The Autostraddle Yearbook: A Decade Of Gay Work

When I first started writing here in 2014, right off the bat we were asked to film ourselves lip-syncing to “Because You Loved Me” and “Crazy in Love” for two A+ team videos. I was, truly, like WTF have I gotten my queer ass into?! Not that I don’t love delivering a good lipsync performance in the bathroom mirror, but the prospect of doing a filmed lipsync for, like, THE WORLD was MUCH TERRIFYING. I kept procrastinating on it and Riese was so encouraging about it. Then I did, in fact, film myself and had a good silly time and another writer’s wife said they had a crush on me from that video and my eyeliner really looked perfect and, like, I ended up feeling really good about it! Still hella’ embarrassed, but also like…hot.

KaeLyn Rich

I first joined AS as a lowly baby intern while I was living with another AS writer, Audrey White, having a pseudo life breakdown in Nicaragua! I was so excited to get the news I was accepted!! Since then I’ve photoshopped some amazing things, my favorite being Kristin Stewart partying on a beach with a bunch of queers when she came out. A true masterpiece of mine, tbh.

Since then, I’ve been able to almost become a real writer, even a staff writer! I wrote pieces I’m super proud of about capitalism and speculum design. When I joined I was basically a graphics intern, and while I always wanted to be a writer, I never thought I could, especially while also trying to figure out my career. The senior editors saw more in me, and I’m so grateful to them even as I’ve struggled to write. I’m especially grateful to Rachel for taking the time to talk me through the piece on Yona’s speculum design — something I thought was dead in the water — which came out to be one of the pieces of journalism I’m most proud of.

Happy birthday, Autostraddle, thank you for giving me a chance and believing in me when I didn’t!

Raquel Breternitz

our titles, ourselves

• Our Willow, Ourselves
• Our Hands, Ourselves: A Deeply Unscientific Investigation of Identity
• Our Bowies, Ourselves
• A+ Roundtable: Our Tops, Our Bottoms, Our Switches, Ourselves