Letters From Your Former and Current Editors
From Riese
I’d been telling my team that Heather Hogan was going to join us any minute now since she’d told me, in 2010, that she wanted to. We’d been emailing since she’d first reached out to me in 2009 to talk about my recaps, a few weeks before I’d transform my personal L Word blog into the Autostraddle that exists today — mostly just compliments, volleyed back and forth, some L Word gossip, but also a lot of yearning for the day she’d join Autostraddle. Like… a lot of yearning. I also, apparently, wrote her around ten emails I never sent — ideas I had for stories we could write together, a 2012 draft entitled “idea i had at 1am” and the idea is essentially Clexacon, requests for quotes for stories, thoughts I had about pieces she’d written. Sometimes we even talked out loud on the phone. But mostly, we yearned and yearned and yearned to work together until that beautiful day in October of 2014 when her employer was sold to another company and she was free, finally, to be here with us and with you full-time, right away. She came armed with pitches and fit right in, right away.
In many ways, Heather’s arrival was the merging of two personality cults, and when her fans followed her to Autostraddle and I said offhand that I loved her fans’ dedication to her, she told me, “I think people just want to feel loved and understood and if you can give them even a little bit of that, they will stand by your side forever.”
That’s what she does, you know? Heather knows, she knows, how to connect with people through stories and writing, she knows how to make you feel seen, noticed, buoyed, valued, special, important, remarkable. As a hype woman, nobody compares to Heather — and it always felt like it meant more, coming from her, to get a compliment about your leadership from such a strong leader. When you come to Heather with a problem she already has a solution because she noticed the problem before you did, knows the dynamics and often has already processed it with her therapist. She just wants to help, you know? She always wants to help.
Her supernatural skills of perception aren’t just about real humans, though, she applies those skills to fictional characters too, and about politicians and about athletes and celebrities and authors, and so she writes about all of them with the same knowledge and enthusiasm that she brings to her friendships and working relationships.
When Heather got here in 2014 she was this uniquely kindred spirit. She shared my encyclopedic knowledge of queer film and tv and was willing to jump in on politics or celebrity coverage at a moment’s notice. She, too, thought it was fun to stay up all night writing a highly specific movie list. We had very different personalities and writing styles — but similar values, mutual respect, and a drive to always be learning more, doing more, writing more. If I had my finger on the pulse of the queer community, back then, Heather was holding its heart in her hands.
Heather transformed Autostraddle. She was earnest, effusive, supportive, humble, eager, as excited to put someone else’s ideas into action as she was to propose her own. She boldly suggested that, after years of simply allowing a plug-in to automatically feed our content to Facebook and Twitter, that we consider the revolutionary act of an intentional social media strategy, which she led. She’d eventually build and cultivate an incredible TV/Film team of recruits and applicants that became the very core of this website. She was there in the weeds with us through some of our darkest days, personally and professionally, reminding me of what matters, always believing that our better angels would prevail. I’ve learned so much from Heather as a person and from her writing.
So, I don’t know how to summarize or properly pay tribute to nine years of Heather — the nautical miles of Slack chats that were only sometimes about work, the walls of my then-house in Michigan we painted together, the way I wouldn’t have survived the worst relationship and breakup of my life without her. Scheming the best ways to organize the workplace and the TV awards, her knack for building strong enduring relationships with writers and campers, her willingness to share her skills and knowledge and advice, her keen eye on how best to honor everybody’s talents and navigate our own mental and physical health struggles and how to make sure our readers felt seen above all. Her brain never stops buzzing. There is nobody else out there like Heather, nobody even remotely similar to who Heather is and has become.
Whether Heather was writing about Fox News or Brittany and Santana’s wedding or a soccer player coming out or her relationship with Stacy or her childhood— it was all right there, open-hearted and accessible and vulnerable. She was born to do this work — the work that lies at Autostraddle’s specific root, of using digital media as a platform for connection and community-building, of building an audience around your specific voice and then serving it. She did it at Aft*rEll*n, she did it here, and now she’s doing it on her substack. We were blessed, I know, to have her doing it here for so long.
When Heather told the internal team on Slack that she’d be departing at the end of the month, she relayed a story about a time when she’d begun setting healthy boundaries around her time and consequently began worrying that for the first time in her life she was taking more than she was giving. And I’d told her what anyone would, what anyone could from surveying the evidence: that she could never take more than she’s given to this community. That it didn’t matter what it took or what it cost, the team would always be behind her every step of the way.
I don’t say this to pat ourselves on the back but simply because that is the truest thing about Heather Hogan in the end, about this very weird Marty McFly soft butch lesbian from Flowery Branch Georgia who really loves nachos, cartoons, Dolly Parton, rescuing cats, talking to strangers and video games: she could never take more than she has given to this community. To me, to the world, to all of you.
I love her so much, and I always, always will.
Love,
Riese
From Carmen
I’ve spent a lot of time — so much time! — thinking about how to start this letter. It’s because I’m lucky. Lucky I’ve been able to get to know Heather in so many ways over the last six years.
There is Heather, my editor. She first found me in the literal comment section of Boobs On Your Tube and believed I had something to say when I was lost to the depths of the worst depression of my life and had stopped believing in myself. She asked me if I’d be interested in ever writing for Autostraddle, with no writing samples available to prove I could, and when I filed my first recap — for Orange Is the New Black, if you can remember that long ago — she emailed me to say I had a talent the likes of which she hadn’t seen, and would I please keep write on writing. I screamed and showed the email to my mom, actually.
There is Heather, my mentor and coworker. When I was not even a Senior Editor yet, when I was still in a junior position (we called it “Associate Editor” back then), she told me she believed one day I would be Editor-in-Chief. She answered every question I asked, my unquenchable thirst to understand how everything in the machine of Autostraddle ran. She taught me social media strategy, she taught me how to headline, she taught me traffic numbers and listened to my thoughts on the racial disparity in how numbers don’t tell an entire story of a piece’s success. She taught me how to use my voice, shifting it from heartfelt serious reporting and personal essays to light, gossipy vapid fluff. She taught me how to be public online while still keeping myself, for myself.
Then, as the luckiest gift of all, there is Heather Anne Hogan, my friend. The Heather that taught me basketball stats and shares a love for sneaker exclusives. The one who teases me about my celebrity crushes and created our own emoji language. Who sends me presents across state lines just because she knows I’m going through a tough time and never forgets to say that my Aunt Lorna would be proud of me (I can only hope it’s true!). This is the Heather who reads all of my most personal writing before anyone else, who taught me how to parent myself when my complicated relationship with my very Christian father became too much to bear. She has been my comfort through tears, a heartbeat to match my own.
The fact that Heather Hogan is my friend, it’s shimmery — a dream. And that’s the Heather that I actually want to talk about right now. Before Heather was my editor, my coworker, my mentor, my friend…. She was a stranger whose words I read on the internet. A person whose writing found its way into my heart and made me feel, even for a second, like I wasn’t walking in this world alone. She was a recap writer on a website (AfterEllen, I’ve been wrapped around her work for long before she made it to Autostraddle) whose words I would quote like she was a Pulitzer Prize winner.
“I tell everyone when I get to Hogwarts it will be Hufflepuff, but my secret hope is Gryffindor. I tell everyone it’s my empathy that will sort me, but my secret hope is valor. Not because I think I’m brave, but because the deepest, most desperate hope of my heart is that courage, like magic, is hiding somewhere inside of me.”
And also, about Glee:
“I think people are always their most true selves right when they wake up in the morning, before they have a chance to hoist up their defenses and soak in their insecurities and put on the many masks it takes to survive just a single day out in the mean world. And I think the best love is the kind where you can be your wake-up self around another person almost always. I don’t even think Santana knew her wake-up self before Brittany. Santana is all words, words, words, but Brittany never responds to that. She asks the questions and gives the answers to the things Santana is breathing between the noise. She says, ‘Yes, yes, you’re a panther’ while stroking her terrified kitten fur. And Santana does the same for Brittany, but in the opposite way. She says, ‘You’re a sweet puppy, you’re my sweet puppy’ while helping her grow into a majestic dire wolf.”
Harry Potter (yes, I know). Glee. Pretty Little Liars. Heather wrote about media in a way that will be definitive of queer culture for more than a decade; it will be undivorceable from how we think about the stories that shaped us, because Heather was the connective tissue bridging the gaps of giving those very same stories their meanings. For Heather, writing about television, about books, movies, video games… it’s writing about love. About friendship and family and loss. Heather writes about the sticky marrow of what makes us human and in that humanity, she kept me warm. I would lay on my stomach in the bed of my Brooklyn apartment, yellow walls surrounding me and traffic outside my window, and I’d read every word she wrote like it was a homecoming. Because it was.
And looking back on it now, I wonder, did I imagine it? Did I imagine that this stranger on the internet who wrote these words into my heart, could maybe one day be my friend?
Every month, the senior editors in charge of the TV Team (a team Heather created) meet to discuss and assign our monthly coverage schedule. In our most recent meeting, Heather reflected on her time here. She said she never had much interest in having kids. But that when she started at Autostraddle, “one of my most important top three goals was to pull other people up and then shove them above my head and up up up the ladder… I never wanted kids, but I always wanted to mentor queer women. Thank you for giving that to me.”
I’ve never been prouder to be a part of her legacy.
I love you Heather,
Carmen
Tumblr Changed Gay Lives
As you’ve probably already read, Drew Gregory will be our new Senior Editor. A fun fact is that it was actually Heather who first brought Drew to us, after Drew pitched her with some Tumblr writing.
Some Important Heather Hogan Conversations, 2014 – 2023
Rachel: what are our thoughts on cropping our dads out of photos where our moms look cool
asking for a friend
Heather: into it
i’d for sure do the opposite for my dad
Rachel: okay, that was validating, thank you
Heather: i found a photo of myself today with a goat i rescued as a child
Riese: of course you did
Heather: i didn’t even remember it
Riese: well you’ve rescued a lot of animals!
Rachel: i imagine they start to blur together, yeah
Heather: but then i was like “oh yeah that goat!”
Heather: 17 TV Lesbians No One Should Have Dated
1. Emily Fields
her wake of destruction was worse than shane.
at least shane’s girlfriends didn’t all DIE
Valerie: “But did you DIE?!”
Heather: if i’m being real with myself
2. carol
HOWEVER
it worked out
3. bette porter(sorry my beloved bette, who turned a generation gay)
4. marissa cooper
wait i am redoing my #1 and it’s piper chapman
Valerie: Oooof yes
Heather: there are worse things than dying
Heather: I know I wouldn’t make it past the first three minutes of the Hunger Games
if Trump gets elected I am so doomed
Rachel: Probably he won’t be! it’s still so far out!
Anything could still happen!
We could be hit by a meteor!
or just Donald Trump could be hit by a very small, very specific meteor
Heather: Definitely preferable I mean, either of those things
“very specific meteor” !
Laneia: We would name it “Hero” and throw a wild monthly parade in its honor
Heather: I’ve always wanted a reason to throw a wild monthly parade!
Heather: Oh my friends, I know you were worried you would never get to go to the apple store, in Midtown Manhattan, in the rain, in the throes of agonizing period cramps, for an unfixable hard drive problem that was caused by you updating your operating system, like Apple kept yelling at you to do, and unleash your misandrist fury in that place. But I have done it for you, for all of us. Sleep easy. rest well. My fire will burn there for a thousand years.
Riese: Bless it
And bless us, everyone
Laneia: i’m so glad your misandry had a chance to shine through before noon on a tuesday!
Laneia: how much do you think we should pay for a history piece on lesbian and bisexual nuns of the middle ages
Heather: one million dollars
Laneia: see that’s how i feel it’s throwing me entirely off
Heather: welp, i think that settles it
riese will understand i can’t judge this. i want to read it too badly.
i can’t judge how much it’s worth, i mean
Laneia: i know! i can’t even objectively guess how it would do stats-wise bc i’m so obsessed with it and can’t imagine anyone NOT wanting to read it seven times
Heather: same, yes
i think this is what they call an “echo chamber”
Heather: i’m running out to get my hairs cut ’cause i’m gonna be the local news about long covid tomorrow morning. i’ve only ever been on the local news once, in sixth grade. i sang the star spangled banner and won a ten dollar gift card to hardee’s on WDUN, North Georgia’s Newstalk. i gotta have better hairs this time.
[…]
Carmen: that was a delight tucked into a “Time Away Notice” that I did not see coming
Heather: Riese how’s the feedback about camp on the surveys?
Riese: Well Heather you’ll be surprised to hear that everybody is in love with you
Heather: You say “in love” but what I think you mean is “drunk on Bitches Brew, literally”
Heather: oh my god i have to go lie down in the street, you will not BELIEVE the way rachel weisz just talked to me about lesbian sex
Laneia: !TRY ME THOUGH
Sarah: OMG
my heart jumped
Heather: All the wetness, the spitting in the mouth, the pubic hair, the vaginas, but also leaving some of it to the audience to imagine. Where is the other woman’s mouth, where are her fingers? There’s something very spiritual about their sex.
Laneia: oh my god
WHAT DID YOU THINK
Heather: that’s just one quote, she talked about it for like three minutes
I KNOW
Laneia: i would need water and a MINUTE
Heather: whew lordy
Laneia: jesus heather
Heather: it’s a great interview.
she gave me great stuff and she was really wonderful.
people will like it.
Laneia: it’s so early in the day for this
Heather: i know!
Laneia: i thought i’d had a great morning by finding a way to save $76 a month but wow no
Heather: holy cats $76!
Riese: Remember when Cher was like so famous
like she was one of the most famous people in the world I felt as a child
Heather: Twitter ruins us all in the end
or if you’re a racist billionaire, it makes you president of america
Heather: good morning, just want to give a suuuper quick call out to dr. carmen phillips, who named her feature image about lena waithe and alana mayo’s wedding “lena-broke-my-heart.jpg” thinking probably that no one would ever notice, but i did because i had to save it to my laptop to tweet it.
Carmen: HAHAHAHHAHA
No Regrets

Riese does not recall the context of this photograph they found on their computer but we can all agree that it is perfect.
Heather’s Top 10 Most Popular Posts of All Time
These posts were hella popular between 2014 and 2023
1. This Is How Fox News Brainwashes Its Viewers: Our In-Depth Investigation of the Propaganda Cycle (September 2015)
2. You Need Help: You Fat-Shamed Your Beautiful Girlfriend (January 2023)
3. The 15 Best Lesbian and Bisexual Movies of 2018 (December 2018)
4. The Soft Butch That Couldn’t (Or: I Got COVID-19 in March 2020 and Never Got Better) (August 2020)
5. Quiz: Which Barbie Are You? (June 2023)
6. 10 Sexiest Lesbian TV Scenes That Got Everybody Wet (Because Pools) (February 2016)
7. Fan Fiction Friday: My 10 All-Time Favorite Femslash Stories (January 2015)
8. Fan Fiction Friday: 25 Swan Queen Stories to Make You Wish Upon a Star (May 2015)
9. All 29 Lesbian and Bisexual TV Characters Who Got Happy Endings (March 2016)
10. The “Carol” Oscars Snub: The Problem Isn’t Lesbians, It’s Misandry (January 2016)

This graphic, which used a photo of Heather standing in Riese’s former front yard in rural Michigan with a basketball in 2016, was created for Y’all need Help: Being a Virgin Doesn’t Make You Straight”
Sometimes I worry my life is never going to get better than those five days Cate Blanchett was a lesbian
and I spent all that time thinking she’d made out with Gillian Anderson
– Heather Hogan, January 12, 2016
Retro-Reading: Our Favorite Heather Hogan Pieces

Heather’s Chart “Ways I’m Like a Jane Austen Character”
Aunt Opal and the California Cabbage Fund
“I think people often use the phrase “it’ll make you laugh and cry” about great personal writing that digs deep into the writer’s heart, but I cannot think of truer words to describe some of Heather’s best essay work. It really will make you laugh and make you cry. This essay does just that, and you can feel Heather writing from the heart and from a firm sense of place.” – Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
Schecter 3:16 (Or How Jenny Schecter Saved My Life)
“I’ve always been a Jenny lover, but Heather, HEATHER in this articulated so perfectly and with such epic vulnerability why that was. Heather is such an incredible writer, and just like Jenny saved her, I know her writing has helped countless people, myself included.” – Nico Hall
Gentleman Jack’s Finale Was One of the Finest Hours in Lesbian Cinematic History
“I’m about to say something sacrilegious in a Heather Hogan tribute post: I was not a big fan of Gentleman Jack. But really good criticism does not require your reader to agree with your tastes. I love this essay because it reveals parts of Heather I’d never known and parts of this show she loves that I hadn’t observed. It allowed me to see this work of art through her eyes and appreciate it anew.” – Drew Gregory
You Need Help: What Should You Do With Your One Wild and Precious Life?
“This piece came from Heather and right into my heart, at a time when I needed it most. I still remember the coffee house I was sitting at when I read it, and the ways that I sobbed — in public! in broad daylight! — before I could stop myself. It was a freight train, a calm and loving hand to all of my quietest, closest kept, secrets. Worries that I’d be single forever, that I’d never conquer my depression (I still haven’t, by the way), that I’d never be able to rebuild a life for myself after burning down the one that came before. We weren’t really friends yet, in 2017, and so I couldn’t tell her at the time. But this essay? It’s one that saved me. It’s the one I still quote to myself. It’s been the light in my dark. And I am so, so grateful.” – Carmen Phillips
50 Halloween Candies Ranked In Order of Deliciousness.
“You will undoubtedly stumble upon at least 600 Best Halloween Candy lists in your lifetime, but the only one the world ever actually needed was the one Heather published nine years ago on this very website. It is 100% accurate, not a single note can be given, no argument can be made. It is unimpeachable until the heat death of the universe.” – Laneia Jones
I Wish “Wonder Woman 1984” Had Been About Wonder Woman
“Okay there are so many personal essays (Gay Grinch!) and humor pieces (Kim Davis Eye of the Tiger! Lesbian Dinosaur Movie! Applebees!) I considered sharing here but I think you have those bookmarked already so instead I landed on this one because my god isn’t it beautiful when someone sees the same thing you saw and you hated it so much and they articulate exactly why you hated it but so much better??? I love that. I read this review several times and shared it with everybody I knew. Every line is perfect, and an example of how Heather applies her intense, detailed knowledge of a specific pop cultural figure into absolutely eviscerating those who fail to do it justice.” – Riese Bernard
The Holy Day Upon Which Holland Taylor Came Out

Heather presenting evidence in Slack
Heather: oh hey holland taylor came out?
Riese: WHAT
WHAT
WHAT
WHAT
OMG
WHAT
OK WRITING THIS NOW
Rachel: what if you publish a timeline of your feelings about this news Riese
Riese: i think the timeline would go from WHAT to WHAT to WHATTTT
Heather: it’s a good timeline
Rachel: agree
maybe some “???”s in there
Riese: maybe this is how she ended up in D.E.B.S
[…. some time later…]
Riese: wow she says most of her relationships have been with women!
could her girlfriend be sarah paulson?
Heather: stacy got into a brawl with this guy who came to our house for thanksgiving who spent like 45 minutes trying to convince her sarah paulson dated the owner of the dallas cowboys and by the time i finally realized what they were fighting about i was like, “no, no, no. cherry jones, dude. CHERRY jones, not JERRY jones.”
i cannot leave stacy unsupervised with gay men.
Rachel: i think if we all had a buddy system for spending time with gay men the world would be a better place
Heather: i agree completely
Riese: she spends a LOT of time with sarah paulson
Heather: sarah paulson just did that interview with the daily beast where she said love’s a bitch, except for when it’s not.
maybe holland is her “when it’s not.”
Riese: sarah paulson likes older women!
soooo
Heather: it’s probably cate blanchett
just to bring the year full circle
Riese: if holland talyor and sarah paulson dated i would die happy
but i wouldn’t!
i would want to live
i wouldn’t even die happy
i would live happy
Heather: what a great sentiment! “if [whatever thing], i would live happy!”
if holland taylor shows up on whatever ryan murphy thing playing the new sue sylvester, we’ll know
WE’LL KNOW
and weep
me, personally, i will weep
Rachel: at least one person is tweeting at [person] that they think it’s sarah paulson
Riese: wait someone just tweeted that sarah paulson isn’t in “ripcord” with holland taylor
then… why is holland taylor hanging out with her so much
THE PLOT THICKENS, THEY MUST BE GIRLFRIENDS
oh this is so exciting
i hope they are girlfriends and are going to get married
Heather: i hope so too. i hope they do an interview together. i hope samira wiley and elliot page are the best women at their wedding.
i hope brittani officiates
Riese: i hope so too
Heather: i hope they get married at camp
Riese: i mean they have been hanging out A LOT
for people who are not in a play together
have they been in anything together?
Heather: yeah how do they even know each other
[a bit of time later….]
Heather: oooohhhhh shit. look at this photo at the carol premiere
Riese: OH DAMN
Laneia: ohhhhhh SHIT
Riese: OH SHIT
Laneia: ya’ll
lskdfflskdfjlds
that’s it
all the proof i need
waiting for the ring
Heather: yeah it’s official
Riese: omg they are so together
Laneia: can we publish a blind item about these two
these two wacky kids
Heather: okay back to work!
Riese: i think what we just did is work
Heather: i honestly don’t think olivia benson could have solved it that fast
Nicolodeon
This is a doodle from Nico’s notebook, Heather Hogan Edition :) They hope it brightens your day!
PRETTY LITTLE HEATHERS
by Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
For her tribute to Heather, Kayla generously asked if she could write some Pretty Little Liars fanfiction. Enjoy!
INT. – ROSEWOOD HIGH SCHOOL
SPENCER, HANNA, ARIA, EMILY, and ALISON? (is she alive? I never finished the series) stand in their former high school hallways on the first day of school. They are teachers here now. I’m not sure if this show ever actually did this plotline, because again, I never finished it. Anyway, Spencer teaches girl math, Hanna is a counselor, Emily teaches being gay, and Aria teaches feather hairstyling. Alison may just be a specter haunting the hallway.
SPENCER
Can you believe we’re back here?
ARIA
Can you believe my personality used to be defined by the writers’ misguided insistence on making me date a teacher here?
HANNA
Writers? What are you talking about?
ARIA
Never mi–
EMILY
Who all’s gay here? Because I am. I’m gay.
SPENCER
I hope we do not receive any weird and cryptic text messages.
All of the Liars’ phones ding right after she says this. They look at each other, confused.
ARIA
Wait–
SPENCER
I swear to god if this is fucking A…
EMILY
Did you say gay? I’m gay.
Even though they have all just received the same text message, they crowd around Spencer to read it off of her phone in unison.
THE LIARS (reading off phone)
It may be your first day, but it’s my last day, and I’m going to make you pay. – H
HANNA
Okay, the writing is a little much.
SPENCER
H? H! Hanna, did you send this?
HANNA
No! I swear!
The phones ding again.
THE LIARS (reading off phone)
Whoops, my bad, I meant to sign that HH. Anyhoodle, YOU WILL PAY FOR THE WAYS YOU’VE MADE ME SUFFER.
SPENCER
Who the hell is HH?
EMILY
Wait…it sounds familiar…
ARIA
Yes, wait, it’s ringing a bell…I think…I think this is someone who hates Ezra…like a lot. Like wishes Ezra would step on legos every day for the rest of his life.
SPENCER
What the hell are any of you talking about?
EMILY
I don’t know who HH is but…she sounds gay. Like me. I’m gay.
Just then, someone appears in the hallway. It’s HH — aka Heather Hogan — Rosewood High’s new head of the English Department whose first accomplishment in this position was to publicly disgrace Ezra Fitz in a strongly worded pamphlet distributed to all townspeople. Heather Hogan radiates confident butch energy, is wearing the heck out of a pair of fresh sneakers, and inexplicably has a cadre of cats circling her. She is a force to be reckoned with. Ezra Fitz would wither in her presence.
SPENCER
Who are you?
HEATHER
I’m HH, and I’m leaving!!!!!
HANNA
Wait…but you just got here?
HEATHER
You silly little Liars don’t know how much I’ve given you through the years. Countless recaps, tweets, memes, and jokes. It was all for you.
SPENCER
Literally what are you talking about?
EMILY
Are you gay?
HEATHER
Yes, I am.
EMILY
Knew it.
HEATHER
And now, Liars, I must bid you farewell. FOREVERRRRR.
EMILY
Forever?
ALISON OR ALISON’S GHOST
Nothing is forever.
HEATHER
Okay, yeah, no, probably not forever, I’ll probably write something about you on my Substack for the show’s 20th anniversary in seven years.
SPENCER
WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?
HEATHER
Much like the dialogue in your show…it doesn’t need to make sense.
EMILY
I’m gay.
HEATHER
GOODBYE LIARS! It’s been…well I wouldn’t even know how to describe this journey. But it sure has been that…a journey
THE LIARS
Bye??????
Heather vanishes in a cloud of orange smoke.
Heather Hogan Has Always Been Herself
In 2014, Riese & Heather were e-mailing back and forth about her joining the team, and Heather was answering some of Riese’s questions about specific beats that she’d be down to cover.
Holy cats, y’all. It’s a good thing I ordered and entire extra box of Sumatriptan because I was anticipating a crying migraine. I’m going to need every one of them. Thank you all for loving me and letting me be me more than I ever had been before. I love y’all so much, for always.
❤️❤️❤️
I know this is really, truly not the point! And we have a thousand more serious, teary, heartfelt thank yous and gratitudes to offer. But I hope — hope! — Heather won’t mind me leaving this one joke as a comment:
“could her girlfriend be sarah paulson?”
It has positively left me on the floor. Oh to have been a fly on the walls of Autostraddle that day!
“watch it with your pants, but watch it with your spirit too!” How can every single thing Heather writes be this good??
I had the same thought about this one line from the email exchange! thanks Autostraddle team for sharing these glimpses into Heather’s work with all of you. Now excuse me but I have 17 new tabs open to read after reading this tribute…
Bitches Brew is the reason I started working in craft beer. Thank you for being you Heather.
This is all so lovely and perfect but also, Kayla’s fanfic has me ROLLING. “Even though they have all just received the same text message, they crowd around Spencer to read it off of her phone in unison.”
Standing ovation for you, Heather.
Thank you so much for everything. From the bottom of my heart.
Stunt Double forever