This Girl Had a Lot to Say in the 80s and 90s.
Who wants to read my journal?
Hi! I'm Sarah, and I had a really bad cold, an old perm and recently tightened braces in my 7th grade school picture. It was a banner year, clearly, and I wrote all about it in my stacks of spiral notebooks that I kept under my bed.
Now I'm all grown up, and I had this crazy idea to unlock the vault of my childhood journals and share them on the internet. It might sound crazy, but I think it's rad! I'm ready for my little corner of the interwebs to bring you some fun and a little bit of healthy cringe - at my expense!
That Was Rad is an independent publication launched in October 2025 by me, Sarah Zahn! If you'd like to support my work (and get the full deets on who I crushed on in high school and even read some actual notes I passed in class), then please consider supporting my work.
Why Subscribe?
There will always be a free version of That Was Rad. You'll get a weekly note passed right to your inbox with an excerpt from my actual childhood journal, plus commentary from yours truly. Expect all the light-hearted longings of adolescence with a healthy dose of cringeworthy details!
Join the Club
If you're hankering for more, consider becoming an Official Club Member to get all the dish, including access to the full archives and commenting privileges on posts. You'll get photos of the actual entries, an audio read-aloud by the author herself (aka, moi), plus deeper insights, cultural tie-ins and more things I'm sure I haven't even thought of yet!
BFF Status
If you want to be a BFF, then consider joining the top-tier membership. You'll get everything as an Official Club Member, plus quarterly live hangouts with me and the rest of the BFF's, with a chance to read your own childhood journals if you have them (and can stand reading them aloud. It's not easy, I tell you!).
If you're a student, veteran, senior, or just going through a hard time, please email me at thatwasradbysarahzahn@gmail.com, let me know your situation and I'll make you an official club member for free. I don't want any financial hinderance to keep you from enjoying the hilarity and fun that comes with a subscription.
Your subscription makes this site possible, and allows That Was Rad with Sarah Zahn to continue to exist. Thank you!
Start your own rad thing
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