seastarya is becoming something new
& it involves near-weekly issues, new zines, & weird/wonderful nature
I launched seastarya almost two years ago, when I was 22 and living in San Francisco. This newsletter began as a documentation project for the media I consumed, but it evolved into an outlet through which to share snippets of stories about local nature that delighted me, projects I had to restart out of terrible failure, and new communities I’ve found since moving to Los Angeles in early 2023.
Though I’ve been pretty sporadic in my posts here, these past two years have helped me clarify what kind of writing, illustration, projects, and topics I want to focus more time and energy on moving forward. The common threads: nature-connection and community-building.
So, without further ado, I introduce you to this newsletter’s official relaunch as: Filter Feeder, a biweekly-ish newsletter about connecting deeper with the nature and community right where you are, which in my case currently is California (and spoiler alert, I’m trying to figure out those very things for myself, too, so we’ll definitely be on this journey together).
The term “filter feeder” refers to animals that strain their food out from water in a special way — imagine a big blue whale sucking in water and catching tiny krill on its brush-like baleen, or a barnacle extending a feathery, modified leg-structure on which to capture floating food particles. I often feel like a filter feeder as I move through the world, trying my best to strain out the most joyful and useful pieces I can from the waves of media, conversations, and interactions that flow through my days. This newsletter is where I make sense of how those pieces may come together, particularly when related to science, art, and social and environmental justice.
Starting in January, you can expect me (hi) in your inbox every other Friday with a post about nature, zines, or the many in-betweens — that includes interviews with California-based artists or nature-leaders, low-stakes ways to get involved with community science or climate action groups, illustrated stories about striking and/or criminally underrated animals and plants, and more. All of this will be entirely free.
However, I’m excited to also announce that I’m launching paid subscriptions on Filter Feeder! For $6/month or $60/year, you’ll get all of the above, plus a couple extras …
Automatic access to all installments of a natural list, aka an illustrated mini-series released here on Filter Feeder that, through a personal lens, explores the most surprising and delightful things to know about the immense expanse that is native plants, animals, and fungi of California. This series was inspired by the common tradition of naturalists keeping “life lists” that document the species they’ve seen throughout their lifetimes, and it’ll run as long as it takes to get through every California native species (which is to say, buckle in, because there are over 6,500 plants alone). In other words: It’s my unfiltered commentary on iconic California species.
Opt-in access to the Filter Feeder Zine Club, in which you’ll receive a physical copy of a new, original mini-zine (containing something wonderful or important-to-know about nature, community, and/or how humans interface with both) in your mailbox in the middle of every month. Y’know, right when the month is beginning to feel like it’s both never-ending and disappearing unimaginably fast. You can expect more info on the logistics of how that physical mail delivery will happen safely and securely to be delivered to your email inbox if you become a paid subscriber.
In any case, thank you so much for sticking around for the past couple years. The world looks much different today than it did when I started this project, and I’m grateful to have this newsletter as a place to document how and what I learn as everything changes and continues to do so. See you next Friday for the first official (!!) issue of Filter Feeder!
A quick note for any readers who are extra-familiar with Substack (and with what’s going on right now):
I know, interesting choice of me to go paid in a time when the people in charge of this platform have made decisions (and responses to those decisions) that demonstrate a clear lack of thoughtfulness and care, laid out very well by many writers on here …
’s recent post has a great list of places to start reading about this. I’m honestly still trying to figure out if and what I want to do in the face of Substack’s disappointing response to writers fairly calling them out, but my goal for at least the next year here is to share my art and writing in a sustainable way while continuing to engage with and support the writers who’re actively holding Substack leaders accountable to their actions. More updates to come on this, I’m sure.
It’s critical to keep holding empathy, compassion, and righteous outrage in times of injustice. One potential way to do so this week: Doctors Without Borders/MSF continues treating people in Gaza at some of the few remaining hospital sites — consider supporting their efforts here.