WELCOME TO WILD BARE THOUGHTS

what this place is, why it exists, what it's becoming, and what you’ll find inside

Hi, I’m Stepfanie—welcome to WILD BARE THOUGHTS, my neon-lit desert-meets-jungle corner of the internet. Last month, my essay on taste went viral. A few weeks later, one of my essays was featured in the New York Times. Since then, this space has grown faster than I ever could have imagined.

With over 5,000 of you here now (which still blows my mind), it felt like the right moment to reintroduce what this project is, what it’s becoming, and what you’ll find inside. Consider this a sort of living glossary—a way to explore the recurring threads, navigate the archives, and get a feel for how everything connects.

If you’re new here, welcome. If you’ve been here for a while, thank you—I hope something here has made you feel more human.

All of this still feels surreal. I didn’t set out to become a writer with a capital W. I just started thinking out loud—and enough of you resonated to turn this into something real. And for that, I am eternally grateful.

This isn’t just a newsletter. It’s more like a thinking project. A living archive of curiosity, clarity, and the contradictions of being human—all from the perspective of someone who believes curiosity is a form of self-care, and presence is a form of power.

I don’t believe the solution is to opt out of modern life. I believe it’s to engage more intelligently. To build a relationship with your own mind. To become the kind of person who can filter signal from noise—and build something meaningful from it.

This publication is my way of doing that in public.

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I like to think of it as a no-niche, anti-content content stream. A place for essays that feel more like internal monologues. A lens, a portal, a place to put the thoughts that won’t leave me alone.

I write about (a little bit of everything, really):

— the intersection of systems thinking + self-reflection

— the art of noticing and the architecture of attention

— presence, distraction, and emotional pattern recognition

— awe, memory, love, creativity, clarity, transformation

— self-pursuit, solitude, and the long game of becoming

— desert walks, giant dogs, and techno-optimism

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I don’t follow a fixed publishing schedule, but there are the two anchors that hold this whole thing together:

THE DAILY 5 — drops every Monday for paid subs

A 90-day self-pursuit journaling framework built around five-minute rituals in self-awareness. This is for readers who want to understand themselves more deeply without disappearing into self-help overwhelm.

Each week contains seven themed posts—one for each day—each with a core prompt, deeper exploration questions, and sample language to guide your AI (if you choose to use AI).

There are also optional Canva worksheets that let you track your answers and submit them back to your AI for a weekly or monthly meta-analysis, if you’re into that kind of deeper reflection.

→ Learn more here: Frequently Asked Questions

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LAST WEEK IN THE WILD — hits inboxes every Sunday

A weekly recap: cultural digest, quote round-up, and highlight reel of what made me think that week. Each one includes links to everything I shared that week, in case you missed something and want to catch up all in one place.

Here is what a week typically looks like, if you’re curious—

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In between THE DAILY 5 and last week in the wild, I publish essays on everything from AI to Baldwin, Montaigne to modern memory, philosophy to femininity. I also occasionally share poetic fragments, artist deep-dives, and personal stories when they call to me.

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Who am I, if you’re wondering—

I don’t take many photos of myself lately (trying to get better about that!), but this is me circa 1992 in my forever-favorite bright red boots :)

I’m nobody. And also—someone who’s spent her whole life trying to understand why things feel the way they do. I grew up along the California Coast, but I now live in the Vegas desert with my two gigantic dogs. I write, I think, I walk. I released an album earlier this year (speedrunning love) which is basically my diary from the last decade in song form. I read obsessively. I question everything. And I believe clarity is the new luxury.

Formerly a marketing girl, then a content girl, now just a writing girl who’s finally starting to feel like herself again.

If you’re someone who thinks deeply, feels hard, values presence, curiosity, depth over dopamine, the art of noticing, and wants to stay awake to your own life—this space is for you. If you feel exhausted by the self-help industrial complex but still want to grow, if you think nuance matters more than hot takes, if you believe small inputs compound, and that attention is the real currency, you’ll probably feel right at home here.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you’ll stay a while.

XO, STEPF

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