In some ways, the past six years doesn’t feel like very long at all. Maybe that’s because COVID altered my perception of time, as days that felt so much alike peeled away.  

In June 2018, I established this website. I was freshly graduated from college, and I wanted to have an outlet where I not only had some stability, but I also had creative control. For over a decade, I’ve written about entertainment because I enjoy it, and so this website became my hobby. 

Before that time, I also witnessed firsthand how volatile this industry can be. When I was in college, I wrote briefly for The Odyssey, a national publication, only for our chapter to be shut down — the managing editor who pressed the publish button to our articles went silent one day. This was a common occurrence, as during that time, the company was downsizing. 

I also wrote for a short amount of time for The Huffington Post before it shut down its contributors program. The program was a great way for young writers to get a start with a national outlet, though it didn’t pay. I joined it by blindly sending an email to Arianna Huffington, which somehow worked. I wish I took more advantage of it, but I was juggling a lot of things at the time. 

I have many other examples, like my short-lived blog at my local newspaper, and how the chapter of Her Campus I helped revive at my college also became a COVID casualty. My college newspaper, The Beacon, also wiped about a decade’s worth of articles when it launched its new website, with most of what I wrote, coordinated, edited and designed only existing on issuu.com, print copies I’ve kept and the internet archive.

I made InReview in part so I wouldn’t have to worry about that. I also intended for it to be a place where I and others could write on topics that interested us.

We’ve grown by great leaps since 2018, though we’ve kept our identity as a scrappy independent review website intact. There’s also been myriad changes in how people consume media, which we’ve adapted to. Our TikTok account has far surpassed the traffic this website garners.

However, we’re not abandoning the website anytime soon. On TikTok, you’ll find our freshest takes and raw reactions to art; here, you’ll find deeper takes that often have the benefit of more time. It’s also primarily on here where you’ll find content from InReview’s other writers — our fantastic managing editor, Andrew Baillargeon, and our literature critics Poonguzhali Arularasu and Brandon Hill.

Personally, InReview has benefitted me greatly. It’s allowed me to manage many talented writers and help them grow, it’s kept my writing sharp and it’s greatly honed editing skills that I use everyday for work.

You won’t find much clickbait here — our writers only write about what they’re genuinely passionate about. I think that’s why this endeavor has lasted so long — this is something we all enjoy doing. It’s not about going viral — it’s about finding fulfilment.

Thank you for a wonderful six years. And thank you for your continued readership.