Everything I wore in May

you might not even care??

👋🏼👋🏼👋🏼 Hi! If you’re new to these parts, the short version is this: I’ve worked for myself for a long time, writing 15 (!) books, largely done from home. It sent me a bit doolally, being alone that much and also working within an industry that hasn’t always treated me kindly. That’s why I started writing How to Build a Life, now delivered to thousands of readers in over 80 countries. I’d been desperate to unpick why I seemingly had a dream career but life in general felt so underwhelming. I figured out that my brain likes writing but my soul needs something else, so at the start of this year - in addition to still writing my novels - I took a job in a high school mixing teaching and pastoral work. In one million ways this makes no sense at all, apart from the fact that working out of the house with teenagers is making me really very happy. I’m almost 40, a solo parent by choice, and knowing all this means you’re all caught up. WELCOME.

It’s another Bank Holiday in the UK today, and school is also out for May half term. I often wonder if it feels strange to the 40% of people here who aren’t in the UK - do we seem permanently on a break to you? Especially to Americans: you guys get very little paid time off, am I right in understanding? Like, ten days a year? Brits get nearly 6 weeks paid time off a year, but our schools are off 13 weeks a year (~hOw dO OtHeR WoRkInG PaReNtS Do It~) - each semester is broken up into “half terms”, which last 6 or 7 weeks at a time. We go back to school in September, get a week break around Halloween, go back for two months until Christmas, and then in the new year get a week off in February, then two weeks at Easter. This break right now is May Week, but today specifically is a Bank Holiday for the whole country, where many (white collar) businesses are closed. I don’t normally send letters on Bank Holidays, but with the Easter weekend and early May Bank Holiday just gone I thought no, show up today, even if it’s just to share pictures of what you wore this month. Some have expressed interest!! Like, 3, but still.

I won’t make a habit of this, at least not unless you want me to, but sometimes I think it’s nice to see what people on the Internet wear, people whose lives we follow or have a nosey interest in. And nothing I’m wearing is new, except my gym shorts. I’m not trying to sell you anything. Yay, old clothes!! In May it’s been warm enough to pull out all the dresses I accumulated over six or seven years before parenthood. I stopped wearing them in parenthood because they don’t lend themselves to blood, snot, or dirt, and I feel way comfier hanging out with my kid when I’m not worried about becoming soiled. We’re a messy hair family, and we’re a getting dirty family! But for school, it’s been nice. I almost sold them all! Thank goodness I didn’t. This is absolutely a brag when I say, I get complimented most days 😎

Anyway if you hate seeing this don’t tell me, I’m fragile. If you do, well, I’m glad. And happy Spring Bank Holiday! I’ll be in London with my brother and his dog as you get this, wearing something durable and what I think is “hip”, until I step out the front door and everyone in Hackney is hipper, mostly because they don’t use the word “hip”, for starters.

Stuff I’ve Been Wearing

I used to write these captions on Instagram where I’d imagine the life of the person I was dressed as, and it wasn’t a gimmick so much as a genuine desire to communicate that I do find clothes quite powerful, enjoy how different compositions can make me feel, e.g. this white dress always makes me feel like I have inherited wealth, the black jacket with the rolled up sleeves never has me feeling anything other than like I’m about to stay late at my art design job in the advertising world. A jumper over the shoulders is very “I have my life together”, and in that last image I just love how paring a pretty dress with ostensibly ugly shoes is essentially a middle finger to anyone who is gonna tell me what “feminine” is. Also, I hate my hair in 3 out of 4 of these pictures, all taken after I slept with my hair wet and instead of straightening it and then putting a messy kink in it, I left it wild and free and even added in some curls??? For some reason??? It’s not me. Gen Z Beth, my hairdresser, would not approve. My old hairdresser, Millennial Laura, probably would. And that is the difference.