Desk Lunch was a community for all creative people of marginalized genders. From 2018-2021 (RIP), we published 113 issues of a bi-weekly newsletter featuring stories from creative folks around the world. Desk Lunch was co-founded by me and frequent collaborator and friend, Liz Wells.

Our goal was to build a community that had intersectionality, diversity, and accessibility baked into its ethos from the beginning. Knowing we could never adequately speak to the full breadth of issues faced by different marginalized communities, we decided to feature an essay from a different contributor every week. In these essays, contributors told personal stories ranging from dealing with imposter syndrome, to crying at work, and everything in between. Each essay was matched with a key visual pulled from public domain art that matched the tone of the essays in the issue. The art world is where the creative industry stems from, and where many people in the creative industry first get inspired, so this was a no-brainer.

We also hosted an IRL storytelling event on International Women’s Day in 2019 where our community got a safe space to gather and share their stories face-to-face. These stories were recorded and published as issues for the rest of the community to enjoy who could not attend in person.

While conversations about gender, feminism, and intersectionality have evolved a ton since we first published Desk Lunch, we still believe in the space we created to celebrate, support, and uplift the stories that often go unheard.