how alice lemée creates joy-driven content and goes for what she wants
healthy jealous #4 // on pivoting after burnout, giving yourself 100 attempts at a new format, and the trial and error of coining a concept
When Alice Lemée’s name or face pops up on one of my social media feeds, it’s a safe bet that I’m about to get a writing tip, prompt, or reflection that makes me say, “Ho-ly crap, that’s good stuff.”
As a creator, Alice exudes creativity, genuineness, and polish at the same time. Her content is a (seemingly) effortless mix of following her intuition and absolutely knowing. her. stuff. When I sat down to talk with her, her confidence—not only in herself, but also in me!—that everything would work out was inspiring, empowering, and challenging.
We’d gotten on coffee chats in the past, but in this conversation, I wanted to tell her just how healthy jealous I was of her willingness to build and try things. She told me about how and why she’s pivoting her business, her plan to help others fight AI writing fatigue, and getting over the fear of being seen. You’ll fangirl over her as much as I do!
Pressing the brakes on her business—and then pivoting
In 2020, Alice was fresh out of college and hungry to write. She tried for fellowships at spots like Vox and Buzzfeed and applied to copywriting internships, but kept getting “Thank you for applying. Unfortunately, at this time…” auto-replies.
So instead of waiting for somebody to show her how to do the job, she decided to teach herself by posting content online.
She hired a freelance writing coach. She adopted a digital nomad lifestyle. And she grew her business from there. In the fifth year of her business, she reached the coveted six-figure milestone many freelancers strive for; that was the good news.
There was bad news, too, though. “I could not have ended the year more miserable,” she says. “It was a big wake-up call that money always costs you something. What was the point of making that much money if I ended my days feeling so empty inside?”
Alice slammed on the emergency brake. She let go of her biggest client and headed on a four-week sabbatical in Thailand. For all of February 2026, she didn’t work; she just existed. After sabbatical, she came back to her home in New York City to start from scratch.
Now, she’s building a six-figure creator business… in public. Her weekly Pivot Diaries newsletter gives readers the inside scoop on experiments she’s running, what’s working for her, and how it all feels. “This new focus means getting over my fear of being seen wanting something and putting myself out there,” she says.
The joy in content creation
Everywhere Alice shows up online, she’s consistently herself.
Her start on then-Twitter helped her learn to be concise and use her 180 characters efficiently. She grew her audience to about 22,000 there before, as so many have done, fleeing for greener pastures.
From there, she started building on LinkedIn, where she grew her audience to 11,000 by posting every other day for a year.
Her next adventure is building her Instagram from scratch with short-form content.
The throughline of her social content is this: “It has to be fun and entertaining to you. A lot of people try to force themselves to sound smart or qualified, and say the things they should say. Instead, ask yourself what you want to post.” This philosophy leads Alice to post a lot of content about what she’s learning.
“If you focus on the things that bring you joy, that will come through in your art. And yes, content creation can be art. I truly believe that.”
100 attempts
Alice was drawn to video creation for years, but starting to post has been a huge step outside her comfort zone. “I thought it looked so fun. Then I would put a camera in front of me and think, ‘I can’t do this. I cannot speak. I don’t like the way that I look. I have an idea, but when I start talking out loud, I sound like a dweeb,’” she says with a laugh.
To reset her high standards, she practices acknowledging that she’s a beginner. She gave herself 100 attempts that aren’t going to be pretty, but the dopamine hit of engagement aren’t the point right now.
“The focus in this season is getting better at something I’m bad at, being comfortable with being seen and being bad at something,” she says. She posts some videos where she knows she could’ve delivered the take a little bit better, but she’s committed to posting it and moving on.
The creators who sound completely natural and eloquent, like they’re talking right to you? “They’re on their day 100, and you’re on your day 0. Why would you compare yourself to somebody who’s so much farther along in their journey?” she says.
To get good, you have to get your reps in—and that means getting comfortable posting the crappy takes along the way.
To coin a term…
Alice has workshopped multiple concepts with her content, like “internet self-actualization” and “information wipeout.” Neither one stuck. But when she started talking about “Creator Gravity,” the idea absolutely blew up.
One reason this concept took off when others didn’t is that it comes with an implied benefit. “I don’t have to explain it thoroughly for you to get a whiff of what I’m talking about,” she explains.
She also thinks timing played a huge role in the takeoff. Users were (and are) tired of the platitudes, AI slop, and “algorithmic chicken feed,” Alice says. Creator gravity hits different.
“To find somebody with enough substance to pull you into their planet feels increasingly rare, but people are also very hungry for it.”
Next up, Alice is workshopping another concept: the writing gym. In response to the AI-ification of the writing world, she wants to create a space where folks can keep their creative skills from atrophying.
She sees the writing gym as a space to keep folks accountable to an AI-free writing practice and help them excavate their own intellectual property. “People who have their own frameworks or language—or even creator gravity—have those things because of chewing over their own ideas. But you can only do that within the confines of your own brain,” she explains.
Go for what you want
Alice says that she’s healthy jealous of amazing humans Carly Valancy, (which, obviously, same), Catherine Shannon on Substack, and Miss Eating Good on Instagram.
“I’m jealous of anybody who shows up on social media who doesn’t care what other people have to say and are so boldly themselves. They’re not afraid to go for what they want.”
Alice is working her way there, too—one piece of content at a time. That means actively rejecting the thought that she’s not good enough or doesn’t deserve to go for what she wants. “I either clap out loud to physically interrupt the thought or imagine myself dropkicking it to the side as if it’s an enemy. I say, ‘Nope, I will not entertain that thought. I’m not going there.’” She’s consciously choosing her thoughts, only allowing the ones that align with how she wants to see herself.
After spending time with Alice, I’m convinced that’s how you become exactly who you’re meant to become.