Jenn Rodriguez

@SemiCrunchyAlwaysExtra

I’ve been wanting to dive back into writing, the actual act of tip-tapping at the keyboard. Not just dumping my thoughts into unorganized voice-to-text phone notes that never get published.

On 2/16/26, I woke up with the itch to delete my whole online persona. I mean, changing of online handles and the one that feels really big, changing the web URL for my blog. Now, if someone clicks and old link to my blog, they are forwarded to the new domain. That itch to just throw it all away and start over comes each year, when I renew the plan for the website builder, and other times when doubt and insecurity set in. If you’re an astrology girly, then you know why dates are important to mention. This year, 2/17 marks not just the beginning of a new chapter, but a whole new book! I believe the collective is in for an awakening and a huge shift in life as we know it. For me, this year means a huge focus on my home and family, big shifts and growth in self and identity. That morning, I let go of all the what-ifs and let my social media handle @SemiCrunchyAlwaysExtra die.

Dates are also important when you look at the zodiac year of the snake, meant to be a year of quiet reflection and shedding of what no longer serves us. 2/17/26 ushered in the new zodiac year of the fire horse. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel the burn it all down energy lately.

Why was I so ready to let go of @SemiCrunchyAlwaysExtra without warning? Maybe because no one is really paying attention on social media. I had been building it for years with little progress. In late 2024, I wanted to breathe life back into my social channels and planned a big giveaway on Instagram to kick off the new year in 2025. The elephant in the room—actually, I’m starting to think it’s just in my head— I promised that in 2025 I’d hold my biggest giveaway ever! Well, that didn’t happen… so how do I move forward? Any previous giveaways were not big-ticket, so this felt like a huge exciting thing to do. I even got the opportunity to shoot content for the giveaway in one of those big, beautiful, all-white clutter-free influencer content homes. I shot so much footage, afterward, I felt like it looked great, but wasn’t really me. I hoped hosting a big giveaway would bring new eyes to my media channels, bring my account to people whom my words would resonate with. I teased the giveaway in late 2024, expecting to kick off 2025 with it, picturing the best 2025 ever, for all of us.

In the middle of the night, November 2024, I awoke to the news that we had elected the felon, again. The rest is all a blur. I had dreams of sharing fun lunchbox ideas and now our country was facing uncertainty, with basic grocery costs higher than ever. The thought of posting fun lunchboxes felt insensitive to the very real struggles of American parents, so I didn’t. I became frozen in inaction. I continued to photograph lunchbox ideas daily, that would never be shared. Just me, quietly doing the work that needed to be done in my real life. My real life looked nothing like empty, fake, content house imagery. Lunchboxes, laundry, lists… At some point in 2025, I realized things would never go back to the way they were. Old systems crumbling, the world on fire.

I felt terrible that the big giveaway never really got off the ground in 2025, and our best year ever, wasn’t. However, unlike the felon, I keep my word, and the giveaway will still go on! This was never a sponsored thing, I provided the prizes to make it happen and have held onto them for you. To execute the giveaway in a way that still makes sense for me, I must be intentional about it. The answer may be to break up the big prize package into a series of smaller giveaways, offering more opportunities for people who support me on social platforms to win.

My old handle was something I came up with when branding myself years ago, but thought using my own name was not good idea, as there are SO many people with the same name as me. I thought using my super basic name would make it harder for people to find me in a sea of similar names. Don’t ask why I thought the longest handle ever would be easy to find. Ugh. Semi Crunchy Always Extra was descriptive of the type of mom and person I strived to be. And just like many other mothers, I completely lost myself in the whole process of becoming a new mom, moving across country, and raising young children, in a pandemic, with no family support system. I started this blog just over a decade ago, and now I want to show up in it not as a new person, but the grown up, version of myself. So I guess for me, this isn’t really starting over, but finally sharing the realest, truest ME. She’s always been there.

Now in my 40’s, I want to start writing and creating again, pushing through all the noise and other crap we are all dealing with, because I know that my voice is one that needs to be heard. I need to be seen, not for my own vanity, but because representation matters. I’ve said it again and again, representation matters. It matters now more than ever. My hope is that young people see future versions of themselves in me, as I live for the 7 year old and 70 year old version of myself.

Where do we go from here? We are now at the beginning of 2026– journalists are being silenced, every other thing is Ai, algorithms don’t show us the creators and stories we want to see. We need real art, poetry, independent media, real people telling their stories and lived experiences, more than ever. I need you to do me a favor and follow me on your favorite platforms so my voice doesn’t get lost.

Going forward, you’ll find me at www.jennrodriguez.blog, on creator platforms like LTK and ShopMy as Jenn Rodriguez, and @JennRodriguez111 on all my social media platforms and substack.

Find links to socials and all the things I share here:

Links

I appreciate and thank you in advance for subscribing and following while I build.

With love and hope,

Jenn Rodriguez

Please note: I am NOT on X/twitter or TikTok. Any previous accounts on those platforms were seldom used and have been fully deleted. If you see an account over there looking like mine, that is NOT me.