I’m Patricia. I’m Black, Asian, and queer. I’ve had a lifetime of answering questions in various settings. I was a sex educator & dating expert for years. I have a Master’s of Library and Information Science. I talk a lot about books but my degree can be summed up in three things: being able to find information, being able to tell valid information from bullshit, and making information accessible.
I also do a lot of emotional and intellectual labor around giving allies information and resources about race, LGBTQIA things, intersectional feminism, mental illness (I’m a member of the clinical depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder club), and that’s just the stuff from a first-hand perspective.
I also read a lot of self-help/self-improvement books and I’m repeatedly disappointed. They rarely feel applicable. I don’t feel like a badass when depression makes it so I don’t even want to be out of bed. I don’t want to win friends and influence people when I have social anxiety that keeps me in hiding. “Leaning in” doesn’t always work when you’re a woman of color and nor can I manifest things out of thin air.
So, I’ve started this newsletter. There’s not a lot of self-improvement for me, so I gotta make my own thing. I also want allies to stop bothering their one Black or queer or depressed friend and asking them to do emotional labor for free. At best, I want to be a resource people can use and recommend. At least, I hope to share some laughs, some thoughts, and lots of encouragement and resource recommendations of my own.
We’re all in this together.