As of this upcoming Monday, we will have been alive and in the world for SIX ENTIRE YEARS! At this point, we’re super-good at reading and writing, and really brushing up on our arithmetic skills. We’ll be doing cool stuff all over the site on Monday, and we’d like to talk about one of them right this minute!
The #1 thing we want for our birthday is for you to join A+. So, we’ve put together a wildly ambitious Online Event, our first ever! It’s an Advice-A-Thon / Ask Us Anything Birthday Party, and we’re about to tell you ALL about it, but first we want you to know that we’ll be giving away SIX year-long Bronze A+ Memberships and SIX year-long Silver A+ Memberships on Monday morning, plus another year-long Bronze A+ Membership for every six new A+ sign-ups we get all Monday long!Â
If you want to be entered in the drawing to win a Bronze A+ Membership, just comment on this post and tell us the best advice you’ve ever received.Â
Check in with the announcement post on Monday morning to see who the winners are, and stay with it all day as more winners are announced!
If you’d like to toss another A+ Membership in the ring for a lucky reader, just buy a gift membership at the Autostraddle store and forward riese [at] autostraddle [dot] com your confirmation e-mail saying you’d like to gift it to a deserving ‘Straddler. The Monday post will be updated constantly with a count of how many A+ Members we have and how many memberships we’ve given away and will give away.
A+ Member Count As Of 10AM March 9th: 1,094
A+ Memberships To Give Away: 6 Bronze, 6Â Silver
A+ Memberships Donated By Autostraddle Readers To Give Away: 2 Silver, 2 Bronze
A+ Birthday Party Details
Where: On the Internet! We’ll post a link here and on our Announcement Post as soon as the A+ post has gone live.
When: The Birthday Advice-a-Thon begins at 10 AM EST / 7 AM PST and goes until 2 AM EST / 11 PM PST.
What: You’ll ask questions in the comments and we’ll answer ’em. You can ask a specific question to a specific person or just throw your needs out there in general and see who swoops in to solve your problems and quell your fears! We’ve highlighted all our special guests below, and there’ll be a full schedule up on the Announcement Post and the A+ AMA post on Monday.
Why: Well, this was actually your idea! We had lots of A+ members suggest they’d love an AMA-style Advice-a-thon with us, and when A+ launched, it was suggested that we invest in live events like this to really make A+ special.  So that’s exactly what we’re doing!
Who:Â All A+ Members. You can be an A+ member for as little as $5 a month, so hop on it!
All-Day Ask-Us-Anything / Advice-a-Thon Advice-Givers
Aja, Femme Fashion Icon
2 PM – 5 PM PST /Â 5 PM – 8 PM EST
Expertise:Â Style, beauty, parenting, relationships, boundaries
Ali Osworth, Geekery Editor, Autostraddle.com
8 AM – 10 AM PST / 11AM – 1PM EST
Expertise: Relationships, sex, technology and existing in an MFA program. Oh, and liquor!
Ana Bel (aka “La Loba Loca“), Community organizer, Artist, Researcher, Writer, Body-powered tattooist, Midwife student and Eco-feminista
3 PM – 5 PM PST / 6 PM – 8 PM EST
Expertise:Â Decolonial food, reclaiming abuelita knowledge,’cultural’ Spanish, reproductive justice, abortion support and companionship, re-wording body parts and situations to better support people through reproductive lives, conscious mooning, healthy and delicious food and drinks, herbs and their uses, eco-feminism, how to survive academic institutions as a Queer Brown person, how to not be a complete privileged asshole
Beth Maiden, Tarot Columnist, Autostraddle.com
11 AM – 2 PM PST / 2 PM – 5 PM EST
Expertise:Â Tarot, living in a tiny space, starting/running a just-you business
Brittani Nichols, Comedy Editor & Dear Sour, Autostraddle.com
9Â PM – 11 PM PST / 12Â AM – 2 AM EST
Expertise:Â Writing, Comedy, Relationships and “Being Perpetually Sad.”
Carolyn Yates, NSFW Editor, Autostraddle.com
6 PM – 9 PM PST / 9 PM – 12Â AM EST
Expertise:Â Relationships & Sex
Dannielle Owens-Reid, Co-Founder of Everyone is Gay
12 PM – 3Â PM PST / 3 PM – 6Â PM EST
Expertise:Â Relationships, cat care, andro / genderqueer shopping, healthy living, being vegan, how to use social media like not a dumbass
Dani Rodriguez Da Silva, Sexuality Educator
5PM – 8PM PST / 8 PM – 11 PM EST
Expertise:Â Queer sex(ual health), gender (de)construction, relationships, living queerly as a Latin@. I can also give some advice on how to have a healthy, happy dog while working full time and living alone.
Djuan Trent, Motivational speaker, Activist and former Miss Kentucky
5 PM – 7PM PST / 8 PM – 10 PM EST
Expertise: Relationships, being single, Self-Esteem, Religion, Coming Out, Goal Setting and Achieving, Self-Awareness, Race Relations, Self Discovery and Identity.
Gabby Rivera, QPOC Speakeasy, Autostraddle.com
7 AM – 8 AM PST / 10 AM – 9 AM EST
Expertise:Â Interracial dating, boundaries, being muy romantic, dealing with a partner that has an addiction(s), sex w different body types
Ginger Hale, Sobriety Columnist, Autostraddle.com
8 PM – 9 PM PST / 5 PM – 6 PMÂ EST
Heather Hogan, Senior Editor, Autostraddle.com
7 AM – 7 PM PST / 10 AM – 10 PM EST (with a lunch break)
Expertise:Â Books, pop culture, depression, ad(h)d, christianity (general theology, reconciling faith with religious upbringing, super religious family), long-distance relationships (turned living-together relationship), women’s college basketball (I will fill out your march madness brackets), bicycle maintenance and repair, volunteering questions, animal questions (rescuing, training, etc.), and social media.
Kaelyn Rich, Contributing Editor, Autostraddle.com
7 AM – 10 AM PST / 10 AM – 1 PM EST
Expertise:Â Sex & sexuality, small animal care, grown up life shit (buying a house, finding a financial planner, leasing v. buying a car), “Should I go to law school?”, relationships, bisexual/pansexual/queer stuff, nonprofit career advice, IPV and sexual assault support, community organizing as hobby or career (coalition building, legislative advocacy, government relations, etc), leggings as pants affirmation, monolid makeup, veg food, clothes, and lifestyle, leadership & management, feminist careers, body positive / fat positive stuff including fatshion
Kristin Russo, Co-Founder of Everyone is Gay
2 PM – 3 PM PST / 5 PM – 6 PM EST
Expertise:Â Relationships, cat care, healthy living, dealing with a vegan, planning a wedding, writing a book, hula hooping, lip syncing, how to use social media like not a dumbass
Laneia Jones, Executive Editor, Autostraddle.com
9 AM – 11 PM PST / 12 PM –Â 2 AM EST (with a lunch break)
Expertise: Parenting, being older than 30, feelings, 60s/70s classic rock, teen pregnancy, divorce, hippie bullshit, death
Laura Mandanas, Contributing Editor, Autostraddle.com
4 PM – 7 PM PST / 7PM – 10 PM EST
Expertise: Women in STEM, TV pop culture, mixed-race issues, martial arts, bisexuality
Lizz Rubin, Med Student & Former Autostraddle Fashion/Style Editor
4 PM – 6 PM PST / 7 PM – 9 PM EST
Expertise:Â Fashion, Sex and Health
Lydia Okello, Blogger & Fashion Editor, Autostraddle.com
7:15 PM – 9:15 PM PST / 10:15 PM – 12:15 AM EST
Expertise: Fashion, beginner gay things, friendship. Also being a minority in a largely conservative/predominantly white environment.
Mari Brighe, Contributing Editor, Autostraddle.com
4 PM – 6 PM PST / 7 PM – 9 PM EST
Expertise:Â Skincare, hair-care, makeup, and sex/dating for trans girls
Mey Rude, Trans Editor, Autostraddle.com
11 AM – 1 PM & 3 PM – 4 PM PST / 2 PM – 4 PM & 6 PM – 7 PM EST
Expertise:Â Being fat, femme stuff (“especially low-budget femme), Trans issues, Geeky (“if anyone has questions about sci-fi movies or tv shows or comic books or superheroes or things of that nature, I can talk for days about that stuff”), being Queer & Christian (“specifically Catholic.”) Also: witch stuff (“but not wicca, I’m not wiccan. but I am more than just an aesthetic witch, like my witchcraft is tied into my Mexican La Virgen-based semi-Catholicism, sort of like what was in the Gloria background story of OITNB, but not nearly as hardcore.”)
Mallory Ortberg, Co-Founder, The Toast
8 PM – 11 PM PST / 11 PM – 2 AM EST
Expertise:Â Jobs, boundaries, jokes, being direct, coming from a religious background, cute ladies in sports
Morgan, Kinky Transy Poly Gamer Ginger Southerner
7 PM – 9 PM PST / 10 PM – 12Â AM EST
Expertise: Being trans, poly, kinky, queer/trans/sex friendly video games and spaces.
Rachel Kincaid, Managing Editor, Autostraddle.com
7 AM – 8 PM PST / 10 AM – 11 PM EST (with a lunch break)
Expertise:Â Basic budgeting and financial literacy, intense skincare regimens, pursuing a career in creative writing, teaching at the college level, bisexuality and dating/general wellbeing as a bisexual, legumes of all kinds, The X-Files, getting married/having a wedding
Riese Bernard, Editor-in-Chief / CEO, Autostraddle.com
11 AM –Â 11PM PST / 2Â PM – 2 AM EST (with a lunch break)
Expertise: Relationships, sex & dating, DEATH, writing & reading, starting your own business, sex work, mental health (personal history as well as experiences as a partner and family member, whatever your little heart desires)
Tinkerbell, Autostraddle Mascot
4 PM – 8 PM PST / 7 PM – 11 PM EST
Expertise: Having one eyeball bigger than the other, Uh Huh Her, pink outfits, being famous, Littlefoot, trysexuality
Vikki Reich, Co-Founder of VillageQ
9 AM – 11 AM PST / 11 AM – 1 PM EST
Expertise:Â Relationships, kids, coming out stuff, life
Yvonne Marquez, Senior Editor, Autostraddle.com
7 AM – 10 AM PST / 10 AM – 1PM EST
Expertise: Being gay and Latina, growing up and being gay in a border town / returning to that border town and still being gay, being in a long-term relationship, going through an extremely unpleasant break-up, working from home, taking care of a big dog, navigating white, radical spaces as a queer brown woman, being a chunky brown girl and giving no fucks about it (especially in yoga), talking about Texas forever!
So! If you want to win an A+ Membership, tell us in the comments the best advice anybody has ever given you!
To help us facilitate this contest as efficiently as possible, we ask to keep comments limited to “the best advice you’ve ever gotten.”Â
