An Update!

TLDR: There are some changes afoot.

Hey! Hi! Hello!

It’s been a minute since I’ve been on here to share my inner monologue with the world, and boyyyyyy oh boy has a whole lot changed in three months. Most notably—which you definitely know if you follow me on any social platforms, because I literally won’t shut up about it—is that I’m now a founder and CEO.

[pause for laughs]

As a career writer who transferred out of undergraduate business school after three semesters to pursue an English major, you better believe that those are two words that I never, ever thought would appear on my resumé. But, here we are.

Sooooo, how did we get here? Fair question. Back in the fall I hosted a charity beauty sale with fellow beauty editor Gabby Shacknai. It was an overwhelming success in every sense of the word, and inspired us to take what we’d created it and turn it into a real non-profit. Last month, we launched Beautyfor, which is far and away my favorite thing I’ve ever done.

You can read alllll about it here (and sign up for our community so you’ll be the first to know about our next event!), but essentially one of the things we discovered during our fall sale was that brands have a lot of overstock product… and most of it winds up going to waste. We partner with beauty brands to receive donations of all that product, which we then sell at these really fun pop-up sales here in New York City (inspired by the editor events we go to all the time), with all proceeds going to charity.

We launched on June 4th with a major moment in WWD, had a big ol’ party with all of our industry friends, and hosted our first sale on June 22—which was written about in Marie Claire (… a peak life moment that fully made me cry).

All of this is to say that instead of writing, I’ve been working 18 hour days sourcing products, learning the ins-and-outs of New York City nonprofit law, and becoming an expert social strategist and graphic designer. I spent my 33rd birthday sorting skincare in a storage unit.

Honestly, I think if I had fully known what it took to start a business, I would have stopped before I’d even started. I can honestly say that I have never worked harder—or slept less—than I have these last few months. But I’ve also learned so, so much, and have never, ever been prouder of myself.

The other pretty important update (which is far more relevant to you, dear reader) is that I also launched a new newsletter on Yahoo! I’m really excited about bringing some of what you all read here to a whole new—and much bigger—audience. But, given that some of the content I share on Substack is now going to live elsewhere on the Internet, I’ve decided to make some teeny tweaks to how “Make It Amusing” is going to work going forward.

SO, here’s how it’s going to work. From now on, I’ll be publishing two beauty stories a week, which will live both here on Substack (under the “Laugh Lines” tab of this newsletter) and on Yahoo. So far, same old same—if you subscribe, you’ll still get all of that right to your inbox (but, as an added bonus, you can find it on Yahoo).

What’s different, though, is that while all of my “Laugh Lines” content will always be totally free, everything else will now only be available to paid subscribers. I know, I know!!!! But there are a few different reasons why I’ve decided to move to a paid model.

As a freelance writer, I’ve always had to prioritize my paid assignments (you know, to afford Luna the lifestyle she deserves), which is why this incredible creative outlet has often taken a backseat. Now that my work with Beautyfor has ramped up, it’s meant that I have even less time to dedicate to something I *really* love, and a paid model will allow me to keep writing the stories that I hope mean as much to you as they do to me.

More importantly, though, a paid model will allow me to create a slightly more curated community—and with that, I’ll be able to get a whole lot more personal with what I share. Plus, I promise if you’re paying me, I’ll never miss a deadline. My anxiety and I absolutely cannot handle that.

For $5 a month, you’ll get access to all the free beauty stories, plus three exclusive stories about pretty much everything else. All the deep dives into mental health, personal essays, and general life updates (kind of like this one—did we like this one?) will be reserved for my ride-or-dies.

I hope you’ll stick around, because I for one am really excited about this next chapter. Slowly, but surely, I’m doing all of the figuring out I promised myself I’d do this year—and I hope you’ll continue to be along for the journey.