We’ve gotten so used to a highly curated version of our favorite celebrities that nowadays, we’re seeking authenticity. And while it’s hard to find—it’s often absent on social media, from Instagram to TikTok—there are few spaces you can look to for a more intimate insight into their lives.
Substack, a platform that combines blogging with emailed newsletters, is one corner of the internet that some celebrities are flocking to in order to spill their guts, let people in on their daily lives, inner thoughts and work. It’s kind of like a more professional, updated version of Livejournal or Xanga (if you know, you know). Subscribing to them is like being part of a small fan club. Some of them require paid subscriptions to get full access, but all of them give you something for free.
I’ve personally been using Substack for eight months and I’ve been happily surprised to find the following famous folks using the same platform.
Lena Dunham
Dunham is not exactly a private person—after all, she just published a memoir, Famesick, divulging a lot of private details of her life and interactions with other famous people. But following her on Substack is another window into her psyche. She’s probably the one who unsurprisingly posts the most on this list, from random thoughts about artsy furniture to what she’s reading and where she’s going. She sums Substack up quite succinctly: “Realization: Substack is so pleasurable because it stimulates precisely the same region of the brain that is activated by being on the staff of the high school newspaper…”
Available going forward for weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and sweet sixteens (gay ones). I love both my husbands and I love love 💒💍🥰😭 (custom pistachio fantasy by Amber Doyle, bespoke fuchsia fit by Christian Cowan)
– Lena Dunham
Maggie Rogers
Singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers, known for “Alaska,” “Light On,” “Love You For A Long Time” and “Don’t Forget Me,” is as thoughtful on her Substack as she is in her lyrics. It really does feel like you’re reading her private journal because she lets you in on her thoughts and processes. She recently posted that she’s back in the recording studio after six years. “I feel somewhere between lost and reborn. Writing and writing and writing,” she says. “Tinkering with songs. Clarifying the vision and going over it once again. Dropbox folders within Dropbox folders. Different versions of the same thing with the hope that one arrangement shift might crack the code.”
I have a new hat. I wrote a new newsletter. I am here reading. Actually, I’m on my phone. It’s so hot. Okay going back to reading now.
– Maggie Rogers
Charli xcx
The pop star doesn’t post often, but when she does, it’s a good, long read. In her most recent personal essay, she talks about how she sees the commercialization of art. “I have always rejected the idea that art, film, persona or music becoming commercial means it cannot also be considered cool,” she writes. “The rejection of commerciality ‘just because’ is such a boring and immature argument that is perhaps more suited to some mediums than others but in general I find to be elitist in a way that does not thrill me whatsoever.” Even more intriguing is her post on the realities of being a pop star, which in my opinion, is a must-read.
Troye Sivan
Singer-songwriter Sivan’s Substack is both honest and matter-of-fact. While he hasn’t posted since March, what he has posted is pretty somber. From feeling “uggo” to getting into a fight with his siblings, his writing is akin to your friend’s slice-of-life Livejournal post—except he’s famous and very talented. “The world is at war,” he writes. “I’m flying to Europe, solo, to attend Paris fashion week. I deleted instagram, TikTok (ages ago), and the dating apps on my phone to free up space in my mind, accept my loneliness, boredom, emotional vulnerability, and stop numbing myself. The issue is of course that I now have space in my mind, am lonely, bored, emotionally vulnerable and not numb.”
Rosalía
Superstar Rosalía is on tour, but she wrote a substack post! “The thread is as follows: nomadic life is not for everyone,” she admitted. “My respects to all the people who live like this. You have to be brave to be a nomad. Understand nomadic life as one lived with your house on your back and in a detached way. Detachment, by the way, is not optional, as a good part of what you carry on your back you will lose along the way. Living always changing places, far from what is yours and your loved ones or the place where you were born. Living far from everything you love and hate but that irremediably reminds you who you are.”
While she doesn’t post essays like this often—her previous post is a recipe for a 14-karat sponge cake—it’s worth keeping an eye on because she’ll occasionally spill what she’s up to and how she’s handling her fame.
Patti Smith
It’s punk to have a Substack, or at least, enough that Patti Smith has one. She’s actually got one of the coolest stack because it’s where she shares personal essays, poetry, photos and audio/video and even serialized longform fiction, including “The Melting” that she started as a private pandemic journal.
The author, singer-songwriter and godmother of punk just shared a new project in light of Independence Day that she’s been working on that contains both video and audio. Sometimes though, she shares more personal memories, including details of her relationship with playwright Sam Shepard. The two got tattoos together at the Chelsea Hotel, she explains. “Our relationship was like the moon with its many phases. In fact we both got tattoos together at the Chelsea Hotel in 1971. Mine was a lightning bolt, his was a crescent moon.”
Tegan and Sarah
Fans of Tegan and Sarah need to follow them on their stack, called “I Think We’re Alone Now.” Here, they talk to each other about music, writing, art and life using voice notes, and they make lyric annotations, write personal essays, share video conversations, and release new music. Best of all, they post often, so there’s much to read and keep up with!
Spoilers ahead – Show of hands, who thinks Sara dreams about Tegan? On Dream Dump this week, Tegan talks about music, exes, break up records, inspiration, and more with lesbian cat nip Leandra Earl of @thebeaches https://teganandsara.substack.com/p/dream-dump-with-leandra-earl-of-the
– Tegan and Sara
Neko Case
The New Pornographer’s Neko Case has a Substack called “Entering The Lung,” which is a nature‑focused newsletter where she publishes personal essays, nature “postcards,” interviews and occasional music‑related material. It’s a fun read that puts you right in her room as she’s writing. “It’s 8am on a lovely morning in Vermont,” she writes in her most recent post. “My cat Marcia is smashed up against my thigh, sleeping like she is on the United States Olympic sleeping team. Her belly rises and falls with her slow breathing.”
It’s the coziest of reads, and one you must subscribe to if you’re a fan.
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