Monthly reviews recap blog post activity on “A Lesbian And Her Laptop,” personal updates, and what’s coming up for the blog next month.

This January on A Lesbian And Her Laptop

2021 started out strong for A Lesbian And Her Laptop with a monthly views going upwards of 5,000 and peaking over 3,000 visitors. The blog now has an email and WordPress combination following of 412, so we broke the 400 follower threshold at long last! I’m so excited for what the rest of this year will bring with such a strong start. Comparing this data to the stats of January 2020 feels extremely promising. Last year, that first month barely gathered 1k views and just broke 500 visitors!

January started with an overview of 2020, reporting the growth of AL&HL, highlighting the key blog posts and guest-writer series, and projecting the contents of the blog for this new year. A Lesbian And Her Laptop also jumpstarted with LGBT Book Review posts for both Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker, a sapphic graphic novel (featuring a nonbinary protagonist!) and Gender: Your Guide by Lee Airton, PhD, a guide for cis people working to being better trans allies.

I also posted a blog about the organization I help run, Sapphic Writers, which is an online community hosted across social media channels working to connect sapphic writers of all skill levels. We host virtual meetups and workshops, publish quarterly zines, launched a sapphic book club, among many of our projects.

For the last post of the month, AL&HL helps long-distance lovers (and friends!) find easy, affordable, and/or shipping-friendly gifts in time for Valentine’s Day, featuring tried and true methods by yours truly (a long-distance lover of six+ years).

As a reminder, A Lesbian And Her Laptop’s Ko-Fi page is accepting one-time donations of $3. The goal is currently collecting the funds to help me move out of my parents’ house to access high-speed, reliable internet and stronger mental health. You can also use the Ko-Fi commission menu to purchase affordable J&J Chats for advice, ($3) promos for LGBTQ artists, businesses, and etsy shops ($5), and reviews of your favorite queer show, film, book, or song ($8). The Ko-Fi shop features pins and stickers with the blog name and logo!

The Patreon for A Lesbian And Her Laptop now has 19 patrons for $56/month! Patreon subscriptions start at just $1 per month, which includes a monthly “How I Met My Girlfriend” bonus posts/poems and book updates. This reliable monthly income consistently pays my phone bill—a huge thanks and huge relief!

Personal updates

I got a cat! After begging my parents (yes, at my big age of 25) to let me have this cat for a solid year after my friend needed to rehouse her, they finally agreed as part of my Christmas present. Her name is Eloise, and we are best friends. She sleeps on my chest every night and wails at me to play with her every morning. At 4 years old, she has just met dogs for the first time in her life, and after a few weeks of gradual introductions, my two dogs and Eloise will lay in the same room without anyone whining or growling or hissing—huge progress.

Desperate to fund a move to Detroit with my siblings, I’ve been steadily applying to jobs and freelance gigs daily. I started blogging for a therapist based in San Jose, which I really enjoy. In fact, apart from working for myself, working for her is quite possibly the best work experience I’ve ever had (and it’s only been a few weeks). She respects my time, makes it clear she values my work, and even sent me some books about enneagrams, which I’m excited to dig into. Crazy how much of a difference mutual respect makes! (And she’s a lesbian which is truly a great bonus.)

Speaking of books, I am shockingly on my fifth book of the year, which is exactly the number of books I read for 2020 in total. I’ve been trying to read when I feel the impulse to scroll through social media—I guess it’s working?

Coming up this month on A Lesbian And Her Laptop

I have a few things planned for February! Firstly, I’ve been planning some reviews for the underwear brand, TomboyX for quite some time. During last year’s gender revelation, TomboyX apparel certainly boosted gender euphoria in a few ways, so reviewing the products that boosted this might be of interest to readers.

As I launch the Sapphic Readers Book Club this month with Sapphic Writers, I will be writing some LGBT book reviews for the books we read together.

A Lesbian And Her Laptop will also be reaching out for guest post writers this month to recruit those interested in writing for Lesbian Visibility Week in a few months. If you are interested, please send a quick message via my contact page!

If you enjoyed any of the blog posts during January, consider making a one-time $3 donation to my Ko-Fi, or becoming a patron for exclusive blog content (starting at $1/month). And remember to share your favorite posts to get more people reading!