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Hey Reader,

If you’ve ever felt like you had to sandpaper your edges to fit in, think again.

If you’ve ever caught yourself shrinking your voice, dampening your presence easier so you’re easier to digest, making your truth more palatable — please, think again.

The world needs your voice. Unfiltered. Unsandpapered. Unapologetically yours.

If you’re any kind of misfit — if you don’t fit the straight, white, male, cis-het, neurotypical mould, or if you carry a message that makes people uncomfortable — there are others out there looking for someone who sounds like you. Someone who’s lived what they’ve lived. Someone who refuses to be easy to swallow.

Your voice might be the one that changes everything for them.

Representation isn’t just nice — it’s necessary

For most of recorded history, we’ve heard a narrow set of stories from a narrow set of storytellers. Priests and pharaohs. Kings and emperors. The church and the wealthy. The people who controlled the printing presses, the publishing houses, the platforms.

Those stories shaped the world — but they weren’t always our stories.

When the only books, the only voices, the only narratives come from people who don’t look or think or live like us, we learn to believe the world wasn’t built for us. That we have to contort ourselves to fit someone else’s template. That our truths are too messy, too raw, too much.

EVERYTHING starts with the stories we tell.

Words don’t just describe worlds, they build them.

And we’re finally in a position to build our own.

This isn’t about being polite

On Wednesday, January 29th at Watershed Bristol, we’re gathering for the Self Expression Sessions — an evening that refuses to sit quietly in the corner and behave itself.

This is part of the Reclamation Tour, the precursor to Sophie Lee’s upcoming book Beyond Palatable: A Manifesto for Unapologetic Women. Not a lecture you endure, but a conversation you join.

We'll be exploring:

• How lived experience creates the most powerful non-fiction
• Why self-expression isn’t about polish — it’s about truth
• The role of bold, unflinching writing in cultural reckoning and collective healing
• What it actually takes to write (and share) work that refuses to be palatable

You’ll hear from Yinka Ewuola (business strategist and author of upcoming book Rich and Rested), Samantha Harman (style editor and author of upcoming book Just Get Dressed), Sophie Lee (creator of the Self Expression Sessions and author of Beyond Palatable), and me — Vicky Quinn Fraser, 5 x author, book coach, and champion of voices that don’t fit neatly into boxes.

Plus spoken word from Rosina Buck, whose poetry will remind you that voice lives in the body, not just on the page.

Fill in the gaps — with your story

I realized early on there was a chunk of life missing from my worldview. The people around me looked like me. The books I read were largely written by privileged white guys (and a few women). It took years to understand that millions of people out there have different ways of doing things — different stories, cultures, dreams.

And underneath all that difference is humanity. Humans with stories that connect us across time and space.

Take The Diary of Lady Murasaki, written over 1,000 years ago in Japan. I’m separated from her by ten centuries and an ocean of cultural difference — yet her words hit like she’s sitting next to me:

“As day dawned, I looked outside and saw the ducks playing about on the lake as if they had not a care in the world... I too am floating in a sad uncertain world.”

I hear you, Murasaki. I hear you.

That’s the power of a voice that refuses to be diluted.

We need your story

If you’re thinking you have nothing to say worth writing down, I’m here to tell you: that’s not true. You have stories that will make people feel seen and heard. And if you’re any kind of a misfit, this is even more crucial.

We need your voice. We need you to stop sandpapering yourself. The world needs more stories like yours.

​Join us on January 29th at Watershed Bristol. This isn’t just about books — it’s about reclaiming the parts of yourself you were taught to scrape away.

All profits go to The Fearless Girl’s Club, sparking adventure and curiosity in girls aged 8-12.

​Get your ticket here.

See you there.

TTFN,

Vicky 🫡

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