rayne goes hollywood

notes on commodification (i.e. my own)

refusing to bury the lede here: this post is big news about me expanding and monetizing my substack. i’m introducing a lot of new features and projects on here that i’ve been planning forever and i am so excited to finally launch it with the help of all of you <3

if you’re reading this email, you get access to a one-day-only sale for email subscribers before i launch on social media, which you can check out here if you’re impatient — but before i get into the details, some context…

here’s something i (perhaps naively) never expected: over the last couple of months, companies have started offering me large sums of money to promote items to my followers. i’ve had a following on the internet for five or six years, and always assumed that brands had generally avoided me because of my erratic posting style and blatant anticapitalism — i had assumed i had reached a truly unpalatable level of authenticity, and was genuinely proud of it! unfortunately, as has been proven by recent events, it was actually just because i didn’t have an iphone yet.

i switched to an iphone a month ago, and miraculously (and vaguely eerily), the requests started rolling in virtually overnight. to be clear, i’ve been receiving offers to promote low-level products like sunset lamps and minimalist skincare products for years, but this is the first time that real, major brands started offering me real money to convince my beloved followers to buy their shit — and in case you didn’t know, the amount of money that companies will offer even the most mid-tier social media users is, respectfully, an insane fucking shitload. four. figures. three zeroes. jesus.

one of the brands in my inbox had ethical labour practices, sustainable production, and cute products, and i desperately needed to make rent, and for the first time, i seriously considered taking the money. i floated the idea by my followers, and most were extremely supportive, but the idea of commodifying a social media following i’d built in part through feminism and anti-capitalism to sell clothes for a random brand wracked my body with a physical anxiety that i couldn’t shake for days. as much as i like to engage with my audience through a veil of post-irony, their trust means a lot to me, and so i told the brand i didn’t want to work with them.

however, this whole thing did make me realize that the amount of time i spend producing free written and video content is currently about the same as the time i spend at my actual full-time job, and that just unfortunately isn’t sustainable for a 20-year-old (or really anyone). so, thanks to a ton of requests from you guys, i’m biting the bullet on something i’ve been putting off for months — i’m launching a patreon and supporter plan on my substack! the size of my audience on here has also gotten to the point that it sort of scares me, and money aside, i'm also just really excited to use this to create a closer and more intimate community.

if you enjoy my videos or my essays, it would mean the world if you considered supporting this labour and making it accessible to you and everybody. supporting my work means that i don’t have to do ads or censor myself in the interests of palatability, and it also gets you access to bonus essays, advice columns, community forums, audio episodes, and more.

i’ll be announcing this on my social media in the next couple of days, but wanted to provide an early-bird special for whoever actually reads these emails. subscribe now for 20% off the regular price of $5 a month.

IMPORTANT: the subscription exists primarily to provide an easy option for people who want to financially support my work — it’s very important to me that there are no access barriers to my writing or online community. if you’d like to access a subscription but don’t have the funds, please just email me at raynefisherq@gmail.com with the subject line “substack”. no questions asked. :)

if substack isn’t your preferred medium, i also have a patreon that gives you full access to everything here with more tier options! subscribe here.

by subscribing for $5/mo, you get:

• a regular luv line/advice column where subscribers will be able to submit questions & problems for me to answer. subbies will get access to an anonymous google form, and advice columns will be subscriber-only. this has been heavily requested and i am SOO excited for it.

• monthly book club posts and subscriber-only forums. substack has a forum feature where subscribers can talk, share opinions, and answer discussion questions. i’d love to use this to create a community where i can interact with you all to discuss books, music, & more. every month, i’ll recommend a book and post general discussion questions related to the subject matter so everyone can join regardless of experience level.

• audio essays and audio episodes. the most frequent request i get is to create audio versions of my essays, but i just haven’t been able to make the time while doing this entirely for free. supporting my work here will allow me to release audio versions of each of my essays and (hopefully) even publish occasional interviews with other very cool people online in a podcast format.

• access to occasional exclusive posts, where i can explore more personal, controversial, and work-intensive/research-heavy topics. financially supporting internet princess allows me to dedicate more time to my work here, and creating an intimate community lets me take bigger risks in my writing. if i’m being honest, i wasn’t expecting this to grow this fast and am now feeling like posts about my vagina should be inner-circle only. this is mainly a bonus — the majority of my posts will still be open to all.

• the ability to show your support and help me create content for everyone! i purposefully decline almost all of the sponsorships/ad offers i receive because i don’t feel good about just becoming a conduit for brands to access the people who follow me, but this makes it difficult for me to support myself through content. a subscriber model means i can devote time to writing and creating without sacrificing integrity <3

• a kiss on the lips if we bump into each other irl. self explanatory!

thank you so much, and please let me know if you have any questions <3 i can’t answer all the emails i get but i try to read all of them and respond to as many as i can!