Start Here: How Two Women, Thousands of Miles Apart, Built a Podcast Around Their Old Journals

Welcome to Wellies & Wranglers

Welcome to Wellies & Wranglers — where our teenage journals finally get the spotlight they never asked for.

If you’re new here, first of all: hi. We’re so glad you found us. Second: brace yourself. This is the part where we willingly read our adolescent angst out loud. On purpose.

This is a podcast (and newsletter) built around two things:

1. Our wildly different upbringings, and

2. Our shared obsession with journaling.

We started this as an experiment — a way to honor the stories we wrote down as kids and teens, and to invite others to do the same. What we found is that beneath all the cultural differences and questionable fashion choices… the emotional terrain was often the same.

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Who We Are

We’re Josephine and Linzi.

Josephine grew up in London and was sent to a posh British boarding school at the ripe age of nine. There were scratchy uniforms, cloaks, Latin classes, and ghost stories passed down from the convent that came before them. The rules were strict, the winters drafty, and the smallest act of rebellion felt like an adrenaline rush. Think Harry Potter, but with less magic, more porridge and no owls.

This terrifying image of Josephine was taken in 1993.

Linzi grew up in Kansas, raised on barbecue, Kraft Mac N Cheese Dinners, and ‘90s hip hop. Her public high school life was peak Midwest-Americana: pep rallies, lockers, and deeply earnest entries about boys, friends, and the occasional brush with bathroom-related humiliation. (You’ll hear more about that in Episode 1. Spoiler alert: Mr. Zerr, we’re coming for you.)

Spirit Fingers and Linzi, 1993

We now live in very different places — Josephine in Northern California and Linzi in the Ozark Mountains — but our connection is real, creative, and filled with joy.

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How We Met

We first crossed paths when Josephine was brought in as a brand strategist for a startup Linzi was working at — about two weeks before 80% of the company got laid off. (Great timing.)

A few years later, we were thrown together again on a new project, and this time the timing stuck. We became creative collaborators, Substack super-fans of each other’s writing, and eventually, dear friends. The more we worked together, the more we realized how much fun it was to make something out of our stories.

And so, here we are.

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Why We’re Doing This

This podcast was sparked by grief, but fueled by joy.

Josephine inherited a massive trunk of old journals after her mother passed. Linzi found a stack of hers while helping her own mom pack after the loss of her stepdad. At first, we were just texting each other screenshots — “You will not believe what 14-year-old me wrote…” But then we started reflecting. We saw the care we took in our handwriting. The rawness. The melodrama. The moments we’d forgotten until we read them again.

And we realized: there’s something here.

There’s catharsis. There’s hilarity. There’s a sense of shared humanity that feels so refreshing in this curated world.

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What to Expect

Each episode of Wellies & Wranglers centers on a theme — embarrassing moments, first crushes, existential crises, friend drama. We each read a real journal entry tied to the theme, reflect on it, and laugh (a lot). We also invite guests to read theirs. Some are friends. Some are other Substack writers. Some are people we barely know who bravely hand over their teenage selves.

And when someone is mentioned in an entry? We do our best to track them down and invite them on. It’s like a nostalgic game of “tag—you’re it.”

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What We Hope You’ll Take Away

This isn’t just about us.

This is about you, too.

Whether you’re still journaling or haven’t cracked a diary in decades, we believe everyone has a story worth remembering. And maybe even laughing about. The heartbreaks that felt epic, the perms that went rogue, the love letters never sent — this is the stuff of becoming. And it’s worth revisiting.

Even when it’s awkward.

Especially when it’s awkward.

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Wanna Get Involved?

We’d love for you to be part of this.

• Submit your own journal entries for future episodes or newsletter features

• Take our reader survey so we know what brought you here (and what will make you stay)

• Share this podcast/newsletter with your friends — if it made you laugh, cry, or cringe

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Whether you wore wellies or wranglers or anything in between, you’re welcome here.

Now let’s open those journals and see what’s inside. Your inner 14-year-old will thank you. So will ours.

With love,

Josephine + Linzi

Wellies & Wranglers