The Future of Long Live 🚀

Here's how you can come along for all of it

I had a call with a very helpful woman on the Substack team. After explaining how I’d left my full-time job in tech to focus on my own writing and content, she stopped me. “Do your readers know this?” I shrugged.

I mentioned in a paid-only letter a few weeks back, without details and sort of gingerly. As someone with a massive list of paid subscriptions on this platform, I sort of felt bad asking for people to subscribe. But feelings aside, let’s have a state of the union, shall we?

Coming at you live from my sofa!

Let’s start with writing, since it’s a huge part of why I left my full-time role and the thing I love to do the most. I’ve cooled on writing for outlets (here’s how the sausage gets made FYI) and am focusing most of my time here! I’ve alluded to it a few times, but I’m in the process of writing my first book (!!!) with 831 Stories and awaiting edits on my first draft. That book will come out next Spring, and trust me, you will all hear lots about it. I love how

Leslie Stephens

writes about her journey as an author on her Substack and hope to do something similar.

But what becomes of all the time I spent pitching, following up, chasing editors, getting quotes? It gets funneled back into Long Live, baby. Here’s what you can expect:

Free readers:

Weekly long letter on Thursday with curated secondhand links and recommendations

Paid readers:

Weekly long letter on Thursday with curated secondhand links and recommendations

Additional letter on Tuesday with more links, personal musings, and BTS content

Access to our chat that functions like a group chat you’d *actually* want to read

Monthly podcast episodes with cool guests

Girl on the go (in boat shoes)

So this kind of letter is what Paid readers will get on Tuesdays going forward. And instead of working hard to find the coolest new brands or most exciting trends for C**** N***, I’ll be reporting out to you all.

How else will I fill my days other than this darling outlet, you might be asking? I’m consulting with brands I love—Long Live readers get the best rates—and dipping my toe into the cesspool that is content creation. But since you asked, here are the pros and cons of working for yourself.

Pros:

Walks and naps whenever I want (hypothetically)

Meeting for lunch sans stressed Slack check

Actually no Slack at all

Time to level up Long Live!

Cons:

Consistent paycheck is a fever dream of yore

Mean clients you must be dealt with

I miss co-workers, but really, I miss pestering

Renee Chang

every day.

Flexibility is required! (You know I’m notoriously rigid 💘)

Turns out, not working on the weekends is FUN!

And not to bury the lede, but all this also makes time for my pride and joy—EV Salon. I’ll get into it on Thursday. It’s a true labor of love and having space and time to bring it to life in bigger ways makes me so happy. See Exhibit A.

Exhibit A

So that’s what’s up. I’m reading more, which is something that really suffered when I was trying to do 1008 things at once. You know I’ll pass along the best recs. I’m spending more time aimlessly walking around Fort Greene and scrolling on eBay. Nature is healing!

And I want to hear from you—what are you excited about seeing? What content are you desperate for? What could you skip? Please feel free to write back or participate in the below poll.

That was a lot! Some links as a palate cleanser?

Scoop up your J.Crew roll neck sweater before there’s a shortage. This is the right one, trust me. If you can find one secondhand, great, but people are marking them up a ton.

Little Long Live love in

The Wardrobe Edit

vlog. I’ve been watching her forever + can’t wait to share her guest feature.

The bralette for people who need to wear a bra. I know you get me.

Reminder: it’s ok to want commercial success. Not all of us were born to be indie darlings.

Quick podcast for when you feel uninspired and stuck.

I’m rereading this book for a kick in the creative pants. And this one too, always.

These are the shorts of the summer, according to much cooler girls than me.

AND I made a curated collection of (mostly) secondhand pieces inspired by Gap x Dôen.

Thank you for reading Long Live. It means so much to me. You can shop my favs here, follow along on Instagram + Tiktok, shop my Notion template, and as always, respond to this dispatch for my direct line x