4. The Cost of Being Public

Both Hannah and I have been public for over 10 years as non-fiction writers and we've very openly in the world, Velveteen Rabbit style.

So, Hannah, what's your journey been in being public and what parts to keep private versus what to

share? Yeah, that's so good.

I actually just had someone ask me that question recently, and I think it's been such a journey because – you don't know what you don't know until you don't know it.

And like you said, 10 years means that we were like mid-20s on the internet, which I mean was really early for like our time.

Now kids are younger and younger on the internet, but like your brain's barely fully formed.

So I feel like you just have no idea what the emotional toll is going to be from putting yourself out there.

And I know that I, for one, did not plan a marketing strategy or a career built around being a social media star.

I was posting on Facebook and living abroad, and my parents wanted me to... be able to contact them.

And back then we didn't have phone plans that had universal service.

We didn't, we had to go to Skype cafes and call them.

And so Facebook was like a way that you could post a quick update with very spotty wifi from abroad and let them know you're alive.

And get on the move, you know, without having to like plan a whole endeavor to find a Skype cafe, to get in there, to pay, to go, you know, a whole thing.

And then see if they were even like home and available at that time with a 17-hour time difference.

So I was sharing my stories, my very grainy photographs, like overexposed.

You remember those days? Where there

was an iPhone thing.

27.

And we were like doing really saturated images.

There was like really grainy, saturated images, like 2012 and stories from abroad.

And I think that like, It didn't really feel like anyone was listening.

So I felt safe because I was just posting my stories for me.

I was writing because it was cathartic.

I was posting pictures.

I was really writing and posting as if it was just my parents watching and listening.

Both Hannah and I have been public for over 10 years as non-fiction writers and we've very openly in the world, Velveteen Rabbit style.

So, Hannah, what's your journey been in being public and what parts to keep private versus what to

share? Yeah, that's so good.

I actually just had someone ask me that question recently, and I think it's been such a journey because – you don't know what you don't know until you don't know it.

And like you said, 10 years means that we were like mid-20s on the internet, which I mean was really early for like our time.

Now kids are younger and younger on the internet, but like your brain's barely fully formed.

So I feel like you just have no idea what the emotional toll is going to be from putting yourself out there.

And I know that I, for one, did not plan a marketing strategy or a career built around being a social media star.

I was posting on Facebook and living abroad, and my parents wanted me to... be able to contact them.

And back then we didn't have phone plans that had universal service.

We didn't, we had to go to Skype cafes and call them.

And so Facebook was like a way that you could post a quick update with very spotty wifi from abroad and let them know you're alive.

And get on the move, you know, without having to like plan a whole endeavor to find a Skype cafe, to get in there, to pay, to go, you know, a whole thing.

And then see if they were even like home and available at that time with a 17-hour time difference.

So I was sharing my stories, my very grainy photographs, like overexposed.

You remember those days? Where there

was an iPhone thing.

27.

And we were like doing really saturated images.

There was like really grainy, saturated images, like 2012 and stories from abroad.

And I think that like, It didn't really feel like anyone was listening.

So I felt safe because I was just posting my stories for me.

I was writing because it was cathartic.

I was posting pictures.

I was really writing and posting as if it was just my parents watching and listening.