what's new for girl online

A letter of gratitude and introducing girl online plus.

I have a confession to make.

When I started girl online in June 2024, it was out of sheer frustration.

I had been a culture reporter for a little over 2 years then and like all culture reporters, I was struggling to land pitches. For starters, most of the editors I knew had been laid off in the numerous rounds of layoffs (I stopped keeping count LOL) since early 2022. The rest didn’t have the budget to commission stories on internet culture.

But I still had a lot of stories to tell — weird corners of the internet, developments in the millennial zeitgeist, interesting TikTok trends, and more. Long story short, I decided to stop pitching outlets and start writing on here. I sent the first girl online email on July 2nd, 2024 to 34 subscribers.

At the time of writing this post, my Substack dashboard says “All subscribers: 1.08k.” That means I found more than 1000 other people who are interested in the evolution of digital girlhood as much as I am!!! In the past six months, from underground subliminals and snark subreddits to girl mosses and Hegelian e-girls, we discussed digital girlhood in ways no mainstream publication (and independent newsletter, for that matter) has.

So, what next?

Well, things are going to stay similar, but better.

Currently, I send out a long-form story every other week. I mean, I try to. Starting next week, you will be receiving one long-form story every Wednesday. Without the paywall, of course.

But there is more.

We have a brand new site identity. When you get the chance, open up girlonline.in on your laptop. I am so proud of how beautiful she looks.

Shoutout to our designer (and my biggest cheerleader) Diya for adopting my passion project as hers.

This brand new year, we are launching a weekly guide to understanding the global evolution of digital girlhood — girl bulletin. This is an exclusive newsletter for our paying subscribers. Free subscribers can read up to 40% of the bulletin in their email inbox.

For as low as $4/ month (when you subscribe annually), every Saturday, I will drop by your inbox with a serving of:

• GIRL NEWS — digital girlhood stories from reporters around the world (with a focus on Asian, Latin American, and African girlhood)

• GIRL WEB — essential internet culture drama for the gossip girl in us

• GIRL VAULT — a look back to what the digital girls were up to a decade ago

• GIRL EATS — recommendations from me, your favorite digital girl

• GIRL VOTE — a poll on fun (but important) girl stuff

Sounds interesting?

For $4-5/month, you also get to:

• access occasional paywalled long-form stories

• support women-focused, independent journalism

• help me produce more reported features and pay our guest contributors

If you are unable to upgrade your subscription, we do have a referral program in place. Here is how it works — when you share one of our posts with your community and somebody signs up through that link, you get a girl online+ credit. When 3, 5, or 10 people sign up, you get 1, 3, or 6 months of girl online+ for free.

Together we can make this the ultimate space for everything digital girlhood. I can’t wait for you to read all the stories in the pipeline. See you on Saturday with the first issue of girl bulletin!

Oh, and Happy New Year!