Welcome to Smooth Brain
Get to know me a little and why I want to write again
Recently, I was deleting old videos on my phone. I have 1TB of storage in the Cloud and an iPhone with a lotta GBs but I felt like 24,578 videos and 118,516 photos was kind of a lot to be hoarding, even if content is my fulltime job. This took me down a heartwarming and enlightening rabbit hole of my quite recent past. It led me to old screenshots of emails, stories, tidbits from my old job, which then led me to the day I got engaged in August 2019. This sparked a thought about checking my Whatsapp chat back then with my husband and best friend. As I read the wonderful messages from that period, I kept going. Even though it was only 4 years ago, it felt like a version of myself I could remember but almost didn’t recognise. It was when I worked full-time, pre-pandemic when the idea of self-employment was nothing but a pipedream. I looked back fondly at that version of me. I was juggling so much, and from the messages, seemed like I had it somewhat together, was organised, on top of the ball. I sounded sharp.
After absorbing that content, I was texting my best friend saying how I’d been enjoying too much ‘Smooth Brain activity’ – and by that I mean, leaning into easy breezy happy fluffy things (something that also helps me during anxious times etc) and maybe I’m missing a bit of the old me. I later spoke to my mum saying (jokingly) that I feel like that part of my brain has died. Mum found that to be a bit dramatic and countered it with, “it’s not dead!” And I agree, it’s just on pause, momentarily, put to sleep as I spent the last four years working on my life and wellbeing in a different way, in ways I’m proud of and had yearned for back then.
So firstly, welcome to Smooth Brain Thoughts, and secondly, let’s back track a bit slightly for some context.
If we’ve connected at all over the years – in person or online, I may have shared that I worked in media from 2014 to 2020, specifically I worked in magazines. I started out as an intern and I couldn’t believe my luck at being able to walk into 54 Park St, Sydney and have the privilege of being in the same space as so many women I had looked up to for years. At the time I was living in Melbourne, and did short interning stints during my uni holidays. Sydney and Park St quickly became the place I simply HAD be (I still feel that way about Sydney, I love it). So when I was offered a job at TV WEEK after a week-long internship at the end of 2014, I packed up my life and moved to Sydney; a real pinch me moment. I couldn’t believe I going to be watching TV & Films and writing about them and they were going to pay me!
Throughout my 5.5 years in mags, I went from intern, to Deputy Editor at WHO Magazine – with about 8 or so different role changes and various magazines (all weekly titles) in between. I moved back and forth between the two main publishing houses at the time – Bauer (previously ACP) and Pacific Magazines – which later went onto combine and is now known as ARE. When I left in February 2020, I was 29 and had totally fallen out of love with an industry I was once so enamoured with. I used to read and write all day, interview all manner of media personalities, edit, and then in my later years, manage staff. I also had a podcast with my best friend and fellow journalist, Holly. It was largely about Reality TV, but we snuck in other pop culture elements, bits of our life, things we were loving, hating – you get the idea. We mostly just used it as time to catch up and be silly, our favourite thing in the world to be.
But back on the mag side, the content I was overseeing and producing, I felt like I’d outgrown and mostly felt at odds with (lots of gossip, content that ended up making me feel uncomfortable to be involved them/adjacent to etc). It felt totally out of alignment with who I was and I was looking for a way out for about 6-12 months. In the end, I found one working for myself creating content full-time on social media (a sort of happy accident the last 3.5 years has gifted me). I’ve barely written anything since – which brings me to wanting to create a Substack of my own.
For the last six months, maybe longer, I’ve felt a little itch to start doing something like this. I’ve had this urge to do something more, something with my ‘Smooth Brain’ lens. To write again, to share what I’m loving, reading, buying, watching, obsessing over. And one thing I’ve become obsessed with is Substack! I love the intentional little treats that hit my inbox a few times a week from people I love and admire. Like my friend Zara Wong! I’m not sure I’d even heard about Substack until she started ‘Screenshot This’ years ago. I always want to know what Zara is into and curious about so I highly recommend you subscribe here if you haven’t already. Or my friend Dani Gay, who recently launched her Substack, ‘Reservations’. While very different to Zara’s, hers is a very personal look at heartbreak, being single, self-work + realisations, and so much more. Then there’s Leandra Medine Cohen’s ‘The Cereal Aisle’ – mostly musings on her inimitable style, but with splashes of her personal life thrown in. Others I love include: Harling Ross Anton’s ‘Gumshoe’, Megan Alida Strachan’s ‘What I Put On Today’ and Courtney Grow’s ‘Unpolished’.
My best friend (the same one I mentioned earlier) and I always say to each other when we want to know every little detail about whatever important, inane, huge, small topic we’re discussing is TME – Tell Me Everything! We were even going to start a podcast called this years ago. And that’s kind of what I want this to be. A place where I tell you everything from week to week, leaning into a bit of the old me but in the current shape I take now. I haven’t decided the exact structure and formality these substacks will have – twice a week? Once a week? We’ll see. I’m currently travelling so will see what I can manage.
Lately, I’ve had a bunch of messages about book recommendations. So to get things started, here’s five easy books to get you through winter, or breeze through while you’re on a beach in Italy/Greece etc
· Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
· Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
· I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
More Smooth Brain Thoughts soon,
Ali x
Just LOVE this Ali. Been seeing these pop up on Instagram and it’s giving real blog spot vibes and honestly I’m all about it. Also love the book recommendation inclusion - so fun!
LOVE this too! Very excited to see what follows, love following your life and musings on socials so excited to read about it too :)
Good book recs, I've read Rom Com and have Verity and Nora Ephron on my current reading list - I inhaled Heartbreak earlier in the year so im very excited about my second NE read xx