50 Subscribers!!!

a ramble of gratitude <3

Dear Reader,

So this one might feel a little more disorganized than my other posts, but I have 50+ subscribers now, and that’s really really cool??? Substack is literally my happy place, so I’m really excited to hit my first little milestone. :)

There’s twoish, maybe threeish, things I’ve been thinking about with this, so I will now be sharing these as I enjoy Easter cookies, and I hope you all accept this as the week’s article.

my Easter cookies :D

The Value of a View

The first thing I thought about is my mindset towards “growing” on Substack and how it’s been so different from any other social media I’ve worked on. I guess because this blog is so Jesus-centric, I’ve always seen it as something that ultimately belongs to God. Therefore, I really trust God to grow this account to where He wants it to be.

And with this, something I feel God had me consider from the beginning was the value of a view. I never wanted to get hung up on growth strategies, because the value of words are not determined by the quantity of people who read them. Every time I write for this blog, even if one person is comforted, convicted, or moved in some way by what I’ve written, its purpose has been accomplished (and it’s totally okay if that one person is literally me haha). Views and likes aren’t just numbers–they’re people, and each human life is so valuable and worthy of my gratitude.

So yeah. I skip those “How I grew my Substack to X Subscribers in One Day” posts and the “How I Monetized in 3 Minutes With This Notes Strategy” podcasts, because it really doesn’t matter at the end of the day. OF COURSE, I’d be super blessed and honored to share my writing with more people, but I’m also perfectly okay with just having my small corner of the internet too. Especially when my corner of the internet is so kind! Technically out of all my “social media journeys” (TikTok, Insta, this), Substack has been my slowest growth, but the comments I’ve gotten on here, through the actual comments, text messages, DMs and even voice messages have been so super kind, and I’m so super blessed that this is what God has called me to do. :)

Surrender

The second thing this milestone brought to mind is surrender.

When I was making the decision to end my short-form content addiction by deleting TikTok and Instagram, I recall worrying about the state of my overall writing career, but especially the state of this account. In 2025, I heavily relied on posting to my writing Instagram for growth, so I worried that if I took a break (or potential permanent exit) from social media, I would lose the platform I care about the most: this one.

So even though I knew how damaging social media was for my confidence, creativity, and mental health, I almost refused to quit out of a fear that it would be the death of my blog too.

I prayed over this a bit, and in doing that, I received beautiful peace. God really reminded me that this blog and my writing career at large has always and will always be in the righteous right hand of the Father. I grew excited to let go of this final bit of control and fully surrender my blog to God, because I expected to see something great, and God carrying this account so consistently without me doing much besides sharing His words has been the greatest!

The Third, Completely Unrelated Thought

The third thing is a really cool one: I realized today that I’m a writer. I realized that I share my stories, thoughts, opinions, and musings and somebody is actually reading it. In fact, quite a few somebodies are reading my writing!

All my life, I’ve wanted to have the opportunity to express myself with others by using these funny little symbols we call words. I always dreamed of writing things that help others feel less alone and consider new possibilities, and I’m living in that right now. It may not be the thing directly paying the bills; it may not be the major publisher and bestsellers’ list (though trust, I have not given up hope just yet), but when you really think about it, I’m writer with an audience, and that means a lot to me.

I know this was much more rambly than my usual posts, but I wanted to share my heart as authentically as possible. I guess in conclusion, whether you’re an email subscriber or Substack one, I’m extremely thankful that you’ve liked my work enough to subscribe.

Love,

Anaya