Welcome To The New Ramshackle Glam

Let's gooooo!

Hello, and welcome to my Substack: A development I have actively rejected for quite some time now, for virtually no reason save for a deep-seated stubborn streak.

If you’re a long-time reader of Ramshackle Glam, you may have observed by this point that one of my favorite activities is jumping on social media trends a minimum of three years after everyone else, if ever (see: refusal to join Instagram for an obnoxiously long time following its launch, despite my manager’s abject pleas to “Jordan, seriously, just take out your phone and I’ll download the goddamn app for you”).

So now, after an extended period of being told “you need to start a Substack” by various very knowledgeable people in my life (while, ok, also simultaneously drowning in various pools of depression and anxiety that left me more or less incapable of putting metaphorical pen to paper)…

Hi.

Here I am.

Thanks for coming.

(I feel quite a bit better now.)

A quick how-I-got-here: You can check out my About page for the full story of how I got into blogging (it’s a pretty good one, IMO), but the short of it is that I started Ramshackle Glam in 2009, and then wrote every single day for 12 years. The developments that came along with the site were exciting and unexpected and overwhelming at times, but the sum total was a career that I hadn’t even known existed as an option, but turned out to be precisely what I’d always dreamed of. How cool is that?

But then Covid happened, and I stopped being able to wrap my mind around why, exactly, my voice might be worth hearing, when everyone in the world seemed to be saying the same thing (basically, “help”). I tried to write about the impossibility of homeschooling and working. I tried to write about being a single parent isolated in a new town with two very young children. I tried to write about making my own wine out of Welch’s grape juice so that I wouldn’t have to risk my life by going to the supermarket. It all felt dumb, or ridiculous, or - worst of all - pointless.

So I focused on other projects for awhile. I wrote a bunch of books, began a new career as a screenwriter (I have a movie in pre-production right now, and another two scripts being shopped around), and I began hosting a political opinion show for an outlet called Straight Arrow News. The show wasn’t something I pursued — they just kinda called me — and I figured it would be a short-term thing…but it ended up going for over three years and comprising a not-insignificant percentage of my income. It turned out to be a really fun outlet for me, because it felt totally separate from the writing I do on Ramshackle Glam — and it also got me up and in front of my computer each and every Monday morning, where I’d settle to rant about whatever dumpster fire was currently keeping me up at night. And if you watched that show, please know that I was never, ever wearing pants (it’s ok; nobody you see on YouTube is wearing pants).

…But that job is toast as of a few weeks ago. I’m okay with it — the company got restructured and is going in a different direction, blah blah blah — but now I have both an opening in my weekly calendar and a need for a new income stream (because the way I’ve always worked as a freelancer is to have at least 3-4 income streams at any given time, just in case…well, this happens).

Anyway, I gave it a nice long think, and decided that said open block of time shall be used to return to my original love:

You.

Or writing for you, anyway. (I’m sure I’d love you personally if we were to meet, but that’s for another day.)

See, I haven’t wanted to talk about myself for a few years. Something about sharing the intimate parts of my brain started to feel too vulnerable. And granted, I am not one to shy away from vulnerability, but the past few years have been rough. Something about being single — it made me feel hyper-protective of my little family and our little world.

But I want to — need to — talk about the hard stuff, without fear. Oversharing with strangers might not be therapeutic for everyone — but personally, when it felt like everything was falling apart, writing was what brought me back to life.

So! I’ll be publishing a bimonthly (at least) newsletter with diary-type content, along with my favorite finds in the worlds of home decor, recipes, and fashion. If you poke around here, you’ll find a bunch of no-subscription-needed posts to check out. I’m moving over a lot of my favorite OG Ramshackle Glam posts, and the experience should be a hell of a lot more streamlined than the ancient monster of a site I was trying to keep live before, with its literal hundreds of pages and thousands upon thousands of links. Basically, there will be new content all the time, and the free archive will keep expanding over time, as well.

(Sidenote: If you’re an OG reader and think of a post you wish you still had access to, please let me know! You can always reach me at jordan@ramshackleglam.com, or via IG at @ramshackleglam.)

Bottom of my heart, thank you for taking the time to check out my new little venture. I’ve missed your feedback, your commiseration, even your critiques — truly. I can’t tell you how many times thoughtful, compassionate suggestions from readers have changed the course of my life.

I’ve missed my friends. My community.

I’d be so appreciative if you’d be up for adding RG to your recommendations, or sharing this with someone you think might enjoy subscribing, but really: As long as you stick around, I’m happy. I hope I can make you at least a little bit happy, too.

Love

Jordan