Chicktern Changes! SO STOKED ABOUT OUR NEWBIES!

YOU GUYS.

To everything, there is a season, as the old song goes.  And that’s true for Chicks on the Right too!  There are changes afoot.  Some big, some less big.  You’ll hear more about the bigger ones soon enough, but for now, we have some changes to tell you about with our Chicktern team.

First off?  We have three new amazing women who are joining the coop! They’ll be introducing themselves to you shortly on their own, and I am COUNTING ON YOU to give them a warm welcome.  Meantime,  here’s a quick preview.

Natalie Argyle immediately impressed us because she applied via video message! She’s a mom of four, married to an Army Captain, she’s a homeschooler, and she LOVES writing.  Like our Chicktern Liberty Dantes, Natalie has recently found herself writing political and cultural posts on Facebook, but longing for a broader audience. She is bubbly, smart, engaging, and has just the right amount of snark to make her a perfect fit for the team.

Tarra Snyder is a junior in college hoping to ultimately work in political media and journalism, and after speaking with her via facetime, we’re convinced she’s exactly what the world of journalism needs.  The experience she brings to us is amazing – she has interned at the GOP party in MN, and she’s been a contributor for Future Female Leaders writing about national politics.  She (like our Chickterns Karen Ashley and Rachel Hoffman), brings youthful energy and a 20-something perspective to the Chicks on the Right brand.

And finally, we are thrilled about adding Chicktern Ksenya Aleksandrova to the coop!  Ksenya is a 39 year old black conservative woman married to a Russian immigrant whose family moved to the US to escape the collapse of the Soviet Union, she’s the mom of two teens, has best friends who are Dominican and Korean, and teaches dance. We can’t wait to hear her fresh, unique perspective! She’s also absurdly gorgeous, and my only hesitation in bringing her into the coop is that she might challenge me in the biggest smile department.

One thing that Ksenya wrote to us in her introductory email that was especially meaningful was this:

I’ve actually been asked to write for an up and coming political commentary page, but I didn’t get the impression that I’d want to be connected to their brand image. I love you guys, I’m highly entertained by you guys, daily, and I’d be honored to associated with you!

Which brings me to our last bit of news for this post. Marmee has decided to fly the coop in favor of a paid position with a much bigger website that you have probably visited but don’t remember visiting, because it is absolutely brandless. It’s just a giant news aggregator that has tons of writers whose names you likely won’t ever know or remember, because giant sites like that don’t care about having a brand, or about their writers, or building communities. They care about money.  The owner of that group of websites has actively gone after our writers, because he would rather have US do the work of recruiting great people than do it himself.  Much of their content is provided by even larger sites than theirs, (I’m guessing that’s partly because of the owner’s inability to attract people without stealing from us).

We appreciate the contributions that both Marmee and Erin made. While Erin doesn’t write for the poaching website, she does write for a site that produces content for the poaching website, and we do not want to be associated with either site in any way, so we’ve mutually decided to break that connection point.

We are BEYOND PLEASED with our Chickterns who’ve decided to stay, particularly since Karen and Jennie were both actively recruited and turned down the other site.  Karen and Jennie and Rachel and Liberty will continue to write for COTR, and now that we’re adding Ksenya, Tarra, and Natalie – we’re feeling like we’ve got the best possible group of women EVER contributing to the team.

After being soundly rejected by Karen Ashley, the poacher owner of the other site wrote this in response to Karen’s reply:

Yeah, we’re tiny.  And currently we’re not in a position to pay like the big boys.  But what we do have is a recognized brand, a wonderful community, the best followers on the planet, and a platform beyond just this site in order to spread our brand of conservatism (radio, podcast, videos, our book, etc.)  We’ve built something really special, and it’s what has attracted the amazing talent that we have in our writing team – talent that’s so good it’s poach-worthy.  We are so proud of that!

So excited to see what our new Chickterns will be writing about!  You can expect to read their personal introductions shortly.  In the meantime, welcome them as only the best community on the internet can!