via “On the Road” Stills Provide Opportunity to Admire Kristen Stewart, Pre-Judge
Ashley LaRocque & Kelli Griggs - Autostraddle.com’s January & February Calendar Girls
(Submitted by autostraddle)
Wanna smell like a really rich man? Wanna smell like a flower? Wanna smell like Julie Goldman or Deanne Smith? Presenting a cornucopia of smell-good advice for peoples of varied gender identities!
As a high school queer who would not be able to read Autostraddle if it cost money because I lack a) a job and b) a credit card, I really really really fucking appreciate that it’s free. (I know you said it’s free because you can’t really make money off
[i have continued your question here since you have too many characters for formspring and sent me ur question in 4 parts] of charging people for it, but w/e.) I don’t know how to tell you how much I love Autostraddle, but I really do love it a lot. I look forward to reading your articles every day. You’ve taught me a lot. You’ve put into words things that I’ve felt but haven’t been able to put into words because I didn’t have the knowledge/experience/whatever (esp. regarding feminism). I plan on donating to Autostraddle as soon as I can, and until then I’m using your special Amazon thing whenever I or anyone in my
family buys anything from Amazon. Also, sorry for spamming your Formspring but this couldn’t be condensed into 255 characters. SUCK IT FORMSPRING. Also: #AUTOSTRADDLEFORPRESIDENT
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You make a really good point, actually, that I should’ve mentioned – b/c it’s a queer site, some people don’t have access to money they could throw our way and some people have to visit us secretly. and if those people couldn’t see the website then there wouldn’t be much of a point in doing this at all. so yes, thank you for reading for free, and for being you, and for saying nice things.
i feel like ur so mega famous now.
i do not feel like im so mega famous now
i think you meant to send this to tinkerbell
Dear Riese, It makes me very sad that there are so few out femme lesbians in Hollywood. Please tell your Broadway baby pal that we need her! That is all. Realizing this is a sticky situation, Femme who is tired of citing Lindsay Lohan
haviland stillwell is completely and totally 100% out as a giant homo, I promise, haviland has always been out, all this time, she’s been out out out.
i have a friend who is convinced she’s fat and throws up her food when she thinks she’s eaten too much. She’s seriously really thin and gorgeous. She talks to me about it and I tell her that maybe she should talk to a therapist but she doesn’t want to tel
she doesn’t want to tell anyone because she doesn’t want to stop throwing up. the thing is that it’s a hard thing to recover from completely and the longer it goes on, the harder it becomes to stop, or to have the strength to let a relapse last a day rather than a month. it’s kinda irrelevant that she’s thin and beautiful, because that’s not really what the illness is about, and hearing that she is thin and beautiful probs just makes her panic that she needs to remain thin and beautiful and this is the only way to do it in her mind even though it’s not. she doesn’t see what you see when you look at her when she looks in the mirror.
she’s sick, she has bulimia, she needs to see a therapist, ideally one who specializes in eating disorders. unfortunately you can’t make her go, you can’t save anybody. nobody can save anybody.
but being there for her and listening and telling her you’ll support her if she goes, or that she can call you instead of throwing up, those are things you can do.
*DISCLAIMER I AM NOT A DOCTOR, I JUST HAVE A USELESS B.A IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (WITH HONORS)*
If you are $15K in debt, why do you give Autostraddle’s content away for free? I get you feel you are doing a service (which you are) but aren’t you doing yourself and all the AS writers a bigger disservice by not requiring a subscription?
A paid content model online has never really succeeded for anyone, unfortunately, though there’s always the prospect of making additional paid content available in the future. We obviously suck at marketing and finance and have no idea what we’re doing.
People ask me a lot of questions about money on formspring. I’m gonna try and answer this one for reals – I’m kinda self-conscious about money though because I’ve never been so powerless w/r/t money and also i miss how much calmer i felt when i had a job. also it’s frustrating ‘cause whenever i talk about it, i get the requisite emails/formsprings like - “have you heard of kickstarter?” “you could make t-shirts on cafepress!” “you should ask [x brand that won’t talk to us] to advertise on autostraddle!” “have you looked at grants?” – such kindhearted helpful suggestions, but I get this kneejerk insulted reaction, because it implies I haven’t already spent months looking into these things or trying them. I should stop being defensive, it’s stupid. Anyhow – we’ve been through all the Great Ideas, we have some plans – basically what we need now is ad dollars, donations and investment money, period, or an ad/marketing wizard.
howevs – autostraddle isn’t free b/c it’s a “service” – it’s free b/c there’s no real feasible way to make people pay for it and still grow as a business. autostraddle is a thing we love, but it is a 2xfull-time job for me and a full-time job for laneia, we take incredible attention to detail and NEVER cut corners. i do think people should pay for our content and honestly for all professionally produced online content and the fact that nobody WANTS to pay for it is depressing and doesn’t bode well for the future of the written word or how much we value quality, thoughtful journalism and independent voices. Most sites get by b/c they’re owned by a giant corporation like Viacom or Regent Media.
That being said, a lot of readers recognize this and donate to Autostraddle, sometimes A LOT of money, too. Right now we are making more from donations than from anything else. So right now you are our bosses, you tell us what you like and don’t like and we answer to you. I would love to have an entirely reader-supported profit model because I’d rather have you be my boss than Southwest Airlines, but that’s probably not possible.
As for that 15k in debt specifically – the fact that I’m doing autostraddle rather than a real person job right now is the stupidest, most irresponsible path possible. And when I look at my bills I want to shut down AS and get a real job because I need health insurance and reliable income/salary etc. Except I think at this point legally I can’t do that b/c ppl have invested in the company. Anyhow – this is just to say that I have emotionally detached myself from these concerns. That debt is stored in a $300/month cabin in the deep recesses of my brain – I pay the rent, but I can’t go there anymore, I will have an anxiety attack. Any money I get these days goes towards rent, food, bills, etc., debt is way down on the list. I just I can’t even.
We know what we have is worth a lot of money. We just don’t know where and how we’re supposed to find that money. We should probably figure that out soon.
Also I think money is stupid and I hate it and i can’t seem to understand it and maybe that’s why, because i think it’s stupid
I’M BAD AT TALKING ABOUT MONEY HONEY
LA IS SO TERRIBLE OH WHY DID YOU MOVE THERE??
to each his own / grass is greener / blanket statement
There are so many things I have to say to those who think I’d like to hear their unsolicited feelings/opinions about where I live…
Bottom line is: we are all seeking something different depending on where we are in our lives. I have nothing but amazing things to say about New York and will never tell someone they shouldn’t live there just because I don’t anymore.
Sidenote: I wake up every morning and think “I fucking love it here”.
in a previous post you said, “I think I was most confused about how to get girls to make out with me. I didn’t figure this out until I was 17.” ..was this like a mental revelation? or did it just happen? i’m 17. i want to figure this out too
No revelation. More like: spin the bottle and truth or dare.
Lighthumored or no, its not that funny to make jokes about not eating.
Have I made jokes about not eating?
What fonts did you use in the redesign? I’m a huge fan, especially RE: the main nav bar. It’s sexy as hell.
Thanks :)
The font family used in the main navigation (those drop-down menus) is called Champion. #fuckyeahcondensedtypefaces
The first long-range national study on the experience of discrimination for trans and genderqueer people has been released.
