Annie Ridout

London

Writer at The Creative Way (with Annie Ridout)

➰ Author, journalist, ghostwriter, poet, podcast host. ➰ ✍🏻 Guardian, Independent, Telegraph, Grazia etc. ➰ Rep: @bergstromstudio ➰ Substack 👇🏼

Articles

40 things before I turn 40

1 week ago | annieridout.substack.com | Annie Ridout

I will turn 40 this year. I feel awkward saying that because people often think I’m 40+ already. I don’t know if it’s my long flowing dresses and Birkenstocks, the ‘smile lines’ around my eyes or the fact that I still wash my face with Dove soap like a teenager. But, judgements - and following awkwardness - aside (Oh my God, are you not even 40??), I’m looking forward to my 40th.
Cooling the heat of my thoughts.

1 week ago | annieridout.substack.com | Annie Ridout

I’m in Ireland for the Easter holidays, in Dingle, near the tiny farm where my grandma was born and raised, and I can see the lightly-rippling salt water in the Bay of Dingle from the holiday home we’ve rented. The sun shines consistently through our five days here - a rarity - and glistens and sparkles on the sea that looks more like a lake, because there are no crashing waves or crunchy foam.
I'm speaking a new love language

2 weeks ago | annieridout.substack.com | Annie Ridout

Quick note: for my creative business emails, you can sign up here (they are completely free to read) but most of my essays here are now behind a paywall. For just £3.50/month or £35/year, you can access all the essays, including the archive. I’m grateful to those who support my writing, thank you. I’ve become multilingual in love languages. I know that my husband loves it when I bake granola or hand him a cup of tea or make plans to see people he likes, and so I try to do this fairly often.
Some homes matter more than others.

3 weeks ago | annieridout.substack.com | Annie Ridout

I’m eight years old and home is my sanctuary. We live in a terraced house on a road in north London with a nice garden that has a gate at the end leading out to a communal green space we call The Hundred Acre Woods, although it’s probably less than one acre. There, we meet with our neighbours’ children and swing on the swing, tend to the rabbits and try to sell bags of soil to each other. I go to school and I have a best friend and three other close friends.
Instagram is NOT over.

4 weeks ago | annieridout.substack.com | Annie Ridout

Back in 2015, I started an Instagram account to share the daily articles I was publishing on my digital magazine. It was easy, because I would use the main photo from the article or interview, and I’d pinch the standfirst to use as a caption. I’d get a few likes here and there but although the articles that were going out were getting lots of views, the Instagram posts were pretty lazy and so they rarely took off. Nothing went viral, because: why would it?
Have I taken on too much?

1 month ago | annieridout.substack.com | Annie Ridout

It’s Monday morning, 6am, and I’ve woken with a knotted stomach. This is strange, as I usually start the week feeling buoyant and hopeful. I’m self-employed, working from home, earning a good living doing creative work. I have designed a career that truly gives me a quite magical work-life balance. A balance I never thought would be possible. And yet, it’s Monday and I have this sense of doom. It feels like I’m back in an office job I don’t want to be doing.
I keep getting trolled.

1 month ago | annieridout.substack.com | Annie Ridout

I’ve been on Instagram since 2015 and in the past 10 years, I have probably been trolled two or three times. I can’t even remember any of the messages. The only other time I’ve been trolled was when I wrote an article for a national newspaper and several people left rude comments about my fringe. So, I’ve been lucky. Or careful. Or vanilla. But then a few weeks ago, I crept back onto my @raising_neurodivergence Instagram account to share one quick message and it went massively viral.
The Creativity Scale

1 month ago | annieridout.substack.com | Annie Ridout

I was introduced to a friend of a friend recently and she said he was a painter. A full-time painter. You do painting and decorating? I said. No, he responded, I’m a fine artist. In my head, I returned to ‘full-time’ and thought: So, his art is so well-received that he earns a good enough living just from that with no hustle around the edges.He is a ‘proper’ artist. I was interested in his work and asked some questions. He answered them, fully.
How to age like an artist

1 month ago | annieridout.substack.com | Annie Ridout

I intend to age like an artist. Long grey hair winding down my spine; sculpting with my hands rather than someone else sculpting my face. I will be prim and proper at times: no elbows on the table; swallowing my food before I speak. And improper, too: loudly debating feminism and philosophy, as food sprays obscenely from my mouth. I will gather more and more female friends and walk with them as they tell me their stories and desires; about regrets and lost loves. I will listen, and also talk.
What I earned in January (it surprised me)

1 month ago | annieridout.substack.com | Annie Ridout

In January, when everyone was talking about it being the longest month ever and asking when it was going to end, I was quietly having a lovely time. I like the ‘new year’ energy and also, sales were flying in without me doing much at all. I say that, of course I was working. But it was all creative work. Writing on Substack about living and working creatively; sharing poems and poetic passages on Instagram (and deleting 1000+ old posts), mentioning The Creative Way courses.

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Annie Ridout @annieridout

8 Nov 24

Julie M Green's teenage child is autistic. She is too. Here, Julie writes about how it has been for them navigating diagnoses, school and people's judgements. https://t.co/jVu9DZZegA #autism #adhd

Annie Ridout @annieridout

19 Oct 24

RT @_MissingTheMark: It’s meeting them where they are at. Understanding what’s behind it all. It’s relationships where they trust and feel…

Annie Ridout @annieridout

19 Oct 24

RT @__wetpaint__: #Strictly BBC told the judges to vote high for Wynne & Kat to keep them in https://t.co/bwRzwDqvFq

Annie Ridout

Articles

40 things before I turn 40

Cooling the heat of my thoughts.

I'm speaking a new love language

Some homes matter more than others.

Instagram is NOT over.

Have I taken on too much?

I keep getting trolled.

The Creativity Scale

How to age like an artist

What I earned in January (it surprised me)

Contact details

Emails

Socials & Sites

X (formerly Twitter)