Dear friend,

thank you for following me here—on a service that is designed purely for one thing: sending newsletters without algorithmic pressure, verification badges or trending topics pushing your writing to the masses.

When I originally started Things I Thought About, Substack was a dream. It provided a space where I could practice my writing with zero editorial boundaries and empty out my brain in a healthier manner than just dumping my observations on IG story. Soon, they introduced "notes" and the platform took a left turn. Celebrities flocked there too, sucking up most of the available air and forcing small little writers like me to enter a race to virality to grow. Quickly, the writing heaven that the software had been crumbled right in front of my eyes and, in the midst of other projects, I lost the desire to partake in yet another social media treadmill.

My hunger for writing remained, of course. And I channeled it through Nonsense Magazine, writing most of the stories in the first real issue of the publication. It was fun and I am proud of it, but I do still need a space where I can dump less serious ideas and keep my fingers warm in between issues or commissioned work.
Additionally, I would like to eventually be less chronically online and I feel that having a direct access to people's inbox is a more productive and successful way to keep in touch in the case I finally muster up the courage to deactivate my instagram account.

Things I Thought About served me well. It taught me how to have a writing routine and gave me the confidence to believe that there are people out there that want to read my writing, week in week out. But I do feel like it was a stepping stone and I graduated past it. Five years passed since I sent out my first Thought, and lots has changed. I sold my apartment, moved from Milan, started two businesses and four projects (some better than others), I got married and I became a mother. Life got bigger and I am blessed to be where I am at now. I feel hopeful for the future—a sort of positivity I have never felt before giving birth.

With that said, I am happy to intoduce First Draft: a newsletter where I'll provide life and work updates, chat about what's currently on my mind, and occasionally share the first draft of articles that I wrote for third party publications and often get cut down due to limited word counts.

I don't know yet how consistently I will keep this going, but you can expect to hear from me more frequently than before.

If you think my writing/work/life could resonate with others, feel free to invite them to subscribe. I am not sure where I am going yet, but I am just happy you are following along.

Here below some beautiful corners I saw in the past few days. You can expect to receive these sort of post cards from me in the future as well.