1. Kate's Weird Website
This was, I think, a blog I made in my year 9 IT class when we learned to 'make a website' (i.e. use a free online website template -it was called something like freespace).I have a vague memory of a grown-up at some stage in the process (either an IT teacher or my mum, when I worked on it at home during my designated computer hour) being unsure about the name of my website -they were concerned that it was too negative and probably worried that it was a symptom of low self-esteem. This annoyed me at the time, because revelling in being 'weird' was a key part of my personal brand as an Emily Strange-loving, black and red striped sock wearing teen. Also, it was alliterative.
KWW (imagine if my name had been Wendy or Wren? Oh, well!) had red text and borders on a black background and consisted of a blog, a page listing my favourite bands (Green Day, Good Charlotte, Alkaline Trio) and a couple of placeholder pages that would remain perpetually 'under construction' until I figured out what I wanted to use them for (this never happened) or lost my login details (this happened almost immediately).
2. A now-deleted tumblr which I can’t remember the name of
...but you had better believe it was 99% quotes from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
3. The F.U.N.
In my third year of university I had the idea to create an online network linking universities across the UK's Feminist societies, which I still think is a good idea.
As with a lot of my blogs and social media pursuits, it was abandoned shortly after its inception. But here's the background: I did a module about subcultures as part of my degree, and got super-into studying the Riot Grrrl movement, a punk sect of the 3rd wave of feminism in the nineties which gained a lot of momentum and was able to solidify itself as a grassroots movement largely through a network of DIY zines spreading across America.
I envisioned the FUN (Feminist Universities Network, an acronym I could not feel more smug about to this day) as a modern-day (circa 2010) version of that zine network, a way to cultivate links between our sisters across the UK, maybe even encourage us to organise on a nationwide level. Truly, it was student idealism in its purest form.
At the time, the concept had a bit of a scrappy, underdog feel, probably because it was not cool to be a feminist when I was doing my undergrad. I cannot stress this enough: everyone hated us. A female student made a Facebook group titled 'We don't want feminism at [our university]' (later they added 'or masculinism', for balance) which was full of willfully ignorant, mock-outraged posts including my favourite: 'The choice to be objectified -is it not our right?' It was very funny, but it was also a difficult time because we were constantly having to do the hard sell to our peers on women's basic human rights, while they said things like "but do you guys hate men?" and "I'm actually more of a humanist?" and then, when we tried to politely suggest they look up the actual definition of 'humanist', they would pretend they were getting a phone call and leave.
Is it easier to be a feminist now as a young person? Probably not! We're in a misogyny epidemic, and every time you meet an elder feminist you have to make sure they're not a terf! Sorry, young people.
4. Second Hand News
Second Hand News is a zine I made in my early twenties, when I was still very much a passenger on the Riot Grrrl train. It's still online if you want to read it! It's very content-light, but I am happy with the collage I made out of old train tickets; there is also a cute spread about girls'/women's glossy magazines. I made two issues before making peace with the reality that only around two people would ever read it. I really didn't need to make as many copies as I did.
5. Art Saves!
Named after a reoccurring slogan in The Plain Janes, an incredibly charming graphic novel trilogy by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg about a teen girl guerilla art collective (please read it; it's lovely) this was my arts and crafts blog which I wrote for a year when I was 19/20 and, apparently, never not crafting. I made greetings cards, the aforementioned zines, upcycled tote bags and brooches and, according to the final entry, designed a logo for my university town's ukulele society. This was actually a very cool and normal part of late noughties culture.
6. Name that Tune
A music blog I wrote in which I reviewed my sister and friends' sets at open mics, not even gigs, just open mic sets.
This enabled me to write album reviews for various music websites, for no money.
6.5 The various music websites I wrote for, for no money
I wanted to be a music journalist for a bit, but writing about music somehow never felt as fun as listening to it, making it, talking about it, or indeed, reading about it in pieces by music journalists who were actually good at their jobs.
7. Kate Beyond
A blog from 2019 which I have no memory of making. It has two posts.
8. This blog
As mentioned in the title of this post, this is the one blog I haven't yet abandoned, but only because I have just started writing it.
My hope for this blog is that the 8 Thing rule will give my posts more of a sense of structure, no matter how rambling and/or self-indulgent the themes covered. Also, not all of the posts will necessarily be about myself, so don't worry about that. That's right; I do openly self-deprecating humour now, because I am an adult.
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