Happy Birthday Autostraddle: 10th Birthday Cards and Love Notes from YOU

Wow, okay, it’s March 8, 2019, it’s Autostraddle’s 10th birthday, and as always, our community is the greatest thing that has ever happened to any of us.

A few weeks ago I asked you to send Autostraddle birthday cards in honor of our 10th birthday, and y’all more than showed up. Not only did you send cards and love notes, you also sent us homemade vegan cookies, cash donations, and a fucking handmade seahorse enamel charm?!?!?! You’re the best. You’re the actual best. We love you so, so much, and as we always tell you very honestly: we would not be here without you. Not only does your cash money keep us very literally alive, but your support, your love, your community spirit, and your belief in us keeps our hearts and spirits alive every single day. You’ve been keeping us going for 3,650 days. You’re perfect.

Thank you for these warm birthday wishes. Please know that we are gonna tuck them into our hearts, next to all the kind comments and cute tweets and nice Facebook messages and adorable in person convos y’all have gifted us over the years, and we’re gonna cherish them forever, cause we cherish you, our community, forever.

Here are some cute cards y’all wrote us. You kept saying thank you – and we wanna keep saying thank you – so let’s just keep saying thank you to each other, over and over and over, for forever. Thank you, truly madly deeply. Thank you.


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Vanessa

Vanessa is a writer, a teacher, and the community editor at Autostraddle. Very hot, very fun, very weird. Find her on twitter and instagram.

Vanessa has written 404 articles for us.

44 Comments

  1. Ohhhh WOW !

    All these cards just made me squeal !!

    What a passionate, talented, GAY bunch we are !

    • R I G H T ?!?!?!?!

      every time i checked my mailbox i would shriek, i think my neighbors are Officially Concerned!

    • i know, i actually cried multiple times putting this together. y’all are so special. we are so lucky.

  2. This is GORGEOUS! Thank you everyone for sending these cards in! They have warmed my heart so much!!

    (And thank you Vanessa for assembling them and turning them into something truly special for all of us!)

    • awwwwww carmen you’re welcome i love our readers i love our community i love YOU!!!!

      <3

  3. I love this (enough to log in to my laptop which I hardly ever use, I order to read the cards which I couldn’t read on my phone). I live how fun all the cards are.

    For once instead of Autostraddle making me cry it was Autostraddle readers.

    Also I made the fucking enamel seahorse charm, because who wouldn’t want a seahorse charm?!

    • LAURA THANK YOU FOR THE FUCKING ENAMEL SEAHORSE CHARM, YOU ARE AN ANGEL AND A CRAFTY WIZARD. seriously, we love it. thank you, thank you, thank you for forever.

    • To be real, I did a final post office run on 3/7, because I couldn’t bear the idea that folks who had sent theirs in late but that had still arrived before 3/8 would be left out. Thanks for sending something in!

  4. Whew. Choking up at the library. I love the other readers like me, and god I love the writers and editors and tech people and people who join A+ or otherwise donate to make this glorious place happen.

  5. Ahhhhh!! This is so good!!! I want to be at home all day today so that I can read all this delicious birthday content 🍰🎉💞

  6. Wow these are all great! Anyone want to claim artist-ship of that last one? It’s so creative! It’s my fave <3

  7. I never sent mine/ours because it was gonna get there late but now I really want to send it so I think I will <3

    • Send it in late!! I will definitely share with the team and I’ll try my best to get the late arrivals into this post, too. <3

  8. These are all sooo beautiful!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3
    Hope the snickerdoodles helped sustain you while you put this together, or in preparation for putting all this cuteness together!!

  9. <3 <3 <3

    Happy 10th birthday!! Thank you for the community, book/comic recommendations, and advice. I started reading autostraddle as a closeted college student 8 years ago and you've provided me with so much. I can't express how meaningful this site has been to me. Autostraddle has introduced me to so many of my favorite books, comics, music, tv/movies, given me the tools to talk about sex and sexuality, and introduced me to tarot.

    Thank you <3 I joined A+ and donated today. I want you to be around for a long time. <3

    • Thank you so much for this super sweet note and for joining A+!!! We appreciate you so much! We want to be around for a long time too. <3 <3

    • can u even believe?!?!?!

      ps thank u SARAH for making the perfect header for this article and all the beautiful headers on the site <3

  10. This is amazing. Thank you to all the readers who sent such kind words. I’m genuinely touched.

    Straddlers really are the best people.

    • Natalie I cried putting this together. I love our readers so much and I was also genuinely so touched – Straddlers are the best for forever.

  11. “You’ve been keeping us going for 3,650 days. You’re perfect.”

    You forgot leap years, so we are even more perfect.

    • Oh I didn’t forget them, I’m just bad at math so I intentionally ignored them. But y’all are the most perfect always, that is true!!!

  12. These are all so lovely!! I worried as I was adding sparkly stickers to mine if I was going overboard, but I see now that rainbows and sparkles were a theme and mine fit right in, ha. Happy birthday, Autostraddle!! <3

    • Absolutely not overboard – sparkly stickers always fit right in here. Thank you for the sweet birthday love <3

  13. Mine is still in the mail because I was very late but pls share with the team if you get it! It has cattails on it :)

    • I’ll definitely share with the team! If I can manage it I will also add any late arrivals to this post, because I love y’all a lot and I am so grateful for the DIY love everyone sent our way. It really does boost the ol’ morale, ya know? Thank you. <3

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