Rosacea Club Is Changing

and I'm 80% excited and 20% nervous

Feb 11, 2025

Welcome to Rosacea Club 2.0!

Yes, things are changing. As a Taurean middle-child, I fear change. But this particular one is very exciting, and if you got all the ‘change’ references in the image above, you have my respect and are clearly in exactly the right place.

As of today, I’m enabling paid subscriptions on my Substack. I’ve been talking about doing this for a while and the time has finally come. I’m taking the leap. Biting the bullet. And other such phrases.

I know you’ll have questions, so I’ve put together this post to set everything out and be as transparent as possible. Why it’s happening, what will change, what’s included, the costs involved … I’ve tried to answer all of your potential questions below but if you have any others, please do let me know in the comments and I’ll update the post.

For those of you who are new here or who are still on the fence about subscribing (let alone coming on board as a paid subscriber), I’ve put together a little intro to who I write Rosacea Club for.

Rosacea Club is for you if:

You have rosacea (or sensitive skin) and want to learn more about it, taking a 360 approach to your skin and going beyond just skincare.
You want to ‘meet’ other rosaceans in a safe and private community, to learn from them, and share experiences.
You miss the long-form internet, where people deep-dove (is that the past tense of deep-dive? Deep-dived? I’m overthinking it), linked to further reading, and really took to the time to explain things. I am never going to be a dancing, pointing, TikTok girly, and that’s okay.

But don’t take it from me. Here are some testimonials from current Rosacea Club subscribers:

“I like it because I don't know exactly what I want to read about, I have rosacea but I don't usually have a specific question I want answering. Lex curates information and topics that are not only relevant but often interesting to me. I love the mixture: sometimes it’s a deep dive into topical issues (like the social media 'experts' post) and other times I like the completely unrelated book or podcast recommendations!” - TM

“I highly recommend Lex and her rosacea club substack to honestly anyone. We all have concerns about our skin at one point or another and Lex provides information on how to track symptoms, how to talk to your GP about your concerns, and provides honest reviews on skincare and make up.
Her newsletter provides a variety of content including recommendations of music, books and films, plus inspirational reminders to help everyone remember that "we are more than our skin/appearance". I developed rosacea four years ago and spent hours researching it to understand it and try to "cure" it. Thankfully Lex came up on my search and I am so grateful because, not only have I accepted my skin, I am now no longer ashamed of it and I no longer feel alone.” - EM

If you’re still reading, I assume the above appeals to you and you are fully on board with the free subscription. Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome. I’m so glad you’re here.

And now let me kick off the Q&A section of this post with (what I assume will be) the most common question about paid subscriptions…

Why am I putting some articles behind a paywall?

The main reason is the obvious one: my work is useful and I should be paid for the time and expertise necessary to create it. I’ve been sharing free, educational rosacea content online for 12 years. In that time I’ve written over 350 articles, thousands of instagram posts, headed a private facebook group with thousands of members, written articles for newspapers, magazines, been on the news, the radio, podcasts, led a campaign that forced Facebook to change a discriminatory guidelines policy, organised and hosted the world’s first rosacea community event, and generally banged the drum for rosacea sufferers and representation. For a good chunk of that time, I was the only person doing it. It has become harder to justify the time, energy, and heart that I’m putting into something that doesn’t pay my bills.
For me, a smaller but more engaged audience is so much better than having a million followers who passively read and then disappear. Over the last 12 years the internet has evolved faster than we ever believed possible, and along the way it’s altered the way we share content and disseminate information. And I've had to change with it. Instagram is pay-to-play, TikTok is focused on short-form videos, Google search is at the mercy of terrible AI… so I had to shift what I do and where I do it. On Substack I have found a place that feels right and the people who get me.
A small but still valid reason: people very rarely pay for access just to leave hate, so by putting some of my more personal content behind a paywall, I’m reducing the risk of trolls and bad-faith-devils-advocates finding me and wading into a conversation not made for them.

How much will a subscription be?

There are four options for Rosacea Club subscribers:

Free (yep, that’s still an option!)
Monthly: £5 (which works out to £1.15 a week)
Yearly: £55 (which works out to £1.05 a week)
Founding Member (Rosacea Club VIP): £100 (which works out to £1.92 a week) This is an option for those who want to pay slightly more for their subscription as an extra show of support and appreciation for the work I do.

What will be free and what will be exclusive to paid subscribers?

I’m doing something silly and going against all the advice given by Substack gurus and marketing bros. Typical advice is to paywall your most popular content, which for me would be the educational rosacea content I share. But that just feels grubby to me.

I have continued to do this job, unpaid, for 12 years because I believe that this content should be readily accessible. Every time I write an article that shares rosacea information, I am picturing 21-year-old Lex. I think about how desperate for help and support she was and what she would have given to get free, unbiased, and accessible information. All my long-form writing now lives here, on Substack. I won’t be posting to talontedlex.co.uk anymore, but that website will remain live so the decade of rosacea writing is still accessible for those who need it.

Going forward, the rule for Rosacea Club is: if it’s basic rosacea information that will help everyone, it will be free. But any rosacea articles that are based on my personal recommendations will be behind the paywall. There are some examples below to clarify this:

An article about ocular rosacea would be free for everyone, as that’s rosacea information that I think everyone should have access to in order to educate themselves and make informed decisions about their skin.
THIS ARTICLE about affordable cleansers I’d recommend is exclusive for paid subscribers because I’m sharing my personal recommendations. It’s not essential information that’s relevant or applicable to every rosacea sufferer, but it is additional information that builds on the free informative content I share.
Sometimes articles may be a blend of the above: an educational article with my personal recommendations at the bottom. In this case, the bulk of the article would be free and the recommendations may be exclusive for paid subscribers. An example is THIS ARTICLE about how to calm a rosacea flare up - the bulk of the article is free because it’s general rosacea advice, but there’s a section at the bottom with products I specifically recommend that is for paid subscribers.

I can practically hear the marketer dudebros screaming from here. I know that pay-walling my ‘most valuable’ content (e.g. the evergreen rosacea content that is the bread and butter of my account) would probably result in more subscribers and more money, but it just wouldn’t feel right. It may not be the most financially-sound decision, but it’s the one that helps me to reach the people who really need it and therefore it’s the one I’m happy with.

For this reason, if you are able to, it would really mean a lot if you supported my work by taking out a paid subscription. If you pay for a year up front, it works out to only £1.05 per week, which is an absolute bargain in my opinion.

Let’s get specific, what is included in the paid subscription?

2 x exclusive articles per month (every other Tuesday)
- These will be rosacea-related and will change all the time, e.g. product recommendations, skincare routine updates, my supplement routine.
1 x exclusive Q&A post per month (last Tuesday of the month)
- A private post for paid subscribers to ask their burning questions - to me and to the rest of the Rosacea Club community.
Private subscriber chats in the Rosacea Clubhouse (ongoing)
- Substack chat is basically like a forum or a Facebook conversation thread, accessible to paid subscribers through the free app. Paid subscribers can start a conversation about anything they like: ask a rosacea question, get advice, talk about a TV show they’re watching or a book they’re reading, or just ask for a bit of support on a hard day. It’s a place where we can talk and connect in private, and I’m so excited to natter to you all.

And what is included in the free subscription?

1 x educational rosacea article a month (Thursday)
1 x general article a month (Thursday)
- This could be an interview, a personal essay, a film review, or anything else that takes my fancy.
1 x newsletters a month (Thursday)
- I spend a ridiculous amount of time online and I figure I might as well be using those powers for good. We are bombarded with negativity, bilge, and misinformation, so I’m making it my personal mission to jump on my combine harvester, wade through the chaff, and bring you only the delicious wheat (did I take that metaphor too far?) My newsletters typically include: interesting articles about rosacea, skin, self-esteem etc; recommendations for books, TV, films, and music; people I think you might like to follow on social media or Substack; product recommendations and discount codes.

I know the decision to open paid subscriptions will be unpopular with some. After giving 12 years of content to you for free, this may seem I’m taking something away from you, or that I’m unfairly penalising those who can’t afford a subscription.

To be honest, I’m not thrilled about it either. But after a bleak few years in online-creator-land (emotionally and financially) something needed to change. I’m trying really hard to avoid a hard sell or over-explaining why I think I should be paid for the work I do, the expertise I have, and the community I’ve built over the years, so I’ll wrap this post up.

If you want to join me, I am over the bloody moon to have you join the Rosacea (Members) Club. But I won’t judge anyone for not subscribing, for dipping in and out when funds allow, for watching from afar but not subscribing at all. Things are hard all over and we’re all doing what we can.

If you can’t pay for a subscription right now, please do consider supporting my work in other meaningful ways: you can like and comment on my free posts, share my writing with others, recommend me to people who might like it, send me dog photos. It’s all appreciated.