How To Be Brave: the next stage

A six month review of this newsletter, and some plans

It’s been six months since I launched How to Be Brave in October 2024.

So much has happened since then that it’s hard to keep track. The Disengaged Teen launched in the US, and my co-author Rebecca and I went on CBS Mornings with Gayle King, The Drew Barrymore Show, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and did dozens of other TV appearances, podcasts, radio and in–person events. We spoke at SXSW, ASU+GSV, the Natural History Museum in LA, Politics and Prose, and a boatload of other places. In the course of one day we visited a school in the lowest income bracket in the US and one of the highest. I flew to the US way more than I wanted to and spent a lot less time with my family than I would have preferred. I’ve felt excited and jubilant, and burned out and frustrated —often all in one day.

At home in West London, I hosted a cozy book launch for some dear friends and my British family, and then we all went for Italian food. My older daughter started the marathon that is GCSE exams while my younger daughter continues to teach me amazing gluten-free cooking recipes and smokes me in an array of games. (The dog is great too, though in my absence she’s definitely not as well behaved).

Also in these six months I’ve made an uncomfortable and sustained effort to be on social media, and to write this newsletter, with a view to engaging with as many parents and teachers as possible. I published 20 posts over 27 weeks (one every 1.35 weeks, a stat I hope to improve) and launched a new Instagram (jennyandersonwrites), gaining thousands of followers across both platforms. I kept writing on LinkedIn. I tried to find synergies. At the same time, I kept up writing for national outlets, publishing in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic; while being interviewed in so many cool places (including Oprah Daily, NPR, the National Parents Unions, Raising Good Humans, That’s Total Mom Sense). I got pretty tired. I got energised again and made even more ambitious plans for the future. Here on Substack I’ve written about AI, phones, walking with my family, TV, Trump, and—the thread tying it all together—the teenagers we all love so much it hurts.

The next phase of How to Be Brave

I’d now like to introduce you to the next phase of How to Be Brave, explaining what will change (not too much!), why I’m making those changes, and what you can expect from this newsletter in the next weeks and months.

What’s changing?

As of now, I’m introducing a paid option for How To Be Brave subscribers. Most of the content will remain free, and you don’t have to do anything if you want to keep reading it. But paid will become an option with prices set at $5 for monthly membership (the Substack minimum), $50 for yearly, and $100 if you want to support it more and be a “Founder.”

Why am I introducing paid subscriptions?

The simple answer is: Substack gives more visibility to newsletters with the option of having paid subscribers. I think this will help me reach a wider audience, and that’s ultimately what I want.

There’s a secondary reason, and it goes hand-in-hand with a suggestion I will make now, that you pay if you feel moved to, and if you can afford it. Writing The Disengaged Teen, promoting it, and writing and thinking about the subject, are a major part of my life’s work. I was a full-time journalist for 25 years and now I work on my own. I’d like to get paid to write, and to try and make sense of the world, because it is the thing I love most. I’d be thrilled if you wanted to be part of that, if you can (again: thank you).

What will paid subscriptions actually mean?

I will keep writing a free newsletter, roughly every week.

In addition, I’ll write some other content, like deep dives into research, or really meaty interviews, and maybe put some of them behind the paywall. I might that super annoying (but necessary) thing where I cut the story off right before it’s about to get good. I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t have a more precise plan: like many things in my life right now, this is a learning experience. I think through doing it I’ll find the right cadence. I reserve the right to change this all up if/when I see the need.

Next week is re-launch week!

To celebrate this change and my love of How To Be Brave, next week I’m planning to publish a post every day(ish), including a piece about how stress affects young people (spoiler: it’s more positive than you might expect), new data on teens and phones, and some reflections on having a good birthday after having a few pretty shitty ones. The pieces will be a mix of academic and personal, long and short.

This won’t be the norm. It’s just for one week. So if you sign up and immediately feel like I’m in your inbox way too much, don’t worry. I’ll probably soon go back to writing every week (or, tbh, every 1.3 weeks).

As well as saying thanks, this is also a good moment to ask for feedback: Please tell me what you like about How To Be Brave, what you want more of, and where you think it could improve.

Finally, here are some other things I am thinking about doing. Do any resonate?

1. A semi-regular feature on Books Teens (Might) Love

2. Tales of Explorers (what kinds of experiences unlock explorer moments? You can read one in my last week’s post about Vicente.)

3. I read a lot —books, news, studies, LinkedIn— and could do a round up of things I’ve read and/or listened to and liked. (I could also do a TV list but I am always so damn far behind it will be useless to most of you. I discovered TV late in life and love it SO much but am generally at least 17 paces behind.)

Let me know what you think in Comments, email, a private note.

Thank you for your attention, and your support.

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