This morning I thought I’d write something personal and you’ll have to excuse me but I’m feeling a tad emotional right now. Why, might you ask? Well today with my lack of success in finding paying projects I hit rock bottom and finally did the thing that for many people, including myself, is the hardest thing in the world to do: I asked for help from my online community.
Such a common, little thing, right? You would think. But that childhood programming runs deep and my parents taught me to be self-reliant and never to “bother” people with your problems or to ask for help. And since I wasn’t raised in a church and America barely has a social safety net I felt that I didn’t have a lot of options left.
But after watching my bank account slowly drain away due to a lack of incoming projects (I’m a self-employed 3D artist) and realizing that I barely have enough for rent and not nearly enough to pay my bills I decided to swallow my pride and do something I never thought I’d need to do: I reached out to the DailyKos community where I’ve been a frequent contributor since 2015 and asked for help. You can read that diary here.
And it’s really working! Many people have opened up their hearts and wallets and become a paid subscriber to WokeAF. Others have expressed their support by joining for free and spreading the word. In fact the response has been nothing short of incredible.
(And if you’re one of my new subscribers to WokeAF, WELCOME and thank you for your support!)
So with that in mind I have decided to amp up WokeAF and really create a community of like-minded allies to the transgender community. Because if you are here, you are an ally. And now, more than ever, we need our allies.
So all this is a long-winded way to say this: if you’re a free subscriber to WokeAF would you consider upgrading to a paid subscription? I’ve reduced the annual subscription rate to $60 per year which is less than the cost of dinner for two these days (ugh, inflation, amirite?). Your support goes a long way towards helping me maintain this Substack and keeping the information flowing. And since AI is basically putting us digital artists out of work it looks like blogging and writing will be my main source of income.
Because as you are no doubt aware there’s a war going on. A war against trans folk and we are the canaries in the coal mine. And you KNOW the fascists won’t stop with us if they get back into power again. We are in the fight for our lives in this country and when the going gets tough, we need to come together.
So again, thank you for being here and reading WokeAF. If you can’t afford a paid subscription, that is totally understandable. You can still help by getting the word out, recommending WokeAF to your friends and family, or just by continuing to be awesome and reading WokeAF.
My name is Brianna Amore. She/her are my pronouns. And I thank YOU for being an ally!
With that we now return you to our regular scheduled programming.