Relatable! I wrote “I’m not a brand. I’m a human.” a year or so into my Substack journey. For what it’s worth I’ve seen folks with narrow niches can struggle long term and others build wider audiences who are into the scope of whatever you do. Also I find that niching advice very high masking. I hope you find a way to make space to be your whole self here. 💙
Thank you Sarah! I appreciate the encouragement from the future, in a way, since you're further into your Substack experience than I am. It's wonderful that you've found a sustainable path. Also, this is great framing: "Also I find that niching advice very high masking."
Thanks for answering the question so fully, Laura. I enjoy your writing across all the topics I've read here - I find your style of writing particularly engaging, often hooking me into posts on subjects I might not have explored otherwise. I had trouble with the last one, but that was because I was in burnout and found reading anything difficult, so something challenging was never going to work! Keep following your mind to where it takes you - I feel like writing through a lens of neurodivergence means you can expand to whatever horizon you want, because the lens doesn't change, only the object we're focused on.
I journaled on this very topic this morning. To answer your question: This is what’s interesting to me. Grappling with questions like this. Grappling with any kind of question. I think that’s what I like to read: not answers, not advice, not only storytelling of what happened, but experiencing others work through problems. Sometimes that sparks ideas, sometimes it validates my own experience, and sometimes it’s simply fascinating to read. I like glimpses into other people’s minds and thoughts. I think this might be what has drawn me to your writing. When you follow your interests it feels like you’re working yourself through the problem and the process (less the solution) is what I find interesting.
Thanks Hanna. I'm a bit awestruck by your comment because it maps uncannily onto the draft I sent off for potential publication this week. The draft is about a trend in nonfiction books that focus on intellectual process instead of results.
Just grapped a couple sentences to show you the eerie (in a good way) similarity to what you've written: "That’s what draws me to these books: they, too, are driven by the need to make meaning, to reach backwards in search of coherence, to create a living map, one that shifts even as it’s traversed. At their core, these books open the doors of the authors’ minds and beckon us inside."
There's such delight in recognizing your own thinking in someone else's! Though I shouldn't be too surprised that we both enjoy that kind of intellectual journey.
I’m here for it, and I definitely have a brain like yours. I read people who read and experience widely, and who write about what moves them, not what drives engagement.
I was there about a decade ago in the winter. There were ferocious storms - black beach was a whiteout - but the landscape was otherworldly. I couldn’t get enough.
What I truly loved was that there was some sort of homespun/knitting thing going on and stores had the craziest knitwear like a huge dual poncho or a giant wool knitted starfish bodysuit.
The Icelanders who took us around were so smart and funny as well.
Yeah, the landscape is unreal. That sounds like a wild experience. Knitting is huge, so that checks out. My mother-in-law is never without her knitting bag. They actually teach knitting in grade school! My husband learned as a kid though he doesn't do it now.
First, "I’m not one person. I can flit in and out of different personas and somehow, there’s a kernel of truth to all of them, even if the personas are exaggerated. The conventional advice when you’re diagnosed with autism is to unmask, but what if your real self is split across those masks?" THANK YOU for articulating this, as this is exactly how I've always felt, even as I've had my own autism diagnosis just within the last 6 months or so.
As for your wider Q in this post, I relate to it so strongly! I have a Substack where I grappled with this very thing, though my struggle was more in burnout and overwhelm (of the political moment, of big life changes and stepping into live-in (step-)parenting) rather than a wandering focus. In the end I let my Substack go dormant, but I am missing it, and as I grapple with the "it" my questions are much like yours. What about it do I miss? What served me and what serves others? How can I be a writer of sorts without turning it into a burden?
I will say, as a reader, I've only just found your newsletter --I believe it was from a Culture Study thread? I think we have a lot in common as adult-diagnosed autistics living with an ADHD partner, navigating parenting and learning what is useful about the diagnoses (counting my partner in his also later-in-life diagnosis) to support a life that works best for us. I appreciate your smart, thoughtful posts and they way they contribute to my own settling-in to this way of understanding myself better.
Meghan, I'm so glad to welcome you here. Wow, our alignment is on-point. I expect we have lots of similar experiences.
I took a look at your Substack and your About page and it sparked all kinds of curiosity about your career, like how autism affected your work and professional relationships, and also about your academic work itself, and why you changed career focus... Essentially I'm curious about everything? That's me in a nutshell I guess.
I hope you do re-start your Substack because I'd love to read your current reflections on everything, through the post-diagnosis lens. In the meantime, thanks for reading and I hope to keep engaging.
I read you because I find your intelligence - I mean the term in many senses, including something like "emotional thoughtfulness" and "lucid prose" - but with this particular post I had a hard time because my dreamy Walter Mitty self was swooning the whole time about what it must be like to be in Reykjavik, and not Idiot America.
I'm still swooning as I write this.
You have a reader in me no matter where you go with your topics at Strange Clarity, Laura.
Thank you, that means more than you can know. Also, I've never seen that movie though people in Iceland reference the film shoot from time to time. Honestly, the fact that you liked it is the final kick I need to actually watch the thing.
Wow. This is an Elaine Benes "Get out!"-shove moment. What a coincidence. Yes, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was filmed partly in Iceland and it was a Big Event that they still talk about there. I assumed that's what you were talking about. Now I need to read the story. Just found it online.
My inner self recently announced it wanted to add more spirituality to my content... And then I completely flipped out because I heard a voice that was like "that's not in our niche..." But I'm excited to see how this integrates... I don't want to feel like the niche is more important than I am!
Relatable! I wrote “I’m not a brand. I’m a human.” a year or so into my Substack journey. For what it’s worth I’ve seen folks with narrow niches can struggle long term and others build wider audiences who are into the scope of whatever you do. Also I find that niching advice very high masking. I hope you find a way to make space to be your whole self here. 💙
Thank you Sarah! I appreciate the encouragement from the future, in a way, since you're further into your Substack experience than I am. It's wonderful that you've found a sustainable path. Also, this is great framing: "Also I find that niching advice very high masking."
Thanks for answering the question so fully, Laura. I enjoy your writing across all the topics I've read here - I find your style of writing particularly engaging, often hooking me into posts on subjects I might not have explored otherwise. I had trouble with the last one, but that was because I was in burnout and found reading anything difficult, so something challenging was never going to work! Keep following your mind to where it takes you - I feel like writing through a lens of neurodivergence means you can expand to whatever horizon you want, because the lens doesn't change, only the object we're focused on.
Thanks Alys! I really appreciate your encouragement.
I journaled on this very topic this morning. To answer your question: This is what’s interesting to me. Grappling with questions like this. Grappling with any kind of question. I think that’s what I like to read: not answers, not advice, not only storytelling of what happened, but experiencing others work through problems. Sometimes that sparks ideas, sometimes it validates my own experience, and sometimes it’s simply fascinating to read. I like glimpses into other people’s minds and thoughts. I think this might be what has drawn me to your writing. When you follow your interests it feels like you’re working yourself through the problem and the process (less the solution) is what I find interesting.
Thanks Hanna. I'm a bit awestruck by your comment because it maps uncannily onto the draft I sent off for potential publication this week. The draft is about a trend in nonfiction books that focus on intellectual process instead of results.
Just grapped a couple sentences to show you the eerie (in a good way) similarity to what you've written: "That’s what draws me to these books: they, too, are driven by the need to make meaning, to reach backwards in search of coherence, to create a living map, one that shifts even as it’s traversed. At their core, these books open the doors of the authors’ minds and beckon us inside."
There's such delight in recognizing your own thinking in someone else's! Though I shouldn't be too surprised that we both enjoy that kind of intellectual journey.
I love this so much! the parallel and your poetic language :)
I’m here for it, and I definitely have a brain like yours. I read people who read and experience widely, and who write about what moves them, not what drives engagement.
And I love Iceland ;)
Thank you! Have you spent much time there? What do you like best about it?
I was there about a decade ago in the winter. There were ferocious storms - black beach was a whiteout - but the landscape was otherworldly. I couldn’t get enough.
What I truly loved was that there was some sort of homespun/knitting thing going on and stores had the craziest knitwear like a huge dual poncho or a giant wool knitted starfish bodysuit.
The Icelanders who took us around were so smart and funny as well.
Yeah, the landscape is unreal. That sounds like a wild experience. Knitting is huge, so that checks out. My mother-in-law is never without her knitting bag. They actually teach knitting in grade school! My husband learned as a kid though he doesn't do it now.
TIL Icelandic grade schoolers are taught to knit. My day is complete ;)
First, "I’m not one person. I can flit in and out of different personas and somehow, there’s a kernel of truth to all of them, even if the personas are exaggerated. The conventional advice when you’re diagnosed with autism is to unmask, but what if your real self is split across those masks?" THANK YOU for articulating this, as this is exactly how I've always felt, even as I've had my own autism diagnosis just within the last 6 months or so.
As for your wider Q in this post, I relate to it so strongly! I have a Substack where I grappled with this very thing, though my struggle was more in burnout and overwhelm (of the political moment, of big life changes and stepping into live-in (step-)parenting) rather than a wandering focus. In the end I let my Substack go dormant, but I am missing it, and as I grapple with the "it" my questions are much like yours. What about it do I miss? What served me and what serves others? How can I be a writer of sorts without turning it into a burden?
I will say, as a reader, I've only just found your newsletter --I believe it was from a Culture Study thread? I think we have a lot in common as adult-diagnosed autistics living with an ADHD partner, navigating parenting and learning what is useful about the diagnoses (counting my partner in his also later-in-life diagnosis) to support a life that works best for us. I appreciate your smart, thoughtful posts and they way they contribute to my own settling-in to this way of understanding myself better.
Meghan, I'm so glad to welcome you here. Wow, our alignment is on-point. I expect we have lots of similar experiences.
I took a look at your Substack and your About page and it sparked all kinds of curiosity about your career, like how autism affected your work and professional relationships, and also about your academic work itself, and why you changed career focus... Essentially I'm curious about everything? That's me in a nutshell I guess.
I hope you do re-start your Substack because I'd love to read your current reflections on everything, through the post-diagnosis lens. In the meantime, thanks for reading and I hope to keep engaging.
I read you because I find your intelligence - I mean the term in many senses, including something like "emotional thoughtfulness" and "lucid prose" - but with this particular post I had a hard time because my dreamy Walter Mitty self was swooning the whole time about what it must be like to be in Reykjavik, and not Idiot America.
I'm still swooning as I write this.
You have a reader in me no matter where you go with your topics at Strange Clarity, Laura.
Thank you, that means more than you can know. Also, I've never seen that movie though people in Iceland reference the film shoot from time to time. Honestly, the fact that you liked it is the final kick I need to actually watch the thing.
I've not seen any of the films based on Mitty, and have only read the very short, hilarious piece by James Thurber. Many times.
That the film - the recent one? - was shot in Iceland is news to me. And maybe a minor synchronicity. Or: just coincidence.
Wow. This is an Elaine Benes "Get out!"-shove moment. What a coincidence. Yes, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was filmed partly in Iceland and it was a Big Event that they still talk about there. I assumed that's what you were talking about. Now I need to read the story. Just found it online.
I feel seen! And shoved!
My inner self recently announced it wanted to add more spirituality to my content... And then I completely flipped out because I heard a voice that was like "that's not in our niche..." But I'm excited to see how this integrates... I don't want to feel like the niche is more important than I am!