meet grand talks, my new interview series!
the ladies of platonic love on friendship: maintaining it, making new friends, and working through the hard stuff
oh hi, friends! i’ve got some fun news. i’ve decided to start an interview series!
i’ve been noodling on how best i can make a paid subscription worth it, and while i do intend to stick to my guns re: providing a personal essay each month, i thought it might be nice to expand my repertoire by bringing you the brilliance of the myriad of talented women i know both online and off.
so! meet grand talks.
each month, i’ll feature a special guest (or two!) in the form of a short, 5 question written interview—plus a few fun ‘quick hits’ at the end. each guest’s questions will be customized to “their” topic—whether that’s how to maintain friendships as a grownup, how to start fresh after a big breakup…or a myriad of other ideas i have up my sleeve that i shall keep secret for now!
i imagine that as i get this series of the ground, there will be a few kinks to work out—so i’m asking for your grace as i figure out how to pivot + add a fun new feature to the grand weekly.
ok, enough set up. let’s meet our first guests!
aliza sir and aja frost co-write the amazing substack platonic love, a newsletter for women in the messy middle: navigating the transformation from “twenty-something” to “adult with a capital A.” a couple of months ago, they reached out and asked if i might want to be a guest contributor to their monday newsletter, links we sent our friends. i was both flattered and nervous, because aliza and aja have the substack newsletter game down, but ultimately, i said yes, and an internet friendship was born!
platonic love, which the two friends launched together, features conversations of all shapes and sizes, and reads more like a magazine than a newsletter. along with their thoughtful, diverse contributors, aja and aliza talk about all things adulting, from motherhood to body image, grief to the importance of enthusiasm. platonic love is beautiful, well-curated, and feels like a conversation with a good friend. i can’t recommend it highly enough.
speaking of friends…
aliza and aja are currently running a friendship training program, which inspired me to ask them if they might be interested in sharing a bit about their friendship for my first grand talks interview. why friendship? well, at the risk of sounding dramatic, because i think it’s THE THING. female friendship, especially. my friendships are my lifeblood. they are the thing that keep me tethered to this earth when my emotions threaten to carry me away. friendship isn’t always easy, but it is always important—whether you’re in a how the f*ck do i make new friends stage or the i feel like my friend and i are growing apart stage (or anywhere else along the gigantic friendship spectrum).
below, i’ve asked aliza + aja to answer 5 questions about their friendship.
and, if you keep scrolling, they were kind enough to answer a few *fun* quick hit questions for me, too. read on to see their preferred morning beverage, what makes them feel their best, and the song lyrics they’ll love forever.
aliza + aja on friendship
how did the two of you meet?
aliza: we first met in a remote book club that i started during covid. one of my best friends asked if her new friend aja — whom she’d met through her now husband — could join us. she thought we’d get along well, and she was obviously right!
aliza, what’s your favorite thing about aja? aja, what’s your favorite thing about aliza?
aliza: my favorite thing about aja is she feels like a long-time friend the first time you meet her. we have a four year age gap — but maybe because we’re both older sisters, there was an easy connection from the start. and she gives the best book recommendations! in the early days, we bonded over asking each other, “what are you reading right now?” — but it expanded quickly from there.
aja: aww, i’m touched! there are many things i love about aliza, but my favorite is probably that no matter what’s happening in her life, when she’s with you she’s with you. she’s not thinking about something else or mentally planning what she’s going to do next or worrying about work — she’s focused on you. it’s a lovely quality and makes you feel so seen!
how do you make time for and/or prioritize your friendship amidst the demands of work, family, etc.?
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