Up All Night Club by Kate Kennedy

Things I write in the middle of the night

Nov 15, 2023

“I want more emails!!!!” -no one ever.

Also, are we still saying “said no one ever?” I’m a cringy millennial and cannot be trusted to move on from internet trends.

Unofficial club photo

Who are you?

Hi, I’m Kate. I’m a podcast host, author, and person who verbally tap dances for money and attention on the internet.

What is this newsletter for?

When writing my book One in a Millennial (OIAM), I got into the habit of writing longer-form pieces, and most were absolutely not eligible to be immortalized in a book. This seems like a chill place to share essays, musings, etc., that I haven’t found a home for, as well as excerpts cut from my book coming out in January.

Why “Up All Night Club?”

In OIAM, I write about attempting to start the “Up All Night Club” when I was at sleepovers as a kid, mostly because 1. I have trouble falling asleep 2. The noises in other people’s houses give me anxiety, and 3. I LIVE for a top-notch late-night heart-to-heart. I talked about this club when I started my first newsletter called “Late Riser” (RIP- I started it in 2020, the week before the pandemic started) because I was at a point in my life where I was electively staying up late for work and sleeping in to accommodate my nocturnal tendencies.

Since then, I had a kid, and while I’m now seeing the perks of being more of a night owl, these days, I’m also staying awake for less elective reasons. In the middle of the night, I often think about how many moms have come up to me over the years and told me that the podcast keeps them company during late-night feedings, and now, having experienced the tiredness/isolation (and at times, desperation) of new motherhood, I understand the value of consuming content as a form of company more than ever. I wanted to create a forum where I can share some of these post-midnight motherhood musings as well, like why TF swaddle velcro is so damn loud if its purpose is meant to be soothing. It awakens my child with the subtlety of a jet engine.

How often can we expect to hear from the Up All Night Club?

To quote everyone ever attempting to soothe me in my 20s and 30s when unlucky in love or having fertility issues—

“it will happen when you least expect it!”

Jk, kind of. In most circumstances, that phrase is the loud velcro on the swaddle of arbitrary reassurance. It’s not exactly soothing to be reminded your entire life and future are a function of happenstance and forced low expectations. But in the context of a newsletter, it’s kinda fun to surprise you because I’m not totally sure what this looks like yet. I love starting a new creative project, and I try to keep it loose at first so it remains fun. And I’m finding that my other club members (Teddy and Tugboat) decide to stay up all night when I least expect it, so I assume I’ll be writing and sending this out in a similar cadence.

If you’re interested in consistency, check out my podcast, Be There in Five, which comes out once a week.