An inside look, just for A+ members, from Autostraddle’s editors on the process, struggles, and surprises of working on what you’re reading on the site. We learn so much from this work before it ever even makes it to your eyes; now you can, too!
I spend a lot of time thinking about spaces. Spaces that are mine, spaces that I’ve been kept out of, spaces that define me or restrict me or restrain me. I’m someone that has lived in a lot of different places, who doesn’t feel attached to any particular region, and never knows what to say when people ask where I’m from. Home for me has always been about people, rather than cities or towns, apartments or houses.
Yet every time I move, every time I have to establish a new space for myself, I gravitate towards the same kinds of things, the same sensory experiences, the same textures and colors and layouts. I know what makes me feel at home, makes me feel safe and comfortable, makes me feel like I can cry and scream and laugh and dream in the ways that I need to. And no matter where you live, no matter what kind of space you call your own, I have a feeling that you do, too.
Spaces & Places is about the physical locations that we fill with our hopes and dreams, our longings, our aspirations. We choose objects of comfort and joy, creativity and inspiration, softness and structure — articles that help us feel anchored, pieces that give us pleasure. This isn’t about owning an extravagant home or being able to do massive, expensive renovations; it’s instead about cultivating a sense of belonging, about having a sacred, personal place that lets us be our full and complete selves without reservation or self-consciousness. It’s about giving ourselves permission to be comfortable, safe, protected.
The last few years have been impossibly destabilizing, in so many ways, for so many of us. The pandemic ripped countless anchors away, forced us to hide and disconnect in ways that we will be discovering and processing for years to come. Many people moved to be closer to family or friends, gave up the homes they’d established in order to maintain the most important connections they had. Others hunkered down in beloved cities or homes, refusing to leave, believing that the space they’d created would be enough to sustain the long months of isolation. We all are surviving in the ways that we know how, making space within our spaces to keep growing, changing, adjusting.
When the pandemic started, I didn’t know that I would end up losing my home. Not only an apartment that I loved, but a person that I’d considered home for thirteen years, a person I’d followed around the world, a person I’d given up places for over and over. It was a break that was done with love and care, but it was still a devastating loss, a massive crack in my personal foundation. I gave up so much safety, comfort, protection, with the hopes that the new life that I would build for myself would also include brilliant inspiration, fierce love, endless magic. My new place isn’t fancy, isn’t extravagant — but it is mine, and I am slowly, tenderly making it a home: a place that I can be my fullest, truest self, that can reflect my many facets, that gives me space to dream and explore.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be publishing essays and stories, guides and wishlists, galleries and photographs: all offering glimpses of our most sacred spaces, our most personal places, our most treasured retreats. The ways that we allow ourselves to take up space, to make our homes comfortable and reflective of who we are, are gifts that we give to ourselves. And no matter where you work or play or lay down your head, I hope that in exploring these intimacies, in examining the places we spend our days, we can also learn more about who we are, what we need, and how we thrive.
Welcome to Spaces & Places.
-Meg Jones Wall, Guest Editor
I just finished Kayla’s article and I’m excited to hear it’s a whole series! As someone who moved trans-atlantically multiple times what makes the new place home (or home again) is something that fascinates me
i’m so excited to explore this concept in more depth over the next few weeks, and i hope you love it!
Really looking forward to this series, especially after Kayla’s great first installment. I just moved back to the US after living in Spain for two years, and I’m a bit placeless right now, staying a month or so with my parents while I get job and housing sorted out. I think it will be good for me to think about what I need to make a home here on this side of the Atlantic.
making a home can be a really fun process, but i think it can also be stressful and overwhelming – hoping that this series helps you start to find some foundations 🖤
I love this series already!
i’m so glad! (me too!)
this is so timely! i’m moving in three weeks for grad school and i’m finally to the point where i’m making accessibility one of the biggest must-haves for my space. stairs have been my enemy for like ten years but now i’m actually doing something about it by finding a ground floor apartment!
I swear sometimes I think Autostraddle can read my mind – or at least my internet search history. Because this is EXACTLY what I needed right now. My partner moved in with me at the beginning of the pandemic – at first just as a “two week trial run” (god we were so naive) and then 8 months later as a permanent, legal fixture. And so we’ve spent the majority of the pandemic trying to fit all her stuff into my space, and making it our own space together. It’s included a lot of arguments about colours (she loves pink, I hate it), stuff (she is obsessed with candles, I do not see the point), and beloved possessions (we have copies of the same books – do we keep both?) as well as endless DIY and home improvement projects – we’ve redone the front hall closet, our bedroom closet, and the kitchen, and still have a lot more projects planned! Because we spend so much time in this space (we’ve both been working from home since the beginning of the pandemic) we spend so much time thinking of ways to improve or change it. But also we want to make it as comfortable and workable and beautiful as possible.
I’m so excited for everything in the series, and especially for using all of it to then work on my own space!
I’m so hype for this series! I’m living with my parents post grad school (two years post now cause pandemic oof) but I am constantly dreaming and planning my next apartment so very excited for this series.
Another person here to say how excited I am for this very timely series! Just this weekend I moved into a one-bedroom for the first time. I never thought I’d want to live without roommates or friends or partners, but this year I’m in a place where I can afford it and I realized I wanted to try after all. So I am fully shaping my very own space for the first time, which is exciting and also I have no idea what I’m doing! I also moved to a new city for grad school last summer and am only just now feeling able to get to explore a bit. So there’s a lot of thinking about spaces and places for me in this moment.
I love this idea and didn’t realize how much I desperately needed it. I have felt like a stranger in my own city since I moved here 9 years ago.