Why The Squawk?
The Squawk comes from the nickname that was given to my ma when she was a young girl: the Squawking Chicken. My ma came out of the womb squawking. She was born with a loud voice and she never hesitated to use it. Unlike so many of the Chinese girls of her generation, the Squawking Chicken was not afraid to be heard and demanded to be seen. She refused to make herself small and quiet, which is why she quickly earned her nickname and continues to live up to it.
The Squawking Chicken is my Original Gossip. And that formed the foundation of LaineyGossip from its start as a newsletter in 2003 to the website it is today. While much about the site has changed over that time, we’ve always written the site as though we were having a conversation with a close girlfriend. Only that conversation has, until now, been somewhat one-way.
The Squawk, then, for us, is a full circle return to what birthed the original website and a way for us to engage with you and others who make LaineyGossip, celebrity, and pop culture a part of their day.
Why subscribe?
Subscribing to The Squawk is both a way to support what we do on LaineyGossip and a new way to tap into our community. Some of this content will be free for everyone. Other features will be available for paid subscribers and we would so appreciate your support.
Basic Subscription
A free subscription signs you up for weekly mailbag blasts. We’ll answer questions submitted via email and social media about posts from the week, as well commonly asked questions we’ve gotten over the years.
Paid Subscription
A paid subscription will include the above as well as full access to the newsletter and website archives, the ability to comment on posts on The Squawk, and access to our daily chat forums where we’ll extend discussions of posts featured on LaineyGossip.
Paid subscribers will also get a more inside baseball look at the behind-the-scenes workings of our celebrity-adjacent professions. Book and music and other recommendations are also part of the plan, and all of it built around discussion as we will be jumping in on the comment section to get your takes on what we’ve posted.
Join The Community
Openly accessible commenting platforms often invite the worst of the internet, especially when people don’t like your take on Harry and Meghan. The Substack community was built around writing and common interests. By locking down access to chat and comments to paid subscriptions, we are hoping to create a safe and constructive place for discussion.
Support LaineyGossip
Up to this point, LaineyGossip has always been supported by ads with free access to all features. Those of you who don’t block ads (thank you) have helped us pay our writers, staff, server costs, photo licensing, and all the other expenses that go into running a website. It’s expensive and not getting any cheaper. A paid subscription to The Squawk will help us keep LaineyGossip the way it is, while extending an opportunity to our most invested readers to take part in an extended experience.
