Lou Barrett - Writer

This lover girl finally got herself a lover boy to match ❤️

Just when I’d given up on kitchen table poly after being hit with resistance at every attempt, I got a boyfriend with a partner, a baby, and a Papa Jason who all love me. Haha right guys?

I always thought people who dated their friends or people with their same name were weirdos, but now I’m happy to be a Lou4Lou freak.

We got to skip over all that pretending to be some heightened version of ourselves and instead got together after I talked way too much about my butch baggage and commiserated with Mariella over shared femme s**t. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I love the hell out of your daughter and it’s such a relief she loves me too (and thinks I’m hilarious).

With you, I get to be a teenager and grown woman all at once. Here’s to sending you a million more mirror selfies, laughing with your fam at my playground anxiety, and making out til our lips prune 😘

Tonight! See you there!

We will also be sharing the story on IG live right here. You can make donations to the gofundme link in the bio.

STORYTELLING FOR SOLIDARITY
✨ Tuesday, August 19 | 6:30 PM
📍 m. Henry – 5707 N. Clark St, Chicago, IL 60660

Link in bio!

Join us for an evening of powerful, personal stories that celebrate the courage it takes to take matters into your own hands. Through laughter, reflection, and truth-telling, we’ll explore what it means to choose action over apathy, voice over silence, and hope over helplessness. 💥

This event is not just about storytelling—it’s about shaping a future through solidarity.

We’re gathering in honor of Anas Abu Deeb, who was killed with his mother and sister Jana in an airstrike on their home in Bani Suheila on July 24. H

💔 All proceeds from the night will support Anas’ surviving brothers, Moazz and Moamen, through the GoFundMe campaign.

📲 Donate here: https://bit.ly/showupforanas

🗓 RSVP here: https://bit.ly/showuprsvp

🎤 Featured Storytellers:

— Kim L Hunt (She/Her)
— Lou Burrows (They/He)
— Rainn (She/They)
— Lou Barrett (She/They)

💛 Let’s show up—for Anas’ family, for each other, and for the future we believe in.

***rVoices

STORYTELLING FOR SOLIDARITY
✨ Monday, August 19 | 6:30 PM
📍 m. Henry – 5707 N. Clark St, Chicago, IL 60660

Link in bio!

Join us for an evening of powerful, personal stories that celebrate the courage it takes to take matters into your own hands. Through laughter, reflection, and truth-telling, we’ll explore what it means to choose action over apathy, voice over silence, and hope over helplessness. 💥

This event is not just about storytelling—it’s about shaping a future through solidarity.

We’re gathering in honor of Anas Abu Deeb, who was killed with his mother and sister Jana in an airstrike on their home in Bani Suheila on July 24. H

💔 All proceeds from the night will support Anas’ surviving brothers, Moazz and Moamen, through the GoFundMe campaign.

📲 Donate here: https://bit.ly/showupforanas

🗓 RSVP here: https://bit.ly/showuprsvp

🎤 Featured Storytellers:

— Kim L Hunt (She/Her)
— Lou Burrows (They/He)
— Rainn (She/They)
— Lou Barrett (She/They)

💛 Let’s show up—for Anas’ family, for each other, and for the future we believe in.

***rVoices

Hey y’all!

My friend has been raising money for a friend of theirs in Gaza, Ahmed, for the last year or so and is continuing to have events to help him and his family rebuild.

I’ll be cohosting an event with them this Saturday for a game night. Carcassonne anyone?

Find the link for the event and a link to Ahmed’s gofundme in my bio.

Tonight I met one of my heroes, Torrey Peters, in real life at her Chicago stop for her new book, Stag Dance: A Novel and Stories!

OHMYGOD. Torrey, if you’re reading this, please bear with the fan girl energy I bring. I have no shame when it comes to the immense admiration I feel the creative thinkers and writers I love.

Torrey’s writing has reminded me why I love writing and why I love reading. When I read Detransition, Baby, I was like wow what a gift! And also— holy s**t!

Her writing is so smart and funny. It’s daring. It’s upsetting. It’s honest. There’s so many times during her first novel, where I was just like “wow this is so insane!” And it is such a fun feeling for a book to shake you up like that.

For months after I read Detransition, Baby, I kept telling close friends, “we should all be eternally grateful for Torrey Peters.” I still feel bad for my old roommates who had little choice in hearing my rants.

Her new book is no different in that it is filled with characters who I adored, who drove me nuts, who made me cry, who pi**ed me off, who made me question how I look at myself and my life, who made me ask if I’m brave enough to love, to be honest with myself, to be honest about myself to those I love and those who love me— who hate me.

Thank you for being so generous to your readers, and I’m excited to keep following your work.

Catch Torrey Peters on my podcast, Q***r Discourse, next Wednesday, 4/9 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Substack.

Excited to continue following your work, and I aspire to be as bold in my own writing.

2024 for was a pretty good year!

🤰🏻I decided to pursue solo motherhood by choice, and Project Baby Barrett is well underway. If things work out as planned, I’ll be pregnant late 2025
👩🏻‍💻got a new fully remote job I’m really excited about to help support Project Baby Barrett
💁🏻‍♀️this meant I got to quit the job I loathed that had me crying at least weekly
🙅🏻‍♀️took a much needed break from dating, and got closer to me
📣 Became a mother fu***ng cheerleader, throwing people in the air like hulk or something
📚read 30 books
📖signed PPP’s newest author
👩🏻‍💼kept working on my business and figuring out how to take it to the next level
🇨🇴kept learning Spanish
✈️travelled a bunch, including to a couple new places
🧘🏻‍♀️joined a meditation group

And continued doing my best at being someone I’m proud of ❤️ cheers to 2025

This year is wrapping up WAY better than it started ❤️

I made a Substack called Preheat!

I’ll be sharing essays and audio on my journey toward single motherhood by choice as well as some unrelated essays every so often since I am multifaceted 💁🏻‍♀️

Most Preheat posts will be free, at least for now. I will paywall block some work if it feels too vulnerable or risqué. Like one coming in a couple weeks that shows a side of myself I’m not so proud of.

Link in bio! Thanks for reading and sharing 😊🍼

July was restorative ☀️

My childhood friend came to visit last week and we saw Damien Rice on Friday.

It was surreal sitting next to each other in that theater to see an artist we’d scream to in my mom’s PT Cruiser when we were 15, what feels like a lifetime ago.

She’s a mom to two beautiful girls who’s she’s fought like hell to protect and help them thrive, and I couldn’t be more proud of the mother and woman she’s become.

In our 17 years of friendship, we’ve been through so many breakups, hairstyles, apartments, states, etc.

And I feel like I can speak for both of us when I say that we are in the best place in our lives. We both sobbed like good Cancer moons during this full circle moment, and I felt like the last 17 years flashed before my eyes.

This year has been a rough one, and the 48 hours with Natalie was such a beautiful way to start bringing a close to this year.

Started on a low, but we’re ending in a high baby!

We’re back in December with a phone new graphic!

Are you a writer like myself who barely ever writes cuz you have a job or a job and a publishing company and feelings so where is the time?

Me too! In an attempt to both write more and build more community in Chicago, I started these informal writing meetups.

Followed by dinner if/when people want so that we can talk each other’s ears off after sitting silently next to each other for hours clacking away.

Why Saturdays, you might ask? I don’t drink and don’t go out! Plus I got a day job. This is when I have the energy and time to write, and I imagine other 9-5er creatives like me would like something to do on a Saturday night that isn’t alcohol centered.

Bring your laptop, bring your notebook, bring your ideas! See you in December👩🏻‍💻

LOCATION CHANGE FOR NOVEMBER’S WRITERS GOTTA WRITE

We’ll now be doing Eli Tea Bar on November 18th and the Lonesome Rose on Clark after.

Pasting the text from my other post and deleting that one so no one gets confused about where or when we’re meeting in September haha:

Are you a writer like myself who barely ever writes cuz you have a job or a job and a publishing company and feelings so where is the time?

Me too! In an attempt to both write more and build more community in Chicago, I’m starting these informal writing meetups.

Might host some at my place for a cozy vibe at some point, but for now, we’re doing coffee shops and cafes! Open to location suggestions for future ones.

Always followed by dinner so that we can talk each other’s ears off after sitting silently next to each other for hours clacking away.

Why Saturdays, you might ask? I don’t drink and don’t go out! Plus I got a day job. This is when I have the energy and time to write, and I imagine other 9-5er creatives like me would like something to do on a Saturday night that isn’t alcohol centered.

Bring your laptop, bring your notebook, bring your ideas! See you in November👩🏻‍💻