Top Shelf, Low Brow is ONE YEAR OLD!
One full calendar year of mayhem, musings, and menz. 85 long-form editions later, I can't thank you enough.
Here we are, baby! One year ago today, this humble newsletter launched. I cannot believe it has been one year and, even more so, I cannot believe that Top Shelf, Low Brow is still going—and frankly, better and more popular than ever. When I launched the newsletter and published the first edition on December 4th, 2020, I was nearly at the end of my rope. I had graduated college in the throes of an unprecedented pandemic (after a whopping seven years of trying to nail down who I am and what I’m good at) and had been searching for employment for seven months. The media industry, while in some ways highly adaptable, largely froze in terms of hiring. The market became increasingly crowded, and proving myself as a formidable pop culture writer with limited contacts and only a handful of paid freelance work under my belt was next to impossible. I more than had the catalogue of both paid and independently-published pieces under my belt, but getting anyone to care about that or take a second look at a resume was something I really had to fight for. I sent out pitches and applications daily, and had not one bite. It was grueling, and I was desperate to find a way to channel my innate hunger for creativity with something that would not just allow me to publish writing consistently, but even get paid for it. Mid-November, the idea for Top Shelf, Low Brow was born.
I wanted this newsletter and all of its extensions in the virtual world to be—as cringey as it may sound!—a safe, fun space for people like me who naturally have their head buried in the zeitgeist but don’t always feel connected to the most mainstream celebrity and entertainment news. People like me, who wanted to be served a regular dose of weird, silly, unabashedly opinionated and often horny takes on pop culture. As many outlets as there are out there, I felt like there was a hole in the market! And it may be a small one, but it’s one that I knew I could fill. I wanted this newsletter to be its own world, with its own distinct written and visual style and consistent graphics and look. If I was going to do this, it couldn’t be half-assed. I knew that if I did it right, people would come.
And it turns out, I was right! You did! Over the last 12 months, TSLB has somehow managed to attract more subscribers than I ever could’ve imagined when it launched. I thought that if I could get 25 people who I’m not friends with to subscribe then I would be set. Very proud to say that number was crossed in just a couple of weeks. It’s worthwhile to add that I have a reasonably modest following (I tend to follow somewhat sparingly, which isn’t really great for building my own numbers on social media since this job is about networking, after all), so I am constantly fucking astonished at the amount of organic growth we’ve had. And I cannot thank you enough. If you are reading this, whether you have been here from the first edition or this is your first time reading, I truly, truly thank you for being here. This newsletter has given me so much hope over the last year. It has been not only a personal and creative outlet, but something that I hold close in my life that I’m deeply proud of—not just because of all of the milestones it has had since launch, but because I can come to you every week and bring you something that you love. Something that you look forward to. Something that makes you laugh and makes you scream and makes you disagree and makes you tweet and makes you send a text to your friend. This newsletter exists because of you, and I’ll never be able to tell you how grateful I am. And if you’re still a paid subscriber, supporting my work despite me unlocking all letters permanently? I can’t believe you! You are crazy and I love you oh my god. (But let it also be known, if you ever want to relinquish your paid subscription, you’ll always have a friend in me).
85 LONG-FORM EDITIONS LATER. 85 newsletters! 85 emails in your inbox with entirely original content. 85 opportunities to rant and rave about men and their big tiddies, and I only took advantage of like…62 of those! I can’t fucking believe it. Not to toot my own horn but toot toot bitch! It hasn’t always been easy, but it has always been truly rewarding. I fucking love writing Top Shelf, Low Brow, and I hope I get to keep doing it for a long time to come. There’s no telling what will happen in the future, but I can surely say that this has been the thing that I am most proud of in my career thus far.
Thank you again. There is more to come. Exciting stuff in the works! I love interacting with you. I love writing for you. I love making you laugh and feel seen and understood. I love you.💖
P.S. If you want a trip, go back and read the very first edition, “A Thanksgiving Salmonel-Lu Outbreak: Viva La Diva’s Christmas Carol.” Actually one of the titles that I’m most proud of, and you know I love an insane title. It’s a real throwback, I can see how this newsletter has grown and changed but also how the sentiment has stayed the same. It’s about love, it’s about pop culture, it’s about festivity, it’s about Housewives and niche made-for-television Christmas movies and salmonella! What more can you want?
Thank you for sharing! I just started my pop culture newsletter a few months ago and it is fun and grueling. There is something to be said for persistence and faith! All the best!