Is Anyone Going to Get Rich Off of Email Newsletters?
Venture capital has finally come for the least sexy communication style
By Kaitlyn Tiffany
It’s unclear to me whether anyone has ever fallen in love over email, but it’s true that the only friendship I’ve ever succeeded in initiating via the internet started in my inbox.
Peppermint oil, face spackle, Glossier girls, the physical indignities of “William DeBlasio’s New York” — these were the subjects of Claire Carusillo’s email newsletter, “My Second or Third Skin,” later renamed “That Wet Look.” It was half “off-label” product advice, half an absurdist performance of the type of consumerism practiced by upwardly mobile Manhattan white ladies.
The TinyLetter had a recurring yogurt-review segment done solely in GIFs and called, for reasons I don’t think were ever explained, “Bear Bear’s Big Skyr Country.” Carusillo would share sincere-ish thoughts on whether or not to shell out $20 for some buzzy new lip gloss and then give herself a facial with pimento cheese; the emails had subject lines like “vaseline my teeth up,” “Water made exciting,” and “an amazing story please click i’m laughing to myself so much.” It was deeply weird, and obviously meant for a niche audience.
