Wednesday 7th January 2026

One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2025 was to read more. Groundbreaking, I know.

Specifically, I wanted to read more well-written articles in the hope that it would help me improve my own writing and broaden my view of the world. I’ve learned that the best way for me to form a new habit is to document it in some way, so I started keeping a reading diary. My pretty basic digital diary is a simple list of all the articles I have read, with links and standout quotes from my favourite pieces of writing.

As a new year begins and I start a fresh reading diary, I'm sharing the 20 best articles I read last year in case you might like to read them too. Here is a curated extract from my 2025 reading diary...

1. Hot Coffees and Hydrangeas: a Conversation with Georgie Jones

“Life is exhausting and complicated and often very isolating. I think most of us are just trying to stumble through without making too many catastrophic mistakes. We’re all tripping over the same uneven pavements, so if I can write something that helps someone feel a little less alone in all of that, that’s everything. It’s not really a byproduct; it’s the reason I keep showing up to do it.“ - Georgie Jones

2. The Good, the Bad, and the Iffy: Is There Such a Thing as an Ethical Designer?

“This is convenient for avoiding uncomfortable truths, but it also erases the fact that collective refusals can matter. Enough designers turning down fossil fuels, arms manufacturers, or tobacco doesn’t topple those industries, but it can slow their harm and deny them the professional legitimacy that design work confers.” - Elizabeth Goodspeed

3. Irrevocably and Profoundly Glad

“I don’t say any of this out loud, because I think sometimes sentimentality can shatter a moment that’s only meant to be quietly perfect in its own right, and because brothers don’t really say things like that to each other, but I do call for a selfie with Tommy once we’re back on the sand.“ - Jacob Stephen

4. Why Am I Crying About Unfollowing Someone I Barely Even Know?!

“People often act like others are just static in the background. But every stranger is totally, beautifully, specifically themselves. Most forget to even notice their face, a face that has never existed in this exact way before. That alone should be awe-inspiring!!!” - Meg Lewis

5. Screenwriter, Director and Comedian April Korto Quioh on Leading with Emotion

“I think I have to tell my story. If you like it, you like it. If you don’t, you don’t. And we can leave it at that. I’m just losing patience. I knew this day would come, though. I’m at my 10-year mark now and I knew that this day would come, and here we are.” - April Korto Quioh

6. Author Kiley Reid on Money and Day Jobs and Creative Work

“I was a saver. I had and still have a bit of an anxious personality and always wanted to have something to fall back on. I don’t think that’s a surprise. I think many authors and writers in general, and probably artists at large, have a bit of an anxious spirit about them.” - Kiley Reid

7. Losing Ones (Algo)rythm

“Like many in our age bracket (Leaving that open to interpretation), I think we’re craving something slower. We can’t exactly run off to the mountains — our lives are here now, rooted in the big smoke. So instead, we find new ways to put the brakes on. Journals. Books. Walks without a podcast. And increasingly, analogue or analogue adjacent rituals.” - Reece Davey

8. Musician and Label Founder TOKiMONSTA on Leaning Into Your Weirdness

“It’s tough. My friend was young, and you don’t expect to lose your friend so soon and so tragically. It’s sobering, and it just shows you how finite life is - to live each day graciously, and to remember that tomorrow’s never guaranteed, so we want to make the decisions that bring us joy as often as possible.” - TOKiMONSTA

9. Low-Energy Habits That Improved My Mental Health

“The thing about low-energy habits is that they aren’t about changing yourself. They’re about meeting yourself where you are - in your tiredness, your messiness, your in-between moments - and making them just a little softer. Because maybe, self-care isn’t about fixing anything. Maybe it’s just about making life feel a little more like yours.” - Ayushi Thakkar

10. “A Quiet Shift is Taking Place”: On Being a Creative in the Age of Content

“Social media can prompt creatives to compete and view others as opponents, when in reality, we can forge digital communities where authentic connections are valued and successes are celebrated.” - Matthew Prebeg

11. Play for Laughs

“I’ve been told I walk like a New Yorker. Weaving through traffic, on a mission, and always miles ahead of anyone trying to keep up. I would argue I just walk like a gay person.” - Nic Marna

12. Write Like a Girl.

“Stop comparing yourself to this ‘idea’ that you have in your head of the kind of writer or artist you think you need to be. Be a writer that fucking loves to party. A writer that loves life. A writer that wears a lot of make-up. A writer that swears like a sailor. Write like a fucking girl. Light a candle. Wear a cute outfit. Take yourself to a fancy coffee shop. Cosplay the life of a glamorous travelling writer. Do whatever silly thing you need to do to fall in love with it. Let it become your identity.” - Florence Given

13. Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?

“As straight women, we’re confronting something that every other sexuality has had to contend with: a politicisation of our identity. Heterosexuality has long been purposefully indefinable, so it is harder for those within it and outside of it to critique. However, as our traditional roles begin to crumble, maybe we’re being forced to re-evaluate our blind allegiance to heterosexuality.” - Chanté Joseph

14. The Secret Ingredient to Creativity? You.

“The best creative work depends on psychological safety - the freedom to speak up, to question, to throw out ideas that might seem wild. Without that safety, people play small. They stop taking risks. They stay silent instead of speaking up.” - Lilly Hannigan

15. You've Worn the “Protect the Dolls” Shirt. Here's How to Actually Live Up to the Slogan

“The harsh reality is that it tends to be trans people saving each other,” Angel says. “If we could depend on cis people to protect us, then maybe we wouldn’t need to fundraise, or share each other’s mutual aid posts, or even do this interview.” - Archangel

16. Designer Meg Lewis on Separating Who You’re Told To Be From Who You Really Are

“Almost every adult I’ve ever met has had this issue where they don’t know how to separate the person they’ve been told they should be and the person who they actually are. We’re all just cosplaying as the version of ourselves we think people want us to be and it’s confusing to figure out the difference between that person and who we actually really have always been at our core.” - Meg Lewis

17. Elizabeth Goodspeed on the Rise of the Designer as Influencer

“Not every part of the creative process needs to be turned outward. Some of the most durable forms of creative community still happen offline in conversations, studios, classrooms, and in the kind of messy, shared spaces where you’re so engaged that you forget about your phone completely.” - Elizabeth Goodspeed

18. A Practical Approach to Queering Design

“Working with the queer community is a gift, not because I see my own identity reflected in the work but because the diversity within the community has broadened my understanding of the world while deepening my sense that I belong here.” - John Voss

19. Who Gets to be a 'Scottish Writer'?

“Right now, up and down the UK, national identity markers are being weaponised as markers of exclusion; flags are being flown from gardens and houses and streetlights to signify a particular right-wing political position, one that says that anyone who does not look or behave the right way, or does not believe the right things, can be told to go back home - even when their home is exactly where they stand. Even when their roots run long and solidly under those very gardens and houses, and when their labour helps to keep those streetlights functioning.”

20. The Rise of the Creative Generalist: Why Being 'Good at Lots of Things' is Becoming a Superpower

“For years, we've been told that, rather than try to be all things to all people, we should find a specific skill and focus on that. But in an industry shaken by budget cuts, AI disruption and shifting client needs, being multi-skilled in 2025 is no longer a compromise; it's an advantage.” - Tom May

Some of these articles explain how we can improve the industries I work across, while others discuss how to foster personal connections in an increasingly digital age. Some of these articles were presented to me in newsletters I’m subscribed to, while others I discovered while scrolling on social media. Some were written by creatives I have long admired, while others were penned by people who I had never heard of before I started reading their thoughtfully crafted sentences. Some inspired my own writing work over the past year (covering topics such as mental health, social media, grief, and queering design), while others planted seeds I’m sure will sprout new words in future - a few delved into subjects I may never write about, but am so glad someone else did.

I am grateful that each of these talented writers chose to share the words they did. They made me think about what kind of designer, artist, writer, and human being I want to be.

Links, Links, Links.

I wanted to give an extra shout-out to anyone who has featured in this article and brightened up my reading habits over the past 12 months. I’d highly recommend following all of these people, platforms and publications…

The Creative Independent, Creative Boom, Tom May, Extra Teeth, Queer Design Club, John Voss, Delilah Friedler, Them, Chanté Joseph, Lily Hannigan, Studio Lutalica, 831 Stories, Nic Marna, Matthew Prebeg, It's Nice That, Reece Davey, Jacob Stephen, Kiley Reid, Meg Lewis, Elizabeth Goodspeed, Georgie Jones, and Neun.

The Best Articles I Read in 2025