Welcome to the braid!
a newsletter that explores the braided experience of mother, lover and self.
personal essays & conversations on sex, death, love, loss, parenthood, paradigms, identity, culture and coming of age. written by rebecca woolf with special guests.
My name is Rebecca Woolf and as well as authoring this newsletter I am also the author of two books including the recently published ALL OF THIS (harper one, 2022) one column (Romper’s Sex and the Single Mom) and many former blogs including the now retired Girl’s Gone Child.
You can find more about me, here.
on exploring the braided experience
I have been told on many occasions to separate my stories and selves. That the mother in me shouldn’t speak of sex. That the lover in me should not prioritize herself. That the overlapping of Rebeccas confuses people. That no one needs to read about that.
But I disagree. I think many people do want to read about that. And that many more of us need to write — to talk — about that. That we need to openly share stories we’ve been shamed into thinking we must keep quiet. (See: the post I have in drafts about locked diaries and WHO they protect exactly.) Our truths are not TMI. Neither are our wants, desires and need to openly express them. Our collective fear of exposure keeps us all from being liabilities. But to whom exactly?
My hope is to grow the braid into something beyond this — to create a community that feels safe for those with stories to share and messy, maybe even “fucked up” (by societal standards) truths to tell — and to highlight the universality of our experiences with grit and love.
why pay for a subscription?
For $7 a month, you will have access to all posts, including those I feel are too personal, controversial or explicit to post publicly. As a professional writer, this work is how I make my living (and support my family) and depending on my ability to monetize this will determine how I can prioritize this over other avenues of income (and pay contributors!) so THANK YOU IN ADVANCE for your financial support.
You can also subscribe for free, of course, as much of the content here will be PG-ish and accessible to all.
Where does the name the braid come from?
the name the braid was inspired by three things:
My book, ALL OF THIS, a book that I separated into three parts with the braid as my formatting reference. “That’s right. This time our stories will be told in braids. Loosely overlapping and free at the ends… down our backs.” - p.199
The triple goddess archetype: maiden, mother and crone — all of whom I feel deeply connected to at this point in my life. see: Artemis (for whom I have devoted an entire forearm to in recent months) and Hecate.
I mostly wore my hair in a braid (sometimes, two) when I was little and it made me feel taken care of, wearing my hair like that. It reminds me of being a daughter. A sister. A friend. Which is how I want this space to feel for you and me and all of us.
From 2005 to 2018 I wrote about my experience as a wife and young mother, both of which I am not anymore. The opposite, really. Which is an exciting place to write from — I have earned perspective as I’ve aged, which, of course, is the privilege of getting older. Living through some shit, as they say, has made me more interesting and hopefully more self-aware.
I grew up on the Internet. On the pages of RSS feeds. I spent the entirety of my parenting tenure online and now, 17 years later, the “child” of Girl’s Gone is months away from becoming a full-fledged adult college-bound man. And my daughters, whose births I documented in detail are now 14, 11 and 11.
And while I seldom write about my children anymore, my experience as their mother is one I plan to explore here in a way I am unable to in Instagram captions because of length requirements and public access. I will also be publishing guest-written essays about parenting, sex, death, dating, being a woman in middle age, etc, etc, all the things we’re not supposed to talk about, etc. We’re gonna get on some NC17 NSFW shit. Truth or dare slumber party French braid circle time LFG.
Which is ultimately why I’m here. To write freely and shamelessly about experiences that complement and contradict each other and to invite contributors to do the same. To dig deeper into the subjects I’ve been exploring for years on websites and podcasts and magazines other than mine. To write about love and loss in all its complexity and to do so, finally, on a website in my name. To tell human stories about holding on and letting go. To explore sexuality, age and female pleasure from the perspective of women in changing bodies. To grieve and celebrate our children’s growing up. To talk openly and realistically about death, desire and complicated grief. To continue where I left off in my book. TO FEEL EVERYTHING. And to share it with you.
Thank you in advance for your support. <3
