Pictures from my posts. “Feminist Science” covered topics ranging from the Patriot Act to science activism to the physics of ballet, to AI algorithms, to cosmetic chemistry, to STEM representation in pop culture and literature. There is much more to come!!
2025 was a major year of firsts for me. I finally was brave enough to start a Substack. And brave enough to start anti-depressants. These were TERRIFYING steps for me. I imagined hateful comments towards my work. I imagined terrible side effects from the medication. But I feel better. Every day is still a struggle, and I don’t know what my future holds next year, but I’m glad my words can have an effect.
It’s been a rough year for Science. There have been unprecedented attacks on science from the federal government in the US. Research funding cut. Jobs lost. Acceptances rescinded. Anti-science propaganda. Global Warming and pollution continues to accelerate, which AI is not helping. There have been several deaths and suicides of STEM students nationwide, and a female science graduate student at our school. The beloved feminist science pioneer Dr. Margaret Rossiter died (I am working on a series of articles on her). I am heartbroken over this, angry that the culture has not changed in the past 15 years, and hope my words can offer some transparency on the nature of STEM culture. I feel like an investigative journalist digging up and amplifying these issues. I’m beyond grateful that my platform is growing rapidly and I can make a tiny dent in the world.
Very grateful for this journey I have had in Substack. I’m astounded to have so many subscribers and followers. I absolutely LOVE writing.
My initial goal was to maybe get 100 followers!! Now I am over 4K.
I thought I would be transparent on the stats on my site (since I love data).
I started with no social media and 0 followers or subscribers. I told nobody in my real life about this Substack so I did not use existing contacts I had.
My Substack is almost a year old, and I get about 100 views on days I do not drop an article. On days I drop an article, I garner several hundred views.
I averaged 1 new subscriber a day for about 6 months, then it took off to gaining several new subscribers a day.
I average 1 new Instagram follower a day since I launched Instagram in September.
Recently, new posts have been garner close to 1000 views a week. Open rate is 25%.
I have over 6K followers on Substack
I have about 115 followers on Instagram
I have over 4K subscribers on Substack
Behind the Scenes:
Why Don’t You Dress Like Rory Gilmore? (4097 views)
So full disclosure, I figured this post would be popular and helped launch my Substack to greater visibility. Likely because it dealt with the ever-beloved show Gilmore Girls. However, this was based on a very real incident in my life being negatively compared to Rory Gilmore. I also have very little love for the fashion, beauty industry and used this to expose how science has been weaponized to promote sexist ideals, like “heels are sexy”.
My Bad Romance With Coding (949 views)
This was a very hard article to write and so triggering I set the draft aside for nearly 6 months after writing it and after posting it. I wanted to give a very accurate assessment of the struggles of coding and give a very in-depth view of my personal experiences of why other women left and why I made it.
Data is Money (1032 views)
I loved the cover image I selected for this post—it perfectly encapsulates the article. The Millennial children in a school computer lab while George W. Bush peers over their shoulders in the year 2000, the Patriot Act only a few mere years away…
To my recent subscribers who missed some of my earlier posts:
Ice Princess, Pop Culture’s Only Teen Female Physicist
I loved this article—Ice Princess was a huge inspiration to me as a teen girl when it came out. I loved rewatching the movie and writing about my teenage v. adult impressions. I also realized the complete lack of female physicists in pop culture. Rest in peace Michelle Trachtenberg.
Home Economics Series
Home Ec has been a huge field of interest for feminist science scholars because there are so many contradictions in the field—was it liberated or anti-feminist? Were women being forced into the kitchen? Or were they creating a scientific utopia? Read to found out!
Part 4 coming in 2026!!!
Tips for Substack engagement: I went from 0 to > 4K subscribers in a year:
Post a note almost daily
Banking articles and being 6 weeks ahead. Creating schedules for releases.
First 6 weeks I hit articles hard, dropping 2-3 a week. This pulled in viewers. I then scaled back to 1 a week.
Comment, like, and open other articles every day—BE GENUINE. I only like and comment on articles I actually like & resonate with.
Subscribe & follow relevant accounts
Starting Instagram. Even though I only have ~100 followers on that platform, it has pulled in a lot of followers for me on Substack and increased my visibility on the broader Internet.
I post several times a week on Instagram, often just reposts to my articles on Substack but sometimes original content. My comments (usually relating to my personal experiences in engineering/STEM) on other people’s posts have garnered hundreds of likes actually and gives me a sense of what people are interested in hearing in and had tailored how I write notes and posts.
Engage with your followers and fans. I cannot tell you how disillusioned I’ve been by some big-name feminist writers with 10s of thousands of followers online. I have opened, liked every article and commented when I could on both Substack & Instagram, to nary a reply, not even a like which would take half a second. Ultimately, I unsubscribed to several this past month. I understand that they are deluged by messages, many of them not nice, but it’s not a good strategy to ignore kind and supportive followers. I try really hard to like and engage with commentors and fans I have.
Also, lift up other Substackers starting off! I want genuine stories and authentic engagement.
See in you in 2026!!
Great to see how well this first year has gone for you!
As an environmental scientist... It HAS been such a hard year for science 😵💫 but we persist!!