The challenge of naming a Substack

And how it's much harder than dying your hair pink

Dear friends,

Welcome to the first edition of Natural Connection! I’m thrilled and grateful you’re here.

A few days ago, I woke up and decided to dye my hair pink. Today, I decided to take the plunge and start a Substack.

Not a bright hot pink, you understand. A subtle, candyfloss hue. After recovering from a brief and minor heart attack, my partner is telling me it’s classy, which I think is generous. I admit that in combination with the bright pink dress I wore to the hairdressers, it might initially have come across as too much. But honestly, I love it.

Now here I am on Substack. Truthfully, the biggest barrier to being here has been the name. It’s not at all like getting your hair dyed. Then, you just have to walk into the hairdressers, sit down in the chair, communicate some vague vision and watch them do the work. But coming up with a suitable Substack name feels like a balancing act.

I want to be clear on what I’m here to talk about, but I don’t want to pigeonhole myself. A blank canvas is simply fantastic when you’re alone in an art studio with no plans and no commitment for the art to go anywhere. But when that blank canvas is what gets you an audience, makes you into A Person Worth Listening To, before you yourself even know what the finished canvas will look like, it all feels a little more pressured, which is exactly the opposite of what I think we’re all here for. I just want to play with the creative freedom of the Lionesses under Sarina Wiegman. But this is hard when you are your own manager.

I have many consequences to sit with today. First, I must figure out how to wash my pink hair without washing the colour out. Next, I must figure out what to call my Substack, and then write the damn thing. This feels like enough to do, especially when I have to take the bins out too.

Having taken you through these musings, I suppose the name I’ve landed on merits an explanation.

I wanted something that stems from the philosophy that underlies everything for me—that a rich, deep connection to nature is vital for a fulfilled, happy life, and that this can help us all navigate life’s ebbs and flows, highs and lows. I feel confident enough of this philosophy that it threads through everything I think. I also have five years’ worth of research on the relationship between nature and children, teachers and parents, filled with beautiful, moving stories that need telling beyond the data-driven world of academia. My own relationship with nature has also helped me navigate grief after the recent and sudden loss of my father, and I believe that the best way of illustrating the importance of this relationship is to tell my own story.

On the other hand, I wanted something vague enough so that I am not chaining myself to a blank page on a regular basis, desperately trying to squeeze my writing through the lens of nature connection, when it does not fit. ‘Natural Connection’ is open enough to evoke the search and longing for real connection with people that transcends a digital world, something that reading brings to us all. I am hoping that ‘Natural Connection’ strikes this balance.

If you disagree, I’m presuming that it is at least intriguing enough that you have read this far, for which I am eternally grateful. If you would like to stick around as I explore how my relationship with nature is helping me navigate self-discovery, change, existence in liminal spaces between life’s various rites of passage, grief and loss, and escape from the toxicity of daughterhood, I would be thrilled to have you along for the journey, even if it is just to watch me unravel. There will likely be some poetry too.

Pink hair!

Now that I’ve laid out an attempt at an exhaustive list of themes, I can see why coming up with a title has felt so impossible. Apologies if ‘Natural Connection’ doesn’t quite cut it, but I’m plonking for this for now.

I’d love to know what ‘Natural Connection’ sparks for you. Or if you’ve ever had pink hair. Let me know.

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