Welcome to the Feelings Club!

A note about wut exactly we are doing here.

Hello, gems!

It’s Kimmy and Liza, the therapy-loving, wellness-averse BFFs and hosts of the podcast 51 First Dates.

If you are receiving this email, you are subscribed to Precious Gems, our newsletter-slash-community all about dating and feeling. (Thank you!) Or, you shared your email with us, and now are like, “Hi, wut?” (We’ll explain!) Or, you were just newsletter-curious, browsing Substack, and decided to swipe right on us. (Bless you!)

Each Wednesday, starting 2/8, this *free* newsletter will serve up a cornucopia of:

• Advice on topics du week, like angsty texts, heartsickness, and singledom

• Juicy diary-style thoughts and responses to reader-submitted tales

• Big, fat, regular reminders that relationship status and worthiness of love have zero correlation

• Lowbrow TV recommendations, content we’re consuming, and maybe even a ranking of our favorite period drama hotties (cc: @DukeofHastings)

What’s in it for me?

We hope this newsletter feels like a warm hug delivered to your inbox each Monday. But there will be dread, too. Promise. (We would never disappoint the perfect gem who once called us “uplifting without toxic positivity” in an Apple podcast review.)

But for real, dating is complex, awkward, and vulnerable, and we want to discuss all of it. You can read more about Precious Gems by pushing this little button, if you’d like:

We also want to create a *~community~* filled with cool, kind humans where comments can be shared, advice can be requested, and pen pals can be found! Signing up is the best way to stay in the loop.

Finally, this newsletter is VERY MUCH FREE! So tell your friends, whether they’re aggressively dating, not really dating, anti-dating-but-pro-feeling, super married, or they just like to read stuff — it’s a pandemic, the bar for new content is low. Merci!

Why a newsletter?

If you listen to the podcast, you may be wondering WTF we are doing here on Substack. Totes fair. When we asked you what you’d like to see more of, the most popular responses were: a newsletter and a TikTok. Because we are 32-year-old witches, we went with the former.

Not sure if this newsletter is a product of a “new year, new us” hangover, inspired by the ever-so-slightly lessened sense of doom here in 2021, or (probably) a result of our desire to be a little bit famous. But hey, we’re doing this! Thanks for being here.

But, um, your Patreon?

Frankly, our Patreon never popped all the way off. (Such #GirlBosses!) TBQH, we’re also more interested in creating a community than monetizing right now. We don’t want dollars to be a barrier.

For now, our bonus episodes will still live on our Patreon. We may eventually move some bonus content to a paid tier here on Substack, but our main newsletter will remain free.

What now?

A few things…

• Starting next Monday, we’ll send out our first full-ass, feeling-filled newsletter, just in time for 2/14 (UM, SHOULD WE GALENTINE’S HAPPY HOUR?!)

• For today, we’ll share some content recommendations that have nothing anything to do with stonks/GameStop, below (tho this is a good primer on that)

• Your support in building this community will allow it to “be best” — if you recommend this newsletter to a friend or share it on social, please let us know and we’ll shout you out in our next newsletter/podcast AND do a dating profile review/answer your dating question, if you’re interested!

• We sweat your input — leave a comment on this post telling us what you’d like to hear from us, or email your questions at 51firstdatespod@gmail.com and we’ll respond in a future newsletter!

  ~INAUGURAL~ Consumption Corner

  OK so, none of this week’s recs are particularly lowbrow — but we’ll be back on brand next week.

  For now:

  • This video of giant pandas playing in the snow will tickle for your eyeballs

  • For a soothing read: Rachel Syme’s article about scents in the New Yorker

  • Have you seen Kyle Maclachlan’s alarmingly charming TikTok? Complete with a “tomato mystery”

  • SOPHIE’s music on Spotify; the enormously talented producer and performer died tragically this weekend

  • This Interview mag conversation about Bridgerton, Fran, and more with the epitome of cool, Jeremy O. Harris (looks like we all need to watch Veneno)

  • Recently recommended by Liza, The 40-Year-Old Version is a phenomenal film, and easy to watch, since having a pulse = having a Netflix subscription

  • Our latest episode with Keeley Rankin!

  That’s all for now, gems! We hope you’ll subscribe, and we luv u very much.

  See you next week!

  xx Kimmy and Liza