reasons to be cheerful
is a family project that was set up in the first lockdown of 2020, as a response to the pandemic and also to a friend of our sister’s, Ewan, who took his own life earlier that year, age 15. We felt helpless and wanted to do something that might benefit our community, both locally and online. We wanted to celebrate the seemingly insignificant things in our lives that bring us joy, and tell the stories of "normal" people who may not usually get the chance to share their stories.
Our platform is an inclusive space in which absolutely anyone can submit a piece of work in any format (writing, photography, video, sound etc...). The only brief is to give us a reason to be cheerful. They can be super short or longer pieces. They can start in a dark place as long as they end up in the light. They can be about you, or your work. They can be about life, nature, side projects, family. Whatever you want. And in any format - recipe, playlist, blogpost, video, photographs etc…
Alongside our online platform, we produce printed publications. These take the form of zines, newspapers or our end of year Annual. 25% of the proceeds from everything we do goes to Ewan’s Kind, an organisation that means a lot to us. Ewan’s Kind split the money raised between LGBTQ+, ADHD, mental health and suicide prevention charities. The publications tend to be made up of our favourite picks from the blog alongside new pieces, and all pieces published in a publication do go onto the blog eventually too.
Currently, we are looking for submissions for our Annual 2023 which is our largest publication (around 130 pages) that will be published at the end of November. If you wanted to submit a piece for this, the deadline would be 31st July 2023. Please email hello@reasonstobecheerful.co.uk for more information. You can view last years Annual here.
We also run weekly takeovers and live sessions on our Instagram page, giving our audience a chance to see snippets of the daily lives of some of our contributors and community members.
If you’re interested in writing for us or contributing to our space in any way at all, please pop us an email at hello@reasonstobecheerful.co.uk