π©π»βπ» About tanjennts
All about the newsletter and what to expect from it

tanjennts is the creative outlet of writer & photographer Jenn Chen

Links: Paid plans | Favorite pieces | Testimonials
As a newsletter powered by chips and inspired by coffee, you can expect the unexpected. I'm told that I need a special one-liner and a niche for people to subscribe to this, but to be quite honest, I don't do well with advice meant for the masses.
But if you need one, here's the one-liner:
Exploring the tangents that life creates: essays and story links in culture, identity, solopreneurship, social activism, and more.
I don't like being pigeonholed, so I've purposefully made tanjennts to be all-encompassing of my interests, whether in words, photos, or both. But if you are interested only in coffee, this is not the newsletter for you.

Free & paid plans β "Why should I pay?"
Paid members sustain the work that goes into my free newsletter. It is just meβI'm the creative director, writer, editor, admin, pseudo-graphic designer, and everything else. Creative work takes time, energy, and mind space. If you have the monetary means to do so and youβve benefitted from my work, please consider the paid plan.
Free: 2x a month, sent midweek
- Notes from Jenn: Life notes, only for email subscribers
- The tanjennt: An essay on what's been on my mind lately. Everything after this section is for logged-in or email subscribers (free or paid).
- Self-promo: My latest writing, source requests for articles I'm working on
- Curated media to explore and be inspired by
- Plant update: A plant feature from my container garden!
- Subscribing also gives you commenting privileges on the free articles.
Paid: 2x a month, sent midweek on the other weeks
$5/month or $50/year
sliding scale: $3/month or $30/year
Everything in the free plan plus two additional posts a month (at least four total per month). Each is a singular piece, such as:
- Letters centered around creativity
- Bonus content to an existing interview
- Photo essay. For some of these, I may unlock them after 60 days for free subscribers to peruse.
- Behind-the-scenes: articles I've written, photos I've published, the freelance life, building a photography business
- Mental health ruminations
- Sneak peeks at what I'm working on
Multiple payment methods are offered via Stripe, including international ones.
As someone who has been humbly enjoying your paid version as a comp subscription, I just wanted to say that seeing the two versions side by side each month has just been really lovely. They're so continuous and equal in value to each other. It's a powerful demonstration of equity in creativity, actually. That yes, you can do both β you can serve lower income folks who adore your work, AND you can also offer meaningful value worth paying for, to an audience with means to support that work. And neither is greater or lesser to the other. I wish more people would take an approach like yours. π

Favorite pieces
To get a sense of what I like to write about and photograph, here are some of my favorites:









What others say
Here are some snippets of what others have to say about my newsletter:
Enjoy the newsletter. Always surprised and delighted to find something I really want to click on.
I always forward your emails to people. Your content is rich, educational, relevant and inspiring. Thank you.
Yours is one of the very few newsletters that I want to receive in my primary gmail inbox. Iβm always learning and intrigued about the topics you choose. Thank you for raising the important issues and thank you for consistently sharing high quality information!
The tanjennts reader is:
- a creative person, either as a profession or hobby
- endlessly curious and open

A non-exhaustive list of things I pay for that help me with this newsletter:
- Grammarly for copyedits
- Canva for designs and photos
- Temi for AI transcription
- ClickUp to organize all my projects and thoughts
- Bear for notetaking
- Dreamhost for hosting my website and this subdomain
