Welcome to Pop Warrior

First of all, thank you so much for having enough faith in my writing and internet curation skills to sign up before I even had a first issue to show you. You’re my day one-ers, and I’ll forever be grateful for you.

For those of you new to the Sarah Halle Corey program, let me give you a little background:

• I’m a writer, filmmaker, and digital content creator.
• I work full-time for an entertainment startup called CharacTour.
• I also contribute regularly to Helloflo, and my writing as been featured on Bustle, Femsplain, and Bitch Flicks.
• I was born in Manhattan, grew up on Long Island, actually grew up in Middletown, CT at Wesleyan University, and now live in Chicago.
• I love elephants, eating take-out while binge-watching TV, yoga, and collecting way more books than I have time to read.

But, more importantly, let me tell you what’s brought me to creating Pop Warrior…

Last year at this time, I had just graduated from Wesleyan. I bemoaned the fact that I had lost the comfort of my college bubble, a place where I felt the opportunity for connection around every corner. A month out, I was still struggling with how to live my life off the path of semesters and syllabi. But I also knew that I was growing, and I could only do so by leaning into the discomfort and change.

I wanted the chance to explore my creative options: to experiment with different styles of writing, to try out new lenses on my camera and on myself. Suddenly, an opportunity arose that offered me that freedom. While I was freelancing at CharacTour over the summer, I was offered a job helping to build the company as their first full-time hire. It was different and challenging and scary and exhilarating — and I took it. It’s given me the chance to explore new professional ventures and to explore a new city (more on Chicago in another issue!). As cheesy as it sounds, it’s given me the chance to explore myself.

I’ve now been at CharacTour for seven months, and making the leap to come here has been the best decision of my life. I think of this time working at a new job in a new city on my own as my own version of going off to live in the woods and learn about myself for a little while — except these woods have Starbucks and an internet connection.

That internet connection is actually key to what I’ve learned. I’ve fallen in love with the possibilities that the internet offers. By immersing myself in digital media, I’ve discovered ways of storytelling and communities that I never would have otherwise: groups like Femsplain and Out of the Binders. Every day I am entertained by countless podcasts, I interact with new YouTube subscribers, I learn about new perspectives in blogs. My Twitter timeline runneth over.

Recently, I wrote a very brief history of zines. I wrote, “There’s something inspiring about the grassroots simplicity of zine-making: it’s people having ideas, making things out of those ideas, and sharing with others.” The same can be said of this digital age, a sort of direct descendant of small-press publication. I make stuff, and I’m here to share that stuff and all the other cool stuff out there.

As I create and connect, I am always drawn to three things: feminism, feelings, and pop culture. This is the stuff that fuels me, that sparks something in me… the stuff that I think has the power to change the world. I’m a pop warrior, and I’m so excited for you to join me.

This originally appeared in Pop Warrior, Issue No. 1 on May 26, 2016.

Pop Warrior is Sarah Halle Corey’s bi-weekly email newsletter about feminism, feelings, pop culture, and everything in between. Subscribe here!