An important Pen Pals announcement [PLEASE READ]
Dear Reader,
When we first started this newsletter 2.5 years ago on TinyLetter with 10 subscribers, we had a vision for this to be a space where we could stretch our creative limbs and geek out about pop culture we love in a way that we couldn’t in our academic and corporate lives. We are both people who have lots to say about TV and movies and the ways it can provide insight into who we are as people and what it means to be human (and occasionally who we’re crushing on), and this newsletter has been a source of rest and rejuvenation when the rest of our lives have been a bit creatively stale, to put it honestly.
Since its founding in February 2019, this newsletter has grown considerably, but that mission has always stayed the same: While this newsletter is written for you to enjoy, it’s ultimately for us, to express ourselves and enjoy each other’s writing (we both love reading what the other has written just as much, if not more, than the writing itself). That’s why we’ve never tried to turn this newsletter into a paid resource or open a Patreon—it was intended to be a place of freedom, where we could resist capitalism and write what we wanted purely for the fun of it all.
However, 2021 has brought some significant life changes for both of us, personally and professionally, as we start new careers and tend to our families, and as the responsibilities on our plates have grown, the respite and joy that this newsletter has brought us has dwindled. We never want writing for each other (and you!) to feel like a chore. It has always been a joy, and we want to keep it that way.
That’s why we’ve decided that for now, until further notice, we are putting our Pop Culture Pen Pals monthly newsletter on hiatus. You may sporadically hear from one (or both) of us, but our regular monthly newsletter is going to take a break. We don’t plan to be gone forever, but we don’t know yet when we’ll be back. We hope you’ll stick around until we return.
Until then, in the words of our beloved Johnny Rose, “I don’t think we could have gotten through without you all.”
All our love,
Your pen pals,
Hannah and Kelsey