Happy Birthday to This Newsletter!
Thank you, readers, for wanting to read what I want to write.
Two whole years have passed since I sat on my living room couch with a laptop and a cup of peppermint tea and started this Substack newsletter.
It was exciting, but I was also in a state of panic. I had just been laid off, along with 274 other people, from a decade-long job as a writer and senior editor at Treehugger, an environmental news website. I was applying frantically to jobs, attending biweekly meetings with a “career transition” coach, hoping I’d be employed by the time my severance pay ran out. (Ha! Nope. That took 15 months and over 150 job applications.)
But writers can’t not write, and after a few days of moping around the house, feeling sorry for myself, I realized I needed an outlet for all the words and thoughts inside my head. I also knew, deep down, that I needed my own literary space online. I was all too aware of the Internet’s ephemeral nature, having survived a major publishing acquisition in 2020 that deleted over 1,000 of my news stories in a mass purge.
So, The Analog Family was born out of a desire to control my own work (and satisfy my insatiable urge to write), but it has evolved to become far more than that. It is now an exciting gathering place for thousands of likeminded or curious readers (and occasional thoughtful dissenters). It is a working portfolio that lets me test out new ideas and promote my 2023 book, Childhood Unplugged: Practical Advice to Get Kids Off Screens and Find Balance.
It is an amazing networking tool that has connected me with interesting people and professional opportunities. I love the emails I get from readers each week, with valuable feedback, encouragement, and smart questions.
Thanks to The Analog Family, I have started writing articles about kids and digital media for the Globe and Mail, Canada’s largest newspaper. This newsletter connected me with Jonathan Haidt and Zach Rausch of The Anxious Generation, whose work overlaps closely with mine. I’ve joined the TAG team as a writer and a speaker. I’ve done many news interviews, podcasts, and some TV appearances.
Perhaps most excitingly, I’m about to kick off several months of travel around North America this spring, speaking to groups of all sorts and sizes about how to curb kids’ screen time. I have talks scheduled in Edmonton, Seattle, Philadelphia, New York, Jackson, Little Rock, Chicago, Hamilton, Toronto, and lots of smaller places around my home province of Ontario. I even have a speaking agent now, as of last week, at the Harry Walker Agency. Eek!
Most Days…
I assure you, my life isn’t nearly as glamorous as the previous paragraph may have suggested. I continue to plug away at a part-time job as a university transcript editor (job application #151.) That work can be tedious, but it is also sometimes a nice, steady respite from the mental drain of creative work—and it helps to pay the bills. I am eternally busy with raising my three boys, who range in age from elementary to middle to high school and often need to be in three different places at once.
Most of my writing happens in a tiny 8’ x 12’ backyard office that my father helped me build. We had just started construction before I got laid off, so my children nastily nicknamed it the “unemployment lounge,” until it got changed to the “she shed.” I learned how to pour concrete, frame walls, and hang siding. I even helped install the rubber roofing material and dug the electrical trench by hand, by myself.
The space has become an oasis for me, set apart from the chaos of the house—though I continue to be amazed (and, okay, yes, maybe a bit annoyed) by the number of visits I get from children with random requests. I need a note on the door that says, “Go ask your dad.”
I have learned many valuable lessons over the past two years, but perhaps the most profound has been that, in times of doubt and uncertainty, doing what you love, and doing it consistently and to the best of your ability, will lead to interesting things.
A former Treehugger colleague, Lloyd Alter, asked me for an update a few days ago, and I wrote this:
“A week after my layoff, a close friend bet me a bottle of tequila that, within two years, I'd look back and be glad it happened. I said, no, impossible! I will be bereft forever! It looks like I owe him a bottle of tequila.”
I love where I am and what I do. And believe it or not, the novelty of writing for this Substack has not worn off one bit. I still sit down every time with joy and anticipation—and a sense of honour that you, readers, continue to engage, inspire, and challenge in the many ways you do. You keep me on my toes, motivating me to stay on top of interesting new research, books, phrases, and ideas that relate to this hot and fraught topic of navigating digital media. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Most Popular Posts
It’s always fun to look back at the archives and see which posts have resonated most with readers. The top five performers have been:
Some of my personal favourites include:
Keep Reading!
If you’d like to learn more about my work, please check out my website. I have a list of speaking engagements there, and am always accepting more, so reach out if you’d like to have me talk.
Please read my book, if you haven’t yet. It’s available in paperback, PDF, or audiobook. If you love it, as many other readers have (it’s got a 4.9-star rating!), consider leaving a review on Amazon, which my publisher tells me is a huge help for boosting sales and visibility. Here are a few heartwarming reviews:
I wonder what The Analog Family will look like in another two years’ time. My dream is for it to become a full-time job, with enough paying subscribers to justify spending even more time and energy on writing and expanding it. We shall see what happens! But I do know that, no matter what, this is where you’ll find me.
The unemployment lounge 😂 nothing like a kid to humble you!
I love your work! I’m grateful for your writing and for yours example.
Congratulations Katherine! You offer a practical perspective that so many of use need.