2023, Uncracked

A reflective look back at your top five Scrambled Eggs stories this year...

My first foray into AI art. This was the best of a bad (egg)bunch.

I’m not quite sure how it happened, but, just like that, another year has flown by. 

A stand out for me this year was that it was my first being here, and meeting many of you who are subscribing to read my words every week. 

Thank you so much for supporting this little experiment of mine. I mean it when I say that I would not continue to show up each week and keep going without you all. 

In return, I hope my words have brought you joy, curiosity, inspiration or just a pleasant five minute break from the daily grind.

To close out this year, and in lieu of my usual Sunday Smorgasbord, I wanted to get reflective and share the five most-read Scrambled Eggs articles published in 2023, from least- to most-viewed. Did your favourite make the list? 

And as we look ahead into 2024, I’d love to know what topics you most enjoyed, and want to see more of in the year ahead via the comments. 

Wishing you all the best for the year ahead. Thank you again for being here. 

Emma

PS - If you’re reading this on email, this post is a media-heavy one, so you may want to switch to read in a browser.

5️⃣ I don’t want to hug myself, I just want equal pay

This was probably the first essay of mine that really just wrote itself.

I was so furious about this year’s poor excuse for an International Women’s Day campaign that I actually couldn’t sleep for thinking about it. So rather than stay in bed and stew, I headed to my desk and poured out my rawest thoughts and pressed ‘publish’.

The result? One of my top five most-viewed, and shared pieces. Clearly it resonated with many of you. Now let’s hope they learnt their lesson for 2024…

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4️⃣ Getting reflective, together

In contrast to number 5, which wrote itself, I ended up spending a lot of time on this one. So much so that it ended up turning into a mammoth two-parter, complete with a downloadable ‘try it yourself’ template. 

I’m so pleased to see this one went down well, as it was one of the first really ‘practical pieces’ I published here. Experimenting with essays like this has also taught me a lot about how I can better support others in achieving their goals through sharing my own expertise. If there are any other topics in particular, reply to this email or drop me a comment.

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3️⃣ Honouring the distance between our 'then' and 'now’

It’s often said that you never know which pieces are going to resonate most with your audience, and this essay was a great example of that. I might easily have returned to this October piece, on pushing out of our comfort zones, seen a couple of likes and not a single comment and think it was a misfire (and they certainly happen!)

But reviewing the stats, in reality this piece ranks number three on the list of most-read for 2023; it was by far my most-shared across social channels, and I received so many private emails and messages from subscribers telling me how much it spoke to them.

It’s because of this mismatch in perception versus reality that I’ve started to be more mindful of asking subscribers to hit the heart post when they enjoy a post of mine!

(Hit it now, would you? 😚)

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2️⃣ ‘Women: they’re cleverer than you think’

I’ve commented before that many of my most-read posts seem to have the following in common: they come from the heart and are on topics which cut close to the spleen. I guess it makes sense, if you’re feminist through-and-through, then why would your vital organs be excluded?

This was another successful post of mine responding to a (well-intentioned) article written by Adam Grant, which royally rubbed me up the wrong way on my Summer break. The result was this tirade treatise on why women are perpetually punished for their emotional intelligence (and even as men are simultaneously selling books on how to excel at it).

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1️⃣ The FIFA fairytale: Where you have to kiss a frog to get a trophy…

But by far and away my most-read post in 2023 was a tale of the big bad wolves lurking in Spain’s World Cup fairytale: FIFA and the Spanish FA.

What I’m proudest of with this piece is that, when I wrote it, no one else seemed to be publicly contemplating just how messed up it was that Luis Rubiales was leching on half of the Spanish Women’s World Cup Champions live on international television as they made their way to their well-earned trophy. 

Despite taking place on the world stage there was barely anything written in the Spanish or British Press about this audacious behaviour until days later. As a result, it was the first piece I wrote where I received numerous comments to pitch it to features editors. I did, and it duly resulted in tumbleweed, but it was a good lesson, teaching me to trust my instincts and feel confidence in putting my voice out into the world. 

Of course this tale escalated since (Rubiales shouting I WILL NOT RESIGN at his ‘resignation’ press conference, his mother holed up in a church on hunger strike, I could go on…), but thankfully basic decency won out in the end. If only it hadn’t cast shade on the Spanish team’s well-deserved moment in the sun.

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🙏 Thanks again for supporting my writing journey this year. If there’s any work of mine you particularly loved, or indeed loathed, I’d love to know, just drop me a note in the comments.

❤️ Enjoyed my work this year? Don’t forget to hit the heart to help me ring out the year strong!

🎇 Happy New Year and all the best for 2024.