My first discovery of the Pool was via a presentation at work from a consultant. Said consultant was recommending a slightly dubious strategy that effectively revolved around targeting women like her. Not that she wasn’t perfectly lovely; but women like her are not so far removed from women like me. Women like me have no money, and the general rule of thumb is not to target people who cannot afford to buy one’s product.
Anyhoo, apparently women like me read the Pool. “What is this mysterious publication I apparently read regularly, yet have never heard of?” I wondered to myself.
WELL.
That was six months ago and I am now entirely on board with being a woman like me. To demonstrate my affection for this online publication, here are five examples of its excellence from “My Scrapbook”.
George Lawlor needs to learn why consent classes are so vital
First and foremost, the Pool is for us girls. Particularly us girls that are of the more feminist persuasion. I love that I can always find a viewpoint (often one I agree with) about what’s going on in the mainstream news, considering the feminist angle. I also love that none of the writers are shy about difficult topics such as rape, sexism, racism and transphobia.
Why should equality just be for girls?
Not only is this a feminist publication, but it’s my kind of feminism. The kind that acknowledges that sexism doesn’t only damage women, and that we need men on board if we really want to change the world. The kind that has Lauren Laverne saying why the hell can’t a little boy wear a Frozen dress?!
From my limited understanding of “content strategy”, it’s plain to see how much co-founders Lauren Laverne and Sam Baker have considered their target audience. Each article is labelled with how long it will take to read, and readers can search for articles based on how much time they have. As a result, the Pool offers a range of articles of varying lengths. My favourite example is the “Today I’m Channelling…” segment – just a sentence from a person of note before you get on with your day.
As someone who is overweight and a touch exercise-shy, I was delighted to come across this piece. Yes, it’s still telling me to get off my arse, but in a body-positive way (taking inspiration from the excellent This Girl Can campaign). Whether it’s beauty, health, or fashion, in their own words, the Pool has set out to be “positive and honest online allies”.
Celebrating 20 years of brilliant women’s fiction
Having suddenly rediscovered reading in the latter half of 2015, I came across this article at the perfect moment. I finished the article astounded at how few of the prize winners I’d actually read, apparently my literary choices have been somewhat haphazard and not particularly diverse. One of the things I’ve most enjoyed about discovering the Pool has been that I’ve found a group of intelligent, funny and passionate writers who inspire me to make think and choose differently.
Ok, I’m finished with the shameless fan-girling, just indulge me this once and give it a read?
Martha Is 
Leave a Reply