the weekly: what kind of influence do you want?

One of the most pleasant, and unexpected, parts of my Substack journey has been meeting other writers from this platform in real life. I feel lucky that in NYC - Brooklyn in particular - there are so many of us that live here and are able to get together, and I do feel like I’ve made some actual, real life, adult friends, which is both difficult and thrilling. I feel lucky to have a wide network and strong community - something I never really knew I needed until I a) didn’t have it for a bit, and b) became a mom. These women are writing about everything from fashion to motherhood to cooking to travel to finances to commerce and everything in between, but in nearly all of my conversations with them over the last couple of months or so the topic of influence has come up in some form. What is it? Do we have it? Where are we finding it? Are we influencers? What does that even mean, if we are? Is that a good thing? How do we wield it?