A welcome note from me

It's GREAT to see you here...

Here goes!

Hello and welcome to my Substack, Slouching Towards Bethnal Green! I’m very happy to have you here. I’m Gillian Orr, an award-winning journalist (Journalist of the Year at the 2015 Sexual Health Awards, thanks for asking. Yes, that’s an actual award, I have the trophy in my kitchen - a real conversation starter - and yes it counts) and the former Editor-in-Chief of Refinery29 UK, the Vice Media-owned digital platform for women. I have also written for a bunch of publications including British Vogue, The Times, ELLE and ES Magazine. Before all that I was an arts and feature writer at The Independent, where one day you’d be interviewing Alber Elbaz over lunch in Paris and the next you were asking a poodle owner about Crufts allowing foreign dogs into the competition (both happened). All this is to say that, over the years, I’ve written about pretty much everything. 

I have, however, taken a bit of a hiatus from writing. Editing a publication doesn’t give you much bandwidth to write and my final few years at Refinery29 just didn’t allow it. Then, last year, I had my first baby. And that really isn’t conducive to writing. I know plenty manage, and, truly, hats off to you.

I left Refinery29 earlier this year and since then I have done some freelance writing, started to consult for brands (my first client was a beautiful new fashion label) and been volunteering at Hackney Children and Baby Bank, which I tell you not in an attempt to look good, but to urge you to support them! They are a truly incredible organisation and, should you be in a position to help, are always desperate for donations to go to London families in need.

Anyhow, I have recently found myself longing to write more, so here I am. Having had 9-5 office jobs continuously since graduating, I am exploring a new way of working and living, one that feels right for me at this stage in my life. The world of freelancing is a scary but exciting place! (OK mostly scary).

Now, what can you expect? Starting tomorrow, I will be posting a piece every Friday on any number of topics: relationships, style, work, beauty, food, pop culture, womanhood. Basically a lot of the subjects we covered while I was at Refinery29. There will also be recommendations, because I love nothing more than recommending and being recommended to. But I do hope I come to things with a fresh angle and that you will find my work entertaining and thought-provoking. Perhaps you’ll even, on occasion, cry. Go on. My goal will always be to give you something you can’t find elsewhere. At R29 I was constantly trying to find ways to turn traditional glossy women’s media on its head. For instance, I published a piece called ‘What’s Actually In The Refinery29 Team’s Handbags’, intended to be an antidote to the popular videos of famous women showcasing their faultless, put-together bags. It is with that ethos that I start this newsletter: relatable, imperfect and honest. 

Please consider subscribing, there are three types of subscriptions available:

Become a free subscriber

You will receive two posts a month, direct to your inbox.

Become a paid subscriber

For £5 a month or an annual fee of £50, you will receive a weekly post, a monthly post of recommendations, have full community access, be able to get your hands on the entire archive, and come along to my ad-hoc Chats (you’ll need the Substack app to join this one). You will also have my eternal gratitude for supporting my work as well as giving me the opportunity to grow this platform and community.

Become a founding member

For £150 there are a limited number of founding member subscriptions, for which you will get all the perks of being a paid subscriber as well as a 45 minute one-to-one Zoom call with me, on whatever topic you like: journalism, the fashion industry, Crufts. You name it.

Whatever you choose, I would be so thrilled to have you join me on this adventure. 

Gillian x

P.S. A note on the title: just to clarify, I am in no way trying to compare myself to the queen Joan Didion. I simply thought it was funny. And anyway she borrowed it from Yeats. 

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