Sharks in the water (or, on finding Celiac-safe food in a red-light district): marynikkel.substack.com/p/sharks-in-...

Screaming: thank you and I’m sorry. 🤍 open.substack.com/pub/marynikk...

I’ve wanted to write something about my journey with self-harm all month, but it’s a place of particular fragility for me. Here is what I would share today [content note for the full post]: marynikkel.substack.com/p/self-harm-...

We have to stop moralizing recovery. Hear me say it clearly: if you're not better, that doesn't make you bad. open.substack.com/pub/marynikk...

For the people who have held me as I’m learning to hold myself. 🤍 marynikkel.substack.com/p/when-suffe...

The Lord of the Rings was back near the top of the box office. We need it more than ever. open.substack.com/pub/marynikk...

You won’t be able to save me. open.substack.com/pub/marynikk...

I have learned to believe with my whole heart: if you’ve lost something, it can be found. On rock and emo’s resurgence: marynikkel.substack.com/p/the-lost-a...

These photos are what I looked like when I was first sent to work, without pay, at 8 years old. Today is World Day Against Child Labor. This is my story. marynikkel.substack.com/p/what-child... 🤍

If you still have X, would you mind retweeting this? Meta’s active sabotaging of our anti-trafficking work has been a source of tremendous harm. x.com/theexodusroa...

Mental healthcare is the #1 reported need of U.S. trafficking survivors. I wrote a deep dive into what some of those needs are. theexodusroad.com/human-traffi...

I will never and always be a mother: marynikkel.substack.com/p/never-and-...

I’ve outlived myself by two years now. marynikkel.substack.com/p/two-years-...

Recovery is like living on black ice: you learn to lean into the slide. marynikkel.substack.com/p/living-on-...

I have a particular personal and professional interest in the nuances of trauma, how it manifests in our lives. So researching this piece on Stockholm syndrome and trafficking felt like a passion project.✨ theexodusroad.com/stockholm-sy...

Mental health is discussed at a rate I would’ve found impossible years ago. I am so grateful for this. I also wonder sometimes if the urgency has become diluted in the deluge of content. I wonder if we’ve lost sense of what we really stand to gain — or to lose: marynikkel.substack.com/p/stay-alive

My primary work is serving as Senior Content Manager for a global anti-trafficking organization. I tell stories about some of the most horrific violations humans can inflict — and much of that violence is gender-based. marynikkel.substack.com/p/a-warrior-... marynikkel.substack.com/p/a-warrior-...

For the first time in a while I dreamed about writing marketing copy, woke up, recorded it, and actually ended up using it, so I guess you could say my productivity game has never been stronger/more disconcertingly obsessive. 💁🏼‍♀️

Whew, this one felt cathartic and immensely vulnerable. On purity culture, self-punishment, and how I am learning to accept it isn’t a sin to love my lifelong soul mate. marynikkel.substack.com/p/glass-and-...

Friendly PSA from your neighborhood anti-trafficking professional: human trafficking does not uniquely spike during the Super Bowl. What DOES spike is awareness and policing, creating a psychological effect where it seems more prevalent because we’re paying attention.

A tiny, indignant face was on the screen, red with all the ignominy of entering the world. I immediately burst into tears. I knew I had just discovered a new way to love. marynikkel.substack.com/p/the-cool-a...

It truly blows my mind that I get to be a part of work with this kind of impact. I am truly in awe of the skill our cyber investigations team exercises every single day on behalf of survivors. www.thecoloradogazette.com/article/7829...

🙃🙃🙃

Banned Book Quote of the Day: “From what I’ve read,” I said to him, “the world goes crazy every three or four decades. The trick is to survive until it goes sane again.” —Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler

In my latest article, I attempt to illuminate another often sensationalized topic: grooming. Some of the statistics are staggering and sobering. I hope that this serves as an invitation for us to protect each other well. influenced.org/what-is-onli...

Stillborn futures, PTSD, and creating for your life: marynikkel.substack.com/p/stillborn-...

I spent most of November in the hospital. Here is a little about what that experience is like for me. marynikkel.substack.com/p/medical-tr...

In case you wondered what it’s like to exist in the brain of a nonprofit writer, I woke myself up in middle of the night to find myself loudly announcing “new marginalization impacts the ALREADY marginalized the most”

Maybe every hometown is a ghost town, a haunted monument to the selves we left behind. marynikkel.substack.com/p/ghost-town

Starting to catch up on watching the last few years of The Handmaid’s Tale after reading it earlier this year. The role of dystopia as social bellwether has rarely felt more relevant.

I’m a music and nonprofit writer who writes memoir on the side, plus photographs rock shows and world travel. I don’t “niche down” well. I love Lord of the Rings to an unsettling degree. I’m that annoying millennial who misses the potential social media used to have. Nice to meet you! ✨