Letter From Your Editors
A funny story about this month’s Insider collage! I only take about three selfies that I genuinely love a year. I famously… am phobic about photos and cameras etc etc etc. But I did take this photo! I took it to get outfit approval from a friend before a casual zoom date thing, and immediately I knew — this was going to be one of those three times.
So the next morning I came typing straight into the office, first thing, and I asked ever so kindly “whatever is this month’s Insider photo theme, can I use this photo?”
Next thing I knew, Kayla also had a stellar mirror selfie that was just burning her phone, and so this month’s theme was born:
1st: Carmen // KaeLyn // Drew // Laneia 2nd: Sarah // Shelli Nicole // Kayla...
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Carmen Phillips is Autostraddle's former editor in chief. She began at Autostraddle in 2017 as a freelance team writer and worked her way up through the company, eventually becoming the EIC from 2021-2024. A Black Puerto Rican feminist writer with a PhD in American Studies from New York University, Carmen specializes in writing about Blackness, race, queerness, politics, culture, and the many ways we find community and connection with each other. During her time at Autostraddle, Carmen focused on pop culture, TV and film reviews, criticism, interviews, and news analysis. She claims many past homes, but left the largest parts of her heart in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, NY. And there were several years in her early 20s when she earnestly slept with a copy of James Baldwin’s “Fire Next Time” under her pillow. To reach out, you can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram, or her website.
