By far, Full Grown People was the best thing that happened to me in 2013. Obviously, it just didn’t “happen”—I put in some serious hours—but it does feel magical to me, from these fabulous essays from writers I admire that appear in my in-box, to perfectly fulfilled requests for photos and art to Gina Kelly and Beth Hannon Fuller, to—most of all—you, the lovelies who read this.
Almost five months in now, I recognize some of your names in the comments on the site and on social media. FGP seems to be taking on a life of its own—growing into an honest-to-Betsy community—because of you. I’m not particularly good at predicting which essays you’ll respond to the most strongly, but one of the most rewarding aspects of being an editor is knowing that somewhere, someone is reading an essay here and is thinking, “This is just what I needed.”
Oh. New Year’s post. Maybe you’d like a list of the most-read essays of 2013?
“The Insomniac’s To-Do List” by Jody Mace
“Hope Floating” by Robin Schoenthaler
“My Best Stupid Decision” by Katy Read
“Shelving My American Dream” by Dina Strasser
“Soul Mate 101: Don’t Marry Him” by Susan Kushner Resnick
“On the Pain Scale” by Jessica Handler
“Comma Momma” by Kristin Kovacic
“In Praise of Synthetic Vaginas” by Catherine Newman
“The Family Versus the Grief Glommers” by yours truly
“Someone Stole Home” by Antonia Malchick
•••
I don’t make resolutions, but I do have some goals for Full Grown People in the coming year.
The main ones involve bringing you more of this writing, both at FGP and in the form of FGP anthologies that combine work from the site with brand-spanking-new essays. I’m very excited about this. There’s a song I like that goes, “You don’t need a thing from me/ But I need something big from you.”
This is the thing I need from you: If you like Full Grown People and haven’t signed up for the notifications, please do it. (I just installed a new notification system because the old one was nearly maxed out, which sounds impressive but kind of isn’t.) And to paraphrase someone wise: if you like something, say something, to someone who shares your taste.
Also? Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope this year brings more sweet than bitter to all of us.
xxoo, Jennifer
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