes that focus on what’s in season, as well as her thoughts on sustainability.
Reading
Advertisement
● Girls’ Night In (girlsnightin.co) is the OG weekly culture newsletter with more than 200,000 subscribers. This self-described “cosy corner of the internet” covers wellness, community and books, and features interviews with bestselling authors Chanel Miller and Samantha Irby. (The newsletter is free; access to its community, The Lounge, is $12 a month.)
● The Aram (linktr.ee/Thearam) is a newsletter by Tahmina Begum that explores the concept of ease and joy (aram means comfort in Bengali) through podcast and book recommendations, as well as interviews with women of colour and/or Muslim women who Begum admires about what brings them comfort.
● For poetry heads, My Sexy Little Email (catcohen.substack.com) is a weekly mailer of poetry from American comedian Cat Cohen, who recently published the poetry collection God I Feel Modern Tonight. Funny and filthy — although probably not for those with an aversion to internet speak.
Pop culture
● One of Substack’s top performers is Culture Study (annehelen.substack.com). This covers pop culture and the politics of work delivered in US journalist Anne Helen Petersen’s signature meaty, long-form prose ($5 a month for newsletters up to three times a week; once a week for unpaid subscribers).
● Terry Nguyen of Vox is behind Gen Yeet (genyeet.substack.com), a roughly once-a-month offering of thought-provoking analysis of everything from how to manage your TikTok addiction to the myth of youth-voter apathy.
Advertisement
● Pass the Aux (eleanorhalls.substack.com) is a monthly essay by music editor Eleanor Halls that went viral recently for its discussion of celebrity profiles and how sanitised they have become. Lifting the curtain on music journalism, it’s a must-subscribe for wannabe writers and veterans alike.
● As is Maybe Baby (haleynahman.substack.com), from former Man Repeller deputy editor Haley Nahman, whose pertinent thoughts on pop culture and celebrity have garnered her a dedicated following.
Life
● Crème de la Crème (aminatou.substack.com) is a twice-weekly epistle (free, but donations welcome) of “basically anything that delights and infuriates” the writer and podcaster Aminatou Sow. Her commentary covers everything from capitalism to skincare.
● For a more Parisian take on life, subscribe to Lettre Recommandée (mailchi.mp). The Paris-dwelling American writer Lauren Collins builds on the success of her bestselling memoir, When in French, with this clever and pithy analysis of all things to do with her new home country, from Napoleon to night trains.
● And finally, Ask Polly (askpolly.substack.com), a bonus hit from The Cut’s agony aunt, Heather Havrilesky, that describes itself as “bridging the gaps between wisdom and dread”. Compassionate and confrontational, recent newsletters have been titled How to Stop Being Obsessed and How to Stop Trying to Be Better. Subscription should be compulsory.
Advertisement
How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right? by Pandora Sykes is out in paperback on May 1
