iza’s Substack

essays to read when you are tired of scrolling

IZA — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 17:51:29 GMT

We all love and sometimes need a little (or big) scrolling session. And it’s okay. However, it can become too much too fast and it get tiring for the mind. So here is are a few essays you can read instead <3

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Everything I Almost Said

Are you a bad friend?

5 months ago · 3135 likes · 135 comments · darina

stir the pot

things i notice when i'm not rushing

It takes a particular sort of slowness to notice things - not the kind that manifests through any conscious attempt, but the kind that arrives organically, quietly, the way sunlight creeps across a room. The world doesn’t stop spinning when you decide to slow down, but it shifts slightly, just enough to see it differently. Details once blurred into the …

a year ago · 102378 likes · 1266 comments · kitty

faith's core

your twenties are a second chance at teenagehood

How can a person know everything at eighteen…

2 years ago · 8922 likes · 110 comments · faith zapata

You had me at Hello

There are too many languages to express love, but I think prayer is the most beautiful

Forever the most dearest and deepest act of love…

2 months ago · 5216 likes · 34 comments · You had me at Hello

shoes and shots

you have time

When people talk about learning a new language, the first doubt that often comes up is, “I’m too old.” We’re told the best time to learn is when you’re young, that it won’t come as naturally later in life, similar to riding a bike or playing an instrument…

9 months ago · 1057 likes · 24 comments · jacqueline

I hope you find this valuable <3

Yours truly,

IZA 🌹

substacks I read this week & my takeaways

IZA — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 17:32:07 GMT

Here are a few of the Substacks I read this week & my learnings from each 🌹

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Things you'll learn the hard way (but wish you didn't)

Self-sabotage starts as self-protection

I was recently listening to a friend vent about someone who mistreats her and speaks with a nasty tone. I was trying to explain that the person with the tone is clearly unregulated — and can’t get a grip of their big feelings, even at their big age. And that sucks for him, because his life will be harder than it needs to be…

4 months ago · 9672 likes · 329 comments · Layla Shaikley

The version of yourself you’re becoming can feel threatening because it’s unfamiliar. Real confidence is built by doing the uncomfortable thing until your nervous system stops seeing it as an emergency.

writtenbylinou

The privilege of being lonely as a woman

Every summer, I trade my bus card for my passport and take a 3 hour flight across Europe, into North Africa. Whilst my classmates were summering in Europe or some tropical country in Asia, I was sitting in my grandma’s kitchen eating traditional Algerian cuisine and watching the sunset from the rooftop. Despite being raised in London, Algeria always fel…

a year ago · 4671 likes · 139 comments · lina

The essay reframes solitude not as something to be pitied, but as something women have historically been denied, and as something worth protecting.

Letters by L

To the Girls Who Overanalyze Everything:

There is a certain kind of girl who cannot let things simply be. She is the one who dissects every word, every look, every gesture—examining them through a magnifying glass of doubt. A girl who, when receiving a text, doesn't just read the words but searches for the silence between them, trying to hear what isn't said. A girl who twists her thoughts in …

a year ago · 17024 likes · 230 comments · L.

Overanalyzing isn’t a flaw, it’s a survival strategy. A way of trying to control a world that never comes with a guidebook.

heart led

people pleasing is a symptom of repressed anger.

i’ve shared a little bit recently about how i was shown that my chronic digestive issues are actually repressed anger during my ayahuasca ceremony in april. since then, i’ve been moving through a really intense journey of making contact with my repressed anger for the first time in my life…

19 days ago · 2543 likes · 50 comments · yas

People-pleasing is repressed anger wearing a polite face. When anger gets shamed out of us early, we stop directing it outward and start turning it on ourselves.

I hope you find this valuable <3

Yours truly,

IZA 🌹

media I consumed instead of scrolling

IZA — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 17:20:55 GMT

Every week I created a Substack and a mixed media curriculum containing essays, videos, podcasts, and other mixed media pieces that interest me. So here is what I consumed & what I took away <3

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Did you know that Monet’s water lilies is a war memorial?

For Miuccia Prada, oddness is a philosophy 🦢

highly recommended read for everyone, neurodivergent or not

An absolute classic - Joan Didion, the queen you are

Letters by L

To the Girls Who Overanalyze Everything:

a year ago · 17022 likes · 230 comments · L.

Overanalyzing isn’t a flaw, it’s a survival strategy. A way of trying to control a world that never comes with a guidebook.

I hope you find this valuable <3

Yours truly,

IZA 🌹

thought daughter essays

IZA — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 15:17:42 GMT

Substack has quickly become my favorite social media platform so I gathered a few essays which I would consider very fitting for the thought daughter. I hope you enjoy them as much as me 🌹

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rach's digital diary

i want to be known, but i’m afraid of what you’ll see

I’m not afraid to love people. I’m afraid of what happens when I let them love me…

5 months ago · 3903 likes · 98 comments · rachel

Feifei’s Substack

How To Start Having Original Thoughts.

I wrote a piece two weeks ago and some people felt seen or maybe exposed…

3 months ago · 13493 likes · 197 comments · Feifei

thought daughter archives

what i know of being an angry girl

cold palms of my hand. throbbing pulse of my heart. ears warm and red. skin of my lips peeled off. a choked sob escaping my throat in the middle of an argument. hair tangled up by the constant shaking of head and running my hands through it. bared teeth. swallowing the anger that rots my insides and forcing a disgusted smile. it's exhausting…

6 months ago · 4759 likes · 133 comments · thought daughter archives

mouthful of marigolds

the impermanence is the point

A hunger lives in women who refuse to save their lives for later. Not the hunger for more or better or different, though those exist too. Not the ambition we are taught to name and channel and make productive. This is something older, more urgent. It is the hunger to be fully alive before the chance passes. To taste it all while we still can. To stop pe…

5 months ago · 4419 likes · 224 comments · Vidya

Natosha's Substack

you don't get to hate the girl that got you here

i think one of the most disrespectful things we do to ourselves is talk about our past like it was something to be ashamed of. like the girl we used to be is someone we have to distance ourselves from in order to prove that we’ve grown. like evolution only counts if there’s a little bit of embarrassment attached to it. like healing means saying…

2 months ago · 8685 likes · 203 comments · Natosha

I hope you find this valuable <3

Yours truly,

IZA 🌹

essays to read instead of scrolling

IZA — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:44:28 GMT

We all love and sometimes need a little (or big) doomscrolling session. And it’s okay. However, it can become too much too fast and we get lost in the world of social media with our attention span shrinking and our mind being overstimulated. So here is are a few essays you can read instead <3

Subscribe now

mindbox

why we get in our own way (the neuroscience of self-sabotage)

There’s a particular kind of frustration that comes from standing in your own way. You feel ready, motivated, even, to do the thing. Apply for the job, set the boundary, go on the date, start the project. And then, you don’t…

a year ago · 12849 likes · 125 comments · yana yuhai

The Science of Being

the eroticism of knowing yourself

routines are sexy, so are habits, so are all the ordinary repeated things that nobody else ever notices, but that make you, you. that felt satisfaction of tending to yourself, moving through a day in…

a year ago · 3814 likes · 74 comments · lina

Timeless Clarity

A love letter to the creative woman who thinks she is running out of time

Come with me while I deconstruct the Myth of Running Out of Time…

a year ago · 11336 likes · 338 comments · Claire Farrell

I hope you find this valuable <3

Yours truly,

IZA 🌹

thought daughter essays

IZA — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:08:34 GMT

Substack has quickly become my favorite social media platform so I gathered a few essays which I would consider very fitting for the thought daughter. I hope you enjoy them as much as me 🌹

Subscribe now

Letters by L

The Irrevocable Fear of Being Perceived

There is a primal terror in being seen. Not just noticed, not just glanced at in passing, but truly perceived—laid bare before the judgment of others. To exist in the minds of people outside of ourselves is to surrender to a narrative we cannot control, to accept our complexity might be reduced to a single characteristic which may define how someone see…

a year ago · 24973 likes · 300 comments · L.

mindbox

why we get in our own way (the neuroscience of self-sabotage)

a year ago · 12822 likes · 125 comments · yana yuhai

mixtapes by gor

just because you don't require much doesn't mean you deserve the bare minimum

you notice everything. you notice when the effort shifts, when the energy changes, when you are the one holding things together without anyone acknowledging it. you notice how you start conversations, how you maintain them, how you keep showing up in ways that are not being mirrored back to you. and the worst part is not that you notice it, the worst pa…

3 months ago · 7684 likes · 79 comments · gor

over my years

the cost of feeling everything deeply

There’s a constant chaos in the mind when you feel things deeply. It’s a tug in your chest, a sort of anticipation. I call it a single, persistent knot of anxiety pressing into my life…

10 months ago · 16671 likes · 196 comments · fatima

I hope you find this valuable <3

Yours truly,

IZA 🌹

weekly curriculum 25

IZA — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 11:57:49 GMT

Every week I create a curriculum with media pieces which interest me. I enjoy learning and it keeps me from doomscrolling. Here is my curriculum for week 25 and I hope it is valuable to you too <3

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Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

postcards by hasif

Kindness and boundaries can co-exist

I’ve been thinking a lot about the way people often confuse kindness with self-erasure. As if to be kind, you must give endlessly. As if kindness is measured by how much of yourself you’re willing to give away, even when it hurts, even when it breaks you. But I’ve learned sometimes the hardest way that kindness without boundaries isn’t really kindness. …

10 months ago · 1156 likes · 25 comments · hasif 💌

Sunday

I hope you find this valuable <3

Yours truly,

IZA 🌹

thought daughter substacks / week 25

IZA — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 10:05:31 GMT

If you like to become what I call “immaculately well-educated”, one way to do so is create and follow curriculums. That’s why every week I build a substack curriculum with essays that interest me. Here are the articles for week 25 🌹

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I hope you find this valuable <3

Yours truly,

IZA 🌹

video essays to watch instead of scrolling

IZA — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 19:12:17 GMT

We all love and sometimes need a scrolling session. However, it can become too much too fast and we get lost in the world of social media with our attention span shrinking and our mind being overstimulated. So here are a few video essays to watch instead 🌹

Subscribe now

I hope you find this valuable <3

Yours truly,

IZA 🌹

video essays everyone should watch

IZA — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:01:03 GMT

If you need an escape plan from your doomscrolling, here are a few video essays for you 🌹

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I hope you find this valuable <3

Your truly,

IZA 🌹

thought daughter essays

IZA — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 18:21:27 GMT

Substack has quickly become my favorite social media platform so I gathered a few essays which I would consider very fitting for the thought daughter. I hope you enjoy them as much as me 🌹

Subscribe now

Here, There And Everywhere

Anthony Bourdain: A Life of Curiosity, Connection, and Courage

Anthony Bourdain didn’t just cook food—he taught us how to experience life. He showed us that the best meals weren’t just about what was on the plate, but who we shared them with, where we were, and …

a year ago · 5378 likes · 92 comments · Andrew Carr

404 not found

is deleting your digital presence the same as dying?

I’m concerned my phone is destroying my brain, fragmenting my perception of the world so much that I often feel like I’m trying to understand life while standing in the middle of a house of mirrors. The impact of constantly being plugged in, of living life one foot through the digital door, was only slightly noticeable before. However, it’s getting wors…

a year ago · 3997 likes · 75 comments · Sierra Madison

chicgirlmoment

the power of good literature, the limits of self-help books

The older I get, the more I realize that literature was more significant than I thought in growing my personality and worldview, that was actually the key…

7 months ago · 1777 likes · 24 comments · chicgirlmoment

culture craft

Healing is Making Us Mean

“Too much of nothing, so why don’t we give it a try? Too much of something, you’re gonna be living a lie.” (lyrics from ”Too Much” by The Spice Girls…

8 months ago · 22492 likes · 743 comments · Gloria Alamrew

Anita Damina

Some Women Do Not Get to Choose

On this earth, right now, there is a woman who will never get to live her life because it was stolen by the violence of the world. Because her life was taken from her before she ever had the chance to choose it. There will be no long future for this woman to look up to. No thrilling moments of trying to figure out her life or who she wants to become…

4 months ago · 1392 likes · 40 comments · Anita Damina

Yours truly,

IZA 🌹

video essays I watched instead of doomscrolling

IZA — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 20:02:33 GMT

I love video essays

So here are a few of the videos I watched to learn and to not doomscroll, I hope you find this valuable 🌹

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Yours truly,

IZA 🌹

essays I read instead of doomscrolling

IZA — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:12:38 GMT

Timeless Clarity

A love letter to the creative woman who thinks she is running out of time

Come with me while I deconstruct the Myth of Running Out of Time…

a year ago · 11243 likes · 337 comments · Claire Farrell

Arcane Sensibility

Get in loser, we're reclaiming our brains!

“I want to be smart again!” I tell myself as brain rot settles in after an hour of doomscrolling on TikTok. It’s not that I’ve lost my intelligence, but I’m slower, less sharp, and less motivated than I was in my student days…

9 months ago · 2259 likes · 44 comments · Daniela Pardo

Women are the Medicine

The consistency trap: why women need to stop living by male biology

A couple of weeks ago, the following Note popped up in my feed from the brilliant Alexandra Lais over at Soma Healing…

a year ago · 6526 likes · 280 comments · Rachel Lawlan

Terms & Conditions Apply

The Nonchalant Era Is Over: Be Great or Be Forgotten

For a while, not caring was the move…

a year ago · 7210 likes · 143 comments · Away

Museguided

Why We Stay in Rooms We Should Leave

“You only leave home when home won’t let you stay.” — Warsan Shire…

8 months ago · 2355 likes · 326 comments · Tamara

I hope you find this valuable <3

Yours truly,

IZA 🌹

thought club june

IZA — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 18:41:24 GMT

If you like to become what I call “immaculately well-educated”, one way to do so is create and follow curriculums. Also, a curriculum is a great way for me to dive deeper into a topic and really THINK about it. That’s why I created a thought club where every month, we explore on theme through books, film and art.

For June, the theme is Loneliness & Modern Isolation.

We’re exploring why people feel more alone than ever, even in a world that is more connected than any point in history. And instead of treating loneliness as just an emotion, we’re breaking it down into different layers.

I will post reviews for each media piece as articles here as well as in a video format on Instagram, TikTok and Youtube.

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The Curriculum

Fiction Book: “No Longer Human” by Osamu Dazai

This is a story about internal isolation, and what it feels like when you can’t connect to other people, even when you try.

Non-Fiction Book: “The Lonely City ” by Olivia Laing

This book loneliness through art, culture, and modern urban life, showing how isolation is shaped by the world around us.

Movie: “Lost in Translation” by Sofia Coppola

This feels like quiet study of emotional distance, where connection exists, but never fully lands.

Visual Art: “Nighthawks” by Edward Hopper

A very impressive image of modern loneliness, where people sit together, but remain completely apart.

I hope you find this valuable <3

Your truly,

IZA 🌹

thought club may

IZA — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 18:25:00 GMT

I love a good curriculum, I love curating, I love learning, I love visualizing it. Also, a curriculum is a great way for me to dive deeper into a topic and really THINK about it. That’s why I created a thought club where every month, we explore on theme through books, film and art.

For May, the theme was Identity under Pressure. We were looking at what happens when who you are clashes with what the world expects you to be.

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The Curriculum

Fiction Book: “The Stranger” by Albert Camus

You can find my video review here (Instagram / TikTok / YouTube)

Non-Fiction Book: “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” by Erving Goffman

You can find my video review here (Instagram / TikTok / YouTube)

Movie: “The Black Swan” by Darren Aronofsky

You can find my video review here (Instagram / TikTok / YouTube)

Visual Art: Alexander McQueen’s Spring/ Summer 1999 fashion show

You can find my video review here (Instagram / TikTok / YouTube)

I hope you find this valuable <3

Your truly,

IZA 🌹

weekly curriculum 24

IZA — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 08:58:51 GMT

Every week I create a curriculum with media pieces which interest me. I enjoy learning and it keeps me from doomscrolling. Here is my curriculum for week 23 - I hope it is valuable to you too <3

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Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Things you'll learn the hard way (but wish you didn't)

Self-sabotage starts as self-protection

3 months ago · 9441 likes · 319 comments · Layla Shaikley

Friday

Natosha's Substack

we actually do owe people an explanation

there’s a phrase i hear everywhere now: “i don’t owe anyone anything…

5 months ago · 15217 likes · 266 comments · Natosha

Saturday

Sunday

thought daughter substacks / week 24

IZA — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 08:48:46 GMT

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Monday

MWENDWA

“True love” is sexist propaganda

In the ideal fairytale romance where are you? Behind the white picket fence, in the white two story home, where do you lie? As a woman, I can identify myself easily. I am the wife in the kitchen. I am the mom tucking her kids to bed. I am in the backyard on my knees, tending to the garden. Where does a man see himself? Nowhere, probably…

a year ago · 3828 likes · 90 comments · Paris Mwendwa

Tuesday

Views My Own

The Charisma of Empire: Obama, Mamdani and the Erosion of Accountability

This essay is available to everyone but this work requires sustained support. So if this resonates with you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber…

2 months ago · 1454 likes · 115 comments · Sana Saeed

Wednesday

father_karine

ugly girl manifesto

people on here often ask me: “father_karine, is it difficult being the only alleged female poster on substack who doesn’t post pictures of herself…

10 months ago · 3112 likes · 135 comments · father_karine

Thursday

Matriarchal Blessing

Blake Lively and Amber Heard: When history repeats itself before we learn our lesson.

I never really had an opinion one way or the other towards actress Blake Lively, so last summer when I witnessed the overwhelming onslaught of criticism towards her I assumed there must be a valid reason for so many people to unite against her…

a year ago · 2856 likes · 235 comments · Celeste Davis

Friday

Eunnuri (은누리) Lee

cut fruit is not a love language

the cut fruit story has become an Asian american genre. the story of how immigrant parents who gave up their lives to give you a better one, for the “american dream”, the parents who can’t simply say “i love you” or apologize. in a childhood full of quiet and expected sacrifice, a plate of peeled apples or pears with a small silver fork show up at your …

2 months ago · 1166 likes · 41 comments · Eunnuri (은누리) Lee

Saturday

Still Unlearning

Is community the newest side-hustle?

I spent $128 dollars on community events this week…

2 months ago · 2058 likes · 92 comments · Mykala Daniel

Sunday

Nush's Substack

you're probably way more classist than you think you are.

the waxing lady kept insisting she would stand…

a month ago · 2714 likes · 85 comments · Nush

thought daughter video essays

IZA — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 17:55:35 GMT

I love video essays, for me it’s a fun way to learn and dive deeper into topics. Here are a few video essays I enjoyed watching recently. I hope you find them valuable too <3

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weekly curriculum 23

IZA — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 17:49:21 GMT

Every week I create a curriculum with mixed media pieces which interest me. I enjoy learning and it keeps me from doomscrolling. Here is my curriculum for week 23 - I hope it is valuable to you too <3

Subscribe now